WYOMING, WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!!

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Permalink Reply by Len Woolley on October 12, 2009 at 2:31pm

This is pretty good stuff. Keep in mind, however, the Congress holds two houses. The Senate and the House of Representatives. Together they make up the whole congress. We must not neglect the Senate as a part of Congress.

I have been working with the group "Wyoming Citizens for Liberty and Freedom" in developing a new State Amendment to the Wyoming state constitution that reaffirms the guarrantee by the U.S. Constitution of Wyoming state Sovereignty. The following is an early draft I presented to the group.

September 10, 2009

Attention: Barack Obama - President of these United States of America
Harry Reid - Senate Majority Leader
Nancy Pelosi - Speaker of the House of Representatives
All Members of Congress
All Member States of the United States of America


Where as; the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C. has been acting in direct conflict with the Constitution of the United States;

Where as; the Congress of the United States has, in direct conflict to the Constitution of the United States, been illegally expanding, as well as abusing, the specific enumerated powers granted them by that same Constitution;

Where as; the Congress of the United States has been, both covertly and overtly, usurping the rights and powers of the several states and of the individual citizens of the United States;

The State of Wyoming, at the request of its citizens, and as a Sovereign State within this Republic, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, here-by adds an amendment to its state constitution re-affirming it’s sovereignty within the republic as declared by that same Constitution. In addition, the State of Wyoming declares that it’s citizen’s freedoms and liberties should, and will be protected by the State of Wyoming, just as they should have been, and still should be by the government of the United States of America.


Draft of an Amendment to the Constitution of the State of Wyoming

Due to the increasingly unconstitutional activities of our federal government, the State of Wyoming is amending its constitution to reaffirm its state sovereignty status as is guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. We intend sending the clear message to Washington D.C. that we will not abide by any unconstitutional legislation.

In response to this continuous attitude and behavior of the federal government; i.e. congressional legislation, judicial legislating, and executive orders, the State of Wyoming and its citizens, are also adding this amendment to clarify, stand against, and correct the unconstitutional behavior of the congress and any administration regarding the following items.

Item I. Article I, section 8 of the Constitution of the United States of America sets forth specific powers and responsibilities that are granted to and required of, the federal government. These enumerated powers and responsibilities, as understood, accepted, and exercised, at the time of time of Wyoming’s admittance into the Union, are as follows:

1: The Congress shall have the Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.
2. To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
3. To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
4. To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
5. To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
6. To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States:
7. To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
8. To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Rights to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
9. To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
10. To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
11. To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
12. To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
13. To provide and maintain a Navy;
14. To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
15. To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
17. To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislation of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; - And
18. To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

As was understood by the founders of the constitution, the Federal Government was clearly to be limited in size, function, and power.

James Madison described the division of labor between the states and the federal government as follows:
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite....The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and improvement, and prosperity of the State.
(Federalist Papers, No. 45, pp. 292-93)

Thomas Jefferson made it perfectly clear the mistake of trusting human nature when he wrote:
It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism; free government is founded on jealousy; and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not in confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go......

In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, BUT BIND HIM DOWN FROM MISCHIEF BY THE CHAINS OF THE CONSTITUTION.
(The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, annals of America, 4:65-66)

James Madison was also very concerned with the frailties of human nature. He said:
It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices [as Constitutional chains] should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?.....If angels were to govern men neither external nor internal controls on the government would be necessary. [But lacking these,] in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: YOU MUST FIRST ENABLE THE GOVERNMENT TO CONTROL THE GOVERNED; AND IN THE NEXT PLACE OBLIGE IT TO CONTROL ITSELF.
(Federalist Papers, No. 51, p.322;)

James Madison also wrote:
It is proper to take alarm at the FIRST EXPERIMENT ON OUR LIBERTIES. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. THE FREEMEN OF AMERICA did no wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences [of governmental abuses] in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle [on which the abuses were based].
(Letters and other writings of James Madison, 1:163)

Alexander Hamilton also understood the necessity of the Power of the People when he declared:
The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority .
(Federalist Papers, No. 22, P. 152)

In the Proclamation by the Commonwealth fo Massachusetts on January 23, 1776 is found the following:
It is a maxim that in every government, there must exist, somewhere, a supreme, sovereign, absolute, and uncontrollable power; but this power resides always in the BODY OF THE PEOPLE; and it never was, or can be, delegated to one man, or a few; the great Creator has never given to men a right to vest others with authority over them, unlimited either in duration or degree.

The renown American Historian, John Fiske understood the spirit which guided the founders of the constitution. He also saw the beginnings of some trends leading away from the Founders’ pure basic formula of sound government. These trends lead him to write a prophecy that today’s America ought to review and ponder.
If the day should ever arrive (which God forbid!) when the people of the different parts of our country shall allow their local affairs to be administered by prefects sent from Washington, and when the self-government of the states shall have been so far lost as that of the departments of France, or even so closely limited as that of the counties of England ---- on that day the political career of the American People will have been robbed of its most interesting and valuable features, and the usefulness of this nation will be lamentably impaired.
(John Fiske, The Critical Period fo American History, 1783-1789, The Historical Writings of John Fiske, vol. 12 pp. 282-83)


Item II. The term “General Welfare” has been consistently misrepresented with an effort to expand the powers of the Federal Government. The term, “General Welfare”, in reality, is only a part of a preamble to the listed enumerated powers within Article 1: section 8 and refers to the general welfare of the member states of the union and not to the specific welfare of the individual citizens of the United States. The responsibility for the specific welfare of citizens is reserved for the individual states and for the individual citizens of each state.

Item II. The “Commerce Clause” is, by congress and the federal government generally, one of the most misinterpreted and abused clauses in the constitution.

The word “among” is synonymous with the term “between”. The word “Among” was not intended to restrict or control commerce between the several states, but rather to protect, free, and uninhibite commerce between the several states.
Examples:
1. The restriction of tariffs and duties between states.
2. To protect, allow, and encourage open trade of goods and services between the several states.
a. In opposition to this responsibility congress has forbidden health insurance providers to offer their products across state lines, thereby restricting free and competitive commerce among the several states. This illegal federal action alone is costing the American citizen, collectively, billions of dollars every year and costs insurance providers billions of dollars of competitive market opportunities.
3. To assist and aiding in commerce movement among the states: i.e. inter-state highways, communication, and physical protection of commerce.
4. Other examples can be listed here.


Item IV. Any action by the government that creates positions and/or organizations of power that are not required to answer directly to the people, who are not put in place by an election of the people, or who are not required to be publically vetted by the people’s representatives, shall not be counted as Constitutionally legal.
Examples:
1. Federal Reserve
2. Environmental Protection Agency
3. The administration officers, known as Czars, placed by many past presidents as policy advisors, funding advisors, etc., without any public vetting or oversight

Item V. Any legislation, past, present, or future, based on any illegal expansion of government powers or usurpations of powers left to the states and the citizens by the constitution, should thereby be null and void. While the State of Wyoming is willing to comply to any and all constitutionally legal legislation, it refuses to recognize any legislation that is an illegal expansion of power by the federal government, and/or, the illegal usurpation of the rights, freedoms and powers of the individual citizens or states. Since such legislation is illegal the State of Wyoming will not enforce or give credence to them.

Any attempt by the federal government to force the states of these United State, in particular the State of Wyoming, to comply with such unconstitutional legislation or action as identified above, will be considered an attempt to remove the constitutionally guaranteed sovereignty of the states. Such an attempt will be rejected..

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After reading your piece above I thought this draft may be of interest to your group. I have felt for years that the States and the People needed to take a serious accounting of the constitutional usurpations being taken by the Federal government.

Len Woolley
Thayne, Wyoming
83127
lrwoolley@silverstar.com

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