among the specifically granted powers, could not be an implied power. He had familiarized himself with larger views of governmental function, as the Republic had grown in dimensions, in strength, and in the reach of its interests. Indeed, the reasoning with which he justified his change of position in 1816 stopped but little, if at all, short of the assertion that whatever may be considered necessary, or even eminently desirable, to help the country over a temporary embarrassment, may also be considered constitutional. Clay, who seldom, if ever, reasoned out a point in all its logical bearings, would not have admitted that as a general proposition. But he evidently inclined to the most latitudinarian construction. His constitutional principles had become prodigiously elastic according to the requirements of the occasion. In this respect he was not peculiar. Most of our public men have been inclined to interpret the Constitution according to their purposes. This tendency was especially strong among the young Republicans of that period; and there it was all the more remarkable as their party had in its design and beginning been a living protest against the strong government theory favored by the Federalists. There was, however, this difference left between them and their old antagonists: the Federalists believed that government, in order to be good, or even tolerable, must be strong enough to restrain the disorderly tendencies of democracy; while the young Republicans rejected the theory
