OUR UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION Too Important to Be Left in the Hands of LAWYERS
By Joan Hough
The great Southern GENIUS- Historian, Dr. Clyde Wilson, in his text From Union to Empire, carefully elucidates for us constitutional questions of tremendous importance. He informs us that a piece of ancient folklore still existing today erroneously declares that our U.S. Constitution is in the “special keeping of lawyers.”
[How can we think this anything but Lawyers’ propaganda?]
Wilson advises us that the Framers did not intend for the Constitution to be a mere legal document—that very few of the Constitution’s framers were practicing lawyers. The Founders were owners of large estates, or plantations or they were preachers or teachers or merchants on a large scale. Some, of course, were trained in law. Law, however, was not a highly-respected profession, but was thought to be a useful study enhancing one’s ability to handle personal property and participate in the life of the community,
For our greatly needed edification, Wilson explains that our Constitution was not seen by educated Americans, including its framers, as it is touted to be today—a tool of federal judges drawn from of lawyers and professors disinterested in the traditions of liberty and order, concerned primarily with big business and left-wing interests. The Constitution was not seen as a legal document to be interpreted only by folks who argue cases for pay or by people who teach others how to argue for pay. U.S. citizens once recognized the Constitution as what it is, a political document.
Through the 14th Amendment and the usurpations of all three branches of the central government, the Constitution has changed and continues changing. But change is not a justifiable reason for the Supreme Court to be allowed to be the arbiter of such change. Such was not the role of the Court determined by the Founders.
Original intent should be determined not by “legal reasoning and legal tradition”, or by “democratic philosophy on individual “rights, but by “reference to the historical record.” Wilson advises us that this record of history is not a professional historian’s history, but a people’s history –by tradition—a widely shared understanding handed down from generation to generation. The Constitution rests upon the consent of the people, so it is the people who have the right to determine its intent. All arguing that this is unworkable are declaring that democracy and federalism are unacceptable.
The Constitution that requires a bringing back to life, is that one ratified in 1787-1788 and not the
one “invented and refounded” in the 19th century as part of the development of a commercial republic, a Constitution under which lawyers formed an aristocracy.
[Some thoughtful Americans contend that if only the Constitutional Amendments added since the 1860s were erased, our national future would be greatly improved.] ONE THING FOR SURE, NO POLITICIAN SHOULD HOLD A SEAT IN THE U.S. CONGRESS UNLESS HE UNDERSTANDS THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION, the reasons behind its words and the protections and rights it guarantees to each of us, the citizens, and to our individual states. Every amendment that has not been legally ratified should be erased; every amendment that fulfils the goals of the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO should be eliminated.]
The great Southern GENIUS- Historian, Dr. Clyde Wilson, in his text From Union to Empire, carefully elucidates for us constitutional questions of tremendous importance. He informs us that a piece of ancient folklore still existing today erroneously declares that our U.S. Constitution is in the “special keeping of lawyers.”
[How can we think this anything but Lawyers’ propaganda?]
Wilson advises us that the Framers did not intend for the Constitution to be a mere legal document—that very few of the Constitution’s framers were practicing lawyers. The Founders were owners of large estates, or plantations or they were preachers or teachers or merchants on a large scale. Some, of course, were trained in law. Law, however, was not a highly-respected profession, but was thought to be a useful study enhancing one’s ability to handle personal property and participate in the life of the community,
For our greatly needed edification, Wilson explains that our Constitution was not seen by educated Americans, including its framers, as it is touted to be today—a tool of federal judges drawn from of lawyers and professors disinterested in the traditions of liberty and order, concerned primarily with big business and left-wing interests. The Constitution was not seen as a legal document to be interpreted only by folks who argue cases for pay or by people who teach others how to argue for pay. U.S. citizens once recognized the Constitution as what it is, a political document.
Through the 14th Amendment and the usurpations of all three branches of the central government, the Constitution has changed and continues changing. But change is not a justifiable reason for the Supreme Court to be allowed to be the arbiter of such change. Such was not the role of the Court determined by the Founders.
Original intent should be determined not by “legal reasoning and legal tradition”, or by “democratic philosophy on individual “rights, but by “reference to the historical record.” Wilson advises us that this record of history is not a professional historian’s history, but a people’s history –by tradition—a widely shared understanding handed down from generation to generation. The Constitution rests upon the consent of the people, so it is the people who have the right to determine its intent. All arguing that this is unworkable are declaring that democracy and federalism are unacceptable.
The Constitution that requires a bringing back to life, is that one ratified in 1787-1788 and not the
one “invented and refounded” in the 19th century as part of the development of a commercial republic, a Constitution under which lawyers formed an aristocracy.
[Some thoughtful Americans contend that if only the Constitutional Amendments added since the 1860s were erased, our national future would be greatly improved.] ONE THING FOR SURE, NO POLITICIAN SHOULD HOLD A SEAT IN THE U.S. CONGRESS UNLESS HE UNDERSTANDS THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION, the reasons behind its words and the protections and rights it guarantees to each of us, the citizens, and to our individual states. Every amendment that has not been legally ratified should be erased; every amendment that fulfils the goals of the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO should be eliminated.]