Posted on 05/07/2003 8:22:53 AM PDT by GotDangGenius
Bump times three.
Really? Let’s take a look at the ‘Supremacy clause:’
”This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof. and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
Tell us: which article of the Constitution (or which treaty) prohibits the States from retaining their own land? Hmm? While you’re searching for an answer, please feel free to read James Madison’s Report on the Virginia Resolutions (a link to which I have provided on my FR home page). As Mr. Madison noted:
”...(T)his Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact to which the states are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact--as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that, in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties, appertaining to them."
“...the General Assembly views the powers of the federal government ‘as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact,’ and ‘as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants therein enumerated.’ It does not seem possible that any just objection can lie against either of these clauses.“
Now let’s take a look at the “powers of the federal government... enumerated in that compact” which would be applicable to the case at hand:
” To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings...”
First, “the Consent of the Legislature of the State” is required – and it looks like the State of Montana may be denying that consent. Second, land may be acquired “for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings.” Clearly, no mention is made of ‘United Nations ecological preserves,’ wilderness areas, or similar gimcrackery.
If you are going to refer to the United States Constitution, at least take the time to read the document...
;>)
Many others have agreed with you:
”...the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just repartition among the states, and a corresponding amendment of the constitution, be applied, _in time of peace_, to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within each state.”
Thomas Jefferson’s 2nd Inaugural Address
By the way, no such amendment to the United States Constitution has ever been ratified. But wait, there’s more:
”There is one subject of deep and vital importance to the stability of the General and State Governments, to which I beg leave to invite your attention. Every friend of our present constitution, in its original purity, cannot but have witnessed the alarming extent to which the Federal Judiciary and Congress have gone toward establishing a great and consolidated government, subversive of the rights of the States and contravening the letter and spirit of the Constitution of the Union. The act of the last session of Congress appropriating money to make surveys, is but an entering wedge which will be followed, no doubt by the expenditure of millions, unless the People apply the proper corrective, the day, I fear, is not far distant, when South Carolina shall be grievously assessed, to pay for the cutting of a canal across Cape Cod. None of the friends to the assumed powers of the General Government pretend to derive them from any specific grant of power in the Constitution, but claim them as implied, resulting or necessary to the common defence and general welfare. The construction contended for by them is an open violation of that which has heretofore universally been admitted the true rule for expounding all grants. It never for a moment entered into the imagination of the members of the convention that formed the union that they were surrendering the sovereignty and independence of the states. On the contrary, there was a universal sensitiveness on that point, which produced the section which declared all power not expressly granted to be reserved to the people or the states.”
Governor Wilson's Message to the Legislature, December, 1824
”...Resolved, That it is an unconstitutional exercise of power, on the part of Congress, to tax the citizens of one State to make roads and canals for the citizens of another State.”
South Carolina on Internal Improvements and the Tariff, December 16, 1825
”... (M)ore danger is to be apprehended to the State authorities by the exertion of the assumed power over roads and canals by the General Government than from almost any other source."
Journal of [the Virginia] House of Delegates, 1826-1827
”2. Resolved, That the Congress of the United States does not possess the power, under the Constitution, to adopt a general system of internal improvement in the States, as a national measure.
”3. Resolved, That the appropriation of money by the Congress of the United States, to construct roads and canals in the States is a violation of the Constitution.”
Resolutions of Virginia, March 4th, 1826
”Resolved, That Congress has no power to construct roads and canals in the States, for the purpose of internal improvement, with or without the assent of the States in whose limits those internal improvements are made; the authority of Congress extending no further than to pass the "necessary and proper laws" to carry into execution their enumerated powers.”
Acts of South Carolina, 1827
“Resolved, as the sense of the Senate and House of Representatives, that as soon as the national debt shall be paid, the most equitable and just mode of disposing of the surplus funds which may remain in the treasury of the United States, after defraying the ordinary expenses of the government, and the payment of appropriations which may be made to objects of great national importance, will lay a distribution amongst the several states, in proportion to their representation in the Congress of the United States; and that the executive veto was properly exercised on the bill making an appropriation to the Maysville and Lexington Road.”
Laws of Pennsylvania, 1830-31
;>)
ARTICLE II
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
Section 1. Popular sovereignty. All political power is vested in and derived from the people. All government of right originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.
Section 2. Self-government. The people have the exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent state. They may alter or abolish the constitution and form of government whenever they deem it necessary.
Please bear in mind that the federal government approved this State constitution when Montana was admitted to the union. Perhaps you can tell us: do the peoiple of the State of Montana "have the exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent state," who "may alter or abolish the constitution and form of government whenever they deem it necessary," or was the federal government being less than honest when it approved the State constitution? Hmm?
;>)
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