"The powers delegated to the federal government, are not only very extensive, but they are indefinite... For rapacious as men in power generally are, it would be the height of folly to leave any door open by which they might hope to obtain access. Hence the necessity of a bill of rights." — "Brutus" No. 2, Anti-Federalist essay, November 1787
The concern about indefinite federal power expressed here most clearly continued into which early national debate?
- A
The negotiation of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795
- B
The Compromise Tariff of 1833
- Ccheck_circle
The dispute over the constitutionality of Hamilton's national bank in 1791
- D
The expansion of common-school education in the 1830s
Explanation
Jefferson and Madison invoked strict construction against Hamilton's bank as an exercise of "indefinite" implied powers, echoing Brutus. The Treaty of Greenville concerned Native American land cessions, while the school movement and 1833 tariff fall outside the Early Republic period emphasized here.