Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/121

 CH. XXIV.] is given, every particular power necessary for doing it, is included. If this last course had been adopted, every objection, now urged against the clause, would have remained in full force; and the omission might have been made in critical periods a ground to assail the essential powers of the Union.

§ 1237. If, then, the clause imports no more, than would result from necessary implication, it may be asked, why it was inserted at all. The true answer is, that such a clause was peculiarly useful, in order to avoid any doubt, which ingenuity or jealousy might raise upon the subject. Much plausible reasoning might be employed by those, who were hostile to the Union, and in favour of state power, to prejudice the people on such a subject, and to embarrass the government in all its reasonable operations. Besides; as the confederation contained a positive clause, restraining the authority of congress to powers expressly granted, there was a fitness in declaring, that that rule of interpretation should no longer prevail. The very zeal, indeed, with which the present clause has been always assailed, is the highest proof of its importance and propriety. It has narrowed down the grounds of hostility to the mere interpretation of terms.

§ 1238. The plain import of the clause is, that congress shall have all the incidental and instrumental powers, necessary and proper to carry into execution all the express powers. It neither enlarges any power specifically granted; nor is it a grant of any new power to congress. But it is merely a declaration for the removal of all uncertainty, that the means of 15