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Affluent Christian Investor | September 21, 2023

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Authority Is Supposed To Flow From God, To The People, To The States, To The Feds

United States Capitol building, Washington D.C.
(Photo by Cliff) (CC BY) (Resized/Cropped)

America is not a nation-state, but rather a Confederacy, where the people are the sovereigns with God as the Authority.  The States also have authority over the Federal government of the Confederacy.   This understanding was recognized during the State ratifying conventions of the Constitution.  Patrick Henry acknowledges this, as did other Founding Fathers like Melancton Smith stating that “a more dangerous extreme – to remove all barriers, to give the new government free access to our pockets, and ample command of our persons.”[1]  While Elbridge Gerry at the Philadelphia convention warned, “some of the powers of the legislature are ambiguous, and others are indefinite and dangerous.”[2]  Even James Madison expressed the absolute limitation at the Virginia convention, stating, “[T]he powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction.”[3]  Limited authority – period, no exceptions.

Unfortunately by 1912, historian and attorney, William Watkins, Jr. discloses that Americans “were forgetting the importance of federalism in the American system of government.”  Tragically, at the expense of our liberty, Dr. Watkins explains, “Every problem is now seen as a national problem requiring a national solution.”[4]  This change in understanding and worldview on the part of our citizens has become our bane.

During the debates between the original constitution, the Articles of Confederation, and the proposed new constitution, many of our Founding Fathers prophesized of the coming tyranny.  They warned of the potential significant shift in power between the State governments and the general (federal) government.  Their prophecy would come to pass, and at the expense of the ultimate authority clearly delineated in the Declaration.  God holds all authority, and His Laws are the authority.  In 1787 Brutus would write “For every man, rulers as well as others, are bound by the immutable laws of God and reason, always to will what is right.”[5]  With this incontrovertible foundation Brutus would prophesize that:

There is no way, therefore, of avoiding the destruction of the state governments, whenever the Congress please to do it, unless the people rise up, and with a strong hand, resist and prevent the execution of constitutional laws.  The fear of this will, it is presumed, restrain the general government for some time, within proper bounds; but it will not be many years before they will have the revenue, and force, at their command, which will place them above any apprehensions on that score…[and how the federal government] may operate to dissolve the state governments, and oppress the people, it is impossible to say.[6]

Over the past century Brutus’s prophecy has been fulfilled.  The States are utterly subservient to the massive and oppressive Federal government.  Brutus’s argument in Anti Federalist No. 33 was centered around taxes and revenue; that is, the power of the federal government will rise was it commandeers great power from taxation and will overwhelm the State governments and State power.  The 9th and 10th Amendments be damned!  The State governments beg and plead for funds from their own citizens which the all-powerful federal government confiscates from their people to divvy up as it see fits.  This violates the Compact; this violates the sovereignty of We the People; the Sovereign Children of God.  It violates God’s Law.

Perhaps, at the time of this writing, many of the Children of God have begun to hear their Father in Heaven and see His Light.  The rise of national populism that has been festering for a number of decades; first mentioned by President John F. Kennedy, then as the forefront of his rhetoric by President Ronald Reagan.  Though these men were not perfect, they did understand and submit to the call of their Heavenly Father on behalf of the American Confederation.   This rise of the current movement was initiated by these two leaders – not only leaders from the holding of the office in the Executive Branch, but leaders from their perspective of God the Father and Christ’s kingship of the American City; the Shining City Upon the Hill.  The love and pride of country has pushed populism forward in ways completely unpredicted by most, and spanned a strong movement to call a Convention of States.  May we pray that the Children will continue to listen for the call of their Father, and King.

[1] Jonathan Elliot, 1827, The Debates in the Several States Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 2, (Indianapolis, IN: The Liberty Fund, Inc.), p. 250, [http://lf-oll.s3.amazonaws.com/titles/1906/1314.02_Bk.pdf].  Also referenced in William J. Watkins, Jr., 2008 (originally published in 2004), Reclaiming the American Revolution:  The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and their Legacy, (The Independent Institute, Palgrave Macmillan:  Oakland, CA, New York, NY), p. 62.

[2] Jonathan Elliot, 1827, The Debates in the Several States Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 1, (Indianapolis, IN: The Liberty Fund, Inc.), p. 493, [http://lf-oll.s3.amazonaws.com/titles/1905/1314.01_Bk.pdf].  Also referenced in William J. Watkins, Jr., 2008 (originally published in 2004), Reclaiming the American Revolution:  The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and their Legacy, (The Independent Institute, Palgrave Macmillan:  Oakland, CA, New York, NY), p. 62.

[3] Jonathan Elliot, 1827, The Debates in the Several States Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 3, (Indianapolis, IN: The Liberty Fund, Inc.), p. 95, [http://lf-oll.s3.amazonaws.com/titles/1907/1314.03_Bk.pdf].  Also referenced in William J. Watkins, Jr., 2008 (originally published in 2004), Reclaiming the American Revolution:  The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and their Legacy, (The Independent Institute, Palgrave Macmillan:  Oakland, CA, New York, NY), p. 62.

[4] William J. Watkins, Jr., 2008 (originally published in 2004), Reclaiming the American Revolution:  The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and their Legacy, (The Independent Institute, Palgrave Macmillan:  Oakland, CA, New York, NY), p. 122 and p. 123.

[5] Antifederalist Paper No. 33, Brutus (Robert Yates), December 27, 1887, Taken from Patrick Henry, Robert Yates, and Samuel Byron, The Anti Federalist Papers, 2010 (originally published 1787-1790), “, (Lexington, KY:  Pacific Publishing Studios), p. 64.

[6] Antifederalist Paper No. 33, Brutus (Robert Yates), December 27, 1887, Taken from Patrick Henry, Robert Yates, and Samuel Byron, The Anti Federalist Papers, 2010 (originally published 1787-1790), “, (Lexington, KY:  Pacific Publishing Studios), p. 62.

 

 

Originally published on Townhall Finance.

 

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