The Federalist Papers · Chapter
XXXIII: The Same Subject Continued (Concerning the General Power of Taxation) explained
Hamilton defends the necessary and proper clause and the supremacy clause of the Constitution, arguing that they are merely declaratory of truths inherent in any federal government.
What happens
Hamilton defends the necessary and proper clause and the supremacy clause of the Constitution, arguing that they are merely declaratory of truths inherent in any federal government. He contends that the national government must judge the proper exercise of its powers, subject to the ultimate judgment of the people, and that the supremacy of federal laws extends only to those made pursuant to the Constitution. He concludes that states retain independent taxing authority except on imports and exports.
Themes in this chapter
Federalism and the Necessity of Union
Hamilton argues that state governments may sap the foundations of the Union, justifying the need for clear federal powers.
Constitutional Interpretation and Authority
The essay defends the necessary and proper clause as merely declaratory, emphasizing that federal laws must be pursuant to the Constitution.
Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances
Hamilton discusses the role of the people as the ultimate check on federal overreach, and the concurrent jurisdiction of state and federal governments.
Economic Prosperity and Commerce
The power of taxation is described as the most important authority conferred on the Union, essential for national economic stability.
Characters to notice
- Publius
Author of the essay, arguing for the necessity of the challenged clauses.
- Alexander Hamilton
Likely author of this Federalist Paper, defending the Constitution's taxation provisions.
- Congress
The national legislature whose powers are being defended and defined.
- The Senate
Part of the national legislature referenced implicitly in the context of legislative power.
Key passages
“The Convention probably foresaw, what it has been a principal aim of these papers to inculcate, that the danger which most threatens our political welfare is that the state governments will finally sap the foundations of the Union; and might therefore think it necessary, in so cardinal a point, to leave nothing to construction.”
The Constitutional Convention anticipated that state governments might undermine the Union, so they wisely made the necessary and proper clause explicit to prevent misinterpretation.
Hamilton emphasizes the precautionary intent behind the clause.
“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”
If the federal government becomes tyrannical, the people—who created it—must use the Constitution as their guide to resist and correct the abuse.
Hamilton asserts popular sovereignty as a check on federal power.
“A law, by the very meaning of the term, includes supremacy. It is a rule which those to whom it is prescribed are bound to observe.”
By definition, a law is supreme and must be obeyed by those it governs.
Hamilton argues that supremacy is inherent in the concept of law itself.
“Though a law, therefore, laying a tax for the use of the United States would be supreme in its nature, and could not legally be opposed or controlled, yet a law for abrogating or preventing the collection of a tax laid by the authority of the state, (unless upon imports and exports), would not be the supreme law of the land, but a usurpation of power not granted by the Constitution.”
A federal tax law is supreme, but a federal law that tries to cancel a state tax (except on imports/exports) would be an unconstitutional usurpation.
Hamilton clarifies the limits of federal supremacy regarding state taxation.
