Free Republic

“If we are to be considered as a nation, all State distinctions must be abolished; the whole must be thrown into a hotchpot and when an equal division is made, then there may be fairly an equality of representation.” – New Jersey delegate William Paterson. Today’s squib reviews the last few days of the Federal Convention leading up to Alexander Hamilton’s June 18th speech. In Part V we’ll find that, considering the previous exchanges among delegates, Hamilton was far from alone in his disdain of the States. What he shared with them was the search for a governing design adequate...

Can liberty be preserved across a continent? In 1787, the historical record said “no.” The Roman and contemporary Russia, China, and Ottoman Empires were glaring examples. Not everyone was buying the Federalists’ argument that the federal structure of the Constitution, in which smaller republics were represented in the umbrella republic, would keep the new government in check. As pundits and patriots today wonder if resolution of the centrifugal forces that threaten the American Union is possible, perhaps we can find solace in the words of James Madison. From the 14th Federalist: I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, . . ....

Over the next few squibs I will show why Scotus has no Constitutional business fabricating rights. As opposed to its assumed authority to invent rights, it is instead duty-bound to defend the Constitution. Like the rest of the Bill of Rights, the Ninth Amendment deserves equal protection from the Scotus. Despite this presumption, Scotus has generally interpreted the Ninth Amendment in a manner that denies the sovereign people’s prerogative to assert the rights that Scotus is Constitutionally bound to accept.1Background. Thanks to the assurances of James Madison and other Federalists, the draft Constitution made its way unscathed through a rough...

James Madison traveled to Philadelphia in 1787 with Athens on his mind. He had spent the year before the Constitutional Convention reading two trunkfuls of books on the history of failed democracies, sent to him from Paris by Thomas Jefferson. Madison was determined, in drafting the Constitution, to avoid the fate of those “ancient and modern confederacies,” which he believed had succumbed to rule by demagogues and mobs. Madison’s reading convinced him that direct democracies—such as the assembly in Athens, where 6,000 citizens were required for a quorum—unleashed populist passions that overcame the cool, deliberative reason prized above all by...

His father was a Boston Tea Party "Indian." He graduated second in his class from Harvard, was a U.S. Representative, then was elected Massachusetts Speaker of the House. At age 32, he was appointed as the youngest Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. His name was Joseph Story, and he died SEPTEMBER 10, 1845. Joseph Story served on the Supreme Court for 34 years. He helped establish the illegality of the slave trade in the Amistad case, 1841. When the Supreme Court ruled against the Democrat's Indian Removal Act (Worcester v. Georgia, 1832), Justice Joseph Story wrote March 4, 1832:...

In the latter half of 1788 the man whom history praised as the “Father of the Constitution” opposed an Article V general convention of the states. Recall from last week’s squib the various state demands for a convention after the establishment of the first Constitutional congress. While few were entirely comfortable with the draft Constitution of September 17th 1787, Federalists in several states won over enough Anti-Federalists once they felt confident the new government would call an Article V convention to sort out the various amendments recommended by most of the eleven state ratifying conventions. Although to all outward appearances...

Our Constitution confronted and minimized the dangerous consequences of factions made possible by overly democratic governments. To the nationalists at the Federal Convention of 1787, the measure of a free government was its ability to control factions, for without control they were certain to grow and eventually tear the social fabric apart.1 In his defense of the Constitution, James Madison devoted Federalist No. 10 to factions. Too popular, factional governments are unstable and rent with injustice and confusion.2 Madison identified two ways to minimize the problem of factions; remove their causes or control their effects. There are two approaches to...

Look no further than recent comments from Clintonista Jennifer Palmieri to see why republics must minimize the destructive effects of factions. A portion of her recent confidential memo, which leaked to the press, reminded senior democrats that their future electoral success depends on keeping the illegal alien so-called “dreamers” here in the US. Not for the good of the nation, but for the profit and ambitions of the party, democrats must defend, keep, and make democrat voters of these people at all costs. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. How did our government, one designed to promote the general...

In Federalist #10, Madison explained how our government, formed as a republic, was superior to pure democracy in that it prevented tyranny by a majority. In his article, Madison explained how the founding fathers considered the fallibility of human nature, but prized liberty above all. In fact, in this article, Madison also addressed the reality that “[e]nlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” Madison postulated that by giving a voice to more minority groups, they would be “extend[ing] the sphere” of influence and it would be less likely that “a majority of the whole will have a common...

So the latest round of sheer nuttiness from the mainstream media? The idea that President-elect Trump intends to resurrect the infamous and quite decidedly racist “internment camps” established for Japanese-American citizens in 1942. How did this start? It started last week on FNC’s The Kelly File during a segment with Trump surrogate and former Navy Seal Carl Higbie (whom I know). Kelly cited this story from Reuters: “Immigration hardliner says Trump preparing plans for wall, mulling Muslim registry” The story goes on to say that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach informs Trump advisers “had discussed drafting a proposal for...

Raise your hand if you knew that James Madison opposed the second method in Article V to amend the Constitution. The New Americana (TNA) recently published a misleading and insult-laden column regarding the Article V state convention amendment process and Convention of States (COS) supporters. It illustrates how the most effective deceptions are built around an element of truth. The TNA shamelessly attempts to deceive the reader into believing the very opposite of the truth, that the man who shepherded the Virginia Plan to fruition as a new Constitution of government opposed taking appropriate measures to keep it. As a...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” -The Declaration of Independence It is not the federal government’s job to secure ALL of our Natural Unalienable Rights, just those appropriate for a “federal” government. Other God-given rights are secured by state and local governments. How is the Natural Right to Life Secured?...

It is the dogma of our time that proponents of government “safety net” programs hold the so-called moral high ground. Accordingly, progressives preen over their own “compassion;” and many who pretend to be conservatives chime in that they too “believe in safety net programs.” But safety net programs are unconstitutional and immoral. They are unconstitutional because “charity” is not one of the enumerated powers of the federal government.1 They are immoral because they are based on a fabricated system of man-made anti-rights which negate the Natural Rights God gave us. I. The Origin of Rights and the Purpose of Civil...

When various objections to the draft Constitution arose in the fall of 1787, James Madison asked his fellow citizens to shun despair. The future was bright if Americans did not listen to those who claimed our problems were insurmountable. In similar fashion, America 2016 can avoid disunion if the sovereign people utilize Article V to meet their problems head-on. From the last portion of The Federalist #14, by James Madison: I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, these considerations, in full confidence that the good sense which has so often marked your decisions will allow them their due weight and effect;...

According to the father of the Constitution the powers delegated to the central government “are few and defined and those that remain in the States are numerous and indefinite.” Federalist Papers #45 Madison also explained that those powers are “reserved to external objects” of “war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce.” He stated that the central government’s power to tax is intended to be limited to those powers. Fed #45 Madison clarified the meaning of the often-abused “clauses” in 1792 during the Cod Fishery Bill debate. Specifically, that the General Welfare, Necessary and Proper, Commerce, and Tax and Spend clauses were...

In Philadelphia, in what now is called Independence Hall, is preserved a Chippendale style chair crafted in 1779 by the cabinetmaker John Folwell, with a sun on the horizon carved at the top. For nearly three months in 1787, George Washington used this chair during the sessions of the Federal Convention. According to James Madison, whose feet would have dangled from it since, at 5’4” he was ten inches shorter than Washington, Benjamin Franklin mused: “I have often in the course of the session looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was...

Taxes on Consumption are always least burdensome, because they are least felt, and are borne too by those who are both willing and able to pay them; that of all taxes on consumption, those on foriegn commerce are most compatible with the genius of policy of the states. James Madison, Address to the States, April 25th, 1783

On December 15, 1791 the states which comprised our fledgling democracy ratified ten amendments which became known as the Bill of Rights. The preamble to the Bill of Rights states, “the conventions of a number of states …expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers.” The intent of the Founders was to restrain government abuses, the amendments contained in the Bill designed to be checks and balances on government authority. The second amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and...

George Washington, our first president, is probably our greatest and most decent statesman. We celebrate Washington's Birthday each February. But March 16th marks the birthday of probably the second-most important and decent American, James Madison. Madison became our fourth president, but his presidency is not the chief source of his greatness. There would have been an entirely different America without Madison's enormous input and foresight at the contentious 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. There were 55 delegates to the convention. Like Madison, some had a formal college education, while others did not. From Madison's notes about the quality of the...

George Washington, our first president, is probably our greatest and most decent statesman. We celebrate Washington's Birthday each February. But March 16th marks the birthday of probably the second-most important and decent American, James Madison. Madison became our fourth president, but his presidency is not the chief source of his greatness. There would have been an entirely different America without Madison's enormous input and foresight at the contentious 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. There were 55 delegates to the convention. Like Madison, some had a formal college education, while others did not. From Madison's notes about the quality of the...