Once upon a time there was a country that believed in Liberty. The people of this fair land fought a revolution
to free themselves from the tyranny of a foreign king. It was called the “shot heard round the world”. The purpose
for all the sacrifices, risks and sufferings was the goal of establishing a nation, where free men could create a government
that rested upon the consent of the people. How very long ago that was. So many people have forgotten - about themselves,
their heritage and the very purpose, their government was intended to render.
The 1776 Revolution was fought for a common cause, to secure the natural rights of Englishmen. Each colony
was settled under a charter from the king. With colonial victory, the Crown lost their claim over their former citizens. Individuals
were residents of particular communities that existed in geographic regions within the former distinct colonies. These territories
emerged as separate and independent states. As with any recognized civil authority, the legitimacy of their regime rests upon
the conferred consent based upon the conditional sovereignty granted to that government, from the people. Home rule of the
State is lawful, only as long as it retains the confidence and permission of citizens, to continue its administration.
In relations with other states or governments, each unit of dominion preserves the authority extended, by
the governed. Therefore, it should be self evident that combinations of cooperation or entry into agreed of federations, are
based upon the voluntary compact that each unit of government, bestows upon the larger assembly. This elementary summary was
the basic understanding that citizens of the new nation understood and accepted to be the result of the victory at Yorktown.
The prize of independence meant the ability to establish governance with their permission.
We continually hear about restoring the meaning, intent and spirit of the Constitution. Few know that we had
a far preferable blueprint for a federation before the 1789 U.S. Constitution. It was called the Articles of Confederation. Have you ever read it? If not you should. At the outset it’s opening declaration has - Articles of Confederation
and Perpetual Union Between the States. Some may want to misconstrue that perpetual means subordinate. In Article II, the
basis for union is stated with total clarity - Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every
power, jurisdiction and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.
Concern for national defense, diplomacy and treaties, assumption of war debt, extradition to state courts,
unencumbered travel and commerce, coinage and adjudicator of disputes between states are subjects of mention. Prohibitions
on specific areas for states are listed, while the few sections of administration by "a Committee of the States" are noted.
In Article X, a loose option for consensus (stated to be nine states) could enact measures. The Committee
of the States, or any nine of them shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress
as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine states, shall from time to time think expedient to vest
them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee for the exercise of which, by the Articles
of Confederation, the voice of nine states in the Congress of the United States assembled is requisite.
The significance is in the lack of abundant powers and the need to require agreement from nine of the thirteen
states, 69% + for any new enactments. This stringent requirement does not exactly seem like the model for a subservient
role for individual states!
No doubt the U.S. Constitution, added valuable protections against a tyrannical central government in the
Bill of Rights. But, the nature of the expanded roles for the executive and judicial branches in that same - U.S. Constitution
- elevating them to a theoretical and dubious co-equal status, created the inevitable usurpation of the legitimate power of
the independent states. We all know the tragic history of the unimpeded executive despotism in America. Far fewer understand
the catastrophic precedent in the decision of Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury vs Madison - placing the Supreme Court as the arbiter of the constitutionality of congressional legislation. The mere restoration
to the constraints in the 1789 U.S. Constitution will not revive the Republic from its demise into an absolutist oppressor.
Only a systemic dismantling of that central government, returning primacy back to individual states will restore the vision
of the American Revolution.
The continued erosions of Liberty that used to take a decade to chip away, has gone on fast forward and has
now been compressed into little over a year. The reason is unmistakable. Most Americans no longer understand the intended
purpose in the struggle against King George III. They now accept a domestic grown variant that has a Texas drawl while imposing
edicts that no 18th century “American Englishman” would ever tolerate. Can the Stamp Act be compared to the Patriot
Act? Can quartering red coats be measured by Homeland Security? Hasn’t the dream of the Founding Fathers been transformed
into an empire that august Rome would envy? From Cicero to Caesar - from Washington to Bush! Only an idiot would consider
the progression an advancement in Liberty, and solely the fool would follow the contrivance of the latest version of ‘duce’.
If the U.S. Constitution can be so totally perverted to make it effectively non existent, what hope is there
in it’s restoration when it mistakenly allowed for the creation of an empowered central government? The contrast, in
the Articles of Confederation, offered modest functions for a federal legislature, a limited and rotating management of bureaucratic
duties and a very narrow role for federal courts. By resorting to the pressures and the power ambitions of autocrats, the
1789 Constitution sowed the seeds for a worst tyranny that has eaten away at the protections that were so obviously intended,
when it was written. Sovereign States have been reduced to beggars. Under the Articles of Confederation the “perpetual
union between the States” might have been achievable. With the invention of a preeminent executive and a proscriptive
judiciary, we have evolved into a rule by an imperial dictator blessed under the cloak and process of arbitrary sanction.
The attempt in the U.S. Constitution to design strict prohibitions and parameters for a central government
have been ignored and transgressed by succeeding generations of power mad Statists that hate Liberty as much as they love
mastery over citizens. The proof of the insanity, for allowing a transfer of conditional authority into a structure
that inevitably fosters the rule of depraved domination freaks, is the sad story of our history. Evil men who lust for power
over all else, will always be with us. Granting them an easy road to perfect their sinister plots in the name of allegiance
to country is lunacy. The principles upon which the Articles of Confederation were conceived, respected the righteousness
of self rule. Revitalize the autonomy of states and diminish the scope of central intrusion. The war for independence must
be fought again, the impostor who would be king is still named George . . .
SARTRE - December 26, 2002
