Nor is the object, and supposed necessity of the second amendment, less apparent, than of the first. Besides the right which the People enjoyed as individuals, the same people associated and bound together as members of different great bodies corporate and politic, enjoyed in that character, many political powers, of which they had as little thought of depriving themselves respectively, by their several ratifications of this Constitution, in this their corporate character, as they had of surrendering all their private rights, to the unbridled action of the other political powers thereby created and assigned to the new government.
But as the enumeration of some private rights, might possibly be considered as disparaging others not enumerated, so the enumeration of some political powers, might possibly be considered as disparaging others not enumerated, especially as some of the enumerated Political powers were of vast extent, such as the power of declaring war, of making Treaties, and over all, the necessary and proper means for carrying into execution these granted powers. Hence the Tenth Amendment provides, that "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."
Here let me remark, that the idea of this Amendment is obviously borrowed from the second of the old Articles of Confederation, (to which I have formerly referred) the form of the expression being somewhat varied, in order to make it more appropriate to the new government of the United States. The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the different Legislatures of the several States, who by this league parted with none of the political powers, which they had previously possessed ; therefore, their reservation was made to enure to their authors only, the States. The new Constitution however, was ratified by the People themselves acting by their delegates assembled in Conventions called for that special purpose ; and by its provisions, it transferred many of the powers that the State government had formerly enjoyed exclusively.—Hence a different form of expression was necessary; and in that which I have quoted, words of such broad signification are employed as are sufficient to cover all political power, then existing ungranted to the United States,
