Wayward Sisters Prove There Was No Blob Of America

North Carolina and Rhode Island Paved The Way

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – “When you read the actual history, not the way the decepticons and the progressive libs want you to read it, when you read the actual history, the conclusions should be unanimous.  We should be able to unanimously conclude, beyond a shadow of a doubt as to the nature of our union.  It would be healthful.”  Check out today’s transcript for the rest….

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

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The ratification of New Hampshire had set in motion the machinery that would activate the Constitution in March 1789. The subsequent ratifications of Virginia and New York carried little impact for our purposes here, since the new government under the Constitution would not be elected until the winter of 1788-89 and would not sit until March 1789. The cases of North Carolina and Rhode Island, however, merit some attention. North Carolina’s Convention had considered the Constitution, and declined to ratify it by a margin of 183-83. In March 1788, the voters of Rhode Island had voted overwhelmingly against even holding a State Convention to consider the new Constitution.

Meanwhile, the old Union ground slowly to a halt. The Continental Congress died in a manner similar to that of a boring dinner party. After enacting ordinances for the transition to the new government under the Constitution, the members gradually drifted away. The last official business was transacted on October 10, 1788. Thereafter, a quorum was not present. November 3 was the last date on which a North Carolina representative was present, and February 12, 1789, was the last time a Rhode Island representative sat.

The new Congress under the Constitution had been directed to assemble on March 4, but it was not until April 1 that a quorum was present.

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Mike:  Imagine this.  The new Congress can’t even get the congressmen to New York.  They weren’t going to Mordor at the time.  They were meeting in New York, and they couldn’t even get them to New York in time, so disinterested were the new members of Congress.  As a matter of fact, little Jimmy Madison was sitting there waiting and writing letters to Jefferson saying what I just told you, how dreadful it was that the new members didn’t show up.  I believe that the Senate actually met before the House, that there were enough senators present in late March to meet, but the House had to wait until April.  So North Carolina and Rhode Island did not elect any members of Congress to the new bicameral Congress.

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The correspondence from the period supports this interpretation.

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Mike:  In other words, if the Declaration had created an indissoluble blob of America, then North Carolina and Rhode Island, even though they didn’t ratify the Constitution, would then be compelled, they would just be de facto part of the new union and they’d have to send members.  People have asked me what the guy from California just asked me before: Mike, what is there that we can do?  I told a caller in Georgia two years ago a solution.  Don’t vote for a congressman.  Don’t hold elections.  Pretty simple.  [mocking] “What do you mean?  We couldn’t do that.”  You can’t be ordered to have an election.  If your state chooses: We’re not going to send members of Congress this year.  We’re out.  We’re done.  You guys in your judiciary and your out-of-control this and your out-of-control that, we can govern ourselves.  We don’t need you.  We’re not going to elect ten or eleven members of Congress.  We’re not going to have elections.  We’re not going to send any new members of Congress.  Do like North Carolina and Rhode Island did.  Your senators would have to serve, I guess could serve out their term.  They’d be wasting their time.

So as the example of North Carolina and the example of Rhode Island show — and I could even go further than this.  The existence of former citizens of the colonies that had moved into what was called at that time the Northwest Territory and may have been living in what is present-day Michigan, present-day Minnesota, present-day Wisconsin — those are all part of the Northwest Territory.  The Constitution acknowledges that there’s a Northwest Territory and that states can be carved out of it, but they don’t have to be carved out of it.  There’s every indication, historically speaking, that the union was and should be regarded as voluntary.  Back to Mr. White from The Imaginative Conservative today.

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During this time, it would seem that North Carolina and Rhode Island were on their own, as independent states. Their votes are not counted in the electoral college of 1788. They elected no representatives to the new bicameral Congress.

The correspondence from the period supports this interpretation. A letter from Edenton, North Carolina, to the editor of the North Carolina State Gazette dated May 4, 1789, stated “Though we are not in the union, we are not the less attentive to all the proceedings of Congress. Some of the regulations proposed in the new revenue bill might be of use to the commerce of this State if we formed part of the Union; as matters are circumstanced, they must injure us greatly.” On May 10, 1789, the Governor and State Council of North Carolina sent President Washington a congratulatory letter after his inauguration. In the letter, Governor Johnston wrote, “though this State be not yet a member of the Union under the new Form of Government, we look forward with the pleasing hope of its shortly becoming such.” [Mike: So they weren’t in the union. They weren’t under the laws of the union.]

Washington responded in kind. Since the North Carolina legislature had just called for a second state convention to consider the Constitution, President Washington wrote to Governor Johnston, “I most earnestly implore the divine benediction and guidance in the Counsels, which are shortly to be taken by their Delegates on the subject of the most momentous consequence, I mean the political relation which is to subsist hereafter between the State of North Carolina and the States now in union under the new general government.” Obviously, Washington and Governor Johnston both considered that North Carolina was not in the Union prior to ratification. [Mike: Nothing could be more clear here, folks.]

As for Rhode Island, Washington’s correspondence also shows that he considered the little state to be out of the Union. In a letter to Governor Morris in October of 1789, Washington wrote, “it is hoped . . . that the non-acceding States will very soon become members of the Union. No doubt is entertained of North Carolina; nor would there be any of Rhode Island, had not the majority of those people bid adieu, long since, to every principle of honor, common sense, and honesty.” Obviously, Washington saw Rhode Island as being out of the Union in October of 1789, although he did not care much for the conduct of the people of that state.

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Mike:  Just amazing stuff here.  When you read the actual history, not the way the decepticons and the progressive libs want you to read it, when you read the actual history, the conclusions should be unanimous.  We should be able to unanimously conclude, beyond a shadow of a doubt as to the nature of our union.  It would be healthful.  [mocking] “What happened to neoconfederate secession?”  I say

it because it would be healthful to reacquire a federal system.  It would be healthful to reacquire federalism and to practice it.  Who knows what the union or unions might look like?  Who knows what other states might be formed if we could get blobism and nationalism off our minds?

FOLKS, a message from Mike – The Project 76 features, Church Doctrine videos and everything else on this site are supported by YOU. We have over 70, of my personally designed, written, produced and directed products for sale in the Founders Tradin’ Post, 24/7,  here. You can also support our efforts with a Founders Pass membership granting total access to years of My work for just .17 cents per day. Thanks for 17 years of mike church.com! – Mike

Jordan was filling in yesterday.  There’s a piece at The Mitrailleuse, a little website that he started.  I’ll link to it in today’s Pile of Prep.  There’s a piece at The Mitrailleuse that’s great reading.  I was reading it during the news break.  Here’s the headline, “We’re Going Back To Iraq And Boy Is It Depressing.”  Yes, boy howdy is it depressing.  If we had a sense of federalism, we’d tell Obama and McCain and the rest of them in certain states: No, we don’t want to go back to Iraq.  You guys want to go fight ISIS?  Have fun.  We’re out.  Then again, some states may rewrite their constitutions, as I’ve exhorted Virginia to do, may put the subsidiarity god clause in that Constitution and might raise themselves a, by designation, Christian army of crusaders.  They may choose to go to the Mideast, to go to Syria, to go to Iraq or wherever their help is requested to go fight ISIS or any other marauding Islamic whackos.  Of course, we have to do everything as a blob.

End Mike Church Show Transcript