Tag Archives: States Rights

To the Governor of Washington: A List of Grievances by We the People

Posted on by

This is exactly how Lesser Magistrates should function!
To the Governor of Washington: A List of Grievances by We the People.
Learn more by studying both the Magdeburg Confession and The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates!

October 25, 2014 S. Adams – Christian Culpability in the 17th Amendment

Posted on by

This topic is in the archives of the radio program, Samuel Adams Returns – The Anti-Federalist Got it Right for October 25, 2014.
This is an interesting and difficult topic.  This digs deep into the way that progressivism, socialism and yes, even communism embedded itself into the Christian denominations of the 19th and early 20th Century.  This topic brings to light the move away from what the Federalist had hoped for – a Christian Reformation Gospel that would maintain a religious and moral people such that electing moral, virtuous and wise men would keep the Republic and Liberty secure.  And this fulfills what the Anti-federalist more clearly understood – That mankind was sinful and that all sort of attack would ensue even within the context of the churches without individuals holding to the Reformation Gospel Principles and Truths.
This radio program takes on the challenge of bringing to light what happened in a parallel course of events – The rise of socialism and communism in America: the parallel influence in the political arena and at the same time in the Protestant denominations.
Samuel Adams Returns with insights to stir the minds of men today as Samuel Adams set the brush-fires of the mind aflame during the rise of the battle for Liberty!
Listen to the program on Saturdays at 7 PM Eastern.  The hosts page for more information.

Restoration Strategy: City on the Hill or Judgement?

Posted on by

Our Founders clearly understood the historical significance or their forefathers coming to the New World especially the Northern colonies.  The Significance of the First Great Awakening uniting the colonies to stand on Liberty goes back to those first settlers.  Over the last 150 years, the infiltration of socialism into the Churches has obviated the real spirit of America’s view of Liberty in every sense.

I find the following to be a key to the Strategy for Reclaiming America to Founders Intent for Life, Liberty and Property!  If you only read the Preface and Introduction in the linked book, you will gain more historical insight of our Foundational Strategies for Liberty than from any modern pundit or party strategist.  Not only that, you will learn that what is acceptable in the various political, cultural and even economic arenas was rejected by our Founders for a much different Strategy for the Greatness of America.

Will we again be the City on the Hill or continue in Judgement?

I have been asked by Pastors, Priest and Rabbi’s what is written historically that substantiates the contrarian position of a 501c3, being the idea that there is “NO” separation of Church & State, and the way many were taught to view or preach Romans 13.  Also, I have been told and experienced that it has proven to be more difficult for Lay Leaders to know about the truths of the Founding principles and therefore many times inhibit the Pastors from exercising their views that would more align with Founders Principles.

Many of you know that when I speak to various group meetings, I reference the First Great Awakening in its totality as the unifying factor in the American Revolution.  Yet, it was greater then that – as proven in this work “The Pulpits of The American Revolution.”  Seminaries, Bible Schools or Rabbinical Schools don’t teach this!  They don’t even discuss the historical significance of these sermons as they relate to the extensible principle of Liberty.
Continue reading →

Article V & Convention of States – Confusion

Posted on by

For a long time there has been conversations and arguments regarding what Article V is about, how to use it and what does it mean.  Many in the so called ‘conservative’ ranks operate on fear relative to the progressive/communist taking possession of Congress, the Presidency, Courts and even into the States and local offices.  Fear is a good thing and does allow for caution but, fear without full knowledge, understanding and strategy leave one paralyzed to act.
I was asked to join the fray of those discussing this issue.  Everyone goes to the so called experts.  One of the major problems in our nation is that we look to academia, politicians, lawyers and think-tanks as the experts.  That is NOT what the Founders intended.  They expected that each Citizen, that means you, would be the expert in self-governance and our Constitutional form of federalism.
So I’m going to let you listen for yourselves what this one Citizen has figured out.  I preface these video’s with me being a Citizen Circa 1774 to 1804, meaning:

  1. I can read
  2. I understood the events of the Revolution
  3. I known that even most enterprise, craftsmen, business people understood common law and the English system of law & justice
  4. Knew that states had more than one convention for various purposes
  5. Understood my state Constitution and how it was formed
  6. Had a good sense about the Articles of Confederation
  7. Read the Federalist arguments in the news Papers
  8. Read the Contrary – Anti-Federalist Article in the news papers
  9. Understood the reporting of my states “Ratifying Convention”
  10. Paid attention what was happening in the first Congresses
  11. Active in local as well as national issues

The Article V Confusion:
Part 1 – Introduction, Opinions and some history of Conventions in America:  http://youtu.be/YjRYofQVIu4
Part 2 – The Compact for America – described as the properly outlined and historically correct Template for the Amendment process as called by the State: http://youtu.be/xMw_vDOiQNc
Part 3 – Action Items – What we must do!  http://youtu.be/5A-7Mg5FQUc
The challenge is to Be a Citizen as our Founders Intended us to be.  I heard Trevor Loudon last saying again that we are the last hope of the world for any idea of Liberty.  Knowing our historical truths are critical to restoring our Republic.
Be engaged with your feet on the street to inform your neighbor or we shall have the 100 year plan of progressive communism thrust upon us in full force.  I was reminded that when ‘original Massachusetts Bay Charter’ was revoked and James II sent a governor (Sir Edmond Andors) to Boston, He was met by an Armed Citizenry that escorted him to prison where he remained for over ten months.  The point being that the Citizens did not put up with tyranny.  But today, we have been made so stupid regarding our Rights and Liberties that we have allowed all that our ancestors fought and died for slip into the hand of the evils they wrote, talked and preached against.
God Help us to restore Liberty that is in Him first!

John DeWitt No. II – Decision Time & Considerations

Posted on by

“John DeWitt” II
The author that used the pseudonym of John DeWitt is unknown.  As the writer challenges the Citizenry to take a hard look at this un-amended constitution.  What would be the perils to the individual and the States that were minimized by a well-constructed State Constitution with Bills of Rights?
The Key Points in this article are:
1.  A PERPETUAL form of government
2.  Difficult to change
3.  Chances of poor administration
4.  Changes opposed by those who benefit most of the power
5.  NO Bill of Rights
6.  Defines a Compact
7.  Those in power through tacit implication would subsume all rights of the people
“John DeWitt” II
Massachusetts, October 27, 1787
Continue reading →

Potential of Judicial Tyranny Exposed

Posted on by

Again we have Yates, a scholarly judge, continuing his discourse regarding Article III of the 1787 Constitution.  He picks up from his last delivering a one, two – three punch to the way the judiciary can become despotic and tyrannize the Citizenry:

  1. How it will tend to extend the legislative authority.
  2. In what manner it will increase the jurisdiction of the courts.
  3. The way in which it will diminish, and destroy, both the legislative and judicial authority of the United States.

Talk about being able to see into the 20th and 21st centuries!  Yates knew that the judiciary would be the undoing of any national government, the states in particular and enslaving the Citizenry in the end.  He states below: “The courts, therefore, will establish this as a principle in expounding the constitution, and will give every part of it such an explanation, as will give latitude to every department under it, to take cognizance of every matter, not only that affects the general and national concerns of the union, but also of such as relate to the administration of private justice, and to regulating the internal and local affairs of the different parts.”
Study this predictive article to see that the Anti-Federalist got it right!
And wait until Brutus XIII is expounded on…… Whoa to us for not heading the warnings of the Anti-Federalist.  We live the horrors they foresaw!
(Emphasis added to capture your thoughts)
Continuing for Liberty,
Tom Niewulis
Brutus XII
7 February 1788
Continue reading →

Will the National Judiciary Trump the Other Two Branches?

Posted on by

Brutus predicted the present dysfunctionality of the Supreme Court in this letter. 

In actuality, Brutus is Robert Yates.  Yates was one of the leading Anti-Federalist and in 1790 he was appointed as the Chief Justice of the N.Y. Supreme Court.  “From the beginning of the struggle for independence, although he did not sign the Albany Sons of Liberty constitution of 1766, he was prominent in the local resistance to the Stamp Act. By 1774, he had joined the Albany Committee of Correspondence and stood among its first members when the committee’s activities became public in 1775… In 1775, Yates was elected to represent Albany in each of the four New York Provincial Congresses. … In 1776-77, he served on the committee that drafted the first New York State Constitution and also was a member of the “Secret Committee for Obstructing Navigation of the Hudson.”  In October 1777, Yates was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court.

“Yates was appointed with John Lansing, Jr. and Alexander Hamilton to represent New York at the Philadelphia convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. Arriving in Philadelphia, Yates and Lansing felt the mood of the convention to produce an entirely new form of government was beyond their authority. After sending a letter to Governor Clinton urging opposition to the new Constitution, they returned home. His personal notes from the Philadelphia convention were published in 1821.”[i]

In every sense, understanding the context of Article III would be right up Yates area of expertise.  The key elements that Yates addressed and predicted regarding the federal Supreme Court are:

1.   Extend legislative authority.

2.   Increase jurisdiction of the courts.

3.   Diminish and destroy both the legislative and judiciary powers of the states.

Yates foresaw judicial tyranny and despotism.  He writes below that the system:

1.   “…authorize(s) the courts, not only to carry into execution the powers expressly given, but where these are wanting or ambiguously expressed, to supply what is wanting by their own decisions.”

2.    “…that they will operate to a total subversion of the state judiciaries, if not, to the legislative authority of the states”

3.   “…the courts are to give such meaning to the constitution as comports (def. – behaves) best with the common, and generally received acceptation of the words in which it is expressed, regarding their ordinary and popular use, rather than their grammatical propriety.”

4.   “And in their decisions they will not confine themselves to any fixed or established rules, but will determine, according to what appears to them, the reason and spirit of the constitution. The opinions of the supreme court, whatever they may be, will have the force of law…”

5.   “The judicial power will operate to effect, in the most certain, but yet silent and imperceptible manner, what is evidently the tendency of the constitution: — I mean, an entire subversion of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the individual states.”

6.   “the same principle will influence them to extend their power, and increase their rights; this of itself will operate strongly upon the courts to give such a meaning to the constitution in all cases where it can possibly be done, as will enlarge the sphere of their own authority…”

7.   “…they will have precedent to plead, to justify them in it. It is well known, that the courts in England, have by their own authority, extended their jurisdiction far beyond the limits set them in their original institution, and by the laws of the land.”

As you can see, Yates has predicted that which we have experienced since the late 19th century and worsened in the 20th century. Judicial tyranny has always been a part and possibility of the Constitution of 1787 and although there were these types of warnings; not a single amendment was accepted at that time to put more restrictions on the judiciary.

(all emphasis added to bring your attention to these factors)

Commentary by: Tom Niewulis

Brutus XI

 

31 January 1788

  Continue reading →

Brutus VI – What about States Rights?

Posted on by

Brutus VI

27 December 1787
Key elements for the modern Citizenry to consider that is addressed in this letter regarding the Constitution as submitted to the states in 1787. Some of these elements are future looking, to the present, where as others are in continuum for as long as there are States.
Questions to be answered:
• Will the general government absorb the states?
• What of states rights?
• Does the general government have sufficient provisions to guard against misuse or abuse of power?
• Will the taxing authority of the general government take away what is needed within the states to execute their internal affairs?

Key Points:
1. The powers given to the legislator have no other limitation than the discretion of the Congress.
2. The “necessary and proper” clause will allow the legislature to do as they please.
3. The states taxing power is subservient to the general government such that in the future, the states cannot fund their activities and “the state governments will be dependent on the will of the general government for their existence.”
4. Through law and taxation the general government will establish agents and enforcers to execute the collection of taxes and penalties such that “… but it will not be many years before they will have a revenue, and force, at their command, which will place them above any apprehensions on that score.” Thereby usurping the rights of the people by use of force.
5. The constitution gives taxing power on every aspect of life such as:

a. “Cider (distilled alcohols and wines)

i. “… necessary to license the mills, which are to make this liquor,

b. “Porter, ale, and all kinds of malt-liquors

i. “… to regulate the manufactory of these,

ii. “… Every brewery must then be licensed
iii. “… officers appointed, to take account of its product, and to secure
the payment of the duty, or excise, before it is sold.”

c. It will wait upon the ladies at their toilett, and will not leave them in any of their domestic concerns…

d. … will enter the house of every gentleman, watch over his cellar, wait upon his cook in the kitchen, follow the servants into the parlour, preside over the table, and note down all he eats or drinks …

e. … it will take cognizance of the professional man in his office or his store …

f. it will follow the mechanic to his shop, and in his work,

g. it will be a constant companion of the industrious farmer in all his labour,

h. it will penetrate into the most obscure cottage; and

i. finally, it will light upon the head of every person in the United States.

6. Argues that the “general welfare” clause is nebulous and that, “It will then be matter of opinion, what tends to the general welfare; and the Congress will be the only judges in the matter. To provide for the general welfare, is an abstract proposition…”
7. The expectation for the elected would be “For every man, rulers as well as others, are bound by the immutable laws of God and reason, always to will what is right.”
8. The fear of Brutus is: “… The government would always say, their measures were designed and calculated to promote the public good; and there being no judge between them and the people, the rulers themselves must, and would always, judge for themselves.”
9. Finally, that the states have the same ability to take care of their needs to govern by independently have the financial resources to do so.

Full Text of Brutus VI

 27 December 1787    Continue reading →