The Federalist Papers, anti-federalist concerns, limited delegated federal authority, and the critical importance of the Tenth Amendment in preserving state sovereignty.
The Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to persuade the people of New York to ratify the new Constitution. They remain the most authoritative commentary on the meaning and intent of the Constitution.
The principal fear of the people when they decided to create a new and stronger form of central government was that they might go too far and create too strong of a central government. The bulk of the Federalist Papers were dedicated to refuting the arguments of opponents to the proposed Constitution whose central argumentative theme was this very concern.
The new federal government was viewed as a government of specifically 'delegated powers.' Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists the specific powers delegated to Congress. The Tenth Amendment then reserves all other powers to the states or to the people.
Hamilton argued in Federalist #84 that attaching a Bill of Rights with specific prohibitions would bolster the erroneous argument made by those desirous of expanding federal authority — that unless a particular power were specifically denied to the federal government, it held that power by implication.
Jefferson predicted that the usurpation of power from the states would take place gradually and noiselessly: 'The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States.'
The Commerce Clause has been used to dramatically expand federal power far beyond what the Founders intended. The General Welfare Clause has similarly been stretched to justify federal programs that the Founders would never have recognized as constitutional.
The Tenth Amendment is the constitutional bulwark against federal overreach: '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.' This is not merely a statement of preference — it is a binding constitutional command.
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.'
The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary... gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, advancing its noiseless step like a thief.