Let's be honest, America is facing the same legal, moral and
ethical questions that our Founding generation did, especially regarding the
issue of "Who Is Sovereign in the United States." For our Founders,
they fought, bled and died on the principles that no man or government has the
right to rule over others contrary to their agreement (i.e. compact,
constitution) and contrary to the principles of natural law as revealed in the
Creation of God; that all men are born in nature with the power to govern
themselves; and that no Sovereign government, established lawfully by the
consent of we the people, can be usurped and controlled by any other entity.
Thus, today in America, the
question once again comes down to "Who is Sovereign in the United States?"
Today, there are 3 basic options for "Who is Sovereign in the
United
States": (1) the Federal government, (2) the State governments
or (3) We the People. I feel confident in stating that most contemporary
Americans believe that the answer to this critical question is the Federal
government--especially as it concerns any practical effect on the power of and
over government. For years, Americans have been brainwashed though public
education, major media networks and politicians that ALL federal laws are the
"supreme law of the land" and that no state law or action to the
contrary is valid, citing Article 6, paragraph 2 of the US Constitution as
their "irrefutable" proof. Of course they are completely wrong:
American ideology and legal fact states that sovereignty rests with "we
the people."
However, the question must be more narrowly defined.
That is, does the sovereign power of we the people rest with all
the people in the nation as one body, or does the power rest with the people
THROUGH the respective States? The
answer to this question cannot be overstated, because if the sovereign power
rests with we the people collectively as one body, then the States have
absolutely no power and at the ratification of the US Constitution, the States
lost all powers originally granted to them by their respective sovereigns (the
people of that State). To the contrary, if Sovereignty rests within or through
their respective States, then the States conversely have more power than what
is being admitted today by the "Centralists" of our day.
Through an honest study of the history and the context of the
Articles of Confederation, the US Constitution, the Constitutional Convention
and subsequent Ratification debates, the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist
Papers, the rulings of subsequent US Supreme Court Rulings and the writings of
political philosophers and statesmen of the 1700s and 1800s, the conclusion is
undeniable and clear: We the People are the Sovereigns of the States
respectively and of the States United through our respective States.
Thus, the issue is not who is Sovereign, because we know that We
the People are sovereign in the US and that the Sovereigns of each State have
never ceded to the Federal government any power not expressly granted to it by
the Compact (the US Constitution). But rather, the issue is one of JURISDICTION:
in other words, who has the power to act on behalf of and in
compliance with the Sovereign? The issue
of jurisdiction is so important because it acknowledges that since the
Sovereign has "paramount authority" in government, any powers that
are granted from the Sovereign to government are to remain within that grant of
authority. Put another way, the States can no more grant authority to the
Federal government against the will of the Sovereign--the people--than the
Executive branch of the Federal government can give to the Judiciary branch the
powers that we the people granted to it alone. To deny that such a grant exists
or conversely to ignore the limitations placed on the governments by the
Sovereign is to suggest that tyranny is a lawful act and that it must be
complied with. America's
founders would have considered such a political theory to be treasonous. Do we
the people think so seriously of the matter?
According to recent events, the answer to this question will likely be
answered sooner than later.
As some of you may know, several states have and are passing
legislation regarding the independence and sovereignty of the people of their
respective states. ( http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com
) More specifically, the states of Tennessee and Montana
have passed "Firearms Freedom Acts," which have become law and which
reaffirm their Sovereignty under the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution.
This law states that any firearms that are made, sold and bought in that state
are NOT subject to the Federal regulations of firearms, because they are
inherently internal affairs, which exempt them from the commerce clause of the
US Constitution.
As you would imagine, the Federal government, through its agency,
the Department of Justice, did not take too kindly to Tennessee's assertion of jurisdiction over
this matter and position that the federal laws did not apply to the subject
matter at hand. This federal opposition has become known through the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), whereby they informed the
firearms licensees in an "open letter" in Tennessee that the recently
enacted law (Firearms Freedom Act) does not apply and is void and that they
(the firearms licensees) must still obey and submit to the federal laws,
regardless of the State's statute. (See http://www.tfaonline.org/downloads/ATFfirearmsfreedomact.pdf
)
This ATF response tells us the following about the federal
government's ideology of Sovereignty: (1) the federal government does not
recognize the lawful and independent jurisdiction of the Sovereigns of
Tennessee to operate their internal affairs as they deem proper and fitting;
(2) the Sovereigns of Tennessee do not possess lawful jurisdiction to govern
themselves through constitutional means; (3) the federal government has the
power and authority to control the internal affairs of all States, as they deem
fit. Bottom line, the Federal government is Sovereign. With their theory in
mind, however, what commodity, what relationship, what contract, what service,
or what molecule in this entire country would not be subject to their control
and power?
This issue is the very same reason why the Colonists declared their
independence from Great Britain
in 1776 and why Great
Britain declared the Colonies to be in a
state of rebellion against the government. The conflict was in fact the
application of their Constitution: whether it be a "living"
Constitution or whether it be "fundamental laws" based
upon the intent and will of the people. The fact is, it was the
Great-Britain-view of their constitution verses the American-view of their
constitution that caused the conflict between the crown and the colonies. One
historian summarizes the conflict this way:
"The contrast cannot be too strongly insisted upon. [The
colonists], on the one hand, believed that the British Constitution was fixed
by 'the law of God and nature,' and founded in the principles of law and reason
so that Parliament could not alter it, but [Great Britain believed] that 'the
constitution of this country has been always in a moving state, either gaining
or losing something,' and 'there are things even in Magna Charta which are not
constitutional now' and others which an act of Parliament might change. Between
two such conceptions of the powers of government compromise was difficult to
attain . . . Such differences in ideals were as important causes of a
breaking-up of the empire [of Great Britain] as more concrete matters like
oppressive taxation." (Claude Halstead Van Tyne, The Causes of the War of
Independence, Volume 1, [University of Michigan, Houghton Mifflin Company,
1922], 235, 237).
Indeed, the issues of taxation during the 1760s and 1770s were only
fruits of the underlying issue, and that is, who is Sovereign in America.
According to Great Britain,
the government had the power to impose its will on the people of America despite
the will of the colonies and despite the natural laws governing the compact
between the English people and their government.
In other words, the government believed that their constitution was
"living," giving the government power to impose its will on the
people, without the people's consent. The colonists, however, saw the matter to
be a usurpation of their God-given right to be governed by their consent and in
compliance with their constitution. The end result: the Sovereigns in each
colony seceded from the empire of Great Britain
because of Great Britain's
refusal to follow their constitution.
Do Sovereigns throughout our States United not see the significance
of the issue we are facing today? Are we
so blind to history that we cannot compare this scenario to the very scenarios
that led to the American Revolution? Are
we so ignorant as to the intents and purposes of the US Constitution? Consider that the "supreme laws of the
land" were never meant to be carte blanche powers of the Federal
government, but instead federal laws were expressly limited by the terms of the
compact between and for the States, found in the Constitution. This concept of
"supreme law of the land" was expressed by a founding father, whom many would consider to be
a "centralist" in belief, Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist Paper
#27:
"[T]hat the laws of the Confederacy [meaning, the United
States of America--yes, even Hamilton, along with many other founders, such as
George Washington, called the US Constitution a Confederacy, because they knew
that the nature and character of the compact of the US Constitution did not
change from the Articles of Confederation] as to the ENUMERATED and LEGITIMATE
objects of its jurisdiction, will become the SUPREME LAW of the land, to the
observance . . . in each State, will be bound by the sanctity of an oath. Thus
the legislatures, courts, and magistrates, of the respective members, will be
incorporated into the operation of the national government AS FAR AS ITS JUST
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY EXTENDS."
Hamilton's legal position concerning the limited power of the federal
government and the "supreme law of the land" was the consensus of the
founders, the States and we the people. Nowhere in America's founding was there the
notion that the supreme laws of the land were anything contrary to the compact
FOR the States. The supreme laws of the land are simply those "fundamental
laws" that we the people have created and imposed upon the government to
follow and uphold.
Of course, the question has been raised over the past 150 years of
"who has the power to determine whether or not the Federal government has
usurped their constitutional authority?" The popular answer is
(wrongfully), the US Supreme Court. God forbid that the Sovereigns of each
State must wait and rely on 9 federal judges to make rulings of this nature
before a State would have any legal rights or justification to act in
accordance with the will of their Sovereigns. Indeed, the ATF interpreted the
Constitution unilaterally without the opinion of the US Supreme Court and
without opinion or order denied the constitutionality of Tennessee's Firearms Freedom Act. The
Sovereigns in each state have the same power, and the historical and legal
evidence is plentiful. Consider Thomas Jefferson's position:
"[T]he States should be watchful to note every material
usurpation on their rights; denounce them as they occur in the most peremptory
terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our present submission shall
be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents of right, but as a
temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their accumulation shall overweigh
that of separation." (Thomas Jefferson and John P. Foley, ed., The
Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, A Comprehensive Collection of the Views of Thomas
Jefferson, [New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1900], 133)
I will not attempt to persuade the reader at this point on the
fallacious position that only the US Supreme Court can make a determination of
constitutional actions. However, for those who would argue that the US Supreme
Court is in fact the only legal means by which a State can say "no"
to the federal government, then I believe that such a person has
reached the point of voluntary slavery, and such a person is dangerous to the
concepts of federalism, American-sovereignty, and constitutional limits and
freedom, as expressed by thousands of the most influential men in our history.
And such a person has accepted only those political means of redress whereby
the Sovereigns of each State drudge through the treacherous mud of tyranny and
get absolutely nowhere.
What we are seeing today, and have seen for over 100 years in America, is the
usurpation of the federal government over Sovereignty--we the people--and over
Jurisdiction--the States. While this article cannot begin to expound in depth
the true character and nature of the US Constitution, a study of history
reveals that the US Constitution was an agreement between the Sovereigns of
each State whereby they acceded to give up only certain parts of their
sovereignty for the "more perfect union" of the people within those
States. As with any sovereign people or government, accession may be limited to
whatever means and ways necessary to protect the freedom of that society. This
is in fact what the Colonists did in 1776 when declaring independence from
Great Britain, what the States did in 1781 when ratifying the Articles of
Confederation, and what the States did in 1787 when ratifying the US
Constitution. It was the Sovereigns, through their respective States, who
declared their natural rights under God, who secured their natural rights
through independence from governments and who expressed that any act outside of
their consent is tyranny.
When this recognition resounds in the hearts and minds of the people,
as our Declaration of Independence states, "it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Do you really think after only 11 years from
the signing of the Declaration of Independence that those same people who
risked everything for independence from those "living-constitutionalists"
in Great Britain and who believed in the principles seen in the Articles of
Confederation would have completely renounced their understanding of a
Confederacy and Federalism and would have resigned the same and delegated all
of their powers that they fought and died to secure for each State and for
their citizens? If you think so silly a
notion, you severely impose injustice upon the intelligence and intentions of
our founders.
However, the record is clear that the Sovereigns of each State
never ceded to the federal government powers not expressly vested to it and
never waived the ability to reclaim that power through their proper
channels--the States--the same channels by which the US Constitution was
ratified.
Consider the Sovereigns' voice in the State of Virginia in 1787:
"We the delegates of the people of Virginia . . . Do, in the
name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known, that the
powers granted under the constitution, being derived from the people of the
United States, may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to
their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted thereby, remains
with them and at their will; that therefore no right, of any denomination, can
be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by the congress, by the senate
or house of representatives acting in any capacity, by the president or any
department, or officer of the United States, EXCEPT IN THOSE INSTANCES IN WHICH
POWER IS GIVEN BY THE CONSTITUTION FOR THOSE PURPOSES." (Emphasis added.)
However, the Federal government today does not recognize the
Sovereignty in the people of the respective states; it does not recognizes the
respective States' jurisdiction over all matters not expressly delegated to the
federal government; and it does not seem to acknowledge State Sovereignty under
the 10th amendment of the US Constitution. Given their evident intent and
purposes to continually grow in power and to continually oppress and suppress
the sovereignty of we the people, against our respective states, the question
becomes, how will they be made to understand this? It is of course up to the Sovereigns in each
state to answer this question. And we see the answers arriving through State
laws such as the Firearms Freedom Act.
The time has come in America where to be free
necessarily means to resist status quo and federal usurpation and to actively
change the course and philosophy being shoved down our throats. There really is
no middle ground any more. This is not a matter of politics anymore. This is
not a matter of Republican and Democrat. This is a matter of FREEDOM, as much
so as were the matters of 1775 and 1776. It is staring you in the face, daring
you to make a move. May we never be guilty of causing, whether by our apathy,
indifference, laziness or comfort, this nation to lose the freedoms that our
founders attempted to secure with infinite pains and labors. We the people must
once again reassert our Sovereignty in this country and the States must
recognize and act upon their God-ordained role as Freedom protectors and
tyranny resisters.
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