Thank you for being willing to invest your time in writing Letters to the Editors!
Anytime an article is written about Convention of States, it will project a tone. Convention of States has CORE values which positively impacts those to whom we come in contact.
The gold standard is to always project positive non-partisan messaging. After all, Article V restores hope of engaging the peaceful solutions to our Nation's structural flaws!
Our writing also reflects those CORE values.
COS's goal of building the largest grassroots army of self-governance is underlying all actions taken, including when we try to get our Resolution passed to restore our Republic.
When writing, the gold standard is to always keep the mission in mind.
Here are some samples that provide support as you embark on your journey. Please submit your Letters to the Editor to the State Communications Coordinator for content editing to make sure it aligns with the mission. Each paper has its own requirements as to word counts, so these samples are comprised in different lengths.
If you prefer to use one of these samples as your Letter to the Editor, you do not need to send your draft to the State Communications Coordinator. Simply copy one, and submit it.
As with all Letters to the Editors, please send a picture of your article [horizontal on your cell phone is fine, even if you need to take a few pictures to capture the entire article] to the State Communications Coordinator when they publish it, so that we can track which towns have been positively influenced by you!
Thank you for your dedication in trying to get the word out about Convention of States!!
Sample Letter to the Editors
1. Dear Editor,
During these uncertain times, I'm reminded of a quote I read by John Adams: "We are a government of laws, not men."
This forces me to humbly place my biases aside, turn off the noise of social media echo chambers, and focus on the understanding of balance, social equality, and a difference between a constitutional republic and a democratic civil society.
I propose we look toward the very document that our laws were built upon. The United States Constitution formed our nation's government, and now we can call upon it for healing.
Article V of the United States Constitution reminds us that Congress will set the time and place of our first meeting, but then we can gather without the Congress’ interference and hash amendment proposals out amongst ourselves. All of us need to act like grown-ups, again.
We have before us an opportunity through due process to call for an Article V convention. So far, 19 states have passed the proposal through a grassroots movement. This convention of states is not to be confused with a constitutional convention. A constitutional convention creates a brand-new constitution. I am instead asking your help in restoring our existing Republic to the original intended purpose-a limited federal government!
I am suggesting we use the directives in Article V of the US Constitution, which our founders unanimously designed for any time the federal government goes outside of its scope. This interstate convention gives state commissioners the ability to talk and select words for amendment proposals on pre-determined topics. Proposals coming back from this sovereign-state convention require the state legislatures to ratify.
A convention of states would be the process of gathering the union together in one room and finding compromise by building upon and furthering the very thing that defines who we are through the United States Constitution. Congress has proposed all amendments thus far, but “We the People” have the same right to propose. Since history has shown that Washington has not reined themselves in, now is the time to use the second part of Article V.
A Convention of states gives us the detour for non-partisan compromise, where the future of our nation doesn't have to depend on who wins between left or right, but how the states can work together through due process. The ultimate objective of a convention of States would be an open forum based on the three planks of the COS Action Article V proposal: term limits on Congress and federal officials, limits on federal power, and fiscal restraints.
I am compelled to patriotically urge all my fellow New Hampshire citizens and all Americans to visit www.conventionofstates.com and sign the petition. Please contact your State Representatives to pass the resolution calling for an Article V Convention of States.
Thank you for reading.
2. There’s a nationwide movement to call a Convention of States which can propose constitutional amendments that will limit the scope, power, and jurisdiction of the federal government, and return stolen authority back to the states.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Colonel George Mason feared that our Federal government might someday get out of control, and insisted on adding this Article V provision. This constitutional tool gives authority to state legislatures to bypass the Federal government and fix major problems.
I have signed the COS petition to my state legislators because I am concerned about the future of our country. If you share my concerns, please learn more and sign the petition to your state legislators, at www.conventionofstates.com.
3.Dear Editor, the federal government has grown too large; they have flooded local governments with regulations and mandates. They’ve left us and our posterity with a crippling federal debt. With all this overregulation we’ve given up our choices– we’ve given up our liberty! Let’s stand up and say, “We’ve had enough!”
The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
If thirty-four (34) states call for a Convention of States, as outlined in Article V of the Constitution, the states can propose amendments to the Constitution. Think of the possibilities which will never take place today in Washington, DC.
1) State and federal powers could be more clearly enumerated.
2) Term limits could be set for Congress and federal officials.
3) A balanced budget amendment and fiscal restraints could be proposed.
Any proposed amendment would require the approval of three-quarters of the states. The Convention of States is the final safeguard left to us by our Founding Fathers who knew that one day we may need to impose fiscal restraints or limit the powers of the federal government.
Use it … or lose it! Will we continue to lose more liberty? Check out www.conventionofstates.com.
4.Dear Editor, it is time to rein in the federal government. We need fiscal restraints to deal with the exploding national debt of more than $___ trillion. The federal government needs to balance their budget like families across this nation. We also need to rebalance the power between states
and the federal government.
Washington, DC is a bureaucratic maze. In addition to Congressional legislation we have federal agencies publishing so many regulations that it’s like having another branch of the government.
All of this is imposed upon the states and "We the People." Although we have some well-meaning representatives in Washington, they have to deal
with the federal leviathan, the partisan politics and a system where seniority shows favoritism.
Imposing term limits on the servants who come to Washington and never seem to leave is one way to deal with this broken system. Limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government and proposing fiscal restraints, are the solutions to restoring our nation!
How do we do it? Fortunately for us the Founding Fathers anticipated a day when citizens would need to address issues like this. Article V of the
US Constitution allows states to call for a Convention of States where amendments can be proposed. It takes thirty-four states to call the convention and thirty-eight states to approve an amendment to the Constitution.
Go to www.conventionofstates.com to learn more and take action!
5. Today we have a federal government that continues to overstep its bounds. We can’t vote our way out of the mess Washington D.C. has made. We have a runaway bureaucracy, bloated government, massive deficits and well over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. When the
framers wrote the U.S. Constitution in 1787, they knew the people would need to be involved if this republic were to last.
The framers knew it was natural for a government to grow and become oppressive. So, a few days before the Constitution was finalized, the delegates unanimously decided to put a tool in place to bring the government back under control of the states. That tool is the amendment process detailed in Article V. The first method is proposed by congress and the second method is by the states.
Since congress won’t correct itself by bringing the federal government
under control, it is time we used the second part of Article V to make the corrections needed. Go to www.conventionofstates.com and learn about the solution as big as the problem: an Article V Convention of States! It’s time to restore these great United States of America to what our founders intended them to be!
6. Article V of the Constitution has been described as a safety valve put in place by our Founding Fathers. They wisely anticipated that a day would come when the federal government would become too dominant and usurp power that belongs to the states. Article V is the mechanism built into the Constitution to allow the people to take back their power and their rights. We the people can rein in an out-of-control government. Check out www.conventionofstates.com and read about the limited- 3 topics to be discussed using Article V Convention of States, of which 19 states have approved. It’s “a solution as big as the problem."
7. It really doesn’t matter who is in the White House or which party controls Congress; it is the tendency of each of the three branches of the federal government to take more and more authority upon itself and exert more and more control over the states and their citizens. The founders of our republic realized that and wrote the Constitution to limit the powers “We the People” thereby grant to the federal government, to set up checks and balances between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches and to reserve all other powers to the people.
A key element of the Constitution is Article V, which provides that a Convention of States be held upon application of at least two-thirds of the states, to propose amendments to the Constitution. Such amendments then become the Supreme Law of the Land if ratified by at least three-fourths of the states.
The federal government has grown ever larger and more powerful over the years, and it has long been evident that there is a need to amend the Constitution to limit the federal government, restore checks and balances and return usurped powers to the states.
To learn more, go to www.convenionofstates.com, sign the petition, and help make a difference!
8. “Laws With Loopholes”
One doesn’t have to look far beyond today’s headlines to find evidence that the federal government has successfully inserted itself into virtually every crack and crevice of our daily lives. Many of us who are self-proclaimed “constitutionalists” call out our elected officials, admonishing them for not adhering to the limitations of the Tenth Amendment, wherein the powers not specifically delegated to the Federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the States.
So, after how many years of “admonishment,” how’s that worked out? Simply pointing to existing law and demanding compliance is not enough.
The Supreme Court looks at existing law and exploits it every day, finding loopholes in the beautiful but often vague and ambiguous language of the Constitution, creating more power and broader authority for the Federal
government, power that the Founders never envisioned nor intended, allowing interference in public education, land use and building codes, water resources, energy production, medical and health issues, lending practices, the possession and sale of firearms, and voting rights, just to
name a few.
Those loopholes can be closed, the language can be clarified, and the original intent of the Framers of that great document can be restored. Can be, but never will… at least not by Congress.
It can be done, however, according to Article V of the Constitution, by the people in the states, with full transparency in the free marketplace of ideas… an Article V Convention of States led by our locally-elected state legislators, the government closest to “We, the People.”
Take action today! Join the movement at www.conventionofstates.com.
9. “A Simple Test”
Over 2. centuries ago, the Founders of this nation created a new form of governance and enshrined its tenets in our Constitution. That document not only set forth the individual rights of each citizen, but it also established the federal government and charged it with defending and protecting those rights.
There are those today who would accuse our federal government of overreaching its authority, who say that it’s out of control, who complain that Washington, D.C., is no longer responsive to the wants and needs of the states.
Well, here’s a quick test for the accuracy of those charges – ask yourself if the majority of the most recent actions of the federal government have been, as required by the Constitution, to defend and protect the rights of its citizens, or have the majority of its actions been to limit them, to diminish them, to reduce or abridge them?
If your honest answer is the same as mine, then you’ll be relieved to know that the Founders of this great nation predicted that this day would come, that in its drive to amass centralized power, the federal government would eventually place itself beyond the reach of the states.
Thankfully, they provided a remedy – Article V – to be used by the state legislatures to cure any defects identified during the course of self-governance. Article V gives our state legislators the power and the responsibility to remind the federal government that it is a creation of the states, that its legitimacy emanates entirely from the states, and that its authority and its ultimate existence is derived wholly from the consent of the governed.
Please take a moment, if you haven’t already, and inform yourself on this critical matter by examining the information provided at www.conventionof states.com, and join the movement. Then pick up the phone or send off an email informing your state representative that you support an Article V Convention of States, and that you encourage him or her to support
any legislation that helps keep NH on the growing list of states determined to reign in the federal government.
10. “Remembering Patrick Henry”
“Give me liberty, or give me death!” That was Patrick Henry’s hope two centuries ago for our new American form of government, a constitutional republic. Today, given what we’re seeing as Washington’s priorities, many of us have sadly resigned ourselves to the belief that we will probably see death before we see liberty.
If there’s one thing that the American citizenry needs to be reminded of, it’s that “We the People” in the states deliberately joined together to create the federal government in the first place. Washington, D.C., did not exist until it was created by our Constitution, by the independent sovereign states.
The Founders expected us to be ever-vigilant, to ensure that, in exchange for its existence, our federal government never strayed outside the enumerated powers enshrined in that Constitution.
To assist us in meeting that tremendous responsibility, they drafted Article V, empowering state legislators to join together and instruct Congress to call a Convention of States to propose amendments to the Constitution, if and when the need became obvious.
One such amendment, if proposed at Convention and then later ratified by the state legislatures, could impose maximum term limits on all federal officials and forever change the incessant insanity that is Washington, D.C., no matter which party is at the helm.
In their wisdom, the Founders wisely anticipated the day when the federal government would fail or refuse to respond to the demands of the states. They left us Article V to repair the defects in government perceived by We the Governed. They placed their trust in us… their confidence…
their faith. To do anything less is to dishonor their legacy.
Inform yourself at www.conventionofstates.com and join the movement. Then call your elected state representatives and urge their support for an Article V Convention of States.
