THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS ONE OF LIMITED, ENUMERATED

POWERS

As James Madison noted in Federalist No. 45, “The powers delegated by the
proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to
remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” To make his point,
Madison asked rhetorically in Federalist No. 41, “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?”

Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 84 that a Bill of Rights was

unnecessary because the federal government did not possess the power to interfere with
any rights in the first place. “[A] minute detail of particular rights is certainly far less
applicable to a Constitution like that under consideration, which is merely intended to
regulate the general political interests of the nation, than to a constitution which has the
regulation of every species of personal and private concerns.”

He went on to argue that, by enumerating specific rights in a Bill of Rights, the

argument could be made that the people felt they were necessary precisely because the
federal government possessed the power to infringe them. “I go further, and affirm that
bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only
unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would
contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account, would afford
a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted.

“For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?
Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained,
when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? I will not contend that
such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish,
to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power.”

The limited, enumerated powers given by the Constitution to Congress are as

follows:

Article 1, Section 4: Regulate the time, place, and manner of federal elections.

Article 1, Section 8:

• The Congress shall have power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and
Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general
Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States;

• To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

• To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and
with the Indian Tribes;
• To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of
Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

• To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the
Standard of Weights and Measures;

• To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of
the United States;

• To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

• To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited
Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings
and Discoveries;

• To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

• To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and
Offenses against the Law of Nations;

• To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules
concerning Captures on Land and Water;

• To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be
for a longer Term than two Years;

• To provide and maintain a Navy;

• To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

• To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress
Insurrections and repel Invasions;

• To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing
such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States,
reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the
Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by
Congress;

• To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not
exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the
acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States,
and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the
Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts,
Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings.
Article IV, Section 1: Proscribe the manner by which "full faith and credit shall be given
in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State."

Article IV, Section 3: "Make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or
other property belong to the United States."

To enforce the following amendments:

• 13th Amendment—prohibited slavery.

• 14th Amendment—made the former bondsmen citizens of the United States and
guaranteed against State intrusion the due process and equal protection of the
laws.
• 15th Amendment—guaranteed that the right to vote shall not be denied on the
basis of race.
• 19th Amendment—guaranteed that the right to vote shall not be denied on the
basis of sex.
• 23rd Amendment—provided representation in the electoral college to the District
of Columbia.
• 26th Amendment—guaranteed the right to vote to those 18 years of age and older.