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Fiske, John, 1842-1901

"Volume 4, part 3: James Knox Polk"

If it
be, the question is decided. If it be not expressed, the next inquiry
must be whether it is properly an incident to an expressed power and
necessary to its execution. If it be, it may be exercised by Congress.
If it be not, Congress can not exercise it.

It is not pretended that there is any express grant in the Constitution
conferring on Congress the power in question. Is it, then, an incidental
power necessary and proper for the execution of any of the granted
powers? All the granted powers, it is confidently affirmed, may be
effectually executed without the aid of such an incident. "A power, to
be incidental, must not be exercised for ends which make it a principal
or substantive power, independent of the principal power to which it is
an incident." It is not enough that it may be regarded by Congress as
_convenient_ or that its exercise would advance the public weal. It must
be _necessary and proper_ to the execution of the principal expressed
power to which it is an incident, and without which such principal power
can not be carried into effect.


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