The Tenth Amendment

What does it say about the Constitution as written?

The Constitution of the United States

“…its only keepers, the people.” — George Washington

I received an email from The Tenth Amendment Center today, which got me to thinking. The email was focused on “the right to keep (own) and bear (carry) arms,” but there is a larger issue that goes to how we’ve gone so wrong.

“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.”

Amendment X to the Constitution, the last the the first ten amendments, which comprise the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights was actually an after-thought, the framers of the Constitution saw no need for it. Why? Because they had delegated to the United States no power to infringe on the inalienable and natural rights of the citizens, and because they thought it would be impossible to list all of those rights. But, when pressed by the anti-federalists, and as the Constitution made its way through the ratification process, they succumbed to the pressure to add such a bill.