Where did State power go?

The sentiment running through the media and generally assumed by Congress and our Presidency is that the federal government is able to do anything that it deems necessary for our country. While in practice this holds basically true today, it did not begin that way in principle.

Indeed, the very topic of federal limitations and powers was the initial fear of the common citizens in the wake of the Constitutional Convention. The newly-liberated residents of the several states (post-Revolution) were terrified of the idea of a new tyrannical (or monarchal) entity dictating their proper business and dealings. George Mason himself, a founder of our Constitution, proposed that freedom of speech, among other rights, be written expressly into the new Constitution so as to guarantee their protection. His proposal was argued but eventually shot down. No surprise then when the Constitution was brought to the common vote for ratification, many people raised the same proposal that Mason did out of their fear for the potential loss of their rights. Responded Alexander Hamilton:

For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?

Taken from Federalist #84, Hamilton was referring to the fact that the Constitution never gave any power for the federal government to restrict any of the essential, God-given rights that United States citizens held dear. Not persuaded by this argument, the states introduced the 10th amendment in the Bill of Rights four years after the Constitution was ratified. Reads the amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Contrary to popular belief, this amendment didn’t gain anything for us as citizens; it merely repeated in simpler terms what was already in the Constitution. As Hamilton worried, and as we can derive from today’s federal situation, this amendment and the Bill of Rights in general may have, in fact, weakened our position and strengthened the federal powers. This is most easily seen today when the federal government exerts power over something that is not listed in the Bill of Rights or other amendments; this being a natural reaction to the addition to the Constitution of a ‘list’ (Bill of Rights) of specific rights.

What began as the idea of ‘any power not specifically granted nor prohibited is reserved to the States’ has effectively become the people’s initial fear: ‘what is not specifically denied to our federal government is granted to it by implication’.