Posted by
john on Thursday, November 13, 2008 3:57:02 PM
In view of Hamilton's expansive interpretation of the Constitution's General Welfare clause, Jefferson
"...wondered somberly whether Americans still lived under a limited government. He dreaded the powers that would accrue to government under his colleague's loose reading of the Constitution. He grumbled that 'under color of giving bounties for the encouragement of particular manufactures,' Hamilton was trying to insinuate that the "general welfare" clause 'permitted Congress to take everything under their management which they should deem for the public welfare.' For Jefferson, this opened wide the floodgates to government activism."
Ron Chernow, "Alexander Hamilton".