Thursday, November 10, 2011

Ratifying the Constitution Kicking and Screaming

Do you know people who really revere the Constitution? People who believe most of our current problems are due to not following the Constitution? People who say everything would be fine, if only the country would follow the Constitution?

If so, then you may want to show them Carl’s article In Issue 30 of The Voluntaryist, “To All Patriots and Constitutionalists: Some Critical Considerations on the United States Constitution.”

In this article Carl asks questions and makes several points about the Constitution in an effort to determine whether it actually holds any valid authority.

One of the more interesting tidbits of history I learned is that Carl says Pennsylvania did not have a quorum for a ratifying convention. When I did some searching to find out more about that I discovered that apparently supporters dragged Anti-federalists to the statehouse to get that quorum!

I knew the Constitution was controversial at the time, but I wasn’t aware that it actually came down to such literal knock-down drag-out battles.

It's interesting to hear such reverence about it now, considering how many people must have not been very hot to replace the Articles of Confederation.

Show this to the constitutionalists you know. Perhaps it will start something – I mean in terms of an interesting discussion of course, and not a knock-down drag-out.

2 comments:

MamaLiberty said...

The Articles of Confederation were no more a valid "authority" than the subsequent Constitution. Neither of them had any provision for those who objected to opt out, of course, and the stage was set for every single theft, murder and abuse we enjoy today.

Those who set up and saw the "revolution" through were not so much interested in liberty and justice for all... but to take the power to tax and spend away from the British and give it to themselves. Some had other ideas, of course, but that was the bottom line.

Whenever some people are given power over other people against their will, tyranny is the inevitable result... no matter what you call it.

Bob Robertson said...

I can suggest "Hamilton's Curse" by Tom DiLorenzo, he highlights some of the events and motivations around the Constitution that history has tried to hide.

One of the more interesting aspects is that, although there were many at the convention and subsequent ratification who had signed the Declaration of Independence, a large number of them refused to sign on to the Constitution.