Federal Powers and Separation of Powers

Soon after the creation of a strong central government, Congress decided to clarify that the framers never intended to eliminate entirely the authority of the states. In the Bill of Rights, proposed by Congress in 1789, the Tenth Amendment provides 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." This provision is the cornerstone of an ongoing battle between federal and state authority. If the framers improved on the monarchy of Great Britain, they certainly did not eliminate the power struggles inherent in national government.