that was just the first paragraph and I didn't mean to post it but it happened

Since the only way to restore American federalism is to reinstate the principles on which it was built, this month we are going to focus on the founding father's original design for federal state relations. And on the bias of that design, we suggest a strategy that can help reunite and empower the states as they work to reestablish their proper role in our nation's government.

HOW IS POWER DIVIDED BETWEEN WASHINGTON, D.C., AND THE STATES?

Federalism is the constitutional division of powers between the national and state governments. To function correctly, this kind of political system requires at least two things: a binding agreement that specifies the distribution of powers between the central government and the states, and effective controls for enforcing and maintaining that agreement. To provide these two elements is the main object of the U.S. Constitution. Since both are vital in the current struggle to repair our federal system, let's examine each otherm from the founders' viewpoint.

The framers of our Constitution wanted a strong national government, but they also wanted it to be strictly limited to the functions authorized in the Constitution. Most of these are found in Article I, section 8, which outlines the "enumerated powers" delegated to Congress. And not only does the Constitution specify the powers granted to the central government; it actually prohibits that government from exercising any powers not delegated to it. The 10th Amendment expressly declares that these are "reserved to the states respetively, or to the people."

Thomas Jefferson summarized the basic design of the system: "The people, to whom all authority belongs, have divided the powers of government into two distinct departments [i.e., the national and state governments], the leanding [characteristics] of which are foreign and domestic...These they have made coordinate, checking and balancing each other, each equally supreme as to the powers delegated to itself."

The founders felt so strongly about this division of powers that they regarded the 10th Amendment as "the foundation of the Constitution." Jefferson insisted that "to take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."