Free Republic

Must revolution be violent? Must men meet on the battlefield to affect change? Must revolution upend an older society and replace it with a new one? Wouldn’t a 21st century restoration of free American government without resort to violence be revolutionary? Pennsylvania’s Framer James Wilson thought so: This revolution principle--that, the sovereign power residing in the people, they may change their constitution and government whenever they please--is not a principle of discord, rancor, or war: it is a principle of melioration, contentment, and peace. It is a principle not recommended merely by a flattering theory: it is a principle recommended...

Many threads here on FreeRepublic use one of the images I've made in support of a Convention Of States (COS). I'm reaching out to the mass mind here for any ideas Freepers have for pro-Article V graphics. Better yet would be to post some graphics of your own. If you are part of the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) crowd please post somewhere else. I'm 100% behind the COS and you have little to zero chance of changing my mind.

What do the John Birch Society, Eagle Forum, Common Cause and Planned Parenthood have in common? They all oppose the states’ use of Article V of our Constitution to impose and enforce constitutional limits on Washington. While it is no surprise that Marxist-leaning groups would fight, tooth and nail, to resist any plan for breaking the federal government’s virtual monopoly on policy-making, all conservatives agree that this monopoly is a perversion of our federal system. But, sadly, the Left’s propaganda and junk history have brainwashed some conservatives into opposing the states’ use of constitutional power to check federal overreach. Having...

Subtitle: Progressives Blow Up the Framers’ Constitution. Despite the lessons of history, Progressives promote ever more democracy, which, unless tempered and limited, is like turning one’s household over to the majority rule of teenagers. Is this household arrangement fair? Sure. It is also idiocy which no parent would consider. A senate of the states, and not the parchment barriers of the Constitution stood athwart democratic rule by social justice emotions little different from that of the typical teenager.What was the 17th Amendment (17A) supposed to do? The post-17A senate was to respond to the people’s needs, and free the senate...

As John Locke related in his Two Treatises of Government, the legislative power is the essence of republicanism. Despite the lessons of the great Enlightenment philosophers and the Framers’ long experience in colonial and free republican affairs, they experienced much difficulty in designing a suitable, stable, effective legislature for a young and growing society. 1 Yesterday’s grand committee met to address the basis of representation in the legislature. What compromise could overcome large state objections to parity among the states in the senate? Recall that large states feared small state dominance over taxation, and that the small would disproportionately burden...

Subtitle: Gouverneur Morris Warns of a Uniparty. The convention slogged on as the large/small state standoff continued over the question of representation in the senate. I will follow a different course today and let a little-known Framer, Pennsylvania’s Gouverneur Morris take center stage. We can thank Morris for the precise text and prose of our Constitution. As chairman of the Committee of Style, he not only smoothed and connected resolutions, he occasionally inserted clauses on his own initiative, which the convention typically accepted as written. Where history tagged James Madison as the father of the Constitution, Morris was its acknowledged...

In fits and starts, often one step forward and two steps back, the convention slowly shaped the pieces to its constitutional jigsaw puzzle. Incredibly, as a few delegates seemingly wished to flip the table over and scatter the pieces, enough of the remaining delegates stood fast to grind out our beloved Constitution. On June 27th, rather than address the question of congressional powers in Resolution 6, the convention mired once again in the nature of representation, Resolutions 7 & 8. On the question of an equitable ratio in the House of Representatives: From Madison’s notes, Luther Martin (MD), the State...

June 14. William Patterson (NJ), spooked by the developing Virginia Plan, asked for a one-day adjournment to work on an improved federal design. June 15. He submitted the New Jersey/Patterson Plan. The Committee of the Whole will take up the amended Virginia and New Jersey Plans tomorrow. June 16. Since I previously blogged my observations of the New Jersey Plan here, I intended to overlook the proceedings of June 16th. However, the day had an impact on the issue of proportional v. equal representation of the states in the senate and is therefore worth a look. John Lansing (NY) and...

As of June 12th, the evolving senate still had no powers beyond those of the Confederation. Additional powers arrived after delegates determined its institutional shape and characteristics. At issue was the senate’s relationship with the lower house and the executive branch. Governor Randolph reminded the committee “the democratic licentiousness of the state legislatures proved the necessity of a firm senate.” The best model was the senate of Maryland, which consisted of fifteen members appointed to five-year terms by an electoral college of two electors from each county and one each from the cities of Baltimore and Annapolis. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Senate] Yet, even...

In this series I will relate the debates at the Federal Convention surrounding the structure and responsibilities of the US Senate. We’ll find that the Framers assigned the new government its functions, beyond those of the Confederation Congress, after the convention determined the mode of senatorial elections and the number of senators per state. Like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, the structure and powers of the various pieces of government shaped, and were shaped by, the checks and balances between the three branches and the states. The shape of each piece influenced the shape of adjacent pieces. The pulling of...

I’ve found the State Legislators Article V Caucus website to be an invaluable resource for keeping up with the latest goings-on in the Article V Convention of States movement. Anyone can join. Members receive a monthly email with links to timely articles on the progress of Article V across the states. Features from the October issue: • Phoenix Convention September 12th – 15th. Nineteen states sent delegates to develop parliamentary rules for a future Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) Article V COS. View the rules package here. • Phoenix Convention Drew Considerable Media Attention. US News & World Report and the...

THE I’s had been dotted; the T’s were crossed. The 55 delegates to America’s first and so-far-only constitutional convention had hammered out compromises on the separation of powers, apportionment of seats in the legislature and the future of the slave trade. But on September 15th 1787 George Mason, a plantation owner from Virginia, rose to his feet to object. Article V of the draft text laid out two paths by which future amendments could be proposed. Congress could either propose them itself, or it could summon a convention of representatives from the states to propose them. Mason warned that if...

Subtitle: The 15th Amendment. Recall from Parts I & II, and Article I § 2 of the Constitution, the states determine voter qualifications to the US Congress. From Parts III & IV, we saw that the late 1860s Congress differentiated between civil and political rights, and Congress did not regard the franchise as a civil right. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment prescribed the punishment for state discrimination against voting based on race. As opposed to civil rights, which everyone in America (citizen and non-citizen) has from the moment of conception, voting is a political right subject to Federal/State Constitutions...

In his remarks at the Henderson County public library, Mike Faulkenberry, state director of the N.C. Convention of States Project, asked a crowd of about 80 people whether they felt the federal government is “doing just a bang-up job.” None raised their hand to answer yes. He asked whether they felt the federal government gets carried away sometimes, but for the most part does pretty well in areas such as taxes and regulations, and again none answered yes. But when he asked who felt the federal government “is completely out of control,” hands went up across the room. The Convention...

(Hillary joins FreeRepublic Article V Opponents.) While making the rounds on her book tour, Hillary Clinton recently sat down with Vox’s Ezra Klein to discuss her failed presidential bid, President Trump, and the challenges currently faced by the Democrat minority. Among those challenges, Clinton warned, is a “radical change” being pursued by forces on the right: “There’s a big move for change coming from the right that I think would be disastrous for our country. They want radical, ‘pull ’em up by the roots’ change. They want to have a constitutional convention to rewrite our constitution, to make it friendlier...

September 27, 2017 A summary of understanding the issue is as thus: THE 17TH AMENDMENT ALLOWED VOTERS TO 'HIRE' THEIR US SENATORS DIRECTLY WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT FRUITS WOULD BE CREATED. A RECALL POWER ALLOWS VOTERS TO 'FIRE' THEIR US SENATORS ONCE THE ROTTING OF FRUITS BECOMES VISIBLE, BUT RECALL IS NOT SUFFICIENT. VESTING BOTH HIRING AND FIRING IN VOTERS LEADS TO DENIAL AND TENSION IN THE 'FOG OF DISTANCE' AS ROTTEN FRUITS BECOME ALTERNATELY VISIBLE, THEN HIDDEN, THEN FORGOTTEN, SOWING CONFUSION AND FRUSTRATION. A THREE-WAY SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY REMOVES THE FOG OF DISTANCE AND ALLOWS FOR INSPECTION AND REMOVAL OF...

Subtitle: Voting isn’t a civil right. It began as a simple clause in Article I § 2. Whoever votes for members to the most numerous house in a state legislature is likewise qualified to vote for representatives to the US House of Representatives. States indirectly determined the qualifications of electors to the US House. So, from the start of our Constitutional republic, the Framers and the ratifying states expected diversity in voter qualifications across the states. The state-level civil society determined the extent of the political right to vote. What wonderful simplicity and wisdom. This is federalism. Rather than make...

PHOENIX - The solid rap of a gavel falling at the Arizona State Capitol wasn't lost on the assembled 72 delegates from across the country. "It's pretty historic, really," Arizona State Rep. Don Shooter said. "I think it's the first time since 1861." Lawmakers and observers were in Phoenix for the Balanced Budget Amendment Planning Convention, the very first step in amending the US Constitution. The proposal would force the federal government to only spend the money it has. "This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue; this is an American issue, I think," Kansas State Rep. Blake Carpenter said. But can...

We have a great Constitution, and next Sunday, Sept. 17, we celebrate its 230th anniversary on “Constitution Day.” But which Constitution will we celebrate? Among the ingenious features of our national government’s operating manual are its separation and limitation of powers and its built-in checks and balances. But one often-overlooked virtue of our Constitution is its relative simplicity. Think about it: The blueprint for the most powerful nation on the planet can be easily published in a pocket-sized pamphlet that is lighter than a deck of cards and can be read and understood by the average citizen in the space...

In our Declaration, which itemizes certain self-evident rights among innumerable others, consent of the governed is the just basis of government, whose purpose is to secure our rights. Consequently, it follows that a government that secured rights, yet did so without the consent of the governed, was not just. An absolute, benevolent monarch ruling a happy and prosperous people, one who secured the people’s right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, violates Natural Law justice because rule without the consent of the governed is tyranny. Tyranny cannot be just. Yet, isn’t this the sort of rule the Progressive...