A republic, if you can keep it

September 17, 7:09 PMNY Conservative ExaminerTodd Keister

Previous Next

3 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NY Conservative Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

 

Today marks the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States. There will be no parades, fireworks, picnics, or barbeques. The mainstream media outlets will scarcely make any mention of it, and the politicians in Washington will ignore this day’s significance entirely, since to acknowledge the constitution’s existence would be to highlight their utter disregard and disdain for it.

Emerging from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, at the close of the constitutional convention on September 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” to which he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The brilliant document that Dr. Franklin and the other delegates to the convention created was indeed a miracle. It was a miracle in that it saved the American Revolution and enshrined in law the principles of liberty and limited government for which Americans had fought so long and hard to defend. When the Bill of Rights was added after ratification, it became a model for governance that made the United States a shining city upon a hill; lighting the path to freedom for billions around the globe.

The constitution established the legal framework for a central federal government, endowing it with just enough power to effectively regulate interstate commerce and provide for the common defense of all the states, while simultaneously strictly limiting the federal government’s authority in all other areas to preserve the sovereignty of the state governments.

Nearly all revolutions throughout history fail soon after they are achieved. This is because the various competing factions within the country unite to expel a hated government, but then devour one another once the common enemy is vanquished; leading either to civil war or despotism, or both. This was seen in the French Revolution which threw off the monarchy with the rallying cry, “liberty, equality, fraternity!” and ended with a brutal dictatorship and a reign of terror which saw the murder of more than 1400 by the guillotine’s blade. The Russian people deposed czarist dictatorship in favor of the socialists’ promise of equality and prosperity, only to be reduced to slavery under communist dictatorship.

The constitution’s framers avoided such a fate for America, and preserved our revolution, allowing the new nation to grow prosperous and strong and able to resist foreign influence and aggression. The bitter compromise made over the slavery issue was the only way to preserve the fragile union, and would ultimately lead to civil war, but it delayed the terrible fight for eighty years, and ultimately achieved its goal of freedom and equality before the law for all men – and later for women.

Today, that great document of freedom lies on display at the National Archives. You can visit it and read its words, then walk outside, look to your left and see the United States Congress where the constitution is made a mockery each and every day. Article 1, Section 8 of the constitution gives congress thirteen specific powers, and the Tenth Amendment specifically reserves all other powers for the states and the people. Not one of those thirteen powers has anything to do with meddling in education, creating a national healthcare system, confiscating money for a national retirement system, protecting endangered salamanders, or providing grants for the promotion of arts, or for research into the mating habits of beavers.

Today, one of the greatest documents of freedom ever written, our American constitution, has become nothing more than a curious museum piece. The congress and presidents of both parties no longer even attempt to justify the constitutionality of their laws and edicts, and the Supreme Court passes judgment and writes its own laws by fiat from their castle behind the capital building. Through massive taxation of the citizenry, the federal government uses its vast resources to reduce the once sovereign states to little more than provincial districts.

There are those who say that the constitution is dead. It is indeed forgotten and irrelevant to our rulers in Washington and in many state capitals, and it no longer guides the course of our government – but it is not dead. It lives in the hearts of millions of Americans who remember that America was once a nation of free and independent people. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802, “Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people.” Americans once sent representatives to Washington conscious of their duty to the people and mindful of their solemn oath of fidelity to the constitution. We need only to rally and recall the people of this great nation to the words of the constitution, and send representatives to Washington who will dismantle this rapacious beast we call our federal government, and restore the rule of law.

Today, citizens can visit Independence Hall where the great documents of freedom were debated and signed. Still standing on the rostrum in the front of the room, is the chair in which George Washington sat as president of the constitutional convention. On the chair’s back is carved a picture of a half-sun. Upon the signing of the constitution, Benjamin Franklin, by that time eighty-one years old, stood and addressed his colleagues. He commented that he had been looking at the sun on the chair during the long months of debate, and had often wondered whether the carving depicted a rising or a setting sun. He then said to the assembled delegates, “Now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, and not a setting sun.”

The constitution can still show us the way back to freedom and the sun can rise once again to sweep away a hundred years of creeping socialist tyranny; if only we will take the time to remember and to show a small measure of the courage and wisdom displayed by our founding fathers. We still have their constitution’s words, and the tattered remains our republic – we shall soon find out whether we will keep it.