TENTH AMENDMENT KEEPERS: Keepers of the Tenth! | Eastern North Carolina Now

    This short article is intended to alert the reader to the importance of the Tenth Amendment and hopefully inspire him or her to join the Tenth Amendment Movement and help bring government power back to the States in those areas historically belonging to them and reserved to them under the Tenth Amendment.

    About the Tenth Amendment Movement:

    The Tenth Amendment has its roots in the intent of each State to retain its full sovereignty and its right of self-determination. The Tenth Amendment comes from Article II of our very first constitution, the Articles of Confederation: "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." So concerned about their right of self-determination and their fear of being consumed by a centralized government under the US Constitution as drafted in 1787 at the Philadelphia Convention, that several crucial states were not willing to ratify it in convention. Virginia and New York would not ratify unless they were given assurances that amendments (for a Bill of Rights) would be added, and indeed they proposed several, including one with the language of the Tenth Amendment. To make their position firmer, they included Resumption Clauses with their Ordinances of Ratification which conditioned their ratification on the explicit right to resume all powers when they desired so. "We, the delegates of the people of Virginia do, in the name and on behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression."

    Supporters of big government (such as Abraham Lincoln, FDR, LBJ, Obama, many Supreme Court justices, and today's progressives) have actively down-played the Tenth Amendment because it embodies States' Rights and state power. In the years leading up to the War of 1861 and most certainly with that war and afterwards, the political elites in government understood that the ordinary checks and balances provided in the Constitution could be co-opted and controlled, but the most critical of all the checks and balances that our Founders provided on the federal government - the tension created by sovereign states ("Dual Sovereignty," "federalism"... or as I like to refer to it: "Titan versus Titan") - is the one they could not, especially the Southern States. And so began the movement to destroy the concept of States' Rights, the great movement of Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, most Americans believe what the victor of the War of 1861 (ie, the federal government) has indoctrinated, which is that the sovereignty of the federal government, in all cases, trumps the States and that the States are powerless to oppose the government or leave the Union. The Tenth Amendment Movement knows that this indoctrination can be reversed by education and by the willing re-assertion of the Tenth Amendment by the States. The Tenth Amendment Movement is about educating folks and especially members and candidates for state legislatures about the compact nature of the Constitution, which essentially says that the States, as willing parties, mutually agreed to the terms of the Constitution and assented to be bound by it (forming the Union, with its "creature" - the federal government - providing certain functions on their behalf), so long as the terms were faithfully adhered. Compacts implicate the laws of contract and to some degree the law of agency.

    Unquestionably, the Constitution was created as a social compact. It had all the requisites of a contract. There were parties: thirteen States, to which were added those that similarly ratified the document in the years after 1781. There was mutuality: each State promised to give up some of its sovereignty in exchange for what the Union promised to deliver - for receiving a "common defense" and some regulation of commerce between the States where it was necessary to ensure free trade. The Constitution was created by the States and ratified by the States, each acting in Convention. It could only be amended by and between the States. And if there was any doubt about the fact that the Constitution was an agreement entered into by and between the States, Article VII states: "The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same." Every one of our Founding Fathers characterized the Constitution as a compact. It was referred to as such in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, in all the State Ratifying Conventions, Anti-Federalist Papers, the Federalist Papers, in the communications by Thomas Jefferson, in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (respectively), in Madison's 1800 Report, in the several famous speeches by John C. Calhoun, and in the Ordinances of Secession.

    It is critical that education by the Tenth Amendment Movement emphasize this compact nature of the Constitution and destroy the constitutional myth espoused by Lincoln to subjugate and consolidate forever the States because only then do certain remedies apply - such as nullification, interposition, and even secession itself.

    The Constitution's text and history before the War of 1861 did NOT change as a result of the surrender at Appomattox. Contracts do not textually change by the use of brute force; contracts change ONLY by the agreement of the parties. The Constitution was still a "constitution between the States" after the war as it was before. It remains so now.

    Years ago, it would have been very rare to find folks who supported such critical doctrines such as Nullification and Interposition. Even talk of States' Rights seemed to be unpopular. Which state would even think of daring to question the federal government? But over the years, as the federal government has become exceedingly ambitious, arrogant, tyrannical, corrupt, reckless, and out of touch with the American people, I've seen things change. I've watched in seminars how voices of skepticism turned to support. Instead of people telling me such remedies were illegitimate, unconstitutional, and dangerous, all of a sudden, they started asking how to approach their legislators about using them against the federal government. States are looking to nullification and interposition to finally define boundaries. States are passing nullification measures on a wide range of issues - Obamacare, federal gun control, hemp, medical marijuana.

    I hope that if you believe in the importance of this movement, as I believe, you will get involved, help educate others, and help elect like-minded representatives to your State legislature. Whether individual freedom will be secured for "generations to come and millions yet unborn" will depend upon how the States choose to value the Tenth Amendment. And the path that each State takes can be determined through the voice of its people.

    How can you get involved? Contact the Tenth Amendment Center, through its website. If you have a chapter in your state, contact any of its members. If you don't have a chapter, either volunteer to start one or help recruit someone with the necessary time and skills to organize and run it. If you belong to an organization, such as the Tea Party or any other community organization, request that speakers be invited to talk about the Tenth Amendment, Nullification, Interposition, Judicial Activism, the Constitution and Original Intent, and other such topics.

    Educate, educate, educate. The most important thing you can do is become educated! You will find educational articles and updates on my blogsite, on the Tenth Amendment Center website, and on the (http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/)

    Finally, follow my blogsite - Tenth Amendment Keepers and the Facebook site of the same name.

    Together, we must Keep the Tenth Amendment relevant.