It Was COUNTRIES That Ratified The Constitution NOT Agent-States

Mandeville, LA – INTRODUCTION: The men that wrote the Constitution never conceived or perceived that the army would be used to maraud the planet.  They never thought of it like that because to them, the war-powers granted under Article I, Section 8 were for defense. As James Madison put it whilst pondering this subject while reviewing the nascent history of the Union under the Constitution.

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ12 of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Maybe Madison sensed that John McCain would someday be 13 electoral votes from the Presidency or that Bush and Obama would occupy it because he added a coda, just to make certain his point was not misunderstood.

“Those truths are well established. They are read in every page which records the progression from a less arbitrary to a more arbitrary government, or the transition from a popular government to an aristocracy or a monarchy.”

This is why the War Powers clauses of the Constitution are written as they are.  They were meant for self-defense, as a mechanism to defend in case the Brits decided they wanted to reclaim Boston or or the likeng.

Begin Mike Church Show Exclusive Transcript and Audio

Mike:  Let’s just go over this.  Let’s get to the war power clauses, Article I, Section 8:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; [Mike: In other words, you’re not supposed to have a standing army.]

To provide and maintain a Navy; [Mike: It’s the navy of the union, of the United States. Here’s an easier way to say it: these United States.]

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

[end reading]

Mike:  The men that wrote the Constitution never conceived or perceived that the army would be used to maraud the planet. They never thought of it.  This is why the clause is written the way it’s written.  It was meant as self-defense, as a mechanism to defend in case the Brits decided they wanted to reclaim Boston or something.

[reading]

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

[end reading]

Mike:  There was furious debate over this in the State of Virginia over this clause here.  Why do you want to grant to Congress, Mr. Madison, the power to regulate the militia?  As Madison said: Look, if we’re going to have an organized army, if we’re going to call together an army because we’ve been invaded, our experience during the Revolutionary War says we need to have a uniform rule for their conduct.  You can tell them to do whatever you want when they’re drilling in your state.  You can have any manner of prescriptions you want.  When they get called into the service of the United States, then we reserve the right to train them.  That’s what that clause says.  This stuff is not difficult.  It is not difficult.

Let’s just imagine for a moment that Virginia is invaded.  I don’t know how it happens, but the French have decided they’re going to invade Chesapeake.  They storm up past the Coast Guard, past the Navy, past the land forces at Portsmouth and Newport News.  They storm up the James River and land somewhere a little west of Portsmouth and they begin their land invasion.  What’s the first line of defense?  What’s the first line of defense supposed to be?  Today you would call it the National Guard.  Governor McAuliffe would call out the National Guard and then he would say: Hey, Congress, I need help.  The French have invaded.  And they brought bad wine with them and horrible cheese.  Help!  Then an army would be mobilized from the states.

Think of it.  Virginia has been invaded.  It probably wouldn’t require troops from California.  This is a federal system.  It might require some help from North Carolina.  It might require some help from West Virginia.  It might require some help from Maryland or South Carolina or Kentucky.  This is how this is supposed to work.  They did not conceive of or perceive of the idea of armies being dispatched hither and yon to invade, conquer, and allegedly make life better.  The broken windows theory for foreign policy.  They didn’t perceive of it.

For those that say [mocking] “They’re in 1787.  I love the Constitution, but I don’t love that version of it,” then you don’t love the Constitution.  There is a theory in constitutional law that held all the way up until the current deceit began, which you could say is the beginning of the Progressive era.  By the way, it’s no coincidence that Our Lady, Mother Mary, came to Fatima at about the time that the Progressive era was getting started, no coincidence.  This theory holds that the people that ratify a law, say they ratify a constitution, whatever it is that the people that ratify that constitution, whatever they believe they are ratifying, that is the law.  You people that are lawyers, you know this.  You’re ratifying a compact.  You’re ratifying what the understanding is.  You can have lawsuits over it because you disagree, which is why we have an Article III judiciary.  It’s called ratified intent.  The ratifier is the law giver.  I’m not making this up.  This is an old legal principle.

To the charge that the states are not countries and they could not possibly have been countries, let’s investigate this.  June 26, 1788, here is the ratification statement from the State of Virginia.  Let’s stick with Virginia for a moment.  I have lots of friends in Virginia.  Many of you people listening to this show live in Virginia.  Hell, half the government workforce lives in Virginia.  This would apply.  Here’s what they said when they ratified the constitution of 26 June 1788.  I’m going to quote this.  I don’t need to embellish it; all I need to do is read it.  By the bye, the Virginia Constitution of 1776 is still in effect.  It was amended in 1829.  It has been amended a couple times after that, most notably against homosexual marriages.  This is still in effect to my knowledge.  As a matter of fact, this was called upon when Virginia seceded in April of 1861.

[reading]

We, the delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recommendation from the General Assembly, and now met in Convention, having fully and freely investigated and discussed the proceedings of the federal Convention, and being prepared, as well as the most mature deliberation hath enabled us, to decide thereon, Do, in the name and in 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, be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power, not granted thereby, remains with them, and at their will; that, therefore, no right, of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by the Congress, by the Senate or House of Representatives, acting in any capacity, by the President, or any department or officer of the United States, except in those instances in which power is given by the Constitution for those purposes; and that, among other essential rights, the liberty of conscience and of the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by any authority of the United States.

With these impressions, with a solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts for the purity of our intentions, and under the conviction that whatsoever imperfections may exist in the Constitution ought rather to be examined in the mode prescribed therein, than to bring the Union into danger by a delay, with a hope of obtaining amendments previous to the Ratification,—

We, the said delegates, in the name and behalf of the people of Virginia, do, by these presents, assent to and ratify the Constitution, recommended on the seventeenth day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, by the federal Convention, for the government of the United States; hereby announcing to all those whom it may concern, that the said Constitution is binding upon the said people, according to an authentic copy hereto annexed, in the words following.

Done in Convention this twenty Sixth day of June one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.

[end reading]

Mike:  What does that say?  It says that the people of Virginia ratify the Constitution and grant the new general government only the powers that are contained in the document, none others, and reserve the right to resume those powers should Congress ever abuse them.  What kind of an entity could make a statement like that, ladies and gentlemen?  What kind of entity, a Kiwanis Club?  What kind of entity, a BPOE club?  What kind of entity, a fraternity?  Only a sovereign entity, only an entity that had the power to enact and the will to enforce could make such a statement.  In other words, the State of Virginia.  What’s the State of Virginia?  It’s the people of Virginia, geographically consecrated together as Virginians.

If you read the transcript — all you have to do is listen to Patrick Henry speeches in my movie Spirit of ’76.  You’ll hear Henry over and over again continue to refer to: If you make the citizens of this country submit to the laws of this constitution, your government will not have sufficient energy to keep them together.  Over and over again he refers to country.  George Mason refers to country.  Madison refers to country.  Heck, you can read Jefferson’s draft of the Kentucky Resolutions and you can see this concept that Virginia was a State.  It was a country.  I don’t make this stuff up because I like to hear myself think or like to hear myself talk.  I present it to you so that you’ll have the facts as they are to be understood, not the way we want to understand them.  There’s a fundamental difference here.  [mocking] “You always go to Virginia.  Can you give us another example?”  I most certainly can.  Let’s go to South Carolina, shall we?  South Carolina, 23 May 1788, ratification of the Constitution.  Here’s what the South Carolinians said:

[reading]

In Convention of the people of the state of South Carolina, by their representatives, held in the city of Charleston, on Monday the 12^th day of May, and continued by divers adjournments to Friday, the 23d day of May, Anno Domini 1788, and in the 12^th year of the independence of the United States of America.

[end reading]

Mike:  Gee, why would they put “independence of the United States” plural?  Why wouldn’t they just put independence of America if it was one gelatinous blob of America and there weren’t separate countries agreeing to this Constitution gizmo, huh?  Can any of you answer that?  Here, let me answer that for you.  There is no answer, or the answer is previously stated, because they ratified as a country.  Continuing:

[reading]

The Convention, having maturely considered the Constitution, or form of government, reported to Congress by the Convention of Delegates from the United States of America, and submitted to them by a resolution of the legislature of this state, passed the 17^th and 18^th days of February last, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of the said United States, and their posterity, — Do, in the name and behalf of the people of this state, herby assent to and ratify the said Constitution.

[end reading]

Mike:  What entity can ratify a binding government upon their people, especially one that comes externally?  How can you bind an external government?  You’re doing this voluntarily.  Congress isn’t forcing them to do this.  No authority on Earth could have forced them to do it.  Under what authority then could they ratify?  They ratified under the authority of, the State of South Carolina was operating as the country of South Carolina.  They didn’t have to ratify.  You’ll also note that when Rhode Island didn’t ratify we didn’t invade and attack them.  When North Carolina went to ratify, the vote was nay the first time around.  They said: No, we don’t trust Congress.  We don’t trust little Jimmy Madison.  They said no.  If it was one gelatinous blob of America, then the Constitution would have been binding.  Hey, a majority voted to ratify, cats, too bad!

So North Carolina was operating as what they it wasn’t in the union?  Answer the question.  What were they operating as?  The country of North Carolina.  This is not difficult to understand, but it is essential to understand.  If we don’t understand this, you can’t possibly have any hope.  And I will quote you “conservatives” out there.  You can’t possibly have any hope of “getting back to the Constitution” because you don’t understand how it’s supposed to work.  The perversion that we suffer under today is not how it’s supposed to work.

End Mike Church Show Transcript