The evidence is overwhelming. By written compact, solemnly ratified, the States agreed mutually to delegate certain of their sovereign powers to a Federal government. They enumerated these powers. All other powers they reserved to themselves, and these reserved powers did not need to be enumerated: The reserved powers constituted all inherent powers of sovereign States, not specifically abridged...

    Our system of government, said Chief Justice McKean (1798 Cobbett case), “seems to me to differ, in form and spirit, from all other governments that have heretofore existed in the world.” Following the reasoning of Madison in the Federalist and in the Virginia Convention of 1788, McKean found the Union “as to some particulars national, in others Federal, and in all the residue territorial, or in districts called States.” 

    Continuing, he said: “The division of power between the national, Federal, and State governments (all derived from the same source, the authority of the people) must be collected from the Constitution of the United States. Before it was adopted, the several States had absolute and unlimited sovereignty within their respective boundaries; all the powers, legislative, executive and judicial, excepting those granted to Congress under the old Constitution. They now enjoy them all, excepting such as are granted to the government of the United States by the present instrument and the adopted amendments, which are for particular purposes only. The government of the United States forms a part of the government of each State; its jurisdiction extends to the providing for the common defense against exterior injuries and violence, the regulation of commerce, and other matters specially enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers remain in the individual States, comprehending the interior and other concerns. These combined, form one complete government. Should there be any defect in this form of government, or any collision occur, it cannot be remedied by the sole act of the Congress or the State; the people must be resorted to, for enlargement or modification. If a State should differ with the United States about the construction of them, there is no common umpire but the people, who should adjust the affair by making amendments in the constitutional way, or suffer from the defect. . . . There is no provision in the Constitution, that in such a case the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States shall control and be conclusive; neither can the Congress by a law confer that power. There appears to be a defect in this matter. . . .”

    Was this understanding of the Constitution simply a Southern sentiment?

    Let us note what the Connecticut Assembly said in 1809 concerning the Federal embargo, “Resolved, that to preserve the Union, and support the Constitution of the United States, it becomes the duty of the Legislatures of the States, in such a crisis of affairs, vigilantly to watch over, and vigorously to maintain, the powers not delegated to the United States, but reserved to the States respectively, or to the people; and that a due regard to this duty, will not permit this Assembly to assist, or concur in giving effect to the aforesaid unconstitutional act, passed, to enforce the embargo.”

    Let us also note carefully what the Connecticut Assembly declared (during the run up to the War of 1812 to which the Rhode Island, Massachusetts & the Vermont Legislatures concurred) considering their rights under the Constitution—this is Connecticut speaking:

“The people of this State were among the first to adopt that Constitution. . . . They have a deep interest in its preservation, and are still disposed to yield a willing and prompt obedience to all the legitimate requirements of the Constitution of the United States.

But it must not be forgotten, that the State of Connecticut is a FREE SOVEREIGN and INDEPENDENT State; that the United States are a confederacy of States; that we are a confederated and not a consolidated Republic. The Governor of this State is under a high and solemn obligation, “to maintain the lawful rights and privileges thereof, as a sovereign, free and independent State,” as he is “to support the Constitution of the United States,” and the obligation to support the latter imposes an additional obligation to support the former. The building cannot stand, if the pillars upon which it rests, are impaired or destroyed. [Emphasis in the original.]”

Then Massachusetts speaking on the new embargo of 1814:

“A power to regulate commerce is abused, when employed to destroy it; and a manifest and voluntary abuse of power sanctions the right of resistance, as much as a direct and palpable usurpation. The sovereignty reserved to the States, was reserved to protect the citizens from acts of violence by the United States, as well as for purposes of domestic regulation. We spurn the idea that the free, sovereign and independent State of Massachusetts is reduced to a mere municipal corporation, without power to protect its people, and to defend them from oppression, from whatever quarter it comes. Whenever the national compact is violated, and the citizens of this State are oppressed by cruel and unauthorized laws, this Legislature is bound to interpose its power, and wrest from the oppressor his victim.”