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Alexander Hamilton on the role of states vs. the federal government

I have been watching the "John Adams" miniseries on HBO, and it has me fairly obsessed (my wife is getting a little irritated with me starting every sentence with "methinks").  It has gotten me thinking about the founders, and what they envisioned.  I came across this quote from Alexander Hamilton in #45 of The Federalist Papers:
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.
 Sometimes people will say that the Constitution was written to strengthen the federal government, and it was.  However, even a strengthened federal government via the Constitution was still significantly smaller and more limited (especially in times of peace) than the state governments, and as Hamilton states, they viewed state governments as being responsible for seeing to the welfare of citizens.
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