The Chain email claim:
Subject: Limited Federal Government
Mr. Madison's thoughts might come in handy when people start telling you how great public health systems are.
James Madison, author of our Constitution, wrote, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents... 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 enumerated powers, but an indefinite one... 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. ... There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
The actual quote comes from the
Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 3rd Congress, 1st Session, page 170. The Annals summarize speeches in the third person (and therefore do not always furnish literal quotes), with the actual text of Madison's quote as follows:
Mr. Madison wished to relieve the sufferers, but was afraid of establishing a dangerous precedent, which might hereafter be perverted to the countenance of purposes very different from those of charity. He acknowledged, for his own part, that he could not undertake to lay his finger on that article in the Federal Constitution which granted a right of Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
The expense in question was for French refugees from the Haitian Revolution.
The first sentence of the chain email 'quote' takes Madison's words out of context but generally follows his statement. In the remainder of the 'quote', some nameless liar has exercised pure artistic license.
Wikiquote articleAnnals of Congress, House of Representatives, 3rd Congress, 1st Session, page 170 (see last paragraph on the page)
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