ause of the eighth section of the first article of the plan under
consideration authorizes the national legislature "to make all laws
which shall be NECESSARY and PROPER for carrying into execution THE
POWERS by that Constitution vested in the government of the United
States, or in any department or officer thereof"; and the second clause
of the sixth article declares, "that the Constitution and the laws of
the United States made IN PURSUANCE THEREOF, and the treaties made by
their authority shall be the SUPREME LAW of the land, any thing in the
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

These two clauses have been the source of much virulent invective and
petulant declamation against the proposed Constitution. They have been
held up to the people in all the exaggerated colors of misrepresentation
as the pernicious engines by which their local governments were to be
destroyed and their liberties exterminated; as the hideous monster whose
devouring jaws would spare neither sex nor age, nor high nor low, nor
sacred nor profane; and yet, strange as it may appear, after all this
clamor, to those who may not have happened to contemplate them in
the same light, it may be affirmed with perfect confidence that the
constitutional operation of the intended government would be precisely
the same, if these clauses were entirely obliterated, as if they were
repeated in every article. They are only declaratory of a truth which
would have resulted by necessary and unavoidable implication from the
very act of constituting a federal government, and vesting it with
certain specified powers. This is so clear a proposition, that
moderation itself can scarcely listen to the railings which have been
so copiously vented against this part of the plan, without emotions that
disturb its equanimity.

What is a power, but the ability or faculty of doing a thing? What
is the ability to do a thing, but the power of employing the MEANS
necessary to its execution? What is a LEGISLATIVE power, but a power of
making LAWS? What are the MEANS to execute a LEGISLATIVE power but LAWS?
What is the power of laying and collecting taxes, but a LEGISLATIVE
POWER, or a power of MAKING LAWS, to lay and collect taxes? What are the
proper means of executing such a power, but NECESSARY and PROPER laws?

This simple train of inquiry furnishes us at once with a test by which
to judge of the true nature of the clause complained of. It conducts