“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 previous installment in this series outlined the life and career of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. It described how John Adams relied on Cicero’s work in the preface to the first volume of his survey of republican constitutions. Although Adams was in...
Today in 1757, it is generally believed Alexander Hamilton was born. As John Adams put it, he was “the bastard brat of a Scottish peddler.” Born out of wedlock on the British isle of Nevis, Hamilton would become one of the most influential political forces of his...
When the Constitution was ratified, the word necessary meant, well, necessary. But in the dystopian “future” we live under today, words don’t mean what they actually mean. They always mean something else – whatever supporters of the monster state can use to...
One of the most famous and important Supreme Court opinions is from the 1819 McCulloch v. Maryland case. It set the stage for massive expansion of federal power by incorrectly defining the Constitutional meaning of the word “necessary.” In its majority opinion, SCOTUS...
On this date in 1788, New York became the 11th state to ratify the Constitution. The Constitution narrowly won approval by a 30-27 vote on July 26, 1788, after a long, hotly contested debate. Technically, the Constitution was already in effect. New Hampshire ratified...