The Case for Liberty and an Article V Convention – Part I

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of the citizens of these United States; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present governing leadership is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.

We are all, or should be, familiar with the foregoing passage from the Declaration of Independence. Except for two subtle changes made in the copy above, it stands as valid in today’s US political environment as it was in 1776.

Our government has become despotic to the point where it is now, or soon will be our duty to throw it off. Those wise men who assented to the Declaration were smart enough to include a method for doing so without guns, death, and destruction when they crafted our current Constitution. It is contained in Article Five.

Article V. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

The U.S. Constitution.

Article V gives the States the right to convene for the purpose of amending the document which gives our Federal Government its power. The states therefore can, by calling for an Article V convention, make the changes necessary to reign in the out of control Leviathan in Washington D.C., before it becomes necessary to defend ourselves from it with arms. This author submits that time is short. It would be to our benefit then, to call on our State lawmakers to make application to Congress for a general Article V convention as quickly as possible.

Part two of this series will cover the grievances which must be addressed and the abuses of power which the citizens of the several States have had to endure. Part three will suggest changes to our governing document which will again limit the power of the Federal Government and take into account some of the realities that were not in evidence 235 years ago. Part four will discuss the necessity of extreme caution in picking our representatives to such a convention, and suggest some possible conferees, and part five will lay out a suggested framework for the convention itself.

At this very moment, a great Patriot named Ernest Lee has embarked on a 1000 Mile March for Liberty from western Tennessee to Washington DC, and though he has not discussed his method for correction, he bears the principles of renewed Liberty and limited central government under his banner. He plans to arrive for a rally to present his grievances on the 2nd of September 2013. They are grievances with which many would agree.

People of like mind and similar concern all over the country are banding together and are frustrated at the rampant lawlessness and dishonesty of our Government, and the rapid erosion of our Liberty. Yet the proper course of action has been unclear. Submitted for your consideration is the remedy set forth by those great men of vision in Article V of the United States Constitution! The time for action is now!