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Concept
Implied powers
Summary
In the United States, implied powers are powers that, although not directly stated in the Constitution, are implied to be available based on previously stated powers.
When George Washington asked Alexander Hamilton to defend the constitutionality of the First Bank of the United States against the protests of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph, Hamilton produced what has now become the doctrine of implied powers. Hamilton argued that the sovereign duties of a government implied the right to use means adequate to its ends. Although the United States government was sovereign only as to certain objects, it was impossible to define all the means it should use, because it was impossible for the founders to anticipate all future exigencies. Hamilton noted that the "general welfare clause" and the "necessary and proper clause" gave elasticity to the Constitution. Hamilton won the argument and Washington signed the bank bill into law.
Another instance of the usage of implied powers was during the Louisiana Purchase, where, in 1803, the United States was offered 10 million on the port of New Orleans and parts of Florida. However, a deal to purchase the entirety of French territory in the United States for 10 million. Although the decision was very popular and widely praised, it was unknown whether or not Jefferson had the power to negotiate the territory without the permission of Congress. In the end, implied powers was used as justification for finishing the deal.
Later, directly borrowing from Hamilton, Chief Justice John Marshall invoked the implied powers of government in the United States Supreme Court case, McCulloch v. Maryland. In 1816, the United States Congress passed legislation creating the Second Bank of the United States. The state of Maryland attempted to tax the bank.
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