Walter Williams wrote: "Some people might say, "Aha! They forgot about the Constitution's general welfare clause!" Here's what James Madison said: 'With respect to the two 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.'"
Benjamin Franklin put it more aptly when he addressed the Constitutional Convention with these words:
"Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors."
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