Sec.10.  The tenth amendment is similar to the preceding.  “The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”  In other words the powers which the constitution has not given to the general government, nor prohibited the states from exercising, the states or the people have reserved to themselves.  So clear is it, that they retain all power which they have not in words parted with, that it seems strange to many that the insertion of such a provision should ever have been thought necessary.

Sec.11.  The eleventh amendment was proposed at the first session of the third congress, March 5, 1794, and its ratification by the constitutional number of states was announced to congress by the president in a message dated January 8, 1798.  This article prohibits a court of the United States from trying “any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the states by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.”  This is intended to prevent a state from being sued in an original suit, by a private person, the citizen of another state.

Sec.12.  The twelfth and last amendment effects a change in the mode of electing the president and vice-president, and has been considered.  (Chap.  XXXIX, Sec.4.) This amendment was proposed at the first session of the eighth congress, December 12, 1803, and was adopted by the requisite number of states in 1804, according to a public notice by the secretary of state, dated the 25th of September of the same year.

Common and Statutory Law.

Chapter XLVII.

Rights of Persons.  Personal Security; Personal Liberty; Religious Liberty; Liberty of Speech, and of the Press; Right of Property.

Sec.1.  Having taken a general view of the state governments and the government of the United States, and seen how wisely they are adapted to promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty; we proceed to give a digest of the laws which more particularly define the rights and prescribe the duties of citizens, or by which their social and civil intercourse is to be regulated.  These laws, it will be recollected, we have elsewhere called the municipal or civil laws, as distinguished from the political or fundamental law of the state.  (Chap.  III, Sec.6.)

Sec.2.  These laws are of two kinds, the written or statute law, and the unwritten or common law. Statute laws are those which are enacted by the legislature, and recorded in writing, and are usually collected and published in books.  The word statute is from the Latin statuo, to set, fix, or establish.