Powers Delegated to Congress
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powers would be reserved to the States or to the people in those States.
This division of powers, or ‘‘dual sovereignty,’’ though hotly debated
during 1787–1788, was accepted by the States when they ratified the Constitution.
Powers Delegated to Congress
To understand the federal system of government set up by the Constitution, we must look first at Article I, Sections 8, 9, and 10 of that document.
Sections 8 and 9 assign some powers to the general government, and
deny that general government other powers; Section 10 denies certain
powers to the State governments.
By these provisions, the Congress—that is, the Federal government—
is authorized to ‘‘lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to
pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare
of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States.’’ Thus the new Constitution gave the National Government money-raising power that the government of the Articles of Confederation never had enjoyed.
Many other powers were delegated by the States to Congress by the
Constitution—powers that we now take for granted, but which in 1787
made many, and perhaps