General Welfare Quotes

• If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one.

  James Madison

  Government, Done, Constitution

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.31, University of Virginia Press

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• With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

  James Madison

  Character, Government, Liberty

  James Madison's letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831.

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• Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Presidential, Liberty, Libertarian

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• Our tenet ever was . . . that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Purpose, Action

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.72, Cosimo, Inc.

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• If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Jobs, Patriotic

  Barack Obama (2009). “Barack Obama: Speeches on the Road to the White House”

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• We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

  Gouverneur Morris

  Blessing, Order, America

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• I thought the function of the government was to promote the general welfare, not to provide it.

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Welfare, Function

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• An individual, in promoting his own interest, may injure the public interest; a nation, in promoting the general welfare, may check the interest of a part of its members.

  Friedrich List

  May, Welfare, Individual

  Friedrich List, Erwin von Beckerath, Karl Goeser, Friedrich Lenz, Edgar Salin (1931). “Schriften, Reden, Briefe: Grundlinien einer politischen Ökonomie”

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• But the general welfare must restrict and regulate the exertions of the individuals, as the individuals must derive a supply of their strength from social power.

  Friedrich List

  Welfare, Individual, Social

  Friedrich List, Erwin von Beckerath, Karl Goeser, Friedrich Lenz, Edgar Salin (1931). “Schriften, Reden, Briefe: Grundlinien einer politischen Ökonomie”

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• To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union.

  Thomas Jefferson

  United States, Purpose, Taxation

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.216, Penguin

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• This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy.

  Henry A. Wallace

  Spiritual, School, Vision

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• The Constitution, when it says, "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America," meant just what it said without reference to color or condition, ad infinitum.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Freedom, Blessing, Order

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• The balance of private good and general welfare is at the bottom of civilized morals but the morals of the Heroic Age are founded on individuality, and on nothing else.

  Lascelles Abercrombie

  Individuality, Balance, Age

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• If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare... they may appoint teachers in every state... The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.

  James Madison

  Teacher, Government, America

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.429

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• I wish the government would read the Constitution. I think that would probably help quite a bit. And maybe they did read it and maybe they got confused when they read the preamble which says one of the duties is to promote the general welfare.

  Benjamin Carson

  Confused, Thinking, Government

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• No right of preference exists in favor of person, property, or business. Personal claims and ambitions must yield in favor of whatever best serves the general welfare.

  Charles Lindbergh

  Ambition, Yield, Favors

  Charles Lindbergh (1913). “Banking and Currency and the Money Trust”, p.99, Lulu.com

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• I consider it…as subverting the fundamental and characteristic principle of the Government…and as bidding defiance to the sense in which the Constitution is known to have been proposed, advocated, and adopted. If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one.

  James Madison

  Government, Principles, Bidding

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.546

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• To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for the common defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper. Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the purview of a legislative trust.

  James Madison

  Views, Giving, Special

  James Madison (1819). “The Writings of James Madison: 1808-1819”, p.387

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• But did the Founding Fathers ever intend for the federal government to involve itself in education, health care or retirement benefits? The answer, quite clearly, is no. The Constitution, in Article I, Section 8 - which contains the general welfare clause - seeks to restrain federal government, not expand it.

  Larry Elder

  Retirement, Father, Government

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• For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power?

  James Madison

  Purpose, Were Meant To Be, Particular

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.225, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Money cannot be applied to the *general welfare*, otherwise than by an application of it to some *particular* measure conducive to the general welfare. Whenever, therefore, money has been raised by the general authority, and is to be applied to a particular measure, a question arises whether the particular measure be within the enumerated authorities vested in Congress. If it be, the money requisite for it may be applied to it; if it be not, no such application can be made.

  James Madison

  May, Welfare, Authority

  James Madison (1974). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787 ...”

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• The preamble to the Constitution states: "We, the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare..." It doesn't say "guarantee the general welfare." And it certainly doesn't say "give welfare benefits to all the people in the country who aren't doing so well even if the reason they aren't doing so well is because they're sitting on their butts in front of the TV".

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Country, Order, Perfect

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• In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Government, Different

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Autobiography and Other Writings”, p.298, Bantam Classics

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• An ideal is an unselfish aspiration. Its purpose is the general welfare not only of this but of future generations. It is a thing of the spirit. It is a generous and humane desire that all men may share equally in a common good. Our ideals are the cement, which binds human society.

  Herbert Hoover

  Men, Desire, May

  United States. President (1929-1933 : Hoover), Herbert Hoover (1974). “Herbert Hoover: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President”

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• A nation's wealth is too serious a matter to be left to the wealthy. The riches of a nation belong to all, to be shared among all for the general welfare.

  Robert Payne

  Serious, Matter, Riches

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

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