This series is written by a private citizen with an abiding interest in U.S. history and particularly its founding documents: The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.
The Founding Fathers thought of this country as a "confederation " of independent, sovereign states that came together to form a "union " for certain specific, limited and well defined purposes. Those purposes were the ones that could best be performed by a central government rather than the independent states.
Among those purposes were defense, coining of money and foreign commerce. The bulk of the powers were retained by the States or by the people themselves. Often overlooked in today's political babble is the fact that the people collectively, acting through their states, granted certain, defined powers and responsibilities to their new government under a written Constitution.
Art. IX and X of the amendments to the Constitution reinforce this concept in two ways. Art. IX states, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. "
As if this were not clear enough, they went on to add Art. X which states, "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. "
Taken together, those articles pretty clearly state that the federal government exists at the will of the people and enjoys only those powers specifically granted in the written Constitution. All other powers are retained either by the States or the people themselves. This completely denies the concept, "if the Constitution does not prohibit it, then it is permissible. "
In the post-revolutionary period, the understanding was very firm that the states were "all powerful " and the federal government
was strictly limited in terms of power, responsibilities and activities. The power to tax was limited to excise taxes, not income. In fact, the Founding Fathers specifically kept the idea of individual taxes out of the Constitution since they did not consider that form of taxation as appropriate for a central government. Please note that Art. I, Sec. 8, states that " ... all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. " They obviously did not believe in a "graduated tax " irrespective of the entity on which it was being imposed.
The 17th Amendment added a nail to the coffin of federalism by relegating the Senate to the same status as the House of Representatives.
No longer were the senators responsible to the state they represented. No, once elected by popular mandate they owed their allegiance to the people collectively rather than to the state as a sovereign entity.