The great State of New
York--great, relatively, then, as she is now--manifested her wisdom in
not receiving merely that implication which belongs to the occasion,
which was accepted by the other States, but she required the positive
assertion of that retention of her sovereignty and power over all her
affairs as the condition on which she ratified the Constitution itself.
I read from Elliott's "Debates" (page 327). Among her resolutions of
ratification is the following:
"That the powers of government may be reassumed by the people whensoever
it shall become necessary to their happiness; that every power,
jurisdiction, and right which is not by the said Constitution clearly
delegated to the Congress of the United States, or the departments of
the Government thereof, remain to the people of the several States, or
to their respective State governments to which they may have granted the
same."
North Carolina, with the Scotch caution which subsequent events have so
well justified, in 1788 passed this resolution:
"_Resolved_, That a declaration of rights, asserting and securing from
encroachments the great principles of civil and religious liberty, and
the unalienable rights of the people, together with amendments to the
most ambiguous and exceptionable parts of the said Constitution of
Government, ought to be laid before Congress and the convention of the
States that shall or may be called for the purpose of amending the said
Constitution, for their consideration, previous to the ratification of
the Constitution aforesaid, on the part of the State of North Carolina.
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