Tenth Amendment Our Bill of Rights began when James Madison, the principal author of the Constitution, proposed 20 amendments to the Bill of Rights, not the ten we know today. Madison sent these twenty proposed rights to the House and Senate and ended up with twelve bills of rights. Madison himself removed some. These amendments were then sent to the states for ratification. Virginia was the tenth of fourteenth states to approve 10 of 12 amendments. This two-thirds majority was necessary to legalize the Bill of Rights. On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights was finally ratified. Major supporters of the Tenth Amendment were anti-Federalists. Anti-Federalists are people who oppose a strong central government. The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on December 15, 1777. They created a weak central government, leaving most power to the states. Although this was what the Anti-Federalists wanted, they knew they needed a change in government. The Articles of Confederation states in the second section that "Each State retains its sovereignty, liberty and independence, and all powers, jurisdiction and rights, which are not expressly delegated by this Confederation to the United States, united in the Congress. » This is where the Tenth Amendment came from with certain modifications. Both the Tenth Amendment and the Articles of Confederation provide that unenumerated powers are reserved to the states. The reason the Tenth Amendment was included was the fight waged by the Anti-Federalists. They demanded rights from the state and individuals, which is why James Madison wrote the bill. The Commerce Clause refers to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the tribes of Indians." The Commerce Clause gives the government power over the states. This was established in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden in 1824. Both Gibbons and Ogden operated their steamboats along the same route, on the Hudson River, which was between New Jersey and New York. Ogden obtained an injunction in a New York state court. This injunction concluded that Ogden had obtained exclusive rights from the state to operate this route. Gibbons had received his license from the federal government. The New York court sided with Ogden and ordered Gibbons to stop operating his steamboats. Gibbons then took the case to the Supreme Court. John Marshall sided with Gibbons and declared that New York's grant to Ogden violated the Federal Licensing Act of 1793 and that, for the first time, the Commerce Clause was being interpreted. It was concluded that the government had the power to regulate this because of the commerce clause. Since then, the Commerce Clause has expanded government power beyond what states would like.