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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CCCLXX.: James Madison to M. L. Hurlbert. 2 - The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, vol. 3

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

CCCLXX.: James Madison to M. L. Hurlbert. 2 - Max Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, vol. 3 [1911]

Edition used:

The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, ed. Max Farrand (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 3 vols.

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CCCLXX.

James Madison to M. L. Hurlbert.2

And if I am to answer your appeal to me as a witness, I must say that the real measure of the powers meant to be granted to Congress by the Convention, as I understood and believe, is to be sought in the specifications, to be expounded, indeed, not with the strictness applied to an ordinary statute by a court of law, nor, on the other hand, with a latitude that, under the name of means for carrying into execution a limited Government, would transform it into a Government without limits.

[2 ]Letters and other Writings of James Madison, IV, 74.