In all contemporary discussions and comments, the Constitution was constantly justified and recommended on the ground that the powers not given to the Government were withheld. If under its original provisions any doubt on this head could have existed, it was removed, so far as language could remove it, by the Tenth Amendment, which, as we have already seen, expressly declares, that "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." Here, on the simple text of the Constitution, I might leave this question. But its importance justifies more extended examination, in twofold light: _first_, in the history of the Convention, revealing the unmistakable intention of its members; and, _secondly_, in the true principles of our Political System, by which the powers of the Nation and of the States are respectively guarded. Look first at the _history of the Convention_. The articles of the old Confederation, adopted by the Continental Congress 15th November, 1777, though containing no reference to fugitives from service, had provisions substantially like those in our present Constitution, touching the privileges of citizens in the several States, the surrender of fugitives from justice, and the credit due to the public records of States. But, since the Confederation had no powers not "expressly delegated," and as no power was delegated to legislate on these matters, they were nothing more than articles of treaty or compact. Afterwards, at the National Convention, these three provisions found place in the first reported draft of a Constitution, and were arranged in the very order which they occupied in the Articles of Confederation. _The clause relating to public records stood last._ Mark this fact. When this clause, being in form merely a _compact_, came up for consideration in the Convention, various efforts were made to graft upon it a _power_. This was on the very day of the adoption of the clause relating to fugitives from service. Charles Pinckney moved to commit it, with a proposition for a _power_ to establish uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcy and foreign bills of exchange. Mr. Madison was in favor of a _power_ for the execution of judgments in other States. Gouverneur Morris, on the same day, moved to commit a further proposition for a _power_ "to determine the proof and effect of such acts, records, and proceedings." Amidst all these efforts to associate a power with this compact, it is clear that nobody supposed that any such already existed. This narrative places the views of the Convention beyond question.