‘James Madison’ Posts
Constitution NOT a Living Document
James Madison
General Welfare: A Caption to Specified Powers – Not a License For Congress to do Whatever Comes to Mind!
“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, subject to particular exceptions.
It is to be remarked that the phrase out of which this doctrine is elaborated is copied from the old Articles of Confederation, where it (General Welfare) was always understood as nothing more than a general caption to the specified powers, (Article 1 Section 
and it is a fact that it was preferred in the new instrument for that very reason, as less liable than any other to misconstruction.
Remaining always most affectionately yours”
January 21, 1792
Madison: On Elective Despotism
An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.
James Madison, Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788
Madison: On Just Government
“Government is instituted to protect property of every sort as well as that which lies in the various rights of individuals, at that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that lone is a JUST government, which IMPARTIALLY secures to very man, whatever is his OWN.”
James Madison
Ambitious Encroachment of the Fed on State Authority
But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm… But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity.
James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788