Hamilton did not view the federal government as all powerful ... the opposite is true, in fact... both him and Madison were of the view that the federal government powers were limited and held to only those which were enumerated.... and that's where modern illiberal "liberals" go awry... ya'll tend to believe and argue the federal government power is unlimited and undefined.... anything goes, no limits.
so yeah... don't use Hamilton as an example of someone who agrees with your worldview... he understood the federal was only supposed to act according to it's enumerated powers ( which is why he thought the bill of rights was redundant)
that said, when it comes to certain forms of taxation( for defense and general welfare), the federal governments power is actually enumerated.... so it's really not a 10th amendment conflict.
here you are.. showing
you know what you are talking about.
all the powers of congress are GENERAL POWERS, meaning congress can make federal law concerning them for only those delegated general powers
With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” – James Madison in letter to James Robertson
“[Congressional jurisdiction of power] is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.” – James Madison, Federalist 14
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined . . . to be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce.” – James Madison, Federalist 45
“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.” – James Madison, 1792
“The Constitution allows only the means which are ‘necessary,’ not those which are merely ‘convenient,’ for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one, for there is not one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience in some instance or other, to some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one power, as before observed” – Thomas Jefferson, 1791
“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1798
“This specification of particulars
[the 18 enumerated powers of Article I, Section 8] evidently excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd as well as useless if a general authority was intended.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 83
