Article V Convention Of The States
Patriots & Friends,
On March 6th, 2017 Take Back Kentucky sent out an email alert reference a bill that was brought up to invoke the Article V powers of a Convention of the States. We would like to thank the house leadership for their wisdom in only bringing this bill up for discussion. Not consideration as our email stated. How this bill and others continues to make its way out of the word processors of legislators is quite concerning and needs to be addressed in a little more detail.
Constitution for the United States Article V
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 of three 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.
The genius inherit in the United States Constitution was not serendipitous happenstance or without past failures. Recorded history has numerous verified experiments in governance. Not to mention the un recorded human societies. Authors and architects of the US Constitution were scholars of ancient and contemporary history. They were ardent followers of Christ with a profound grasp of the laws of economics, nature and nature’s god. The moral philosophies of the ages from the Greeks & Hebrews to the lessons of the Covenanter’s & Huguenots, made their way into our founding documents. It is true, the dissolving of political bonds that bind from time to time is in order. Especially if those bonds do not cultivate or espouse liberty for the smallest minority, the individual. However, contemporary calls for opening Article V through a convention would be encumbered by the spirit of fear and intolerance for the individual. The current political atmosphere seems more interested in security than liberty. The immortal words of American patriot Samuel Adams ring true to this day:
“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animated contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
Samuel Adams was not at the 1787 constitutional convention. Which was at the time, a similar product of the Articles of Confederation. Samuel Adams considered the convention to be a power grab by the political class to centralize governance and seize levers of power. Imagine that? One of our greatest patriots refusing to take place in an Article V like convention. Samuel Adams did eventually get appointed to the delegation from Massachusetts who pragmatically voted to adopt the US Constitution after a Bill of Rights was attached. What is important though, is to pay heed his cautionary warnings of the centralization of power. Regardless of time or epoch.
“The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.”
Alas, the patriots of the days of yore are gone. So are patriots that bled and held each other’s guts in their hands on beaches all over the world. Patriots who died swearing an oath to our current, albeit imperfect, functioning governing document. A document responsible for the simultaneous creation of more wealth and prosperity than any time in history. A document that has been twisted with Article V in many key inflection points from 1789 to our current day in age. Different points in time that have laid the tracks and switching stations towards a socialist police state we are paying for. Chief among these would be after the war of Federal aggression and the nationalization of Citizenship through the 14th Amendment. Erstwhile non-existent US citizens being a product of Article V and gave not received Federal mandates. The 16th amendment that created our beloved progressive income tax is a product of Article V. Creating a crime for exchanging one’s labor for currency. An exchange without “gain”. The removal of States’ suffrage in the Senate through the 17th Amendment is a product of Article V. A direct contravention to Article 1 Section 3. The fruits of these changes are astoundingly pernicious to individual liberty and states’ rights. If our current state of affairs were explained to the founding fathers, they would have certainly created different safe guards. In their brilliant attempt at creating these “new guards for their future security”, we have the above mentioned Article V. A process by which posterity could change or alter the supreme law of the land. Another clever element to our unique experiment of a country of sovereigns without subjects. These men pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honors in divorcing the dead hand of the state from the economy. Eighteenth century polity was replete with men of conscience, salt, light and republican spirited governance.
We at Take Back Kentucky are of the opinion that current politicians do not even have the political courage or conviction to be rid of our illegal enumeration schemes, illegal monetized debt, illegal central bank, illegal tender laws, illegal health care, illegal asset forfeiture, illegal UN entanglements, or even illegal foreign warfare and summary executions. We of course encourage the spirit of change and the continuing evolution of Justice, the Guardian of Liberty. The problems we all face, we face together as Citizens and taxpayers. The current tools and case law we have is not perfect. Perfection cannot be created by imperfect beings. The concern we and other conservative factions in Kentucky have is that any type of cracking open of our founding documents would only lead to more politicization of the economy and more centralization of power in the hands of fewer people. There are veterans in the Robley Rex and Lexington VAMC who bled on the ground fighting for our current constitutional self determination. Self determination and wisdom that need not be cast away for whimsical fantasies of having the government fix all of our problems by it’s decrees.