But the Constitution is a living document, so the 10th Amendment is like the body’s appendix. It’s there, but it no longer serves a useful purpose, at least that’s what my college professor sez..../Heavy Sophomoric Sarc/
The Supreme Court of the United States, in the early history of the Union, in the case of Ware vs. Hylton, 3d Dallas’ Rep., 199, in which it is held by Judge Chase, that the effect of the Declaration of Independence was “not that the united colonies jointly, in a collective capacity, were independent States, but that each State of them was a sovereign and independent State”.
Each State was, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, a sovereign and independent State, and acted as such in adopting the Constitution. This is manifest—from the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims the several States to be “free and independent States”—from the second of the Articles of Confederation of 1778, which declares that “each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not thereby expressly delegated to the United States”—from the treaty of peace with Great Britain, after the close of the war of the revolution, recognising each State by name as a “free, sovereign and independent State”
Madison; “It is an established doctrine on the subject of treaties, that all the articles are mutually conditions of each other; that a breach of any one article is a breach of the whole treaty; and that a breach committed by either of the parties absolves the others, and authorizes them, if they please, to pronounce the compact violated and void.”
“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and we will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”
~Thomas Jefferson, letter to Guideon Granger (circa 1802)
James Madison, “the father of the Constitution,” said,
“The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined.Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite.
Articles of Confederation, which under Article II states that:
“Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.”