ABSTRACT
A distinguishing characteristic of American government is federalism—a dual system in which governmental powers are constitutionally distributed between central (national) and local (state) authorities. In the First Congress, Madison and others made good on the assurances they had given during the debates over ratification to make the addition of a bill of rights a priority for the new government. Of all the things governments in the United States may do, the powers of the national government are theoretically limited to those assigned to it by the Constitution, expressly or by implication, and are therefore delegated powers. As was inevitable, the formal distribution of powers between the national government and the states proved to be a subject of diverse interpretations. The concept of federalism common to Marshall's critics insisted that the Constitution was a compact of sovereign states, not an ordinance of the people.
