James Madison the Anti-Welfare Statesman

"The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."

Charity begins, and ends, at home. The federal government, too large, too concentrated, too given to interposing a foreign will on the diverse and sacred will of the individual, can never appreciate, let alone facilitate, the wanton or worthy needs of the people, or individual persons.

The personal liberties of the inhabitants, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights, including the much-ignored Ninth and Tenth Amendments, provide the simple framework for preserving the will and ability of the several states and their inhabitants.

Above all, Madison secures once again the limiting, confining nature of the Constitution on the Federal Government in the face of the glowering alarm of lesser and local governments losing key powers at the expense of a central authority.