The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCLXVI

by Max Farrand

ⅭⅭⅬⅩⅥ. James Madison in the House of Representatives.^[1]

February 6, 1792.

I, sir, have always conceived—I believe those who proposed the Constitution conceived, and it is still more fully known, and more material to observe that those who ratified the Constitution conceived—that this is not an indefinite Government, deriving its powers from the general terms prefixed to the specified powers, but a limited Government, tied down to the specified powers which explain and define the general terms.

1. Annals of Congress, Second Congress, 386.