CONSTITUTION DAY—SEPT. 17, 1787: CAN IT SURVIVE IN 2013?

By Attorney Rees Lloyd

September 17, 2013

NewsWithViews.com

The question facing America as the Constitutional Convention deliberated from May to September, 1787, was what kind of country the Founding Fathers would create for the nation which had won its freedom in a war of independence from England from 1775 until the Treaty of Paris in 1883, led by Commander-in-Chief and later President General George Washington, then and now the Greatest American.

The answer in 1787 was a constitutional republic of limited central (or "federal") government restrained in its authority to certain enumerated powers. Authority for governance except for matters expressly enumerated as held by the central government was to remain with the states and "the people," as would be expressly commanded by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments which would follow with the adoption of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791.

The question facing America on September 17, 2013, is whether Americans can keep the free constitutional republic of limited central government powers created under the leadership of the Founding Fathers.

Or, whether America shall continue to be transformed under the leadership of self-declared liberal "Progressives" headed by President and Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama, liberal "Progressives" who have declared since the time of Woodrow Wilson that the Constitution is an "outdated 18th Century document," useful for its time but not this time, which therefore should be discarded and replaced in the 21st Century by their "progressive" ideology of an "Administrative State" in which an elite ruling class of political and academic "experts" heading central (federal) government bureaucracies will create an American utopia, from food stamps to foreign policy.

An indication of the liberal "progressives" success in transforming American from the vision of the Founding Fathers into their own liberal "progressive" vision of a soft totalitarian state led by "experts," i.e., themselves, is that on September 17, 2013, few American children in government schools dominated by liberal "progressive" teachers and education bureaucrats, will be taught of the historic importance of September 17, 1787, for our nation, and for the world.

On September 17, 1787, after weeks of often bitter debate by delegates of the States gathered at the Constitutional Convention at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Constitution of the United States, beginning with the words, "We, the People," was signed by thirty-nine of the fifty-five delegates. The world was changed forever as America began its 'great experiment' in self-government.

Never before had a constitution been established in the name of "the People" of a nation, rather than by and in the name of a monarch, a state, or other governmental power. Many of the most erudite thinkers of the so-called "Age of Enlightenment," did not believe that a constitutional republic of limited government "by, for, and of the people" could survive in a broad land containing a large and diverse population. America is still an ongoing experiment in liberty.

The Constitutional Convention had commenced on May 14, 1787, with a challenge to the conscience and integrity of delegates by George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army which had won the Revolutionary war. Washington, then and now the model American patriot, was elected President of the Constitutional Convention by unanimous vote.

"If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the Hand of God," said Washington, who would later become the First President of the United States and be regarded as "the Father of his country."

The delegates were learned American patriots who had studied history deeply to meet the task of creating a constitution fit for a free people. Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence but did not participate in the Constitutional Convention because he was in Paris representing the United States, wrote of the delegates with utmost respect as "a gathering of demigods."

The Constitution the framers wrought in the name of "We, the People," was one creating a government of expressly limited powers – a llimited federal governmment of not a national government of self-expanding powers.

The subsequently adopted "Bill of Rights," contained in the First Ten Amendments, for which the efforts of James Madison earned him recognition as "the Father of the Constitution," begin with five words limiting powers of the federal government over the people:

"Congress shall make no law…," respecting an establishment of religion nor abridging the fundamental rights of free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, of press, of assembly, of petition for redress of grievance. These are rights which the Founding Fathers believed Americans were "endowed by their Creator," as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. That is, the Founders believed these were natural rights, rights granted by the "hand of God, not the hand of a generous government.," as the late President John F. Kennedy would express it.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments reinforced the words "Congress shall make no law…" by mandating thaat the people and the states retained all rights not enumerated as possessed by the central government.

Never before in history had "We, the people," had their natural rights so expressly protected by a constitution so expressly limiting the government as to its powers. By changing the relationship of the people and their government, limiting the power of government and making the retained rights of the people superior, the Founding Fathers changed the world. Ever after, the people of the world who have dreamed of the freedoms of Americans, have looked to the values expressed in the American Declaration of Independence, and the United States Constitution, as a model for liberty in a constitutional republic.

The framers of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers of America, were faced with a great challenge, and they met it. The Constitution which they framed was finally ratified by all states by January 10, 1791. It has now endured for 226 years since it was signed on Sept. 17, 1787.

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"What kind of government have you given us, Mr. Franklin," an American woman asked Founding Father Benjamin Franklin at the close of the convention.

"A republic, Madam," Ben Franklin replied. "If you can keep it."

That, the keeping of the free constitutional republic that the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us, is our challenge.