I was amazed to see the slew of commentary that followed the July 13, 2024, Trump event in Bethel, PA, and the canceling of Biden’s campaign. It worries me that people are talking rapturously about an imminent “next stage of American history” as if it will come about by “forces”. Or by “players.” Or maybe it will just come about because, well, you know, that’s how it is. Heck, history happens.
What!
I ask: What is this weirdness? Why don’t people seem to know that this nation is the child of two parents – the Dec and the Con? (Apologies — it takes a lot of typing to write “The Declaration of Independence” and “The United States Constitution” – allow me to use shorthand.)
Those two documents define us, especially the part of the Con known as the Bill of Rights. The Con has six articles and 27 amendments, of which the first ten amendments comprise the Bill of Rights, which is our pride and joy. Apparently, Generation X and the Millennials were not taught this stuff, so they don’t know what a fun trip it all is.
The Dec declared, “Naff off, O Tyrant Thingamabob, we have no intention of putting up with your overblown sense of who you are (you’re a Nobody) and what you can do — you cain’t do nuttin’ over here in the Colonies anymore since we have just deleted our colonial status. See? Get it? Like Bon Voyage, Man. Get lost.”
We want to thank Mary Maxwell for this Contribution. Submit yours to steve@granitegrok.com
That was dated 1776, and if you don’t know what day and month, I suggest you blush for at least a few seconds. It’s the month between June and August. Does that ring a bellsie wellsie? Good. Have you got the exact day squared away now? Fine.
Interruption: And as an oldster, I feel guilty that we let you slip through high school without getting this great material under your belt. Just speaking for myself here, the Dec and Con, especially the Con, give me all the strength I ever need to march happily through life. Oh sure, sex is good too, don’t get me wrong, and music is a big help, but such uplifts really can’t compare to the Dec and Con. My oh my, somebody ought to bottle this stuff!
Philadelphia
There sat these men in 1787, from June to September, “in a very hot room in Philadelphia.”
Maybe they wanted to be at the beach, but you’d never know it by how they were attired. They were over-attired — probably competing for status (men being men). Velvet jackets, wigs, leggings, knee sox, the lot. In summer. James Madison provides notes of all that was said, and you don’t hear anyone yelling, “Let me outta here.” Madison’s age? 36.
Were some of the 55 delegates hidden infiltrators from the Deep State, the cabal, the What-have-you? I suppose that is always the case, but don’t let it worry you. I mean, yes, do worry that the whole thing is getting out of hand, but at the moment, we’re busy admiring the Con’s Framers, K?
I don’t know if the Framers drafted the 6 Articles in sequence, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but just assume they did. The first Three Articles of the Con design the three branches of the new-new newborn American government, with the most powerful branch first. And which one is that? I’d be pleased if you said The Judiciary, as the whole Con thing comes down to the power of law. But no, that isn’t strictly the most essential powerful branch.
So, guess again. Would it be The Executive Branch? Sort of like the King on his throneroo? No, no! We just got rid of that with the Dec. We emphatically don’t want somebody strutting around acting like he can make decisions for us. “Go get a vaccination.” “Shop online to put small shops out of business.” “Go soldiering to destroy a few countries” type thing.
The Boss
Congress is the branch that makes decisions for the people, as Congress IS the people. Yup.
So, Article I is all about our power.
Check this out for strong language – actually, it’s from New Hampshire’s state constitution:
“All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates, and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive.”
I was once startled to hear a young man in NH say to members of a gov’t committee “I respectfully remind you that you are my substitutes and agents and are at all times accountable to me.” (I shouldn’t have been startled, but admittedly I was.)
That, dear souls, is the power of a constitution. It is the authorizing document, a social accomplishment by 18th-century Americans that we mustn’t lose sight of. ‘Cuz if we lose sight of the source of government’s authority – namely, the people, the folks – we will start thinking the source of authority is those who have the power to crush us.
Go straight to the back of the class if that’s what you think! Mind, it’s natural to think that way. A few dogs in a kennel aren’t going to get all constitutional, are they? They will let the more powerful dog take over. AND they will see it as settled; they won’t be whispering to one another about to how to defeat this obnoxious interloper. They cannot proclaim “We the canines…in order to establish justice…blah, blah, blah, bark, bark, bark.”
Articles 4, 5, and 6
Articles 4, 5, and 6 of the Con – or IV, V, and VI if you have Roman leanings – deal with, respectively, the states, the amendment process, and miscellany. The states are players in the Constitution, along with the 3 branches. And a fifth player is the individual human being, but that only came in with amendments 1-10, the Bill o’ Rights, delayed until ratification in 1788.
Note: I’m not bothering to discuss Article 7 as it is obsolete. It consisted of the signatures to the Con, starting with “G Washington-Presidt and deputy from Virginia.” Alexander Hamilton signed alone for New York. Now scroll down the list till you see my fave, George Mason. Wait, he’s not there! Ah, that’s because he refused to sign the thing for its lack of protection of me and thee, in regard to martial law. He got some compromise via Article 1, sec 9, which put Congress in charge of lifting habeas corpus, but it wasn’t enough for George. Thanks, Pal – you taught us to put our foot down.
What’s in Article IV? It has 4 sections. I’ll paraphrase the first three and save the fourth as a treat for later.
1. Each state must recognize the public Acts and records of all other states.
2. Fugitives from justice shall be extradited back to the state they fled from. Section 2 used to say also that slaves who escaped “shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labor may be due.” Wow. Amendment 13 in 1865 put paid to that with “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist.” Talk about Juneteenth!
3. No new state can be created without the say-so of Congress. (Many people in the 50th state, Hawaii, are not pleased that their kingdom was turned into a state on August 1, 1959. They are agitating like mad. Ask me about the DEW fire. Ask me about secession, or ask NH State rep Jason Gerhard, who knows what he’s doing.
These be-legginged men in Philadelphia’s “Constitution Hall” (as later so named) were each there as delegates from the 13 states. Predictably, then, they didn’t want to create a nation that would lower the power of their state, each of which remains sovereign. Sovereign but lazy, I must say, as the years have gone by and the trick of “federal funding” became the way to manipulate the states into accepting a substantial yielding of sovereignty. But that’s getting ahead of the story.
Article V covers the rules for making amendments to the Con. It’s the only article that is hard to read—it seems to be written in Neo-Sanskrit. Anyway, there are two ways to go about the amending process—the Legislature-based method and the national convention method (which has never been tried). Either way, 38 states must say Si-si to a new amendment. The last amendment, Number 27, was passed in 1992 regarding how Congress can give itself a pay raise.
Perhaps we need a 28th amendment to say, “Congresspersons caught with a hand in cookie jar shall be caned forthwith.” In 1787, when the Framers had the creative task (a world first) of formulating ways to keep power in check, the punishment of naughty officials was front and center. But in the last few decades, it’s as if someone is using white-out to get rid of the relevant provisions.
Sections 2 and 3 of Article I lay out the ability of Congress to impeach any bad bureaucrat, military brass, or federal judge. (Eight judges have been deposed.) It takes a majority vote of the House to impeach and a 2/3 vote in the Senate to “convict.” The Senate ain’t no court; it can dispense with due process, as the “trial” is rightly political.
Similarly, sec 5 says,” Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.” Expulsion is vanishingly rare, except that 17 legislators got the boot in the 1860s for joining the Confederacy.
Article VI proclaims that the US Con has priority over any state’s Con. No need to jump up and down here if you are a States’ Rights man — as I am — saying the states are being beaten down by this clause. Remember: it was the Velvet Jackets who put this in the Con, and they were all from a particular state. They agreed to “federalize.” (There was quite a fight between two camps: “federalist” and “anti-federalist.” Those two words confuse me, so I can’t lecture about it. Just look it up, please. Maybe compose a jingle to nail it down? Let me know.)
One of the Con’s post-Civil War amendments—number 14—is somehow tied to the state-versus-nation problem. That amendment, after the Civil War ended, is blamed by some as a carpetbagger imposition on the South. It gives the US Supreme Court the right to rule on the appeal of a state case. The Fourteenth Amendment says: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privilege or immunities of citizens of the United States.”
Huh? Didn’t that hold even before 1865? Doesn’t the Bill of Rights do the trick?
Back to Article III
Let’s now cover the Third Branch of government, which was inadvertently skipped above. One tends to forget the dear old judiciary and believe me when I say the Judiciary has forgotten the dear old judiciary. (Just my opinion: SCOTUS has abandoned ship. It no longer contributes to the balancing of powers. It won’t punish government criminals, nohow. Is that not the source of all our troubles?)
In Article III, the US Con created a federal judiciary from scratch. You can see that it wasn’t meant to resolve a local problem of Mrs. Smith’s vandalized garden or Mr. Jones’s lawsuit for defamation. It was meant to cater to the needs of the federal government itself. Hence, it empowers a Supreme Court to handle:
“all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States [federal law, e.g., drug laws], … all cases affecting ambassadors, … all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;- [and] controversies to which the United States shall be a party; [and] controversies between two or more states [or] between a state and citizens of another state.”
The Biggie: Treason
Our Constitution specifically defines three federal crimes: piracy, counterfeiting, and treason. Article III, section 3 (“three-three”) is about treason:
“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”
It also says, “Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood….“ (No corruption of blood” means your kids won’t cop it for what you did.)
Thus, Congress was given the right to deal with the details post-1787. (Come on, the poor old Framers were getting tired.)
To find out where the relevant congressional statute is, one need only go to a search engine such as Google and ask for the subject matter – “treason” and “USC.” Occasionally, “University of Southern California” will come up by mistake, but normally, you will be taken, in milliseconds, to the United States Code. That is a compilation of all federal laws, packaged neatly.
Here. Google has just brought me to 18 USC 3281. (Anything in Title 18 discusses crime.):
“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the many traitors in our country to be indicted for treason. Prosecutors avoid this subject like the plague. Please see my book Prosecution for Treason (2011).
Summary for Now – And the Guarantee Clause
To sum up this article, “Understanding the Constitution and Loving It”: The Dec cleared the deck. The Framers created the Con. (Which inspired many other nations). It worked for a long time, but citizens have lost sight of its meaning – a check on power by the ordinary people. We need to recharge the Con’s battery and use its best provisions.
Finally, a word about “the Guarantee Clause.” This is the treat that I postponed, remember? It’s the fourth section of Article IV:
“The US… shall guarantee to every State of the Union a Republican [meaning small-r republican] Form of Government … and shall protect each of them against Invasion… [and against] domestic violence.” [That doesn’t refer to wife-beating, K?]
It’s called “The Guarantee clause.” Isn’t that marvelous? I have interpreted this to mean that when Hawaii gets hit by DEWs (as it did on August 8, 2023), other states can send troops to act against the miscreants. Guaranteed!
Time to rest easy, then. We are protected by the Dec and the Con. No tyrant can beat us down. We will beat him/her down instead.
Natch.
Long live the parchment-authorized United States! Happy Fourth of July! Happy Constitution Day, September 17th! Happy Chanukah! Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy all over the place.
— Note: Mary Maxwell will not be able to reply to comments below, as Disquis has given her the heave-ho. She lives in Concord and welcomes contact via her website, www.ConstitutionAndTruth.com
