Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Huck; AuntB
I'd backtrack all the way back to the confederacy and start from there.

That's what we did. The Articles didn't work. Get over it.

234 posted on 12/19/2009 12:43:48 PM PST by Jacquerie (More Central Planning is not the solution to the failures of Central Planning.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 225 | View Replies ]


To: Jacquerie; AuntB
That's what we did. The Articles didn't work. Get over it.

Not really. We came to a fork in the road and took it. As everyone who has studied the history knows, the delegates who held their secret meetings in Philadelphia were not authorized by the Congress to create an entire new system of government. They were supposed to amend the articles of confederation in a few very specific ways--regulation of commerce, power to tax, power to pay off debts.

But certain delegates--Madison and Hamilton in particular---already had other ideas. They showed up with a draft or two of a new system. That's why Patrick Henry famously refused to be a delegate, saying he "smelt a rat." That's why it was ratified not by the Congress, not even by the States, who would have acted through the Congress, but rather by the PEOPLE, through state CONVENTIONS. Because, political theory went, only the PEOPLE had the right to abolish their government and form a new one. As we know, they did. And we're still stuck with it today. I'd backtrack all the way back to that point, and try to create a confederation with the necessary federal powers, and nothing more.

238 posted on 12/19/2009 12:56:30 PM PST by Huck (The Constitution is an outrageous insult to the men who fought the Revolution." -Patrick Henry)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 234 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson