ABSTRACT
The principle of the division of powers between state and federal governments is a very simple one when stated in its most general terms. It is that the legislatures of the States shall have control of all the general subject-matter of law, of private rights of every kind, of local interests, and of everything that directly concerns their people as communities. The federal government was conceded the power to determine the economic opportunities of the States. The chief object of the Union and of the revision of the Articles of Confederation which gave Americans their present federal Constitution was undoubtedly commercial regulation. The object of their federal system is to bring the understandings of constitutional government home to the people of every part of the nation, to make them part of their consciousness as they go about their daily tasks.
