Did the Framers intend for federal or state governments to be supreme in the federal system? How has the balance of power between state and federal governments shifted? Why have these changes occurred?
During the creation of the United States government, the framers of the Constitution put their trust and devotion into the hands of Federalism. This specific system of government is described by the 21st Century American Government and Politics textbook as, “The allocation of powers and responsibilities among national, state, and local governments and the intergovernmental relations between them.” When deciding whether the Framers intended for federal or state governments to be supreme in the federal system, a divided answer among the Founders surfaces. If one was to present this question to Alexander Hamilton and his fellow Federalists, he would undoubtedly express his support for a strong federal government. Conversely, Thomas Jefferson and the anti-federalists were in favor of state government supremacy in the federal system and even resented the ratification of the Constitution. However, the Framers’ overall intentions for the federal system
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Quite frankly, state governments were designed to be weak. In 1791, the Tenth Amendment declared, “powers not delegated to the United States…nor prohibited by it [the Constitution] to the States, are reserved to the States…or to the people.” The framers of the Constitution granted a few expressed powers to the national government, reserving the remainder of powers to the states. Later on, in addition to the expressed powers of the national government, the “necessary and proper” clause provided an avenue for expansion into the realm of “implied powers.” These implied powers were established by Chief Justice John Marshal as he led the Supreme Court to increase the national government’s power in McCulloch v.