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DEMAGOGUES AND PROPHETS
In order to understand the Constitution, we must first understand the foundations upon which the four corners of this sacred document rest. Isaiah warned that “the nation and kingdom that will not serve [God] shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” (Isaiah 60:12) In keeping with His pattern for dealing with His children, God sent political prophets to instruct us and to warn us. Their words have been preserved for us, and today, there are many who are trying to raise the awareness of their words.
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson affirms the design of “Nature’s God” who established our inalienable rights. Madison reiterates this unalterable fact saying that “ALL political institutions” great and small “must be sacrificed” to “the transcendent law of nature and of nature’s God”. Madison, The Federalist Papers Letter 3.
The foremost of God’s political prophets, George Washington, gave us what he termed as “The Great Rule” in his Farewell Address. The Great Rule, he told us, was to have no political connections with the rest of the world and to stay out of their wars and intrigues. Knowing that the hand of the God of Nature was upon the man Washington, every President down to John Quincy Adams adhered to The Great Rule. As celebrated as many of those men were, they were intelligent enough to recognize that the political wisdom that rested upon Washington far exceeded their own.
In 1821, then President John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, warned that if America changed its focus from “liberty to force” then she most likely will “become the dictatress of the world” instead of the beacon on the hill. John Quincy Adams restated The Great Rule this way: America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy”, he declared. Once America becomes involved “in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom,” he warned, then, the “fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.” In other words, if she breaks the Great Rule she will invariably become the monster that she had set out to destroy.
Since the days of LBJ, every President, with perhaps the exceptions of Carter and Ford, has ignored the Great Rule, as well as the Constitution, and has gone overseas in search of monsters to destroy to fight wars of their own making. Each time this has occurred, our attachments to our Founders and our Founding Documents have grown ever fainter. Sadly, the exception has now become the rule, since we no longer care that the Constitution exclusively gives Congress the power to declare war or as Hamilton noted “the whole power of raising armies was lodged in the LEGISLATURE, not in the EXECUTIVE”. Hamilton, The Federalist Papers Letter 24.
The cause of liberty has now been replaced with the well-known mantra—Peace through Strength or as President Adams put it, “force instead of liberty.” Today, we go abroad under the guise of searching out the “monsters” with our allies in the Middle East in order to stop their alleged abuses with the strength of our unmatched military might. Even the All Powerful God of Nature does not rectify every wrong nor prevent every harm. Yet, we go abroad as if we are the omnipotent ones under the pretense of rectifying every injustice in the world. We pay lip-service to the lives we want to save abroad while back at home we allow the killing of millions of our own unborn children. We speak of keeping the world safe for “democracy”, while spending billions upon billions developing weapons of mass destruction. We allow the government to continue to confiscate our right to bear arms while they place the most dangerous and sophisticated guns into the hands of brutal, blood thirsty rebels who murder Christians through beheadings and other atrocities.
Despite the obvious immoralities of his impending action in Syria, Obama is embarking upon an ILLEGAL WAR that will most likely result in the devastation predicted by Isaiah. Obama’s war is illegal for a variety of reasons. First, Jay tells us that there are two just causes for war: “The JUST causes of war, for the most part, arise either from violation of treaties or from direct violence.” Jay, The Federalist Papers Letter 3. Syria has neither violated a treaty with the United States and has committed no direct violence against us.
Secondly, the power to declare war resides exclusively in the 435 members of Congress. (US Const. Art. I, §8, cl 11) It was purposefully done that way because the Founders did not want going to war to be the decision of one individual.
Finally, the Constitution expressly states that one of the main purposes of the Constitution was to “provide for the common defence.” (US Const. Preamble) Hamilton explains that this is one of the four “principal purposes” of the Constitution:
“The principal purposes to be answered by union are these the common defense of the members; the preservation of the public peace as well against internal convulsions as external attacks; the regulation of commerce with other nations and between the States; the superintendence of our intercourse, political and commercial, with foreign countries.” Hamilton, The Federalist Papers Letter 23.
Providing for the Common Defense in no way can be interpreted into going on the offense, nation building, or protecting other citizens of other countries. There simply is NO AUTHORITY for the Congress or the President to go on the offense. Madison, the genius behind the Constitution, explained that the argument to stretch the meaning of this language was a complete “misconstruction”:
“It has been urged and echoed, that the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.” Madison, The Federalist Papers Letter 41.
We live in an age where our country has learned to place its trust in the power of technology; the power and strength of our military; the power of alliances with other nations; and demagogues who go about giving lip service to the idea of righting every wrong and correcting every injustice. Remember that Hamilton warned us that these demagogues always end up as “tyrants”! Hamilton, The Federalist Papers Letter 1.
God gave us this land, and He sent the Founders and inspired them to give us the greatest form of government in the history of the world with the Constitution. This nation needs to turn back to its roots and place our trust in God and the things that He gave us. Isaiah said it best:
“Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. . . Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and LET HIM BE YOUR FEAR, and LET HIM BE YOUR DREAD.” (Isaiah 8:9,12-13)
©September 2013 Demagogues and Prophets, Madame Publius™
