The readings for this week focused at
least in part on the Articles of Confederation and that document's
weaknesses, and these are related to my topic of the Tenth Amendment.
For example, under the Articles, Congress lacked the power to do many
things, like collect taxes, control commerce, and make sure its laws
were followed, among various other weaknesses (1). This led to a
rather inefficient government, and early politicians were generally
not pleased.
Therefore, in 1787, delegates from
most of the thirteen states assembled in Philadelphia for what is
known now as the “Philadelphia Convention” in order to “revise
the Articles” (2). However, the product of this convention
was a whole new document: the Constitution. The Constitution gave
Congress increased powers, including the powers listed above that
were not given by the Articles (3).
This episode relates to my topic
because some state delegates felt that the powers given by the
Constitution to Congress needed a limit, and this limit ended up
being the Tenth Amendment, which says in essence that the federal
government was limited to the powers specifically given to it within
the Constitution; the others “are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.” The Tenth Amendment was part of
the Bill of Rights, which was necessary to sway some of the
Antifederalists toward supporting the Constitution. The
Antifederalists were afraid that the Constitution gave the federal
government too much power; they wanted more power with the states
(4). It is possible that they were afraid there would be a
major power shift from Congress having a minimal amount of power to
it having too much power. Therefore, it was agreed that if the
Constitution was ratified, a Bill of Rights would be added that
explicitly outlined which rights people would retain and, in the case
of the Tenth Amendment, which powers the states would retain.
In conclusion, the Tenth Amendment,
which is part of the Bill of Rights, is evidence of the argument
there was over how much power should be given to the federal
government. It was generally agreed upon that under the Articles of
Confederation, Congress had not enough powers and was therefore
ineffective. However, according to some, the Constitution gave the
federal government too much power and undermined the States'
authority. Thus, the Bill of Rights, including the Tenth Amendment,
was added to the Constitution in order to help calm the fears of
those who thought the national government had too much power, and
therefore aided in the Constitution's ratification.
Bibliography:
1. Melvin I. Urofsky and Paul Finkelman, A March of Liberty: A Constitutional History of the United States, Volume 1: From the Founding to 1900 (Oxford: 2011), 119.
2. Ibid., 103.
3. Ibid., 119.
4. Ibid., 121.
