To determine the original meaning of any historical document, including the Constitution, one must determine what the authors and proponents were trying to accomplish. Every historical document has a meaning derived from its goals that gives life to the literal or logical meaning of the words. One can understand what the Founders meant by their writing of the Constitution only if one knows their programs. Words are deeds, Wittgenstein tells us. The Constitution was once a weapon in a hard-fought war and its weapon-like characteristics are core to its historical meaning.

The most pressing need for the historical Constitution was to give the federal government a source of revenue to restore its ability to borrow. Under the Articles of Confederation, which preceded the Constitution, the federal government had the responsibility for the common defense, but it had no power to raise money except by requisitions upon the states. When the Revolutionary War ended, the states stopped paying their requisitions. The Requisition of 1786, the last before the Constitution, “mandated” payments by the states, mostly to make current payments to avoid default on the Revolutionary War debts. The requisition required payments of $3.8 million, but collected only $663. The federal government was destitute – “impotent” and “imbecilic” in the wording of the times.

There had been proposals in 1781 and in 1783 to give the federal government its own tax, a 5 percent “impost,” or tax on imports.