State's Rights Tour

Well, I went last night to see Ray McBerry speak again. If you aren’t aware of who he is, he is a Republican candidate for Governor that believes the 10th Amendment is a very valuable thing. He spoke about a topic that is purpose of this blog. It regarded Chisholm v. Georgia (1793). I heard him mention this in a previous speech, but this time it caught my attention and wanted to find out for myself. So, I did a little research to verify my facts. This case involves State’s Rights and just what the intent of the Constitution was, at the time it was written.
Now, because I am human, I have been recently saying that Thomas Jefferson was the writer of the Constitution. That was completely untrue and I didn’t think that through when I said it at the time. Afterall, I did have an education and failed to apply it at the time I said it. The reality is Thomas Jefferson is the father of the Declaration of Independence. It’s James Madison that is to be credited for the writing of the Constitution. Well, recently, someone of the opposing viewpoint showed me a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to James Madison. This letter, to sum it up, states that Thomas Jefferson believed that the Constitution should be re-written every 19 years. It was his belief that it becomes outdated every generation and should be “updated” as such. Here is a link to it if you’d like to read it for yourself: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s23.html
Through further research, I found that Madison opposed this viewpoint citing that the Constitution is a permanent document and the Amendment process is what should be used instead of a complete re-write. In order to do this, you would require 2/3 of both houses of Congress and then 3/4 of State Legislatures to approve it in order for it to become law. The other option is through a Constitutional Convention. This is conducted by actual citizens of the states instead of their legislature. This has only been used once, to abolish the 18th Amendment. The rest were used by the first mentioned process.
Sorry to go off on a tangent like that. So, let’s get back to the issue at hand. I hear so many people on the left (and even some on the right) talk about how either the Constitution is outdated, that the Federal Government is the supreme power in this country, or that we don’t really know what our Founding Fathers intended when the Constitution was ratified. So, Ray McBerry pointed to this one particular case (Chisholm v. Georgia) to help guide our question. Here is a summary of what took place:

An Alexander Chisholm from South Carolina, in the fall of 1792, filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a merchant who wanted payment for goods/services that the state failed to pay. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state to appear before it to hear the case. The state failed to appear, with the State Legislature citing that they were not required to appear before the court in cases that they had not approved themselves. Well, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff and ordered the state to pay the money they owed. Now, keep in mind, this was in 1792-1793. This was only 3-4 years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified. All of the legislators in Georgia were the original legislators that ratified the Constitution. They believed there was no Constitutional power granting the federal government to require this. Well, we were not the only state that became outraged over this. As a matter of fact, the entire country did and eventually passed the 11th Amendment to the Constitution as a way of overturning the Supreme Court’s decision on this matter.
As a response, the Georgia State Legislature made the point that they do not report to the Federal Government, but that the Federal Government reports to the states. They went on to say, further, that any Federal marshal who attempted to levy upon the property of Georgia in executing the court’s order shall be, “guilty of felony, and shall suffer death, without the benefit of clergy, by being hanged.” They never had to pay the money and the federal government could do nothing to enforce their findings thanks to the 11th Amendment.

This was all done during a time when the Founding Fathers were still in charge and, thus, showed their intent for the Constitution. It’s contrary to today’s popular opinion that the U.S. Federal Government is the final power. The reality is, the 10th Amendment was put in place, before the 11th, showing that if it is not specifically stated in the Constitution, then it is up to the states to decide individually. It also shows that the Federal Government reports to the states and not the other way around. These things of note brought me back to my original opinion that Healthcare Reform, the Department of Education, the Federal Reserve System, and other frivolous processes that have been put in place over the years are, in fact, Un-Constitutional and should be overturned/prevented.