The United Cape Patriots (UCP), a local group of Constitutional educators, has recently endorsed Convention of States Massachusetts! Below is the group's endorsement statement:
Our principles and philosophy being strongly aligned, the United Cape Patriots support the efforts of the Convention of States (COS) movement in Massachusetts and throughout the republic.
The United States Constitution established a limited government of ordered liberty in which the citizens are sovereign.
The Founders of our republic who drafted the finest document for self-government ever devised were not arrogant enough to think it perfect.
Article V of the Constitution provides the mechanisms for amending that document. Founding Father George Mason insisted that Article V include a clause by which the people, acting through their state legislatures, could bypass Congress to call a convention of states to propose amendments when they believed it necessary.
As James Madison wrote in his Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, Mason thought that, to amend or propose amendments, "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."
Congress and the federal government have long abused their power. Seldom a day goes by when elected representatives and unelected bureaucrats do not act in an unconstitutional or extra-constitutional manner.
The COS movement and UCP believe it necessary to call a convention for the limited purpose of proposing amendments such as congressional term limits and federal spending limits to blunt such abuse and re-establish the sovereignty of the people.
COS is nonpartisan, recognizing and respecting that limited republican government benefits citizens of all political stripes--and those who do not affiliate on a partisan basis. COS and UCP heed the prescient warnings issued by President Washington concerning the dangers of factionalism outlined in his invaluable Farewell Address.
COS is the embodiment of grassroots organization and action. It is a voluntary association whose leaders and supporters are motivated by love of country and constitutional order, and who work directly with one another and their state legislators to urge support for and passage of resolutions calling for a convention of states.
While it is true that the national COS leadership and its many supporters are well-known, those individuals would be the first to say that the work is done at the local and state level in the form of meetings, rallies, letters to and phone calls with legislators, and presenting testimony in state capitols.
Such active engagement between the sovereign and their representatives is precisely what the Founders had in mind -- "A republic, if you can keep it" -- and is republican government in its purest form.
UCP supports the COS effort to restore limited government and the sovereignty of the people of the United States as our Founders intended, and believe, as Mason believed:
"In all our associations; in all our agreements, let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim -- that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently derived from, the people. We should wear it as a breastplate and buckle it as our armour."
We hope you will consider partnering with us and UCP in our efforts to pass the COS resolution in our great Commonwealth. It's patriots like you who make the difference.
