Posted on 09/02/2008 11:49:53 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake
One of the unappreciated casualties of the War of 1861, erroneously called a Civil War, was its contribution to the erosion of constitutional guarantees of state sovereignty. It settled the issue of secession, making it possible for the federal government to increasingly run roughshod over Ninth and 10th Amendment guarantees. A civil war, by the way, is a struggle where two or more parties try to take over the central government. Confederate President Jefferson Davis no more wanted to take over Washington, D.C., than George Washington wanted to take over London. Both wars are more properly described as wars of independence.
Oklahomans are trying to recover some of their lost state sovereignty by House Joint Resolution 1089, introduced by State Rep. Charles Key.
The resolution's language, in part, reads: "Whereas, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: 'The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'; and Whereas, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and whereas, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and Whereas, today, in 2008, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government. … Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the 2nd session of the 51st Oklahoma Legislature: that the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States. That this serve as Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers."
Key's resolution passed in the Oklahoma House of Representatives with a 92 to 3 vote, but it reached a bottleneck in the Senate where it languished until adjournment. However, Key plans to reintroduce the measure when the legislature reconvenes.
Federal usurpation goes beyond anything the Constitution's framers would have imagined. James Madison, explaining the constitution, in Federalist Paper 45, said, "The powers delegated … 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, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. … 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." Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are not "subordinate" to the national government, but rather the two are "coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. … The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government."
Both parties and all branches of the federal government have made a mockery of the checks and balances, separation of powers and the republican form of government envisioned by the founders. One of the more disgusting sights for me to is to watch a president, congressman or federal judge take an oath to uphold and defend the United States Constitution, when in reality they either hold constitutional principles in contempt or they are ignorant of those principles.
State efforts, such as Oklahoma's, create a glimmer of hope that one day Americans and their elected representatives will realize that the federal government is the creation of the states. A bit of rebellion by officials in other states will speed that process along.
Too many people think the start of our decline into socialism started with FDR. But FDR’s programs would never have been possible without the federal power grab that came with the defeat of the Confederacy in the War Between the States.
I agree. Good on Oklahoma!
Ping as you see fit...
I’m a huge supporter of State’s Rights.
We should have a collection of 50 mostly independent nation-states. In some there might be no taxes..some would have no drug laws...some would be mostly socialist in nature while others would be extremely capitalistic. We could move where we felt most comfortable while the Fed Gov provided for the common defense. I’m probably a bit naive but I really wish things were like that, I hate that the central government has assumed near total power over every aspect of our existence.
Excellent article. President Reagan spoke about federalism, but did little about it. We need to return to our original form of government.
It just goes to show that when the winners get to write the history, things can get a little muddled in translation, but true enough.
I'm a little ashamed it wasn't my own home state(Texas) being first with something like this. Of course the talk around here is always for reverting back to a republic of our own ;^)
bump
Just so, but the Federales could not have accomplished the takeover without the, at least, tacit approval of the several states. Makes one wonder what it was that induced the states knuckle to under to the feral beast.
We could move to any state that allowed immigration from other states.
A while back my home state tried pushing the State's Rights issue. (SC)
Would that it might happen but I suspect the feral gummint has its hooks so firmly embedded by now that any state that desires to leave the plantation would suffer some pretty severe financial pains. Question is, would the state's residents be willing to shoulder the additional burden -- at least for a while.
Ohhhhhh, I like it!
Quite incorrect. The Confederates very much wanted to annex Maryland and thus DC.
While Williams may be up on economics, his history is oft imaginary.
Yeah, I hear rumblings from time to time but you can rest assured the dinosaur media will do their best to keep it under wraps as much as possible. Just for grins, do a Google search under "news" for this article. Then do a "web" search to see where and how it shows up. With the coming of age of the internet, it has become possible to communicate with millions but the background noise is so daunting it's still difficult to reach the unwashed. I was truly surprised the article didn't show up on FR. Walter Williams is pretty well respected around here.
I'm sure you probably have a cite for that, so would you mind humoring me??? I'm not as much a historian as I could be.
Oklahoma can actually begin to do this only if it renounces all federal money, like highway funds and Title this money and title that money and school lunch money. Most federal control comes as **if you don’t do as we want you to do you forfeit xx% of your federal highway/schoollunch/titlexx/etc. money.** States always cave.
The reciprocal to that is for the federal government to stop taxing for those items.
I don't know this but I have suspected for some time, that somewhere along the way, the feral gummint offers to the states a really neat deal. That is, the IRS will help the states by collecting confiscating taxes from everyone and re-destributing it where it is most needed. That way, the various states don't get "blamed" for raising taxes; it's those meanies in the feral gummint. I can hear the sales pitch(es) even now...
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