Time For A Continental Convention

WARNING: Do not break the law before, during, or after reading anything I mention.


Citizens of the United States of America:



I seek great comfort and safety in your practical wisdom, enduring patriotism, enlightened judgment, firm assistance, and approbation, which have set glorious examples for humanity. American citizens, I humbly request that we bound ourselves more tightly with the precious fabric of liberty.  As citizens of a free and independent Republic, we should assemble our various talents in a Continental Convention of States, with a primary objective to enhance our bond as proprietors of government; to identify and regulate our governing excesses and deficiencies; to address any material imperfections with practical applications according to our national security and general welfare; to reasonably correct the boundaries of federal power, following past, present, and future constructions, determined by the legitimate voice of United States citizens, guided by prudent motives, represented in a Continental Convention of States.

 

Americans certainly possess the structural framework, constitutional authority, moral obligation, and patriotic necessity, and popular legitimacy, not to mention the civic responsibility, to determine the appropriate level of governance we find most conducive to protect life, liberty, property, which enables each of us to pursue domestic tranquility. These are the everlasting pillars of our republican structure, where freedom must continue to dwell, as it has for more than two centuries, in order to touch the souls of future Americans, the innocent unborn mouths yet to draw a breath in freedom. 

 

We can actively participate, as special agents of society’s governing machine, in providing the necessary fuel to invigorate liberty’s flourishing flame, so we can gladly share its warm blessings, and happily partake in its solemn duties, before neglect diminishes its glowing embers.  American citizens need to take a long hard look at the governing structure we possess, most particularly our federal arrangement.  We need to breathe fresh air into smoldering cinders, nursing a flickering flame back to a suitable light that shines bright in the eyes of humanity, giving warmth and security to all of us.

 

To assemble in a Continental Convention of States is a worthy cause. The premise rests firmly on the ancient privileges and immunities we inherited from our ancestors, who procured, secured, and extended them for us with their precious blood and valuable treasure. Now we are the beneficiaries of those inherited rights, the sacred tokens of Liberty, granted to our ancestors by a Provident Benefactor.  It is up to us, citizens of the United States, the proprietors of a Republic, to ensure that liberty’s blessed treasures are safe, and continue to thrive well into futurity, where our actions today contribute to the general welfare of those tomorrow.  Every American must reverently relish the awesome responsibility bestowed on each citizen.  We must be very jealous of the important rights in our possession.  This inherent craving to keep Liberty is necessary, so that any time the slightest intemperate designs, whether well intentioned or unintended, make unusual advances on Liberty, it will arouse the sentiments of the people, inducing them to correct the deviations, according to their constitution and the general welfare of all people.  

 

The founding generation, all very human, and just as imperfect as our own generation, put this constitutional experiment in republican government in place expecting posterity would continue to improve upon what they initiated, which, for the most part, we did improve, making sure not to denigrate our most cherished principles, or sacrifice our sacred civic responsibilities, in order to make the necessary and proper refinements justified by time and circumstance.  This Republic’s hull weathered numerous tumultuous waves on a wondrous journey of self-government.  The American system has undergone several alterations.  Indeed, America’s foundation will remain strong, and possibly even reinforced, over time, as American citizens realign the parameters of public power and discretionary authority. 

 

In order to protect our governing structure, follow the glorious examples and proven principles the founding generation set for humanity.  Their laborious struggle to capture liberty over two centuries earlier is now our task to keep it constitutionally stable and legitimately secure.  We, too, can draw on the aggregate wisdom of our diverse nation, assemble from time to time – and now that time may be approaching - to provide a sober assessment of our current circumstances regarding the national security, general welfare, and federal power and authority.  There are very wise and temperate citizens that will surely step up and help steer freedom’s noble vessel, named America, solidly, and assuredly, into the twenty-first century.

 

It is not a leap in the dark to attempt such a national feat; rather, it is quite the opposite.  It is always noble and honorable to advance toward liberty’s brilliant light.  If we open destiny’s door a bit wider we will see truth and justice flourish, where warm currents of domestic tranquility reside, forever nourishing the liberties we hold so dear in our hearts and minds.  I certainly have faith that the future will afford many opportunities for us and posterity to determine what is conducive to the security and welfare of our nation, so long as a reverence for law and justice exist, supported by a merciful foundation of republican principles, and guided by our great written charters of freedom.

 

It is not a subversive sentiment to suggest a need for a Continental Convention of States.  Throwing such a serious proposition around to evoke certain reactions, actually impede sober discussion.  However, even though a Convention of States may seem awkward, difficult, unnecessary, extreme, radical, idealistic, and altogether dangerous, by no means diminishes the constitutional legitimacy, or public authority, as free citizens in America, to avail ourselves, lawfully, of national, state, and local governments to accomplish our task of maintaining Liberty.  Once again, we must do as our ancestors have done on numerous occasions; use our federal, state, and local governing apparatus to advance a republican agenda.  We simply need to extend more confidence through the legal and moral operation of our governing institutions, ardently propping up our national Republic with faithful and honest labors to reform the artificial bureaucratic barriers and obstructive parochial interests hindering our political tranquility.

 

Humanity has not yet devised a perfect governing system.  Nor will one ever be created that can ease every social distemper.  This should not deter any American citizen, or human being for that matter, from realistically striving for periodic improvements and refinements of governing arrangements and ourselves.  No one should ever arrogantly assume that legislative vehicles, erected by public servants, could sufficiently remedy natural human frailties.  No one should ever erect governing impediments to that natural human desire of wanting more freedom and security for our families, liberty’s friends, and ourselves.

 

A Convention of States is the final constitutional trail left for us as free citizens to correct any governing imbalances that manifests.  Pioneers of freedom blazed a path for us and marked it two-hundred twenty-five years ago.  Have we completely forgotten about the trail?  Did we ever really know it was there?  Can it be that we do not understand its practical significance?  In fact, numerous obstacles impede the trail, as there should be, as long as they are honest.  The patriots who first walked down liberty’s path expected posterity would continue the journey, pressing forward, carefully maintaining the confines along the way. The true barometer of our national character is the extent to which our republican institutions balance liberty, security, power, and authority while forging ahead on our common path to glory with an honest and proper civic administration.

 

It is time to mend the fences of constitutional boundaries, and keep the rapidly expansive parameters of public power and discretion from dangerous advancements on liberty’s precarious terrain.  To accomplish a well proportioned, and sufficiently balanced, governing arrangement is nearly impossible given the diverse human interests of a largely free and independent population, a situation particularly unique in the world.  Americans are certainly not ignorant of their precious rights, and do not solely rely on popular media venues to think for them, but all of us must be jealous of the rights we possess.  American citizens will not let this national Republic transform itself into anything other than a Republican form of government.  It shall perpetually exist in a Union of Republican Governments, bound by a representative will to secure its most prized liberties, not ravaged by perverse political innovations.

 

A Convention of States is a legitimate legal vehicle, and a proven popular forum in line with republican principles and precedent, that is recognizable to those taking close notice.  Still, there are too many, though, that do not fully understand, or do not take seriously enough, the immediate controlling influence they possess as American citizens.  Our long established constitutional principles survive.  Long after our generation, there will be another in the future.  They will either greatly remember our best accomplishments, or somberly try to forget our worst accomplishments.  At any point Americans see it proper to extend ourselves directly into the governing process, we should utilize the constitutional mechanisms we currently possess as a free people to arrive at a national understanding.  We need a thorough reflection through mature public deliberation and sober discovery, about the essence of our current situation as a free and independent government of the world, and make sure the spirit of Liberty inhabits the souls of humanity’s future generations.  As proprietors of this Republic, the owners of a vast continent of private and public resources, we give our consent, and assent, to have representatives act on our behalf.  This is the best human invention, so far, to protect the remaining rights we retain as free citizens of a Republic.

 

Self-governance is the most blessed token of liberty and a gracious treasure to keep.  It is the strongest inducement for the righteousness of the endeavor now set before us.  It should not be disturbing to let a distinct group of admired citizens, legally and freely chosen by their fellow citizens, to gather in a Continental Convention of States, with the sole purpose of proposing any amendments deemed necessary that would protect and extend our rights.  We now have five-hundred thirty-five popularly elected servants in Congress, and if they are not receptive enough to legitimate grievances, then even the prospect of a Continental Convention of States might induce Congress into proper action.  If not for us, then let us embark on this grand journey for posterity.  Let us maintain liberty’s trail so it can remain unobstructed, or at least make a solemn national gesture capable of moving Congress in the right direction. 

 

Our generation must realize that it is up to us, today, and every day hereafter, to make sure the freedoms we inherited never devalue by the erosion of morals, action, and time.  Let liberty imbue an honest zeal and civic pride into every heart of the American people, to actively pilot freedoms vessel on a safe course, and take care of its precious cargo, so there can be peace and harmony for future generations that take over the helm.  All patriotic navigators of Liberty’s flame must prudently transport it to the next generation, regulating its natural intensity along the way, protecting it from destructive winds and battering seas that seek to undermine its structural integrity.

 

A Convention of States is a legitimate process sanctioned by Article Five of the United States Constitution.  We must blaze this path again, if it is in our best interest as a free people and nation.  We should never take our civic duties lightly, especially when such a momentous occasion demands the full attention of every American citizen.  Article Five grants to American citizens, and their respective states, a constitutional right to have State Legislatures, when two-thirds deem it necessary, make an application to the United States Congress to call a Continental Convention of States to propose amendments to our constitution.  If any amendments or alterations are suggested then the United States Congress shall decide whether to have those amendments ratified by three-fourths of the State Legislatures or three-fourths Conventions thereof; our focus should be on the latter mode of ratification, because it grants a special status distinctly attached to the citizens of America. 

 

The United States Constitution provides a clear two pronged amendment procedure, but statutorily defining the requirements of a Continental Convention of States when actually called by Congress is a situation that demands clear proceedings set by State Legislatures in conjunction with Congress.  There are several issues to contend with, among a select few are figuring out who could be elected, by whom, and how.  Maybe the delegates should be citizens born in the United States, not hold any national, state, or local office, trust, or public pension in the United States when elected, must be at least eighteen years old, never been convicted of a felony or high misdemeanor, all elected by verifiable state citizens to represent them in a Continental Convention of States.  Each town, precinct, village, or parish elect people to a county level, then the county level elect people to the state level, and those state level people elect people to represent the state in a Convention of the states. At each level a popular election occurs, until they are narrowed down to a few people from each state representing the interests of their respective states in the Convention, every state in the convention has one vote, and two-thirds necessary to affirm or deny proposals that would be ratified by three-quarters of states and or two-thirds of Congress.  

 

It is our civic duty, as free American citizens, to add structural integrity, and clear processes, to our governing frame, whensoever deemed necessary by the national voice of the American people, the fourth branch of our governing arrangement, the supreme source of national legitimacy and authority that ultimately determine the outcome of events.  To the best of our ability, we must demarcate the proper boundaries of Article Five for ourselves, and our progeny.  Aside from Congress, constitutional avenues for alterations must remain open and clearly marked, especially if American citizens and the states they reside in should ever find the path necessary, in order to refine their governing system any time unreasonable imbalances arise, or the ineptness of Congress to decisively act on primarily national concerns.

 

It is rather an unfortunate situation that there will always be strong adversaries to national interests and the common sensibilities of American citizens, where Liberty’s enemies sow cynicism, weave mutual animosities, deploy distrust, and secrete suspicion.  What patriot of liberty’s flame would establish obscene obstacles in our glorious path to freedom, littering the trail with tortuous counterfactual arguments proliferated through the construction of specious speculations, maliciously designed dissimulation to ensnare reason and logic in a tangled web of convoluted portents?  Like harbingers preceding doom, Liberty’s subversive elements insidiously cast about worrisome depictions.  A gruesome monster, with powerful snapping jaws, curiously lurks just around the corner, in the shifting shadows, waiting to lurch out, sinking its long sharpened teeth deep into our collective necks, draining us of political action, the civic life source of a Republic. 

 

American citizens, I have profound faith, would never let a threatening cabal surreptitiously assume control over their governing apparatus and extirpate our beloved liberties.  We are not completely ignorant and helpless creatures, but, are sufficiently enlightened, constitutionally buttressed, possessing independent minds, perpetual rights, and fundamental privileges, more than competent enough not to steer this great country into tyranny, anarchy, socialism, or have the dual specter of domestic insurrection and foreign invasion visited upon our priceless American soil.  We can only enjoy the fruits of Liberty if the United States of America remains truly united by our common republican principles.  Republicanism, having nothing to do with political parties per se, unites Americans more than any other artificial distinction drawn up by the fallible nature of human perceptions, and ignorant preconceptions.  Quite simply, if Liberty is not present, happiness and peace has already vanished.  The primary goal of the American Republic is to secure our Liberty, which is the influential driving force behind America.

 

Enemies of Liberty and American Independence can never discharge a legitimate reason that can produce enough moral force to dislodge our republican principles.  Our precious rights sit on unassailable ground, magnificently fortified by the pillars of life, liberty, and property, the ramparts of law, and palisades of equal justice, valiantly repelling numerous daily domestic and foreign bombardments, forever erecting a palladium for our common humanity, always guided by a compassionate and Provident hand.  Disingenuous misrepresentations, suspicious speculations, and grandiose exaggerations, about American citizens expressing their political will, in a Continental Convention of States, will not erode our steadfast determination and vigilant resolve to preserve and extend our rights for all of humanity, now and in the future.

 

Can it be possible that a run-away convention could completely do away with all of our ancient privileges and inherent immunities in one fell swoop?  Is it even possible that we currently see unusual advancements on our liberties by a subtle, and excessively wide, construction of enumerated powers throughout the last few decades?  State Legislatures, Congress, or a Convention of State Delegates, freely chosen by American citizens, or any popular assembly for that matter, surely would never agree to any measures resulting in a diminishment of God given natural human rights. The whole purpose of a Continental Convention of States, or any other governing forum for that matter, is to extend and protect our liberties and rights.  The American people would not let some mysteriously foreign element, subversive majorities or minorities from aligning against our individual Liberty, snatching it from us in the darkened night as we lay asleep, dreaming about unconscious fantasies produced by the minds artful vocation. 

 

No forum has any right to disregard, or dispense with, the Bill of Rights, specific enumerated powers, or reasonable constitutional boundaries.  No majority or minority interest can divest us of our precious rights and sacred privileges granted to us by natural forces beyond our human understanding.  Nevertheless, woeful decrees from self-interested partisans looking to preserve their personal power and prestige denounced the original Continental Convention of States that erected this great republican structure we currently administer today.  The American framers’ had perceptive insights on human nature.  Not every influential revolutionary wanted the constitution we currently administer today, and yet all of them made extremely valuable contributions to American political and social philosophy. 

 

Technology has certainly changed greatly since the founding of America’s constitutional government; human nature remains a steady constant through all of history.  The original proprietors of American civic society built on the marvelous, and infamous, history that came before them.  They also applied their own practical abilities to construct a historic document for humanity.  Those worthy individuals, each with their own particular identities, formulated political conceptions and societal notions according to the events and unique circumstances of their personal livelihoods.  What they ultimately did was build a sufficiently strong governing instrument, which has changed, de facto and de jure, several times already, for the better, as in the case of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and the worse, such as the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Amendments.

 

The Twenty-first Amendment eventually repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, a most significant occasion in our constitutional and political history.  State Conventions, instead of the State Legislatures, ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, the only time an amendment to the United States Constitution repealed a previous amendment.  If Americans want to eradicate any other injurious blemishes on our national character that impede on our liberties we retain as American citizens, then we should look at a Convention of States. Maybe the prospect of a successful union of states would spur our elected and non-elected officials into action that may remedy the over extension of congressional power and public discretion.  Many of the enumerated powers, nestled in the constitution, and specifically granted to Congress - those all too malleable vagaries inserted by our enlightened framers - are unnecessarily extended, especially over the last several decades, to the detriment of our collective liberties.  American citizens hold the governing reins.  It is plainly evident that they are pulling up with a vigorous might trying to halt the expansive and expensive vigor of implied powers running aimlessly in too many diverse and unproductive directions.

 

We need to realign the existing parameters of public power and discretionary authority, not erect a completely new bureaucratic structure on the ruins of our current republican system.  The basic structure, or governing system, as first consecrated by the founding generation, is not faulty, but its utilization, or operation, is very faulty.  American citizens must choose the Article Five constitutional vehicle, when deemed necessary by the people and their respective states, in order to balance power and protect liberties.  It is the last line of defense for our common liberty and independence.  If Americans cannot impress upon the current occupants of the U.S. Congress the impetus needed to actually deal with pressing national concerns, dispensing with the excessive mentalities of federal power, then the honest and attentive citizens must call for an alternative path provided to us by our constitution, which is set down in law. 

 

Our public servants, elected and non-elected, are transforming into private masters.  Americans will not let a Continental Convention, or any other elected assembly, become a pernicious engine that grinds down our great republican principles and most cherished freedoms to oblivion, in search of fabulous demons to destroy, and marvelous maladies to correct, that naturally plague humanity. American citizens would perceive such an action as morally repugnant, and considered extremely dangerous, ultimately causing a whirlwind of national discontent.  Reactionary popular unease would agitate liberty’s flame.  Distrust and discord could produce an uncontrollable inferno.  The stoked flames of discontent will eventually reduce our republican form of government to ashes.  This shall not happen. 

 

Once underway, these radical extremes will subject most of us, especially the most disheartened and vulnerable citizens among us, to the whimsical fancies of brazen brutes and reckless rogues.  They will bring with them the awful specters of tyranny and anarchy, the sinister twin calamities that have plundered liberty and crushed republics, democracies, and various governments, for ages.  A host of demagogues and servile flatterers will spring up, relishing and profiting from newly acquired power and authority that dispenses fabulous favors and wicked punishment at will.  The dishonest adventurers feverishly nourish a frenzied populace with constant portrayals of demise and destruction, especially when no credible leader manifests itself to abate the fear, calm the anxiety, and deter distrust sown by the manipulative machinations of a few well-placed personages engaged in self-aggrandizement.  

 

Liberty’s flame must be carefully and peacefully regulated by patriotic and law abiding citizens through the active operation of governing processes. The calm and deliberative restraints of the mind can calibrate the tension within our passionate hearts.  Self-interest’s diverging internal forces must prudently flow in a more tranquil convergence with national interest.  When the disparate forces become turbulently resistant to one another, refusing to adjust their irascible temperament, the awful might of human nature exceeds the artificial boundaries erected to contain it. 

 

American citizens possess common sensibilities that deviate from extreme governing persuasions, and flow in a peaceful course toward national destiny.  We should take a personal stake, as proprietors of government, in extending and preserving our inherited privileges, fundamental immunities, and republican principles for posterity and ourselves.  Americans must sure up the banks of federal power and authority by strengthening our common bands of citizenship to extend our freedom and prosperity into the future.

 

First, Americans should decide if there is a need for a Continental Convention of States.  If it seems altogether proper and necessary, then our State Legislatures should file an application, on our collective behalf, to the United States Congress, to call for a Continental Convention of States to provide amendments that address any structural deficiencies and excesses our government exhibits, most especially our federal arrangement.  If the necessary two-thirds of State Legislatures file an application then the United States Congress is constitutionally compelled to call a Convention to propose amendments, in line with the great principles of freedom America protects.  All applications made to Congress are a general call for a convention, regardless of the differing claims expressed in any of the state applications.  The only uniformity needed is the actual application calling for a convention.

 

A Continental Convention of States can deliberate on any grievance emanating from the individual states.  Each State Legislature, and or Congress, should determine the manner in which the election of national delegates occurs. National delegates should convene at a central point in the interior of the nation, and accommodations provided for the council of delegates.

 

When the Continental Convention of State Delegates convenes, each State can make their distinct claims and have one vote, and two-thirds majority should be necessary to suggest amendments for ratification by Congress and the states.  Deliberations should occur in an executive session, so to have the full faith and confidence of each delegate, not having any unnecessary distractions or influence.  Each delegate should hold their opinions from public scrutiny until the conventions duties are completed.  If the Continental Convention presents Congress and the State Legislatures with amendments for ratification, Congress should call for State Conventions to accept or reject proposed amendments.  Each State Convention should be comprised of special delegates who do not hold any public office, trust, or public pension in the United States.

 
American citizens have the enlightened temperament, patriotic zeal, and constitutional legitimacy, as proprietors of a free Republic, to further this noble civic experiment with honest labors.  Have trust and confidence, as I do, in our fellow citizens, State Legislatures, and Congress, to do what is morally appropriate for our Union of Republics, its constitution, its people, and humankind.