As a social contract between the States and the newly formed federal government, the U.S. Constitution grants to the federal government a limited number of powers, reserving the remaining powers to the States (Tenth Amendment). The limiting principles set forth by the U.S. Constitution were designed to protect the States’ sovereignty while giving the federal government enough authority to properly protect and preserve the union of individual states. As a result, the United States of America was not designed to be a nationalistic entity, but rather a federation of sovereign states that have granted the authority to maintain the union to a federal governmental system. To understand that the Founding Fathers looked upon the new country as a federation of states, and not a nationalistic entity, one must only look to the language they used.

The Second Amendment, the Founders, and Original Intent

The Amendments were written to amend the Constitution because the state delegates demanded that it be done. That is why we call them the Bill of Rights. They are rights that the people demanded be written to ensure the Federal government could not abuse them.

Both of these articles are several years old but they do a good job of explaining what the Founders’ intents were.