STEVE MARTIN of Montecello ME writes: "While the Tenth Amendment wraps up the first ten of the original amendments to the Constitution known collectively as 'The Bill of Rights,' it is important to remember that the Constitution would not exist at all were it not for the Bill of Rights (because the State would not have ratified without it) and that the Tenth Amendment serves to tie the entire Bill together neatly, and completely. The number “ten” is often used, Biblically, to signify completion and unity. The Tenth Amendment certainly fulfills the role of completing and unifying the enumeration and declaration of our basic rights as Americans..."READ ARTICLE
DAVE L. of Bigelow ME writes: "A majority of the States, concluded that the people of their States thought a Bill of Rights was necessary. They thought the proposed Constitution presented too many opportunities for an eventual American Empire that would suppress the Rights of the Citizens. Sufficient States ratified the proposed Constitution upon a conditional basis. The Citizens would agree to ratifying only if a Bill of Rights were added. While the proposed Constitution granted few but sufficient powers to government, they desired a Bill of Rights, not one that 'gave' them certain Rights, but one that declared certain additional restrictions upon federal government. Below is the resolution from the First Congress explaining the purpose of the proposed Bill of Rights:..."READ ARTICLE
CHRIS DIXON of Columbia Falls ME writes: "Perhaps this topic applies overall to the United States Constitution itself, the idea that this is completely beyond politics itself. There is one common misconception about constitutionalism and that is about it being a political matter. It is not. But this is the common misconception that allows Americans to ignore it and thus forget the present crisis involving unrestricted government... READ ARTICLE
THOMAS GOLEBIEWSKI of Raymond ME writes: "Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." These words serve as a concise summary statement of the fundamental principle underlying the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. Representing radical progress in societal evolution, the men who founded the United States created a system that both recognized the fundamental, natural rights possessed by individual human beings, and established a government with limited powers designed exclusively for the purpose of protecting these individual rights." READ ARTICLE