“What About the Constitution?”
By John F. McManus,
President, The John Birch Society
“Boston Tea
Party” Ron Paul Meetup Group, December 16, 2007
(It had begun snowing at 6:00AM on Dec. 16th. Yet, with about
8 inches of snow of the ground and heavy rain about to start, close to
500 fans of Ron Paul arrived at Boston’s historic Faneuil
Hall. My remarks follow.)
The first thing I want to say is congratulations to all of you for
being here. I think of Valley Forge when the weather turns
sour like it did today. We owe a debt of gratitude to those
who stayed with General Washington back then. So
I’d like to send my thanks to all of you and ask you to stand
and congratulate yourselves for your determination to promote the cause
of liberty.
As I read the reports about the many candidates, I see one referred to
as “quaint,” “quirky,” even
“quixotic.” The media seems to like the
letter “Q” when referring to this man. I
think they ought to continue and realize that he’s the man
who is “quietly awakening America’s sleeping
giant.”
We’re here today because we want to take our country
back. And we will!
Let me start with a story.
A U.S. Navy ship was steaming along one night when lights ahead flashed
the signal, “Turn your ship five degrees to
starboard.” The ship’s captain, quite
indignant about being told what to do, told his signalman to send back
a message, “You turn your ship five degrees to
starboard.” That prompted an immediate response
from afar, “No, you turn your ship to starboard.”
Now, the captain was really irate. He told his man to send
the following message: “I’m a captain of this U.S.
naval vessel. You turn your ship to
starboard.” And the final message came right back,
“I’m a seaman second class and I’m aboard
a lighthouse; turn your ship five degree to starboard.”
The point, of course, is that the stripes on your sleeve or the
initials after your name aren’t as important as the ground
you stand on. If you have truth and can deliver facts, you are like the
sailor at the lighthouse who certainly had solid ground to stand on.
What ground does our nation’s government stand on?
The Constitution. Officials of our nation’s
government swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution.
Practically all of them immediately put it in the bottom drawer and
proceed to do whatever they please. One of the great
fallacies most claim is that, if they aren’t prohibited from
doing something by the Constitution, they can go ahead and do it.
Not so! Our country didn’t become the greatest
place on earth because of what government did. The United
States of America became the envy of the world because of what
government was prohibited from doing. And the
prohibitions were in the Constitution. Government was to be
limited to a very few functions.
I expect that many in this audience – maybe all –
believe as I do that the most important sentence in the Constitution is
the first sentence after the Preamble. Article I, Section 1,
Sentence 1 reads, “All legislative powers herein granted
shall be vested in a Congress of the United
States….”
Let me ask all algebra students who are here, please help me.
If “all” lawmaking power resides in Congress, how
much is in the Supreme Court? None! You obviously
agree that the word “all” still has
meaning. A Supreme Court decision can’t be the
“law of the land,” as we’re so often
told. It’s the law of the case that binds the plaintiff and
the defendant – period. And most decisions of the
Supreme Court should be, “It’s not a federal
matter” and it should forthwith be sent back to the states or
to the people. Instead, layer upon layer of government has
been sanctioned, even initiated, by the black-robed justices who
regularly ignore the very first sentence in the document they have
sworn an oath to obey.
How about the Executive Branch, you algebra students? Any lawmaking
power there? Not if the first sentence means
anything. Yet, we get Executive Orders, Presidential Decision
Directives and Signing Statements from the White House that take on the
force of law. This is another serious violation of the
Constitution’s first sentence. An Executive Order from the
White House addressed to federal employees is proper – such
as the granting of a holiday to celebrate the birth of the
Lord. But if an Executive Order, a Presidential Directive or
a Signing Statement binds the whole nation, or usurps power from the
other branches of government, it’s
unconstitutional. It’s not the
President’s prerogative to make law – but we all
know that this is being done all the time.
Go back to that first sentence, “All legislative power herein
granted shall be vested in Congress….”
Even more violated are the two words “herein
granted.” Very simply, any power possessed by the
federal government that is not granted to Congress in the pages of this
document (the Constitution) – “herein
granted” in other words – is illicit.
Is foreign aid “herein granted?”
Does the Constitution grant power for a Department of Education?
How about a Department of Energy?
Is either health or medicine mentioned in the Constitution?
How about a Department of Homeland Security?
I thought we already had a department of homeland security.
Isn’t that what the army, navy, air force, coast guard and
marine corps are for?
Just imagine what it would mean if there were adherence to the first
sentence in the Constitution. There would be no foreign
aid. Our leaders have amassed a mountain of debt totaling $9
trillion and they give away money. It’s not their
money they give away, it’s ours!
If the first sentence in the Constitution were obeyed, there would be
no Departments of Education, Housing, Health, Agriculture, Homeland
Security, and more, plus no commissions, bureaucratic monstrosities and
other meddlesome agencies that “harass our people and eat out
their substance.” “Harass our people and
eat out their substance” is an actual indictment of King
George III contained in the Declaration of Independence.
History repeats if one’s guard is dropped.
I have often stated a conclusion about the Constitution that no liberal
or neoconservative likes to hear. It is that, if the
Constitution were fully and honestly enforced as it exists today, the
federal government would be 20 percent its size and 20 percent its
cost. I have even been chided by a few of my friends in The
John Birch Society who say my figure should be 10 percent.
Most members of Congress don’t like to hear that.
Also, if the Constitution were honored by those who swear an oath to
it, there would be no undeclared wars and no policing the
planet. We are now involved in an undeclared war against
terrorism – a tactic. If that kind of thinking
prevailed after Pearl Harbor, U.S. leaders would have targeted
aviation! But, no, we declared war against Japan, and Germany
declared war against the United States. And we won!
If the Constitution were honored, there would be no Federal
Reserve. No federal funds for highways that can be taken away
if a state refuses to knuckle under to Big Brother’s
edicts. And if all of the unconstitutional programs
were abolished, the income tax could be terminated.
Many years ago, an occupant of the White House gave a famous speech
that started off, “Four score and seven years
ago….” Paralleling what he
said then, let’s go back today to “Four score and
14 years ago.” That puts us in 1913. And
in 1913, three severe attacks on the American peoples’
liberty were enacted. We got the direct election of senators,
the Federal Reserve, and the income tax – all three
initiatives that savage the idea that government should be
limited. Before 1913, senators were appointed by the state
legislatures to guard states rights against federal power. It
would be great to get back to that.
But it would also be great if we could abolish the Federal Reserve and
the income tax. Neither appeared in the original
Constitution. But both the Federal Reserve and the income tax
are prominently listed as two of the ten planks in the Communist
Manifesto. Current leaders are converting this nation into a
communist state. The Fed came about through an act of
Congress that should be repealed. The income tax was launched
with a questionably ratified amendment. But an amendment can
be cancelled with passage of another amendment – as was done
with prohibition. If it could be done once, it can be done
again.
The founders were adamant about creating a republic, the rule of law,
not a democracy, the rule of men that always becomes the rule of the
mob. There’s no mention of democracy in the
Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or the constitutions of
any of the 50 states. And don’t we still pledge
allegiance to the flag and to the “republic for which it
stands…”? There is no mention of
“republic” in the Constitution where there is a
requirement that every state will be guaranteed a republican form of
government.
Back to the Constitution. It gives power to
Congress to “coin money.” Not to start a
bank. Not to allow a privately owned and unaccountable
Federal Reserve. Only to create a mint to shape precious
metals into coinage of a fixed size, weight and purity.
That’s all! So a mint was created and it coined
money. Now the Federal Reserve exists and it does something
impossible: it coins paper.
Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution assigns the federal
government the responsibility to protect the states from
invasion. It doesn’t say military invasion, just
invasion. And 20 million illegal immigrants is an
invasion. But the federal government does little or nothing
to meet its responsibility spelled out in the Constitution.
The border remains wide open because our leaders are determined to
create a North American Union, a “Merger in the
Making” as this issue of The New American magazine
exposes. Pick one up on your way out from some of my
colleagues who’ll have some copies, or go to
thenewamerican.com where you can download the entire issue free of
charge.
Today, our federal government regularly does what it has no
authorization to do, and it refuses to do what the Constitution
requires it to do. I sometimes think the only part of the
Constitution given much respect is the part that says members of
Congress shall be paid out of the Treasury.
Anyone who understands the Constitution knows that it’s not a
free pass to do whatever government wants. It established
government with very few powers. And then it stresses this
point with the Bill of Rights. You know the Bill of
Rights. It says Congress shall not, shall not, shall not
– all the way up to the Tenth Amendment that says if we
forgot anything, you can’t do that either.
It’s time to get back to the
Constitution. Anyone who calls for that has my deep
appreciation and the equally deep thanks of the tens of thousands of
members of The John Birch Society whom I represent. Do
yourself a favor and check us out at jbs.org. If you like Ron
Paul, you’ll love The John Birch Society.
Let me now close with the motto of The John Birch Society:
“Less Government, More Responsibility, and … with
God’s Help … a Better World.”
Less government under the Constitution.
More responsibility under the Ten Commandments.
This is the solid ground America should stand on. And when it
does, there will be, with God’s help, a better world.
Thank you very
much.
Report About the Dec. 16 Ron Paul Meetup in Boston
I spoke toward the end of the program (eighth out of ten
speakers). Reporters who cover these events leave soon after
they get a picture and enough to write a story. The Boston
Globe reporter was long gone before I got to the podium so there was no
mention of me or JBS in the newspaper. JBS Coordinator Hal
Shurtleff preceded me at the podium and he dwelled on the need to elect
decent congressmen. He introduced me.
Being one of the last speakers in the event was, in some ways,
beneficial. I had many persons who came to me after the
program was completed to tell me that they now had a changed and much
better opinion of JBS. Hal and I handed out plenty of DVDs of
Overview and the The Case for Repealing NAFTA.
The truly awful weather (8-10 inches of snow followed by heavy rain and
wind) definitely cut into the crowd. Where the organizers
were expecting an overflow crowd (beyond the 850 allowed by the
police), there were upwards of 500. The Globe said
700. Most of the attendees were young people.
Ron Paul’s son, Rand, was there and he spoke.
He’s an ophthalmologist from Texas. I
didn’t meet him because he spoke early and left soon
after. I didn’t know where to find him before the
event. Three of Ron’s grandchildren were there, all
beautiful teenage girls and all from Lake Jackson, Texas
(Ron’s home). They were giggling about being in the
midst of the heavy snowfall.
The entire event was simulcast via the internet. I heard
immediately from friends in WI, OK and FL who said they saw it on their
computer. So we made a lot of friends at the event and an
untold number via the internet.
(Because this event was not part of the official Ron Paul Presidential
Campaign, and because I never endorsed him, I could participate without
compromising The John Birch Society’s policy of not being
involved in politics.)
- JFM