Posted on 01/09/2018 2:49:30 PM PST by Mafe
A great many people – especially conservatives – reverence the Constitution, consider that it has been abused and that if only the doctrines expressed within were revived and respected, all would be well with America again.
This, of course, is a kind of children’s bedtime story – and approximates reality to about the same degree as the story of the Three Little Pigs.
The Constitution was peddled and imposed on us by men like Alexander Hamilton, a grasper after power who very openly loathed the ideas expressed by men like Jefferson in his Declaration (and even more so in his Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions).
Hamilton and his faction – they were called Federalists, which meant then what it means today – intended to create a centralized government on the British model, but without a hereditary monarch. The Bill of Rights was just barely added, in order to sooth the (rightly, as it turned out ) suspicious, such as George Mason of Virginia.
Patrick Henry smelled a rat.
At any rate, the fact remains that the Constitution was written with great calculation by lawyers – who are trained in and well understand the meaning and potential use of words – in such as way as to assure the expansion of federal power via (among other things) the purposely open-ended Commerce Clause and deliberately nebulous phrases such as “general welfare” that can be – and have been – interpreted to mean . . . anything those who control the levers of the federal government wish it to mean.
Including – as actually happened during the Roosevelt Years – that a man farming on his own land whose produce never leaves his land let alone the state is nonetheless subject to federal regulation, because his actions “affect” Interstate Commerce.
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
Baloney. The enumerated powers kept the tent from collapsing on the crowd. Too bad the article is ignored in its entirety. Don’t blame the Constitution if you are vested in its denial.
Keep guessing.
I admit I’ve never read the ENTIRE Constitution, but the Bill of Rights is plainly about LIMITING the Government, not expanding it.
At least, that’s my take.
During the War of 1812 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island considered secession and aligning with Great Britain while we were at war with them.
Actually they had been toying with secession even earlier, starting with the election of Thomas Jefferson.
See ‘Essex Junto’ and ‘Hartford Convention’ for the background.
Feel free to give your answer.
Civic Belief #1: The Congress was given few specific powers. All else was left to the States and to the people under the 10th Amendment. Ample checks and balances protect the Republic from federal tyranny.
Civic Belief #2: The Federal Government has become so powerful only because despotic officials have overstepped their strict, constitutional bounds.
If #1 is true, then how did #2 happen?
"The Constitution has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it". Lysander Spooner, No Treason (1870)
Worked pretty well before FDR =>
“From 1787 to the Roaring ‘20s, federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, never exceeded 4 percent, except in wartime, compared to today’s 20 percent.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/walter-e-williams-is-there-a-federal-deficit/article/34304
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This was written in 2006.
Dude needs to read the 10th Amendment.
—
And the rest of the Constitution along with the Federalist Papers while he’s at it.
>
>>It is chiefly a list of the things government cannot do.
And it has no practical enforcement mechanism. Therefore, in practice government can do whatever the legislature, executive, and judiciary conspire to do.
>
Thread winner!
Those griping re: Commerce Clause refuse to acknowledge, he we sit, 100+ yrs later, w/ LESS Freedoms and Rights than they had at the turn of the 20th century.
We the People have allowed it to happen. Hell, just bring up any pot/weed topic and a gaggle of “(C)” will happily bring up the “Controlled Substances Act” and spout off “Federal Law!!”; while they bitch and moan about any/all ‘gun control’ w/o a HINT of hypocrisy.
The Republic died MOONS ago. Authors premise is shit, but the outcome cannot be denied.
This is an article by someone who either seems to have never read the Constitution or is purposely being deceitful.
FReeper Book Club: The Debate over the Constitution
5 Oct 1787, Centinel #1
6 Oct 1787, James Wilson’s Speech at the State House
8 Oct 1787, Federal Farmer #1
9 Oct 1787, Federal Farmer #2
18 Oct 1787, Brutus #1
22 Oct 1787, John DeWitt #1
27 Oct 1787, John DeWitt #2
27 Oct 1787, Federalist #1
31 Oct 1787, Federalist #2
3 Nov 1787, Federalist #3
5 Nov 1787, John DeWitt #3
7 Nov 1787, Federalist #4
10 Nov 1787, Federalist #5
14 Nov 1787, Federalist #6
15 Nov 1787, Federalist #7
20 Nov 1787, Federalist #8
21 Nov 1787, Federalist #9
23 Nov 1787, Federalist #10
24 Nov 1787, Federalist #11
27 Nov 1787, Federalist #12
27 Nov 1787, Cato #5
28 Nov 1787, Federalist #13
29 Nov 1787, Brutus #4
30 Nov 1787, Federalist #14
1 Dec 1787, Federalist #15
4 Dec 1787, Federalist #16
5 Dec 1787, Federalist #17
7 Dec 1787, Federalist #18
8 Dec 1787, Federalist #19
11 Dec 1787, Federalist #20
12 Dec 1787, Federalist #21
14 Dec 1787, Federalist #22
18 Dec 1787, Federalist #23
18 Dec 1787, Address of the Pennsylvania Minority
19 Dec 1787, Federalist #24
21 Dec 1787, Federalist #25
22 Dec 1787, Federalist #26
25 Dec 1787, Federalist #27
26 Dec 1787, Federalist #28
27 Dec 1787, Brutus #6
28 Dec 1787, Federalist #30
1 Jan 1788, Federalist #31
3 Jan 1788, Federalist #32
3 Jan 1788, Federalist #33
3 Jan 1788, Cato #7
4 Jan 1788, Federalist #34
5 Jan 1788, Federalist #35
8 Jan 1788, Federalist #36
10 Jan 1788, Federalist #29
11 Jan 1788, Federalist #37
15 Jan 1788, Federalist #38
16 Jan 1788, Federalist #39
18 Jan 1788, Federalist #40
19 Jan 1788, Federalist #41
22 Jan 1788, Federalist #42
23 Jan 1788, Federalist #43
24 Jan 1788, Brutus #10
25 Jan 1788, Federalist #44
26 Jan 1788, Federalist #45
29 Jan 1788, Federalist #46
31 Jan 1788, Brutus #11
1 Feb 1788, Federalist #47
1 Feb 1788, Federalist #48
5 Feb 1788, Federalist #49
5 Feb 1788, Federalist #50
7 Feb 1788, Brutus #12, Part 1
8 Feb 1788, Federalist #51
8 Feb 1788, Federalist #52
12 Feb 1788, Federalist #53
12 Feb 1788, Federalist #54
14 Feb 1788, Brutus #12, Part 2
15 Feb 1788, Federalist #55
19 Feb 1788, Federalist #56
19 Feb 1788, Federalist #57
20 Feb 1788, Federalist #58
22 Feb 1788, Federalist #59
26 Feb 1788, Federalist #60
26 Feb 1788, Federalist #61
27 Feb 1788, Federalist #62
1 Mar 1788, Federalist #63
7 Mar 1788, Federalist #64
7 Mar 1788, Federalist #65
11 Mar 1788, Federalist #66
11 Mar 1788, Federalist #67
14 Mar 1788, Federalist #68
14 Mar 1788, Federalist #69
15 Mar 1788, Federalist #70
18 Mar 1788, Federalist #71
20 Mar 1788, Brutus #15
21 Mar 1788, Federalist #72
21 Mar 1788, Federalist #73
25 Mar 1788, Federalist #74
26 Mar 1788, Federalist #75
1 Apr 1788, Federalist #76
4 Apr 1788, Federalist #77
10 Apr 1788, Brutus #16
5 Jun 1788, Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention #1
7 Jun 1788, Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention #2
14 Jun 1788, Federalist #78
18 Jun 1788, Federalist #79
20 Jun 1788, Melancton Smith’s Speech to the New York Ratifying Convention #1
21 Jun 1788, Melancton Smith’s Speech to the New York Ratifying Convention #2
21 Jun 1788, Federalist #80
23 Jun 1788, Melancton Smith’s Speech to the New York Ratifying Convention #3
27 Jun 1788, Melancton Smith’s Speech to the New York Ratifying Convention #5
28 Jun 1788, Federalist #81
2 Jul 1788, Federalist #82
5 Jul 1788, Federalist #83
16 Jul 1788, Federalist #84
13 Aug 1788, Federalist #85
Afterword and Suggested Reading
And the second amendment which was included to protect us from a power hungry government.
Per the Heritage Foundation the original meaning of to “regulate” is to make regular or not hamper. But that rascally Supreme Court disagreed from the beginning and so to “regulate” become to control.
I think I read most of that in the 11th grade, just before taking a semester on the Civil War.
PING - for later reading!
Commerce and the desire to build a canal is what led to the Constitution.
In 1785 the Patowmack Company wanted to build a canal along the Potomac river, but ran into conflict between Virginia and Maryland.
So representatives from Maryland and Virginia convened a meeting at one the Patowmack company investor’s homes, Mount Vernon. The attendees drew up the Mount Vernon Compact, granting free trade along the river.
This meeting was a success and the attendees invited all 13 states to hold another such meeting the next year, in Annapolis, to develop uniform commercial regulations for everybody.
That 1786 Annapolis Convention led to a call for a more general meeting to be held the next May, in Philadelphia.
So. George Washington wanting to build a canal ended up with the Constitution.
Bttt.
5.56mm
We turned it into a major event with several hundred FReepers participating in the threads.
I was just thinking about these things, responding to this, but it's been a long day, will have to try again tomorrow.
First of all I would change the range to include the 11th through 12th Amendments (roughly the first 10 years after initial ratification.)
Secondly I would repeat the obvious necessity of creating an official all-inclusive detailed concordance for the complex and contentious process of creating a Constitution which made the nation possible.
If many concordances exist for the bible, why not one for documents that affect ALL of us every day?
Of special interest are debates scattered all over the historical place, but more problematic, the contexts and common meaning of the English language that existed during that period. That should include ALL the debates within each colony that contributed to the process.That would prevent the absurdities like equating the original word, "welfare with the welfare that began in the 30s by FDR...
...or the "penumbras" invented by rogue criminal idiot jurists which have mucked up so much of our Constitution.
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