The following was written by COS Regional Captain James Peters. This was originally published in The Daily News-Record.
American citizens today know that we have a Constitution, but many have no idea what is in it.
Our U.S. Constitution is made up of seven articles containing 4,543 words and 27 Amendments, or additions to the original Constitution, containing another 3,109 words.
Printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the 27 Amendments are small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.
When the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1787, Virginia Congressional Representative James Madison studied the Constitution’s deficiencies, which had been pointed out by Anti-Federalist George Mason — the leader of those delegates who pressed for the addition of explicit State’s rights and individual rights to the U.S. Constitution.
As a result of his investigation, James Madison crafted a series of 19 corrective proposals or amendments.
The U.S. Senate consolidated and trimmed those 19 down to 12 and submitted them to the states for ratification Sept. 25, 1789.
Of those 12 amendments, the first one had a basic math problem. That amendment detailed a mathematical formula for determining the number of seats in the House of Representatives.
Initially, it required one representative for every 30,000 constituents, with that number eventually climbing to one representative for every 50,000 constituents.
If that first proposed amendment had been ratified, the U.S. House would now consist of 6,702 representatives, instead of the 435 now approved by Congress.
The second of Madison’s 12 amendments forbade Congress from giving itself a pay raise during the current session.
Congress could vote to raise or lower its pay, but it would only take effect after the next Congressional election cycle had completed.
That amendment also failed to gather the required number of state ratifications, but in 1982, Gregory Watson, a university student doing research for a government class, ran across a description of this second amendment proposal and realized that it remained “alive” because it had not included a window of time to gain the needed number of state ratifications.
Watson organized a successful effort to lobby various state legislatures, seeking their ratification of the amendment.
As a result, the needed number was eventually reached and this amendment, first proposed in 1789, became the 27th amendment to the U.S. Constitution on May 5, 1992, 202 years, 7 months, and 10 days after it had been first proposed.
The remaining 10 amendment proposals, called the Bill of Rights, were adopted as a single unit on December 15, 1791.
The Bill of Rights amendments added to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people.
In addition to the Constitution and the 27 Amendments, many people today also consider the Supreme Court interpretations of constitutional law the third and largest part of our Constitution.
The unique position of the Supreme Court stems from the deep commitment of most American citizens to the rule of law.
Our Constitution was a carefully designed and balanced document providing for a national government, sufficiently strong and flexible to meet the needs of the republic, yet sufficiently limited and just to protect the guaranteed rights of its citizens.
When the federal government operates as it was designed by our Founding Fathers, it creates a balance between society’s need for order and our personal freedoms.
Sadly, today our federal government is not operating as designed.
Many of the provisions in our Bill of Rights are being crushed both by our elected officials and by unelected bureaucrats who feel it is their right and duty to tell We the People what we can and cannot do.
In many cases, social media giants are being used by the federal government to crush our freedom of speech.
Some do not want ‘freedom of religion,’ but instead ‘freedom from religion.’
Some want to deny our right to peacefully assemble to voice our grievances to our local school boards.
Some in D.C. would remove every gun from the homes of every law-abiding citizen if given the opportunity.
Some private homes of law-abiding citizens have been raided by the FBI, while top leaders of that agency have allowed known criminals to go free.
Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution says,
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; . . (and) domestic Violence.
We are being invaded at our Southern border, and many cities are daily plagued with domestic violence.
Join the national and statewide grassroots movement by signing the petition at conventionofstates.com. If we work together, it is not too late to save our country.
