That amendment is in these words:
"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."
The full meaning of this article may not be as clear to us as it was to
the men of that period, on account of the confusion of ideas by which
the term "people"--plain enough to them--has since been obscured, and
also the ambiguity attendant upon the use of the little conjunction
_or_, which has been said to be the most equivocal word in our language,
and for that reason has been excluded from indictments in the English
courts. The true intent and meaning of the provision, however, may be
ascertained from an examination and comparison of the terms in which it
was expressed by the various States which proposed it, and whose ideas
it was intended to embody.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in their ordinances of ratification,
expressing the opinion "that certain amendments and alterations in the
said Constitution would remove the fears and quiet the apprehensions of
many of the good people of this Commonwealth [State (New Hampshire)],
and more effectually guard against an undue administration of the
Federal Government," each recommended several such amendments, putting
this at the head in the following form:
"That it be explicitly declared that all powers not expressly
delegated by the aforesaid Constitution are _reserved to the
several States_, to be by them exercised.
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