norml21 - Page 17
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have attempted it, as gentlemen may see, by
turning to the last clause of the Fourth
Resolution°
1 Annals 439 (emphasis added).
Madison's reasoning suggests the dual import of the
Amendment as originally proposed° First, the canon of statutory
construction, the expression of one is the exclusion of all
others, i.eo, the expression of certain rights is the exclusion
of rights not expressed, is not to be appiied in construing the
Constitution, the result being a reaffirmation of the common
belief that the federal government was to be a government of
limited powers. Second, important human rights are retained by
the people which remained unexpressed in the Constitution or its
first eight amendments. The crucial langmage of Madison's
proposed amendment is the language, "other rights retained by the
people," language which was absent from Virginia's proposed
Fourteenth Resolution°
Thus, as submitted by Madison, Resolution Four, Section i0,
is a rule of construction limiting the encroachment of
governmental power, as was Virginia's Fourteenth Resolution, as
well as an affirmative assertion of the remaining natural rights
of man which are not expressly guaranteed by the Constitution or
by the first eight amendments.
On July 28, the select committee, four of whose membership
17
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