Thomas Jefferson called the 10th Amendment the “foundation of the Constitution,” and for good reason too. It enshrines many of the radical principles that sparked the “real American Revolution” in the years before the War for Independence.
Here are five core principles that form this foundation.
1. Power FROM the People
The British system claimed kings ruled by divine right. The American founders rejected that idea entirely.
As George Mason declared in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, “All power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people.”
During the Pennsylvania ratifying convention, James Wilson made the same case, saying, “The supreme power resides in the people.”
Government is not the source of power.
2. The People Are Sovereign
Since power comes from the people, then they hold final authority.
Thomas Paine contrasted the American view that the people are sovereign with the British belief in a sovereign government.
“In despotic monarchies (such as the British government) power is lodged in a single person, or sovereign. His will is law; which he declares, alters or revokes as he pleases, without being accountable to any power for so doing.”
On the other hand, he wrote:
“In republics, such as those established in America, the sovereign power, or the power over which there is no control, and which controls all others, remains where nature placed it-in the people; for the people in America are the fountain of power.”
3. The People’s Agent
Since the people are sovereign, and thus, all power flows from them to the government, it naturally follows that government only acts on their behalf. In other words, government is the people’s agent, not their ruler.
John Jay explained that government officers “exercise no rights but such as the people commit to them.”
Patrick Henry summed it up best during the Virginia ratifying convention.
“The governing persons are the servants of the people.”
Here at the Tenth Amendment Center, we’re working hard every single day to reach and teach more people about these essential principles. Especially that government is not the boss – and “we the people” need to start treating it that way too.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your help!
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4. Power Must Be Limited
If an agent can do what it wants, it’s not really an agent, it’s a master. As John Adams warned:
“Power without any restraint is tyranny.”
That’s why the American system was designed to define and strictly limit federal power, just as John Jay explained:
“The Constitution only serves to point out that part of the people’s business, which they think proper by it to refer to the management of the persons therein designated.”
5. It’s Up to Us
Constitutions do not enforce themselves.
James Madison warned that such “parchment barriers” are not enough to stop government power.
John Dickinson reminded us that it’s up to us – to protect and defend our own constitution:
“IT IS THEIR DUTY TO WATCH, AND THEIR RIGHT TO TAKE CARE, THAT THE CONSTITUTION BE PRESERVED; Or in the Roman phrase on perilous occasions—TO PROVIDE, THAT THE REPUBLIC RECEIVE NO DAMAGE.”
Liberty survives only when the people defend it. As Mercy Otis Warren put it – whether the government likes it or not.
“The origin of all power is in the people, and they have an incontestable right to check the creatures of their own creation.”
- The Foundation of the Constitution: Top-5 Principles from the American Revolution - July 12, 2026
- Five Weapons. One Target: Your Freedom. - June 24, 2026
- They’re not Grievances. They’re STOLEN Power - June 17, 2026