During this Constitution Week we at COSA are encouraging everyone to not merely read the Constitution, but to study it -- just as John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, advised all citizens.
Knowledge of the Constitution and its architects is important when articulating the mission of COS to legislators, allies, and potential supporters alike. Recent examples include COSA senior advisor and co-founder Michael Farris in front of the Ohio state legislature, and the appearance of Georgetown University law professor and originalist Randy Barnett on "COS Live" in August.
There is perhaps no finer example of the fruits of such study as the exhaustive research of the Constitution and the men who framed it that was conducted by Abraham Lincoln while he prepared for his exemplary February 27, 1860, speech at Cooper Union In New York City.
Lincoln's law partner in Springfield, Illinois, William H. Herndon, vividly described Lincoln's labor: "He searched through the dusty volumes of congressional proceedings in the State library, and dug deeply into political history. He was painstaking and thorough in the study of his subject."
Lincoln researched with a view to answering and refuting arguments made in favor of popular sovereignty by his most notable political foe, Stephen Douglas, to whom Lincoln lost in the 1858 Senate election in Illinois. Lincoln zeroed in on an essay that Douglas had published in Harper's magazine, in addition to several speeches Douglas had made.
The brilliance of Lincoln's address was in its simplicity. He found the facts. How did the Framers vote? What did they say about the subject of slavery and the federal role in its expansion or constriction in accordance with the Constitution which, as Douglas himself said, "framed the government under which we live"?
Of course, Lincoln did this without the easy and convenient clicks of a mouse. He did not even have the luxury of a private secretary or research assistant. Amid his mining the Illinois State Library and other resources he could unearth in Springfield, Lincoln kept several political speaking engagements and tried cases.
Lincoln electrified the Cooper Union audience. His speech, a tightly composed argument that the Constitution forms the government, and that a significant majority of the framers opposed the expansion of slavery, instantly transformed him from a regional figure of note to a serious contender for the presidency.
Our study of the Constitution, its framers and the votes and views of those framers, may not enable supporters of COS to compose and deliver exquisite equivalents to Lincoln's Cooper Union address or set us on a path to the White House.
But such study -- particularly of the proceedings of the 1787 convention and its yield that we observe this week -- will arm us with the facts as they pertain to Article V. In fact, we can consult many of the same sources that Lincoln did, most notably Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention, to revisit how delegate George Mason made sure that Article V made its way into the Constitution:
Col: Mason urged the necessity of such a provision. The plan now to be formed will certainly be defective, as the Confederation has been found on trial to be. Amendments will therefore be necessary, and it will be better to provide for them, in any easy, regular and Constitutional way than to trust to chance and violence. It would be improper to require the consent of the Natl Legislature, because they may abuse their power, and refuse their consent on that very account…”
Debate continued. Roger Sherman of Connecticut suggested a plan by which Congress would propose amendments for ratification by the states. But Mason, ever the critical skeptic of overarching centralized power, would not be moved. Again, from Madison’s Notes:
“Col: Mason thought the plan of amending the Constitution exceptionable & dangerous. As the proposing of amendments is in both the modes to depend, in the first immediately, and in the second ultimately, on Congress, no amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the Government should become oppressive, as he verily believed would be the case.”
As COSA co-founder and president Mark Meckler is fond of pointing out, the clause of Article V that enables the people to take part in the amendment process was so clearly appropriate that the delegates didn't even bother debating it.
So armed, we can much the better state our case for calling an Article V convention in every legislature in the land, at fairs, and local meetings. In the course of stating that case, we can embody the spirit of Lincoln's call to action at Cooper Union:
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
Constitution Week seems a most appropriate time to emulate Lincoln's study of the Constitution and heed his call to dare to do our duty. Please sign the petition below to add your name to our grassroots effort to reclaim self-government, and reacquaint yourself with the Constitution and the men who framed it.
