None To Lend Nor Give Away

Published in 1951, the writer’s assertion that Congress has no authority to "lend money or to give it away" is just as important to remember today as it was 60 years ago. James Madison's warning of paper barriers was echoed by another American president, Jefferson Davis, who wrote in 1881: "Of what value then are paper constitutions and oaths binding officers to their preservation, if there is not intelligence enough in the people to discern the violations, and virtue enough to resist the violators?"

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
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None To Lend Nor Give Away:

"The Constitution gives power to Congress (1) "to coin money" and (2) "to borrow on the credit of the United States"---but not to lend money, or to give it away, either at home or abroad. What is expressed in a Constitution is equivalent to a prohibition of what is not expressed. The powers over money mentioned are the only ones that the Constitutional Convention brought in from the world of inherent powers and fixed in the Fundamental Law.

Those specifications reject the theory of unlimited powers exercised by European monarchs in 1787. Not long before that, Louis XIV had kept Europe embroiled in wars by loans or grants of money to belligerent rulers. Did the Constitutional Convention, at least one member of which was born in his reign, intend to give that power to Congress? It did not say so. The power was therefore withheld by the people from their servants.

The United States is now, without authority---under a denial of authority---lending or granting money to Europe, and to the rest of the world. Postwar programs, 22 in number, for aiding foreign nations, in addition to the military aid program, have piled on top of the costs (330 billion) of (World) War II $30,757,000,000, according to Senator Byrd of Virginia, speaking in September 1949. Thus, the limitations of the Constitution become what Madison gave warning of---"paper barriers."

(Undermining the Constitution: A History of Lawless Government, Thomas James Norton, Devin-Adair Company, 1951, page 22)
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None To Lend Nor Give Away