Analyst's note: Absolutely must read .... for your sincere consideration. I agree with our friend and associate, William J. Dell, when he says, " Consider well whom you vote for this November 2012 for the preservation of our Constitutional Republic is being weighed in the balance. ..."
This article, though lengthy, is very important and needs to be understood by every citizen. It is only by repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment that We the People can restore the vertical separation of powers our Founding Fathers placed in our Constitution to prevent the federal government from being too strong and tyrannical.
Our Founding Fathers envisioned our nation as a Union of united States with a limited grant of power by We the People to the federal government. Their vision was that the several States governments would always remain stronger than the federal government. A vision they expressed and granted in Article I of the Constitution and the Tenth Amendment of our Bill of Rights. It was their vision that the federal government would only have power to deal with external issues of the several States. Issues requiring representation of the United States, as a whole, to other nations and issues between the several States, such as, interstate commerce.
The most hotly contested issue of the Constitutional Convention was James Madison’s inclusion in the Virginia Plan that the bicameral Congress be “proportional” based on population rather than each State having only one vote as set forth under the Articles of Confederation. It was so contentious, in fact, that the matter was tabled while all other proposals of the Virginia Plan were debated and decided. The issue for the small States was that they would have no effective voice against the large States who could push through any proposal by reason of their larger representation. The issue for the large States was that they felt that they were entitle to a greater voice because they represented a larger number of citizens.
To deal with this contentious issue, the Connecticut Compromise was crafted by Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth and William Samuel Johnson. They proposed that the bicameral Congress be proportional in the lower chamber, satisfying the large States, and have equal representation with one vote per State in the upper chamber, satisfying the smaller States. This compromise was adopted with a slight variation in the final draft, where the upper chamber had each State represented by two Senators, each with one vote.
The end result of the Connecticut Compromise was a bicameral Congress where both We the People and the States had voice. We the People had voice in the House of Representatives, the Peoples House, individually through apportionment. While the several States had voice in the Senate, the States House, through the equal representation by two Senators with one vote each. The Senate thereby gave voice to We the People collectively, ensuring that the large States did not overpower the small States, and protected the vertical separation of powers granted by the Tenth Amendment between the Federal and State Governments.
Article I. Section 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Article I. Section 2. Clause 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, . . .
Article I. Section 3. Para 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years and each Senator shall have one Vote. [As written in 1787, prior to the 17th Amendment]
Tenth Amendment. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, our Constitutional Republic had been in existence for 112 years and the United States of America for 124 years. The Constitution with its “checks and balances” and horizontal and vertical separation of powers was still pretty much intact. We had been able to keep our republican form of government given us by the Founding Fathers and the Union had been preserved. We had grown from 13 to 45 States reaching “from sea to shining sea.” The executive branch of the government, from the administration of George Washington and the First Congress until the administration of Theodore Roosevelt and the 57th Congress, had only increased by two cabinet departments. During this 112 years both the spirit and the letter of our Constitution were followed. True the Civil War Amendments, thirteen through fifteen, had restricted some States “rights” because of the Emancipation Proclamation, but this was done to ensure equality of ALL citizens of our Constitutional Republic.
At the dawn of the Twentieth Century, a new political thought began to emerge in the world. A philosophy destined to destroy freedom and that would taint the world by genocide and enslavement. A philosophy of Totalitarianism built upon the Utopian thoughts of Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820 – 1895). In 1848 these two men combined their efforts in writing the Manifesto of the Communist Party.
If one were to choose three documents from history to illustrate the Founding Fathers understanding of the political spectrum, they might well choose: The Manifesto of the Communist Party, The Constitution of the United States, and the Articles of Confederation. The Manifesto representing tyranny with 100% government would be at the Left of the continuum. The Articles representing near anarchy with little more than 0% government would be at the Right end of the continuum. And in the middle, Our Constitution, apply described as just “Right of Center,” with around 50% government, a government of the people, by the people, for the people. A government of written law, a government where We the People are “the Rulers” and our elected Representatives are “our Servants.” A government known as Our Constitutional Republic!
Governments, by nature, tend to always drift toward tyranny. This is because it is the nature of man that when he gets a little power, as he may suppose, he wants more. We will now begin to investigate the effects of this peril, and its tendency, as it has affected our Constitution and the Constitutional Republic bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers. We will then understand why Benjamin Franklin said, “A Republic if you can keep it!”
Direct Election of Senators
Amendment XVII. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature . . .
Popular election of Senators has destroyed the vertical separation of powers [national, state, local, We the People] the Founders placed in the Constitution granting to the several States their equal voice in the Federal Government. Since the Senators are no longer elected [hired] by the States Legislatures to represent the States, they, the Senators, are not beholden to Legislatures and the Governor. They, like the Members of the House, are now beholden to We the People, who elected them.
“Thus the two Houses of Congress became alike, whereas the Constitutional Convention designed a House of the People and a House of the States. The House elected by the States to represent them in the Congress of their Union was destroyed. Two Houses now represent the people and none stands for the States.” [Norton, Thomas James. Undermining the Constitution: A History of Lawless Government. New York:The Devin-Adair Company, 1950]
The results of this amendment have been threefold. First, the States lost their right to be represented in the federal government. The States House became a second Peoples House. This principle of equal representation of the States, regardless of size or population, as stated above, was the most contentiously fought and debated issue at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Second, it has inflicted upon the several States a myriad of “unfunded federal mandates” coincident to the plethora of “social-justice” programs instituted by the federal government in violation of the Tenth Amendment. Third, it removed the ”check” on the federal government against redistribution of wealth between the several States. A “check” which had traditionally said that each State was responsible only for its own citizens and not for ALL of We the People.
Twice before 1913 the notion of the Senators being popularly elected was suggested. The first was in 1828 as a Constitutional Amendment. This attempt was defeated. During the Civil War and afterwards Reconstruction, the sovereignty of the several States began to be eroded in the minds of We the People. There was also a series of scandals where a number Senators were appointed by corrupt State Legislatures. As an example, Senator Joseph B. Foraker [R-Ohio] and Henry B. Payne [D-Ohio] were found to be in the pocket of Standard Oil. It should be remembered however that most Senators were honorable men trying to do their duty in representing the States. The second was during the administration of President Andrew Johnson who recommended it. This effort also failed because We the People were still to close to the thinking of the Founding Fathers. By the close of the Nineteenth Century and the 53rd Congress, the House of Representatives tried twice to have the Senators elected by popular vote. They tried again in the 55th, 56th and 57th Congresses but all these efforts died in the Senate. It was after this that the States began to conduct “straw polls” so that the voters could tell the Legislature whom to send to the Senate. “The final blow came in 1911 when the Chicago Tribune revealed that Senator William Lorimer [R-Ill] had literally purchased his appointment by wholesale bribery of the state assembly.” [Skousen, W. Cleon. The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, Third Edition. USA: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2007]
By 1912 as many as 29 States had some form of election to let the Legislatures know their preferences for United States Senators. This along with the Lorimer Scandal brought about the capitulation of the Senate and Amendment XVII was passed and sent to the States for ratification. The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified on 8 April 1913.
The adoption of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments in 1913 opened the door that has allowed our nation to move inexorably from a Constitutional Republic created by God through the Founding Fathers to a Democracy with all of its excesses leading toward Socialism. The effect of this federalism was to break two strong links in the “chains of the Constitution” which had bound the Federal Government and preserved the independence of We the People and the power of the States as guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment.
If We the People are to restore our Constitutional Republic to its former glory, we must repeal the 17th Amendment and give the States their voice back in the Congress. We must return to the practice of Senators being elected by the State Legislatures so they are beholden to the State Governors and Legislatures and not the special interests that currently get them elected.
Once again the wisdom of the Founding Fathers shines forth. There certainly were fewer Senators in the pockets of “special interests” before the Seventeenth Amendment than there are today. With the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment, the Senate would again have a vested interest in protecting the Tenth Amendment of our Constitution, and this would restore the vertical separation of powers given We the People by the Founding Fathers. Perhaps this could be done in a two-step process where We the People vote for two or three individuals as our choice for our Senator. The actual Senator would then be elected by the Legislature from these nominees, with the legislature having the power of “recall,” over the actual Senator sent to Washington. Such a move would surely seriously limit “unfunded mandates” upon the several States and restore to the States the authority of the Tenth Amendment:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Such an Amendment to replace the Seventeenth Amendment might take the following form:
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, nominated by the vote of the people thereof and subsequently chosen by the Legislature thereof and subject to recall by that Legislature, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies, by recall or any other reason, happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments, with the advice and consent of the legislature, until the people fill the vacancies by nominating Senators for subsequent election by the legislature.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
Or, we could just repeal the Seventeenth Amendment and go back to what the Founding Fathers gave us in Article I. Section 3. Para. 1. of our Constitution.
For 100 years, since 1913, our “enemies from within,” the Socialist-DINOs [Democrats In Name Only] and the progressives of both parties, have been patiently tending their socialistic Seeds of Destruction. They knew that if they openly declared their intent that they would fail because We the People would have risen up in righteous indignation over the destruction of our freedoms. So for 100 years they have been subtly leading us along down the primrose path of social-justice to the Welfare Socialist State and the destruction of our Constitutional Republic.
They have used every crisis to “water” their socialistic Seeds of Destruction. Under FDR’s New Deal, the seeds became seedlings. Under LBJ’s Great Society, the seedlings became saplings. Quietly, they have continued their evil intent inch by inch. Quietly, they have subverted the spirit and intent of our Constitution, bequeathed by our Founding Fathers, under the guise of taking care of the people. Until now, if We the People, as individuals and as a nation, are not careful under Obama the saplings will become trees, not trees of Liberty, but trees of Tyranny! The same kind of tyranny that caused our Founding Fathers to write the Declaration of Independence in 1776, not a tyranny of King George III and the English Parliament, but a tyranny of POTUS and the Congress.
Consider well whom you vote for this November 2012 for the preservation of our Constitutional Republic is being weighed in the balance. We the People need to elect Statesmen who will reverse our slide toward the Welfare Socialist State and restore our Constitutional Republic. Failing this, I fear that the “Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity” may be found wanting — “And that government of the people, by the people, for the people” shall perish from the earth!
May God Bless and Save the United States of America
Our Constitutional Republic !
