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The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment

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Dr Lash has evidenced significant scholarship in this monumental work. One can only hope the efforts he extended will find there way into the larger political consciousness where his research concerning the Ninth Amendment belongs. His valid assertion that the Ninth Amendment is a guide to interpreting the national powers is thoroughly convincing, and historically accurate.His examination of the Ratifying Conventions of the Constitution, the vigorous diligence of Madison in ushering the Bill of Rights through a reticent Congress, and the issues of Ratifying the Bill of Rights, brings his thesis beyond probable to the realm of historical fact. The work provides beyond the realm of Constitutional Interpretation a concomitant starting point for a deeper historical comprehension of Madison's reactions to Hamilton's Bank Bill. Considering the evidence and chronology Dr Lash presented doubts about Madison's motives concerning the necessary and proper clause can be viewed in new lights.
The Preamble to the Bill of Rights includes the following explanation:
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

The idea of preventing misconstruction or an inaccurate explanation or interpretation, in the very document that was forwarded to the States with the Bill of Rights reinforces the concepts Dr lash advances. The Ninth Amendment's own words 'shall not be construed' points again to Dr Lash peremptory claim the Ninth is a guard against errant interpretation. His erudite and complete scholarship is reinforced by the attendant phrases surrounding the Ninth Amendment.

The 21st century is a time when we have, for a number of reasons, some valid and some not, lost a feeling of relevance concerning the Founding era. In our quest for progress, certain concerns about the impact of our contemporary actions on the Constitution have been branded as partisan, or anachronistic. No universal method of Constitutional Interpretation exists in America, and the bickering goes on from the Supreme Court right down to polling booths. In such a circumstance can we ever hope to find a common exegesis of the document that plays an ever increasing role in the American life; how would we develop such an interpretive guide, one that guides us in plainly constitutional issues but also in the extra constitutional constructs we have admitted. Drew McCoy wrote an excellent book about Madison, 'The Last Of the Fathers', he emphasized Madison's beliefs that comprehending our history was of vital importance, or to quote McCoy, ..'events "now new because they are old"- was essential far more than providing a guide to interpreting specific clauses of the Constitution'. When a work such as Dr Lash's emerges and one re-reads the efforts of Dr McCoy there exists the possiblity that Constitutional History, and American History, can fulfill Lincoln's warning that 'History is not history unless it is true'.