Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Originally Posted by Senator Hatrack
[quote=logtroll]What are the Constitutional limits on the General welfare?
To determine what they are it is best to read what the author of the clause, James Madison, said about it. Alexander Hamilton's interpretation of it has been used to expand it beyond what Madison intended. Hamilton's interpretation is not reliable for three reasons.
1) Hamilton wasn't at the Constitutional Convention for the entire time it was in session.
2) Hamilton wasn't an active participant in the convention.
3) Hamilton wasn't a voting member of the convention.
Voting in the convention was done by states and a majority of the delegates from a state had to agree on the vote. The delegation form New York consisted of three men, John Lansing, Robert Yates, and Alexander Hamilton. Lansing and Yates were at the convention from May 25th to July 10th. When they left they never returned. Since 2/3 of the NY delegation was not there Hamilton was not allowed to vote on what was being debated. Hamilton was at the convention from May 25th to June 30th. He returned for 1 day August 13th and then returned on September 6th. The general welfare clause was debated on August 22 when Alexander Hamilton was not there. In that he did not participate in the debates of the clause his opinion of it not relevant.
Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Make a note of this post, my friends. This is a shining example of what is known as "sophistry".
John Lansing
Robert Lansing
Alexander Hamilton
What I wrote about the debate about Hamilton and the general Welfare clause at the Constitutional Conventions was taken from James Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention
Sophistry? No, documented history of the writing of our Constitution. NW Ponderer calls it sophistry because the facts about what our Constitution was written for, to create a limited central government does not agree with his incorrect interpretation of it. His so called expertise on our Constitution is supported by the authors of it. Thus he is not the expert on it that he thinks he is.

The state can never straighten the crooked timber of humanity.
I'm a conservative because I question authority.
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