... not "expressly" or "clearly" delegated to the new national government in the Constitution. This language was a significant issue in the congressional debates over the Bill of Rights. The Articles of Confederation (the governing document of the United States from 1781 to 1789) rejected a national government with broad, elastic powers by stating in Article II, "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom ... more symbolic than substantive if the new Constitution was to be free from the same constraints that plagued the Articles of Confederation. In those same congressional debates Madison...

• Word Count: 5600
• Approx Pages: 22
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate