STATES RIGHTS
June 3, 2010 marks the 202nd birthday of Jefferson Davis, president of the nation Confederate States of America which existed only from 1861-1865. The new nation formed from 13 Southern states was complete with a Constitution, Postal Service, president, senate, congress and cabinet members. After the fall of the new nation the states that were members of the confederation were required to undergo formal procedures for readmission to the nation United States of America. If these Southern states had only been in rebellion and not out of the union a formal readmission would not have been required.
The principle for which the Confederate States contended was "States Rights" and the "Cause" was Southern Independence. In the spring of 1865 Confederate forces were forced to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources and States Rights was given a crushing blow and stigmatized by association with slavery. Former Confederate president Davis stated "The principle for which we contended is bound to reassert it's self, though it may be at another time and in another form". I think it is fair to say "The issue of States Rights has been thrust to the forefront of American politics". The election of a Socialist president and the appointment of a Socialist cabinet and Supreme Court member has brought forth the Tea Party Movement and various states have declared and reaffirmed State Sovereignty and are bringing law suits against the Federal Government. The modern States Right movement actually began during the Clinton administration.
The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states "The powers not delegated to the United States (Federal Government) by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or the people". Our founding fathers (primarily Southern gentlemen from Virginia) designed the American system of government in the form of a Constitutional Federal Republic composed of a Limited Federal Government and Sovereign States. It was intended that the Federal Government have minimum control or interference in our personal daily lives and business affairs. The founders did not have in mind a gigantic Federal bureaucracy but rather a Federal Government that would abide by the 10th amendment. The Federal Government was to be small, have limited powers, take care of national events, defend America's borders, maintain the national army, and manage foreign relations. The rest of the rights and responsibilities belonged to the States
and the People.
President James Madison stated" If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, take religion into their hands, appoint teachers in every state and pay them out of the public treasury, take education of children into their hands and establish schools throughout the Union, assume provision of the poor, undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads, in short everything from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police would be thrown under the power of Congress. It would subvert the very foundations of Limited Government established by the States and the People".
The greatest Statesman that the American Union has yet produced was John C. Calhoun (The man that Dougherty county's neighbor on the West side Calhoun county was named for) of South Carolina. He understood thoroughly the correct and proper operation of the Federal American Republic better than any American before and after including the Founding Fathers as he had the advantage of hindsight. In the 1840's he wrote "A Disquisition On Government" and "A Discourse On The Constitution And Government Of The United States". Yet he is the Cassandra of American Politics and his masterpieces are seldom read or taught in America's schools. You may recall that in Greek mythology that the Trojan princess Cassandra was given the power of prophecy by Apollo but with the condition that no one would believe her. Calhoun stated "The Constitution has admitted the jurisdiction of the United States within the limits of the several states only so far as the delegated powers authorize; beyond that they are intruders, and may rightfully be expelled". He is also quoted as saying "To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the American system must depend; unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally the will of the executive, by influence of it's patronage, will supersede the laws". Calhoun further stated "The error is in the assumption that the General (Federal) Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States formed the compact, acting as sovereign communities". Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that the U.S. Supreme court is the final authority of the "Law Of The Land". Not so. It is the States that were intended to hold the power to make the final determination as to whether a law is in the best interest of it's citizens.
The ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787 by the various states established a system of government whose operations and interactions were not and could not be wholly understood by the framers. Concerning the division of power between the General (Federal) government and the States, two groups formed: those who feared that the Federal government would absorb the powers reserved to the States (Anti-Federalists) and those who feared that the Reserved powers would absorb the Delegated powers (Federalists). The conflict that actually did emerge was different from that envisioned by the framers. A majority of states (Northern) captured the power of the Federal government and this combined power squared off against a minority of states (South). It was intended by the Founding Fathers (Framers of the Constitution) that the Federal Limited Constitutional government by virtue of it's structure and independent of the vices of it's office holders, was
to be a government of all members of the union without sectional prejudice.
If there is a single over-arching lesson to be learned from the American Civil War (War of Northern Aggression), it is that by 1860 the knowledge and skill in self-government was not to be found except in the Southern states. The failure of the bid of the Southern states for "States Rights" and "Independence" sealed the political fate of Americans for decades and perhaps permanently unless the "Current States Rights Movement" can reverse the usurpation of power by the Federal government. Abraham Lincoln is the father of the current Socialist American government. The defeat of the Southern armies involved the defeat of the existing impetus for liberty. Unequal to the moral and intellectual demands of a more complex constitutional order the American states were reduced to "glorified administrative districts submissive and answerable to a central imperial power in Washington DC." By a lethal combination of military and legislative warfare the people of the States were reduced from being citizens of a Constitutional Federal Republic to subjects of an empire.
Government cannot establish and guarantee liberty. Liberty can only be established and maintained by the skillful ongoing self-assertion of a people guided by insight and political knowledge. It is my opinion that only one candidate for Governor of Georgia has the necessary knowledge, skills, fortitude, and character to lead Georgia back to freedom from Federal tyranny. That man is Republican candidate Ray "States Rights" McBerry. He is winning in every debate statewide but the news media and current Republican leadership is trying to suppress his victories going so far as to ban him from a recent Atlanta debate. His political slogan is "Not Washington-Not Atlanta-But Georgia First".
James W. King
Past Commander
Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 141
Lt. Col. Thomas M. Nelson
Albany Georgia
229-436-0397
jkingantiquearms@bellsouth.net
The principle for which the Confederate States contended was "States Rights" and the "Cause" was Southern Independence. In the spring of 1865 Confederate forces were forced to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources and States Rights was given a crushing blow and stigmatized by association with slavery. Former Confederate president Davis stated "The principle for which we contended is bound to reassert it's self, though it may be at another time and in another form". I think it is fair to say "The issue of States Rights has been thrust to the forefront of American politics". The election of a Socialist president and the appointment of a Socialist cabinet and Supreme Court member has brought forth the Tea Party Movement and various states have declared and reaffirmed State Sovereignty and are bringing law suits against the Federal Government. The modern States Right movement actually began during the Clinton administration.
The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states "The powers not delegated to the United States (Federal Government) by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or the people". Our founding fathers (primarily Southern gentlemen from Virginia) designed the American system of government in the form of a Constitutional Federal Republic composed of a Limited Federal Government and Sovereign States. It was intended that the Federal Government have minimum control or interference in our personal daily lives and business affairs. The founders did not have in mind a gigantic Federal bureaucracy but rather a Federal Government that would abide by the 10th amendment. The Federal Government was to be small, have limited powers, take care of national events, defend America's borders, maintain the national army, and manage foreign relations. The rest of the rights and responsibilities belonged to the States
and the People.
President James Madison stated" If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, take religion into their hands, appoint teachers in every state and pay them out of the public treasury, take education of children into their hands and establish schools throughout the Union, assume provision of the poor, undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads, in short everything from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police would be thrown under the power of Congress. It would subvert the very foundations of Limited Government established by the States and the People".
The greatest Statesman that the American Union has yet produced was John C. Calhoun (The man that Dougherty county's neighbor on the West side Calhoun county was named for) of South Carolina. He understood thoroughly the correct and proper operation of the Federal American Republic better than any American before and after including the Founding Fathers as he had the advantage of hindsight. In the 1840's he wrote "A Disquisition On Government" and "A Discourse On The Constitution And Government Of The United States". Yet he is the Cassandra of American Politics and his masterpieces are seldom read or taught in America's schools. You may recall that in Greek mythology that the Trojan princess Cassandra was given the power of prophecy by Apollo but with the condition that no one would believe her. Calhoun stated "The Constitution has admitted the jurisdiction of the United States within the limits of the several states only so far as the delegated powers authorize; beyond that they are intruders, and may rightfully be expelled". He is also quoted as saying "To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the American system must depend; unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally the will of the executive, by influence of it's patronage, will supersede the laws". Calhoun further stated "The error is in the assumption that the General (Federal) Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States formed the compact, acting as sovereign communities". Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that the U.S. Supreme court is the final authority of the "Law Of The Land". Not so. It is the States that were intended to hold the power to make the final determination as to whether a law is in the best interest of it's citizens.
The ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787 by the various states established a system of government whose operations and interactions were not and could not be wholly understood by the framers. Concerning the division of power between the General (Federal) government and the States, two groups formed: those who feared that the Federal government would absorb the powers reserved to the States (Anti-Federalists) and those who feared that the Reserved powers would absorb the Delegated powers (Federalists). The conflict that actually did emerge was different from that envisioned by the framers. A majority of states (Northern) captured the power of the Federal government and this combined power squared off against a minority of states (South). It was intended by the Founding Fathers (Framers of the Constitution) that the Federal Limited Constitutional government by virtue of it's structure and independent of the vices of it's office holders, was
to be a government of all members of the union without sectional prejudice.
If there is a single over-arching lesson to be learned from the American Civil War (War of Northern Aggression), it is that by 1860 the knowledge and skill in self-government was not to be found except in the Southern states. The failure of the bid of the Southern states for "States Rights" and "Independence" sealed the political fate of Americans for decades and perhaps permanently unless the "Current States Rights Movement" can reverse the usurpation of power by the Federal government. Abraham Lincoln is the father of the current Socialist American government. The defeat of the Southern armies involved the defeat of the existing impetus for liberty. Unequal to the moral and intellectual demands of a more complex constitutional order the American states were reduced to "glorified administrative districts submissive and answerable to a central imperial power in Washington DC." By a lethal combination of military and legislative warfare the people of the States were reduced from being citizens of a Constitutional Federal Republic to subjects of an empire.
Government cannot establish and guarantee liberty. Liberty can only be established and maintained by the skillful ongoing self-assertion of a people guided by insight and political knowledge. It is my opinion that only one candidate for Governor of Georgia has the necessary knowledge, skills, fortitude, and character to lead Georgia back to freedom from Federal tyranny. That man is Republican candidate Ray "States Rights" McBerry. He is winning in every debate statewide but the news media and current Republican leadership is trying to suppress his victories going so far as to ban him from a recent Atlanta debate. His political slogan is "Not Washington-Not Atlanta-But Georgia First".
James W. King
Past Commander
Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 141
Lt. Col. Thomas M. Nelson
Albany Georgia
229-436-0397
jkingantiquearms@bellsouth.net
posted by Chuck Demastus at
10:54 AM
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