Copper Mining Quotes
Jefferson was worried that the Federal Government would get too expansive and justify almost any activity using the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. In this example, he goes from the responsibility for National Defense which is clearly Federal down to the hiring of the miners to produce the copper to arm the ships and shipbuilding which he thought were NOT legitimate Federal activities. He was right in the sense that the Commerce Clause did justify major Federal expansion, but at the times of the expansions and now most Americans thought that the expansions were useful and necessary. Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were on opposite sides of the degree of expansion that was desirable.
