Saturday, August 07, 2010

Quote of the Day

Oh, how we've come from what our Founders intended:

"Another not unimportant consideration is, that the powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers, and foreign commerce. In its internal operations it can touch but few objects, except to introduce regulations beneficial to the commerce, intercourse, and other relations, between the states, and to lay taxes for the common good. The powers of the states, on the other hand, extend to all objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, and liberties, and property of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state." ~ Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

1 comment:

Timothy W Higgins said...

Mr. Story could never have foreseen how "for the common good" would become an expression so abused by the government he was trying to define. Like the Constitution he so ably defended, it has become object often perverted to justify the most awful of excesses.

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