Examples Of Constitutional Elasticity

The Elasticity of the U.S. Constitution in regards to the Necessary and Proper Clause

In the United States Constitution, the “Necessary and Proper Clause” provides the document with elasticity and several other aspects. The Founding Fathers created the United States Constitution with input from each of the contributors; however, this distinct document does not represent a singular voice in the political ideology it represents (“Constitutional Flexibility”). Rather, its authors sought different intent via the federal government and the retation of the document. Two original framers of the document, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, purported diametrically opposing perspectives regarding wording and intent of the Constitution. Jefferson’s

Constitution guarantees specific basic rights for America’s citizens and it also established America’s national government and fundamental laws (History.com Staff). The document was signed on September 17, 1787, by the delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The first governing document of the United States was known as the Articles of Confederation; a document that made the national government very weak and American states act independently. The Constitution was published to replace the Articles of Confederation making a much stronger federal government with three different branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch and a system of checks and balances to guarantee no single branch obtained too much power. The Constitution of the United States remains the governing document of the United States, even though many are attempting to alter or even abolish laws within the document, according to History Staff. Within the years since the U.S. Constitution has been created, America’s population and the economy have expanded much greater than the document’s original framers had anticipated. Due to the framer’s idea of having elasticity within the document, the U.S. Constitution has endured and adapted through all of the changes and challenges within the United States (History.com

Washington used the phrase and other related phrases approximately 40 times throughout documents and letters that he had written. Robert Morris, like his associate Washington, was also extremely fond of the phrase “necessary and proper” as well as the other targeted, similar phrases. Morris often included this phrase within his papers and correspondence, as he did in the “Robert Morris Papers” and these papers alone included twelve occurrences of the phrase. Other occurrences of the phrase or other similar phrases are within the Continental Congress, the State Constitutions, Laws, and Resolutions, Hamilton’s Bank of New York and Mason’s Ohio Company. All of these examples are only a fraction of the proof that the original framers of the Constitution were well acquainted with the phrase and other similar language well before it was incorporated into the “Necessary and Proper Clause.” These examples of the use of the clause help guide the importance of the phrase in the way that it is used today.

This clause within the Constitution has served the country in regards to ideological and philosophical pursuits; with the original framers in hope that it will successfully serve these purposes in the future (Engdahl). In order to make the document withstand future challenges and serve the country in the future, the original framers included several