The following was a prepared statement for the 10th Amendment Forum in Orlando, FL on 08-22-09
First of all, thank you for allowing me a few moments to be here with you today – it’s an honor to be able to speak with you, even if it’s from the other side of the country where I am here in Los Angeles, California.
As the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, I’m often asked – why the Tenth Amendment? Why do we need it? And I truly believe that’s just what people like you and I were asking back in the time when this country was founded, too.
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But, the answer isn’t complex. It isn’t difficult. It’s simple and it’s easy to understand. The People of the day, the Founding Generation, like so many of us today, recognized that a government of strictly limited powers is the only one that has a chance of protecting our liberty – and that’s just the kind of government that the People created when they ratified the Constitution so many years ago.
They did this because they knew through their own life experience, that a government without limits is a tyranny.
The 10th Amendment was ratified as an exclamation point on the Constitution – and it lays out in plain English that our federal government is to be one of limited, enumerated powers – not the nearly unlimited, unchecked one that it has become today.
It truly is our modern line in the sand. On one side, we have those who believe in limiting the power of politicians, and on the other are those that trust the government to do everything.
The 10th Amendment is the safety valve that makes it clear, especially in conjunction with the 9th, that it was The People who created the federal government to be our agent for certain enumerated purposes…….and nothing more.
The federal government didn’t create itself – and the state governments didn’t create it either. It was The People who created the federal government, and it is the People who are sovereign in the American system. This couldn’t have been more clearly stated than it was in the Federalist Papers, #22. And here’s the quote:
“The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.”
And that wasn’t Madison or Jay. It was the man who at the time was seen as the greatest believer in centralized power, Alexander Hamilton. So, back then, even the great centralizer recognized that power comes from the People. And that’s the way it was at the beginning – and that’s the way it is today.
August 25, 2009
