[WhiskeyPapa]

The 10th amendment never comes into play because Congress has the power to provide for the common defense and the general welfare.

This is such an ignorant statement that I don't know where to start.

Ask Jefferson Davis; he took the same position.

"The Confederate Constitution, he [Davis] pointed out to [Governor] Brown, gave Congress the power "to raise and support armies" and to "provide for the common defense." It also contained another clause (likewise copied from the U.S. Constitution) empowering Congress to make all laws "necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers." Brown had denied the constitutionality of conscription because the Constitution did not specifically authorize it. This was good Jeffersonian doctrine, sanctified by generations of southern strict constructionists.

But in Hamiltonian language, Davis insisted that the "necessary and proper" clause legitimized conscription. No one could doubt the necessity "when our very existance is threatened by armies vastly superior in numbers." Therefore "the true and only test is to enquire whether the law is intended and calculated to carry out the object...if the answer be in the affirmative, the law is constitutional."

--Battle Cry of Freedom, James McPherson P.433

Davis believed that the federal government could coerce the states. Was he wrong?

Walt

[GOPcapitalist]

"By the principles of the American revolution, arbitrary power may and ought to be resisted even by arms if necessary-- The time may come when it shall be the duty of a State, in order to preserve itself from the oppression of the general government, to have recourse to the sword" - Luther Martin, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, January 27, 1788

[HenryLeeII]

Wlat, again you show your lack of understanding the English language. One of the main keys to understanding the "necessary and proper" clause is the word "foregoing." It means the enumerated powers listed in Article I Section 8 which came before the above-mentioned clause. Preventing secession is not one of the powers delegated by the states to the Federal government; however, raising an army and a navy and providing for the common defense are enumerated (that means 'listed,' Wlat). Therefore, using the powers of common sense, one sees that Davis was more correct than you.