The United States Constitution Defended By An Oath

The United States Constitution Defended By An Oath

 

Constitution_We_the_People

When the US Constitution was written, signed and became the law of the land for the former British Colonies, now freshly created Americans, it came at a time when Britain was gaining more and more strength all over the world due to is empire building and colonization of countries far from England. America was one of these colonies that for sake of its people and a desire to rule itself as its own sovereign country started down a course that would forever change history as we know it.

Central to the break from England was the US Constitution that formed America and set her on the road of independent rule and self governance. The US Constitution was the most central and most important document ever created in the history of the United States and without it American would never exist.

What is the purpose of the Constitution of the United States of America?

The Preamble explains the purposes of the Constitution, and defines the powers of the new government as originating from the people of the United States. 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.

Who wrote the Constitution of the United States of America?

James Madison, also present, wrote the document that formed the model for the Constitution. Other U.S. Founding Fathers were not there, but made significant contributions in other ways. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, was serving as ambassador to France at the time of the Convention.

How long has the constitution been the supreme law of the land?

The constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 by a vote of 2/3 of the newly independent states. June 21, 1788 is when the U.S. Constitution became the law of the land. That makes is 220 years. Since it is December it’s more like 220 and a half years.

What are the amendments to the Constitution?

Thirty-three amendments to the United States Constitution have been proposed by the United States Congress and sent to the states for ratification since the Constitution was put into operation on March 4, 1789. Twenty-seven of these, having been ratified by the requisite number of states, are part of the Constitution.

When the men and women of the United States begin their entrance into the US Military they swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. This is an oath they keep for life!

Defend the Constitution

 

The US Constitution

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I (Article 1 – Legislative)
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.

Section 2
1: The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.2  The actualEnumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed onefor every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolinafive, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

4: When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

5: The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Section 3
1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof,3 forsix Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

2: Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of thesecond Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.4

3: No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

4: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

5: The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

6: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

7: Judgment in Cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Section 4
1: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusingSenators.

2: The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December,5 unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

Section 5
1: Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

2: Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with theConcurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

3: Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire ofone fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

4: Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section 6
1: The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.6 They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

2: No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section 7
1: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

2: Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

3: Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

Section 8
1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

13: To provide and maintain a Navy;

14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And

18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powersvested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section 9
1: The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

4: No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.7

5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

6: No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section 10
1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

2: No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

3: No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Article II (Article 2 – Executive)
Section 1
1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term offour Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows

2: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

3: The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.8

4: The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

6: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers andDuties of the said Office,9 the Same shall devolve on the VicePresident, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

7: The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any otherEmolument from the United States, or any of them.

8: Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Section 2
1: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

2: He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section 3
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section 4
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Article III (Article 3 – Judicial)
Section 1
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during goodBehaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

Section 2
1: The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;—between a State and Citizens of another State;10 —between Citizens of different States, —between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

2: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall haveappellateJurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

3: The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Section 3
1: 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.

2: The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

Article IV (Article 4 – States’ Relations)
Section 1
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section 2
1: The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

2: A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

3: No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.11

Section 3
1: New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within theJurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

2: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section 4
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

Article V (Article 5 – Mode of Amendment)
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures ofthree fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Article VI (Article 6 – Prior Debts, National Supremacy, Oaths of Office)
1: All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Article VII (Article 7 – Ratification)
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

The Word “the”, being interlined between the seventh and eight Lines of the first Page, The Word “Thirty” being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page. The Words “is tried” being interlined between the thirty second and thirty thirdLines of the first Page and the Word “the” being interlined between the forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.

 

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,
AttestWilliam JacksonSecretary
Go: Washington -Presidt. and deputy from Virginia
Delaware  Geo: Read
Gunning Bedford jun
John Dickinson
Richard Bassett
Jaco: Broom
Maryland  James McHenry
Dan of St   Thos. Jenifer
Danl Carroll.
Virginia  John Blair—
James Madison Jr.
North Carolina  Wm Blount
Richd. Dobbs Spaight.
Hu Williamson
South Carolina  J. Rutledge
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Pinckney
Pierce Butler.
Georgia  William Few
Abr Baldwin
New Hampshire  John Langdon
Nicholas Gilman
Massachusetts  Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King
Connecticut  Wm.   Saml. Johnson
Roger Sherman
New York  Alexander Hamilton
New Jersey  Wil. Livingston
David Brearley.
Wm. Paterson.
Jona: Dayton
Pennsylvania  B Franklin
Thomas Mifflin
Robt Morris
Geo. Clymer
Thos. FitzSimons
Jared Ingersoll
James Wilson.
Gouv Morris

Letter of Transmittal
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In Convention. Monday September 17th 1787.
Present
The States of
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Mr. Hamilton from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Resolved, That the preceeding Constitution be laid before the United States in Congress assembled, and that it is the Opinion of this Convention, that it should afterwards be submitted to a Convention of Delegates, chosen in each State by the People thereof, under the Recommendation of its Legislature, for their Assent and Ratification; and that each Convention assenting to, and ratifying the Same, should give Notice thereof to the United States in Congress assembled. Resolved, That it is the Opinion of this Convention, that as soon as the Conventions of nine States shall have ratified this Constitution, the United States in Congress assembled should fix a Day on which Electors should be appointed by the States which shall have ratified the same, and a Day on which the Electors should assemble to vote for the President, and the Time and Place for commencing Proceedings under this Constitution.
That after such Publication the Electors should be appointed, and the Senators and Representatives elected: That the Electors should meet on the Day fixed for the Election of the President, and should transmit their Votes certified, signed, sealed and directed, as the Constitution requires, to the Secretary of the United States in Congress assembled, that the Senators and Representatives should convene at the Time and Place assigned; that the Senators should appoint a President of the Senate, for the sole Purpose of receiving, opening and counting the Votes for President; and, that after he shall be chosen, the Congress, together with the President, should, without Delay, proceed to execute this Constitution.
By the unanimous Order of the Convention
W. Jackson  Secretary.
Go: Washington -Presidt.

Letter of Transmittal to the President of Congress
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In Convention.  Monday September 17th 1787.

SIR:

We have now the honor to submit to the consideration of the United States in Congress assembled, that Constitution which has appeared to us the most advisable.

The friends of our country have long seen and desired that the power of making war, peace, and treaties, that of levying money, and regulating commerce, and the correspondent executive and judicial authorities, should be fully and effectually vested in the General Government of the Union; but the impropriety of delegating such extensive trust to one body of men is evident: hence results the necessity of a different organization.

It is obviously impracticable in the Federal Government of these States to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as on the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those which may be preserved; and, on the present occasion, this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several States as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests.

In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety—perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude than might have been otherwise expected; and thus, the Constitution which we now present is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable.

That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every State is not, perhaps, to be expected; but each will, doubtless, consider, that had her interest alone been consulted, the consequences might have been particularly disagreeable or injurious to others; that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe; that it may promote the lasting welfare of that Country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish.

With great respect,
we have the honor to be,
SIR,
your excellency’s most obedient and humble servants:
GEORGE WASHINGTON, President.
By the unanimous order of the convention.

His Excellency
the President of Congress.
Amendments to the Constitution
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(The Preamble to The Bill of Rights)
Congress OF THE United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.12

(Articles I through X are known as the Bill of Rights)   ratified


Article the first. ….  After the first enumeration required by the first Article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which, the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.


Article the second. ….  No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened. see Amendment XXVII

Article [I] (Amendment 1 – Freedom of expression and religion) 13
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for aredress of grievances.

Article [II] (Amendment 2 – Bearing Arms)
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Article [III] (Amendment 3 – Quartering Soldiers)
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Article [IV] (Amendment 4 – Search and Seizure)
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article [V] (Amendment 5 – Rights of Persons)
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Article [VI] (Amendment 6 – Rights of Accused in Criminal Prosecutions)
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Article [VII] (Amendment 7 – Civil Trials)
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Article [VIII] (Amendment 8 – Further Guarantees in Criminal Cases)
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Article [IX] (Amendment 9 – Unenumerated Rights)
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article [X] (Amendment 10 – Reserved Powers)
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.

Attest,
John Beckley, Clerk of the House of Representatives.
Sam. A. Otis  Secretary of the Senate.

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg  Speaker of the House of Representatives.
John Adams, Vice-President of the United States, and President of the Senate.

(end of the Bill of Rights)[Article XI] (Amendment 11 – Suits Against States)
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.   ratified #11  affects 10

[Article XII] (Amendment 12 – Election of President)
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;—The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;—The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.14  —The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.  ratified #12   affects 8

Article XIII (Amendment 13 – Slavery and Involuntary Servitude)
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. affects 11

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.   ratified #13

Article XIV (Amendment 14 – Rights Guaranteed: Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection)
1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

2: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-oneyears of age,15  and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.   affects 2

3: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

4: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.   ratified #14

Article XV (Amendment 15 – Rights of Citizens to Vote)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.   ratified #15

Article XVI (Amendment 16 – Income Tax)
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionmentamong the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.   ratified #16    affects 2

[Article XVII] (Amendment 17 – Popular Election of Senators)
1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for sixyears; 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. affects 3

2: When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issuewrits of election to fill such vacancies:  Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. affects 4

3: 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.   ratified #17

Article [XVIII] (Amendment 18 – Prohibition of Intoxicating Liquors)16
1: After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

2: The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

3: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.   ratified #18

Article [XIX] (Amendment 19 – Women’s Suffrage Rights)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. affects 15

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.   ratified #19

Article [XX] (Amendment 20 – Terms of President, Vice President, Members of Congress: Presidential Vacancy)
1: The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.   affects 5

2: The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.   affects 5

3: If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.   affects 9    affects 14

4: The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.  affects 9

5: Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

6: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures ofthree-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.   ratified #20

Article [XXI] (Amendment 21 – Repeal of Eighteenth Amendment)
1: The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. affects 16

2: The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

3: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.   ratified #21

Amendment XXII (Amendment 22 – Presidential Tenure)
1: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

2: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures ofthree-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.    ratified #22

Amendment XXIII (Amendment 23 – Presidential Electors for the District of Columbia)
1: The District constituting the seat of government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a state, but in no event more than the least populous state; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the states, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a state; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

2: The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.   ratified #23

Amendment XXIV (Amendment 24 – Abolition of the Poll Tax Qualification in Federal Elections)
1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.   ratified #24

Amendment XXV  affects 9 (Amendment 25 – Presidential Vacancy, Disability, and Inability)
1: In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

2: Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

3: Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

4: Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, withintwenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.   ratified #25

Amendment XXVI (Amendment 26 – Reduction of Voting Age Qualification)
1: The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age. affects 15

2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.   ratified #26

Amendment XXVII (Amendment 27 – Congressional Pay Limitation)
No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.   ratified #27

Thomas Paine Brings Common Sense To The New Year

Thomas Paine Brings Common Sense To The New Year

As we ring in the New Year with resolutions of making changes to better ourselves this year, we can’t help but remind you to look to the past in order to not make the same mistakes in the future.

“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine

Our nation is in a constant state of turmoil with poverty at an all-time high, our soldiers at war, we have homelessness and those who are without food, we’re overweight and dependent on a medical industry that only benefits financially from our illnesses.

Like our founding fathers and the early settlers to America, we need to become more aware of what is happening to us as a whole. We may come from many parts of the worlds but we’ve all come together for a better life. Let us not do this blindly or without knowledge of how to get back to and maintain it.

If you don’t know who Thomas Paine is, get ready for a brief look into this early American Revolutionary individual who sought to remind early American settlers of the sacrifices made to attain sovereignty and freedom from England, and challenged British rule and the royal monarchy. He was an author, a radical, an inventor, an intellectual, a revolutionary and one of the founding fathers of our great nation.

[Tweet “Thomas Paine shares some “common sense””]

At a time when America was beginning to settle, it seemed like its people were retorting back to English ways, be it out of fear, ignorance, or both. Thomas Paine, wrote and published a pamphlet simply titled, “Common Sense” with the goal of rallying the American people to hold steadfast to their freedom they had long fought (and died) for.

Thomas_Pain_Common_Sense
Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense – 1776

What He Wrote Was “Common Sense”

What he wrote was in fact, just plain common sense. It called upon ALL CITIZENS to take responsibility for their lives, their nation, their people. Below is an excerpt of his work, addressing the origin and design of government in general with concise remarks on the English Constitution:

“Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto; the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him to quit his work, and every different want would call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune, would be death; for, though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die.

Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but Heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other: and this remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue.

Some convenient tree will afford them a State House, under the branches of which the whole Colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of Regulations and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man by natural right will have a seat.

But as the Colony encreases, the public concerns will encrease likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present. If the colony continue encreasing, it will become necessary to augment the number of representatives, and that the interest of every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number: and that the ELECTED might never form to themselves an interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often: because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this, (not on the unmeaning name of king,) depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.

Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, ’tis right.

I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered; and with this maxim in view I offer a few remarks on the so much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for the dark and slavish times in which it was erected, is granted. When the world was overrun with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of producing what it seems to promise is easily demonstrated.

Absolute governments, (tho’ the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their suffering springs; know likewise the remedy; and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures. But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies; some will say in one and some in another, and every political physician will advise a different medicine.

I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices, yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English Constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new Republican materials.

First. — The remains of Monarchical tyranny in the person of the King.

Secondly. — The remains of Aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the Peers.

Thirdly. — The new Republican materials, in the persons of the Commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England.

The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the People; wherefore in a CONSTITUTIONAL SENSE they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the State.

To say that the constitution of England is an UNION of three powers, reciprocally CHECKING each other, is farcical; either the words have no meaning, or they are flat contradictions.

First. — That the King it not to be trusted without being looked after; or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy.

Secondly. — That the Commons, by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the Crown.

But as the same constitution which gives the Commons a power to check the King by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the King a power to check the Commons, by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again supposes that the King is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!

There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of Monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the World, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless.

Some writers have explained the English constitution thus: the King, say they, is one, the people another; the Peers are a house in behalf of the King, the commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all the distinctions of a house divided against itself; and though the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined they appear idle and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the nicest construction that words are capable of, when applied to the description of something which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible to be within the compass of description, will be words of sound only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind: for this explanation includes a previous question, viz. HOW CAME THE KING BY A POWER WHICH THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID TO TRUST, AND ALWAYS OBLIGED TO CHECK? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither can any power, WHICH NEEDS CHECKING, be from God; yet the provision which the constitution makes supposes such a power to exist.

But the provision is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a Felo de se: for as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that will govern: and tho’ the others, or a part of them, may clog, or, as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet so long as they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual: The first moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed is supplied by time.

That the crown is this overbearing part in the English constitution needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole consequence merely from being the giver of places and pensions is self-evident; wherefore, though we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute Monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the Crown in possession of the key.

The prejudice of Englishmen, in favour of their own government, by King, Lords and Commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other countries: but the will of the king is as much the law of the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle — not more just.

Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favour of modes and forms, the plain truth is that IT IS WHOLLY OWING TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE, AND NOT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.

An inquiry into the CONSTITUTIONAL ERRORS in the English form of government, is at this time highly necessary; for as we are never in a proper condition of doing justice to others, while we continue under the influence of some leading partiality, so neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves while we remain fettered by any obstinate prejudice. And as a man who is attached to a prostitute is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.”

To read COMMON SENSE in its entirety, you can find it here.

thomas-paine-common-sense-statue

Read his other works: The Crisis, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason

He certainly was a radical and an intellectual. His writings are detailed and well thought out calling out “the people” to participate as a active equal members of society.

This new year brings with it the hope for change and betterment in our nation and it takes a strong, well informed people to make it happen. Look to the past to fair well in the future.

Why Don’t Americans Wear the Liberty Cap?

Why Don’t Americans Wear the Liberty Cap?

armyseal

Why Don’t Americans Wear the Liberty Cap? Learn to celebrate your independence from British Royalty and Banking tyranny by donning your “Liberty Cap”!  The identifiable symbol for many revolutions and was the key symbol in the US Army featured here.  It was prominently associated with rebellion.

This Christmas Santa Clause also Wears the Liberty Cap!

Good ol’ St Nick is also known for sporting a Red Liberty Cap.  The Original Santa Claus comes from the Siberian Shamans that use the Amenita Muscaria, a Large red fat mushroom with white polka dots.  During these periods of winter the shaman would bring these magic mushrooms to the snowed in Scandanavians.  Cabin fever was easily abated with the visions of gum drops dancing in their heads.

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Bill Murray donning the Red Liberty Cap in “Life Aquatic”

Its probable the French Revolutionaries got it from the American Revolutionaries who lead the revolt against the brutal military and banking tyranny of the British Empire and Vatican Hegemony.  In 1776, the Americans had had enough and in the ancient tradition of the Phyrgian Slaves donned Liberty Caps to represent the American Revolution with the British Royal Empire and The Holy Roman Empire!

This is a brimless, relaxed, cone shaped hat fitting the head.  Originally worn by the peoples of Phyrigia a region known as Anatolia in ancient history.  Today his region is called Asia Minor.  In 1593 Cesare Ripa wrote the book Iconologia recognizing these caps and there history.  The Phyrigian cap was worn by slaves of ancient Rome and Greece.  Later it was worn The Liberty Cap Seal of the US Senate.for ceremonial purposes.  The cap also played a part in the ceremony of the manumission slave.  Its connection to Asia Minor is tenuous.  The understanding is that the Phyrgian slaves who when freed ould again wear their traditional head wear.  Whichever it may be, the Phrygian cap was adopted and symbolised liberty to the libertarians during the Enlightenment.  The “Phrygian cap” , French for “bonnet Phrygian“,  is generally displayed as a red cap, “bonnet rouge” or Liberty Cap, “bonnet de la Liberte“.

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The Liberty Cap represents SOVEREIGNTY which means that nobody other than God is your RULER.  Sover (Super) in Latin means Above.  Reign is to Rule Over.  Or Above Rule.  Above any one else’s Ruler-ship or Monarchy.  In the American colonies the Liberty Cap was pervasive in promoting the the rebellion from Britain and birthing of a new nation under God and no other.  The Sons of Liberty in 1765 was the first annotation.  Later during the American Revolution some soldiers wore knitted red stocking caps with the occasional stitched words “LIBERTY” or “Liberty or Death” along the brim.  This style was imbued in the attire of “Jonathan” an allegorical figure of the New England tale.

Liberty Caps were generally atop a Liberty Pole during the American Revolutionary War as a symbol of Freedom.  Perhaps it was the “Dangling Carrot” ever chasing what is just out of our reach for it seems we have yet to achieve true Liberty from the evil doers of the British Royal Empire and their Banking Regime.  Many coins have the Liberty Cap positioned a loft a pole or hovering behind the head of Lady Liberty where the Limbic brain or the part of the Brain that processes the Care principle.  If we don’t care enough we will not stand up to the tyranny upon us!  On the right we also see it on the seal of the United States Senate supplanting the fasci in the center.  Very powerful symbology here.

Seal_of_New_York.svgA golden Liberty Cap appears on the seal of the State of New York the original capital of the United States of America.  The latin phrase beneath translates to “The Figure of Liberty Proper”.  Her hair is is unkempt and adorn with pearls, azure gown, sandals, cincture around the waist, fringed gules, a mantle of the last depending from the shoulders behind the feet, the dexter hand a staff adorned by a Phrygian Cap Or, a sinister arm holding and supporting the shield of the dexter chief point, a Royal Crown by her sinister foot rejected.

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A Liberty Cap also appears on the state flags of New Jersey and West Virginia.  It is predominant on the US Army Seal!  Also painted on many murals within the US Capital in Washington D.C. like the Apotheosis of George Washington and artifacts with the same for Benjamin Franklin.

liberty-cap-us-capital     Imacon Color Scanner

Life, Liberty And Pursuit Of All Who Threaten It Shirt

Life, Liberty And Pursuit Of All Who Threaten It Shirt

The figure here is detailed in the painting “Telegraph” in the US Senate by Constantine Brumidi personifying America wearing a Liberty Cap.  However the Liberty Cap is commonly associated with the revolution of the Americas from Great Britain it not shown worn.  Its either an isolated symbol or on top of a Liberty Pole or shaft.  The one here shows it colored as an American Flag.  Another shows it on a pole crossing a fasces.  This design is from an envelope during the American Civil War.  It was to be featured in the painting in the US Capital authorized in 1855 called the ‘Freedom triumphant in War and Peace” but was rejected by Jefferson Davis , then the Secretary of War, and demanded a Roman helmet be used in its place.

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The Liberty Caps around the world

La Liberté guidant le peupleDuring the American Revolution the only European country to aid was France.  The Liberty Cap was also used by the French Revolution that lead to teh beheading of the Royals!  I guess someone wanted some heads to roll;)  The French Revolutionary Army donned the Liberty Cap as seen here in this illustration of a Marienne.  It was documented in 1789 but hte cap became popular in the Spring of 1790.  It was worn by the Liberty Goddesses and Nation prior and became a part of the uniform of the sans-culottes.  King Louis XVI, on June 20th 1792, donned a Liberty Cap when pressed by a large crowd that had stormed the palace of Tuileries. Later the Liberty Cap was placed on the mitre of the fleeing Archbishop of Paris.

By 1793, members of the Assemblies of Paris were obligated to wear a Liberty Cap and accepted it as a national symbol placing it on the French Seal of the State of the Republic and to replace the Fleur-di-lis on milestones. The cap was definitely considered an important icon.  Here is a postcard with a large red Liberty Cap portrayed.  It is identified with more extreme revolutionaries and as been subdued during periods of stability when the French Government discouraged any uprising or disturbing the apple cart.  Under the Consulate regime the capped Liberty was replaced by a less provoking Minerva helmet as well as ALL public monuments.  Take a clue!

Pictured here is a painting called “La Liberte guidant le peuple” – Liberty Guiding the People, by Eugene Delacroix and is currently hanging in the Louvre in Paris.  Here Lady Liberty is brandishing the French tricolore Flag and wearing a red Phrygian Liberty Cap.  Inspired by the insurrection of July 1830 in Paris ending the last king of France, Charles X, forcing him to abdicate and was replaced with the “King of the French” Louis-Phillippe.

During the 2nd Republic, rebellions caused the provisory government to add a Liberty Cap on the white stripe of the French tricolore Flag in February 1848.  Then the cap disappeared again from the flag and the seal then was reestablished as a national symbol during the 3rd Republic.

The liberty cap continues to be worn by Marianne, the female illustration of the French Republic; however solely generally. Her bust, that adorns town halls of France, generally sports a rather less revolutionary jeweled headdress. She wears a awfully discreet cap on the new French brand shown higher than.

       The French National Motto              

100 Franc coin of 1989. Note the Phrygian cap as well as the motto.

A cap is visible on the 1989 one hundred monetary unit coin shown on the proper. till 2002 the cap appeared, in conjunction with the Cross of French region, on the brand of a rightist French organisation referred to as Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), the neo-Gaullist party of Jacques Chirac. the brand isn’t any longer used, maybe attributable to the pardonable tendency to ascertain it as as a unshapely parrot. (The parot’s “eye” is truly a blue, white and red decoration.)

Other Countries

Elsewhere, the Liberty cap was incorporated into the image of the late eighteenth century Irish revolutionary movement called the Society of the United Irishmen. It additionally carried over to occupant revolutions of the decennium. The cap appeared on Mexican coins through the late nineteenth century into the middle twentieth century (including the previous eight Reales coin). Today, it’s featured of the coats of arms, national flags or seals of Central American country, Central American country, Colombia, Republic of Paraguay and Cuba. In Argentina it seems not solely on the national arms and flag, however additionally those of the military and navy, on presidential flags and therefore the flags of provinces together with Corrientes, Jujuy, Mendoza and urban center. As within the US, the cap invariably appears to feature on high of a stick, instead of people’s heads.

The Phrygian Cap before it became a Liberty Cap

Before the Phrygian cap came to symbolise freedom or revolutionary fervour, it had another message within the west. it had been an emblem related to the east. so it appears to own been worn by arange of peoples within the Balkans and peninsula. Macedonian, Thracian, and Dacian military helmets all had forward inform tiptop maybe mimicking Phrygian caps.

        

The Phrygian cap may be seen on Trajan’s Column, worn by the Dacians, and on the Arch of Septimius Severus, worn by the Parthians. Roman poets routinely used the term “Phrygian” to mean Trojan. In Greek art, the Phrygian cap served to spot Paris as a Trojan – and then positively not a correct Greek. The mosaic on the correct shows mythical being sporting a Phrygian hat. The cap additionally seems on murals in an exceedingly fourth century Thracian topographic point at Kazanlak in fashionable Bulgaria.

The Phrygian cap was worn by the god Mithras – shown on the correct. He was a Saviour god within the adherent Persian tradition supported the Zoroastrian faith.Mithras was a forerunner of the Saviour-god Hebrew United Nations agency borrowed Mithras’s halo, his birthday and his temple on the Vatican Hill in Rome, however not his Phrygian hat. identical headgear conjointly options on the heads of the 3 Magi in previous depictions of them – marking them as being from the east, like this depiction (above left) from a church in pitched battle. The name Magi denotes Zoroastrian clergymen from Persia.

Liberty Cap Mountain Peak

Liberty Cap is a granite dome in Yosemite parkland, California, USA that lies at the northwestern margin of the Yosemite park. It lies adjacent, to the north of American State Fall,  on the naturalist path. It rises 1,700 feet (520 m) feet from the bottom of American state Fall to a peak elevation of 7,080 ft (2,158 m). A smaller, mesa-like dome referred to as Mount Broderick stands forthwith adjacent to cap.

Liberty Cap in Coins

Liberty Cap – Head Facing Left (1793)

Circulated

Uncirculated

Liberty Cap – Large Head Right Facing (1794)

Circulated

Uncirculated

Liberty Cap – Sm. Head Right Facing (1795-1797)

Circulated

Uncirculated

American Legend Paul Bunyan wore the Red Liberty Cap representing the freedom of the new frontier!

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US Congress Officially Changes America’s Name

US Congress Officially Changes America’s Name

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US Congress Officially Changes America’s Name

The Bone Heads did it again!

US Congress Officially Changes America’s Name.  Just what exactly is Congress doing again? Did anyone catch this in the New York Times, Washington Post or La Times? Hell no! We missed this highly eventful yet secretive push by Congress to change America’s name. In a dark, recessed cove in the hallways of American politics the government reached a unanimous decision to change America’s name!

Wanna know why you didn’t catch it? Cause you weren’t even born yet!

So while we are on the subject of changing names and declaring our sovereignty away from Great Britain let’s remember we are free, we are sovereign and no outside dictator, king, parliament, or authority shall take our freedoms away again and whether we prefer to call ourselves United States citizens or Americans we are still born free till the day we die!

 

So what is all this hullabaloo?

In 1776 Congress Did What?

The term “United States” was adopted by the second Continental Congress to be used instead of the “United Colonies.” Ah. Ok. Now I get it.

So what other decisions over the years has baffled the American public? Congress and state legislators have been cooking up laws to this day are amazing if not borderline crazy. I would diagnose most of them as recovering from PTSD but I wouldn’t rank them as high or even close to the level of integrity our men and women in uniform have. So lets see what these carpetbaggers have concocted in our states over the years! One s

 

In 2013 Congress Did What?

615_Apple_iPhone_Flag_Apple_Reuters

When did we decide that we wanted a law that could make unlocking your smartphone a criminal offense? The answer is that we never really decided.”

(Source: The Atlantic.Com)

Liberty caps

Now Let’s Look At More of the Craziest Laws beset upon the American public across our great land. Here a few good ones!

Alabama –

 

If an animal control officer is in uniform, it signifies to the public that he is an animal control officer.

 

It is illegal for a husband to beat his wife with a stick larger in diameter than his thumb.

 

Alaska –

 

Persons may not live in a trailer as it is being hauled across the city.

 

It is illegal to string a wire across any road.

 

No one may tie their pet dog to the roof of a car.

 

Arizona –

 

It is illegal for anyone over the age of 18 to have less than one missing tooth visible when smiling.

 

Arkansas –

 

No one may “suddenly start or stop their car at a McDonald’s.

 

California –

 

It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time.

 

Florida –

 

No one may bring a pig with them to a theater.

 

Citizens may not be caught downtown without at least 10 dollars on their person.

 

It is illegal to eat cottage cheese on Sunday after 6:00 P.M.

 

Chickens are considered a ‘protected species’.

 

Georgia –

 

The flooring of adult bookstores and video stores must be nonabsorbant and smooth textured.

 

Illinois –

 

Basketball hoops may not be installed on a driveway.

 

It is against the law to use a slingshot unless you are a law enforcement officer.

 

There is a $1,000 dollar fine for beating rats with baseball bats.

 

Maine –

 

It is illegal to bite a landlord under any circumstances.

 

Michigan –

 

Alligators may not be tied to fire hydrants.

 

Oregon –

 

In Oregon, a dead person cannot be required to serve on a jury.

 

Rhode Island –

 

Unmarried people are prohibited from having sex.

 

The list can go on and on and this is only the tip of the ice berg. In session alone Congress spent days deliberating on the condition that the United States call yogurt its official snack. American taxpayers flipped the bill paying for our elected leaders time as they discussed this in Congress.

 

Stupid Laws as Seen on Youtube!

 

So what do we know?

The 1st Amendment (A Great Law) is still the law of the land.

The 2nd Amendments (A Great Law) is still the law of the land no matter how screwed up Congress is trying to take away our God given rights.

This helps us to identify who we are as a people, that we are sovereign, free and we will not allow anyone to take this away.

 

American Sovereignty
Dont Tread on Me with Vision Strike Wear

Dont Tread on Me with Vision Strike Wear

Dont Tread on Me with Vision Strike Wear

Dont Tread on Me with Vision Strike Wear , we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk.

VSW artist Frost Call lives in southern California near Edwards Air Force base.  On a hike this weekend, a Rattlesnake decided to get a little too close to his family and he took care of it…. with a shovel!

Photo

RHWA031_Dont-tread-On-me

Frost Call is the designer of the SOVEREIGN shirt that he is wearing in the photo. If you want to check it out, click on the image below.

“Don’t Tread on Me” or you will get a what for!

Top 5 Kick Ass US Military Memes on the web

Top 5 Kick Ass US Military Memes on the web

Top 5 Kick Ass US Military Memes on the web

Top 5 Kick Ass US Military Memes on the web . How many millions of military memes have been there over the years that feature a witty statement or an over-used a quote?

1,901,756,301

How do we know this? We don’t… but it must be a really big number!

Here is the Top 5 military memes for your viewing enjoyment and we predict that at least one of them has made your list at one time or another.

5. There comes a time when a man must spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

sex

4. Those who say that we’re in a time when there are not heroes, they just don’t know where to look.

Military brothers

3. When it was cool to burn draft card, there were still men who remained loyal to their country. 

Vietnam Veterans

2. From deep within Neptune’s blue

The voices carry of the fallen true

“Cross the lines, conquer your dread

Or join the ranks of Davy Jones’ dead

Davey Jones

1. Lord, make me fast and accurate.

Let my aim be true and my hand faster than those who would seek to destroy me. Grant me victory over my foes and those that wish to do harm to me and mine. Let not my last thought be “If only I had my gun”; and Lord if today is truly the day that You call me home, let me die in a pile of brass.

Let me die in a pile of brass.

We Will Never Forget Coin

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