Less than a month after Hamilton’s report was issued, Madison complained that it “broaches a new constitutional doctrine of vast consequence . . . I consider it myself as subverting the fundamental and characteristic principle of the Government, as contrary to the true & fair, as well as the received construction, and as bidding defiance to the sense in which the Constitution is known to have been proposed, advocated and adopted. If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one possessing
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Limiting the power of government is not a new trope
