joseph sugarman wrote:
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To me the use of the word exists connotes a condition of creation by the amendment. That is, I read what you state as we are higher than the Constitution only because the 10th Amendment states we are.
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Judge Abel P. Upshur, considered one of the finest legal minds in the United States, wrote of the relationship of the general government, the States, and the people, noting that the British subject had his liberties and privileges as a consequence of his allegiance to the King of Great Britain. This extended to the colonies as long as they were subject to the realm; and these thoughts were ingrained in many of the inhabitants of the colonies. A congress of representatives of the various colonies, which met from time to time, was a deliberative and advisory body only; inquiring into the state of things in the colonies; airing their grievances with Great Britain; and, most important of all, not wishing to break their ties with the mother country. An act to unite the colonies into a general, or national, government would have been an act of open rebellion. Following such oppressions as the Stamp Act, Writs of Assistance, and etc., this deliberative body became bolder in its assertion of the rights of the colonies to unite into a union against these oppressions, and asserted their independence from Great Britain in a declaration entitled, "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America". The Judge noted that in the acts of this Congress, reference was made to the colonies; not to the people, as such. This Congress of representatives of the various colonies was not empowered to act directly upon the people. The citizens were known as citizens of the various States; not of a United States. The United States was not a party to any compact between the States, but a result of it. The parties to the compact are the States. Article Ten of the Bill of Rights is a recognition of this hierarchical relationship.