There's a great deal of both misunderstanding and even more misinformation about the nature of our governmental system. James Madison emphasized the fact that "a delegated power is not a surrendered power." Therefore, none of the States surrendered any powers to the Federal Government upon ratification of the Constitutional Compact; Madison called the Constitution a Treaty between the States, each individual State was and remained Free, Sovereign and Independent after ratification, the act of ratification surrendered nothing.

They only delegated them to their Deputized Agent we know as the federal or general government.

It is the powers of the States that are original and specific to them alone. All powers therefore,of the Federal Government are only derived and are merely secondary in nature and relationship to that of the States; and they were merely delegated, not for the purpose of empowering the federal government, but for the specific purpose of protecting the Rights and sovereignty of "the several States."

The federal government was therefore formed by the States for their own benefit and subservient to their authority, not vice versa. It is evident from the Constitutional Convention, the Ratification Conventions of the Several States that the federal government is simply an agency, a deputy that has been commissioned by the "several States" for their own convenience, safety and nothing outside of that which was delegated in our system of a federalized Republic of Republics!