The Constitution Hanging By a Thread

By Brian Terrill

The reason for the title of this book is simple, of all the people who I have discussed Constitutional issues with, the people who have not read it at all, and/or have an utter disregard for it, the people who are more inclined to argue that the Constitution is an old document subject to interpretation, or is too old to be relevant in our day, have been state and federal workers. Those who have sworn an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. When those who have sworn themselves to uphold the Constitution don’t even know what it says, it’s hanging by a thread, and it is now up to the American people to sow it back together again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365927058

Book preview

The Constitution Hanging By a Thread

The Constitution Hanging By a Thread

By Brian Terrill

Copyright 2017

ISBN #978-1-300-46455-6

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:  The Constitution Hanging by a Thread…………………………………………..page 3

Chapter 2:  The Enumerated Powers of Congress…………………………………………...page 5

Chapter 3:  Nuke em or sing Kumbaya………………………………………………………page 15

Chapter 4:  My Economic Plan………………………………………………………………page 34

Chapter 5:  Attack on Religious Freedom…………………………………………………...page 48

Chapter 6:  My Favorite Bumper Sticker "Fight Organized Crime Abolish the IRS………...page 55

Chapter 7:  In States of Tyranny……………………………………………………………..page 63

Chapter 8:  How to Save the Constitution…………………………………………………...page 67

Chapter 1

The Constitution Hanging by a Thread

During the American Revolution, it became apparent that the Kingdom of Great Britain no longer was willing to follow its own laws and grant basic rights to the colonist in America.  British Subjects to the crown were entitled to all of the rights of representation in their tax laws, they were promised the right of common English law, trial by jury, taxation with representation, and freedom of religion to a certain extent. 

Then after the French and Indian war, Parliament and the king thought that the colonist should pay for the war.  They began to enact tax acts without the consent of the colonist.  This enraged the colonist, so they began to protest.  They were taxed on tea, so they raided ships on Boston Harbor and tossed the tea overboard. 

The British soldiers began to write self-written search warrants on anyone they wanted to search.  King George of Britain and Parliament gave them the stamp act, which required all colonists to have the seal of the King of Great Britain on all of their documents.  To enforce this law, the British soldiers were allowed to search whoever they wished to make sure that whoever it was they were searching was complying with the law. 

Then the Revolution started, the militias of the various colonies fought against the standing military of the British Empire.  George Washington was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the military which was made up of these various colonial militias, and Independence was declared.  Shortly after that, the states drafted their own constitutions, and in 1781 the Articles of Confederation were ratified.  In time, it was felt by many that the Articles were too weak and needed to be either amended or abolished.  So, a Constitutional Convention was held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  After much debate, the Constitution was drafted.  It split the Federal Government into three branches, the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial.  The Legislative branch was divided into two groups; one was the House of Representatives, with the idea that there would be one representative for every 30,000-59,999 people.  The other house in Congress would be the Senate; the Legislators of each state government were to appoint two people to represent that state in the Senate. 

After the Constitutional Convention was held, it was taken to the Confederation Congress where it was passed, and sent to the states for ratification.  During the ratification process, there were many people both for and against ratification.  Those opposed to ratification were known as the Anti-Federalist; those in favor of ratification were known as the Federalist. 

The Anti Federalist argued that the Constitution did not guarantee many of the civil liberties that the State Constitutions guaranteed.  What worried them further was that the Constitution was to take priority over the state Constitutions and become the Supreme Law of the Land. 

Many argued against the Constitution, others argued the need for a Bill of Rights.  As a compromise, the states ratified the Constitution with the agreement to add a Bill of Rights as one of the first acts of Congress. And this happened.  After the Constitution was ratified, James Madison proposed the Bill of

Rights to the House of Representatives.   The Bills of Rights consist of the first ten amendments of the Constitution, though more amendments would follow extending civil liberties to blacks and women, and all other minorities.

In the course of years, it was felt that some things needed to be changed, for example, the Vice President was the guy who came in second up until Thomas Jefferson became the President, and then it was changed.  The Senate was made up of Senators chosen by the State Legislators, but that was changed to so that the people of the states now choose their senators.

Unfortunately, one amendment was adopted that made for the creation of the Income tax and the IRS dictatorship.  Hopefully it will be repealed soon.

The Constitution was created to give law to the law makers, to tell them what they could not touch. 

They could not tell people what church to go to, they could not tell the church how it was to run itself.  They could not tell innocent people to lay down their weapons.  They could not tell people to hand over their papers and effects for no reason (though the IRS does that all the time).  The police could not fine you excessively to fill the coffers of cities and states whose governments in years past refused to control their spending.

The one weakness that the Constitution has is it lacks a punishment for those of government who violate their own laws and ignore the Constitution.  In the future, I hope an amendment will pass that says something to the effect that if Congress, the Executive, or the Courts violate the Constitution, they could be convicted by the voice of the people and subject to imprisonment for the rest of their lives, and the same for state and local governments and their employees.

The reason for the title of this book is simple, of all the people who I have discussed Constitutional issues with, the people who have not read it at all, and/or have an utter disregard for it, the people who are more inclined to argue that the Constitution is an old document subject to interpretation, or is too old to be relevant in our day, have been state and federal workers.  Those who have sworn an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.  When those who have sworn themselves to uphold the Constitution don’t even know what it says, it’s hanging by a thread, and it is now up to the American people to sow it back together again.

Chapter 2

The Enumerated Powers of Congress

While the Constitution deals a lot in administrative issues there is only one place in general where the Constitution spells out the powers that the Federal Government has over the states and people, that is Article 1 Section 8:

The Congress shall have 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;

While Section 8 spells out the powers Congress is given, section 9 severely limits those powers, in regards to taxes it reads:

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

The Census was to be used to determine capitations and direct taxes (such as income taxes) to protect the people from taxation without representation.  Today the census is still used to determine the way in which the seats of the House of Representatives are allocated but because of the 16th amendment, taxes are not determined in that way.  Note that Section 8 also determined that taxes would be uniform throughout the United States.  That power has also been amended by the 16th amendment as well.  Before the 16th amendment was passed, virtually all federal income taxes including those implemented by Abraham Lincoln to fund the Civil War were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.  Time and time again the Congress tried to pass income taxes onto the people and they were struck down by the courts until the 16th amendment was passed.  How did they manage to pass it?  They told the regular folks not to worry; it would only be applied to rich people.  Are you rich?  Do you pay income taxes?  I’m not rich but I do pay income taxes.  This is why we need to be careful of class envy propaganda (on top of it being an idea from Karl Marx)

The final word before moving on, all tax increases must be initiated in the House of Representatives according to Section 7:

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

The current Health Care Bill at the time of this writing, known as Obamacare that was signed by President Obama did not originate in the House of Representatives.  Remember that the House had one bill, the Senate had another.  The House dropped their bill and adopted the Senate’s bill, and then Obama signed it.  The bill did not originate in the House, and it does raise taxes, it is therefore unconstitutional on those grounds alone.  Yes, even the Chief Justice can get it wrong sometimes.  If Obamacare is Constitutional because it is a tax as Chief Justice Roberts has declared, it needs to have originated in the House as the Constitution specifies.

As to the census as it stands today, the government has moved from using it as a means of allocating tax law and now instead uses the census to more covertly spy on the people of this nation.  The intent of the census was to count the population so as to know where to draw congressional lines for the House of Representatives and if needed use that information for a uniform direct tax.  In actuality states that make laws giving asylum to illegal immigrants are using these immigrants for more seats in the house, and Democrats are using the census as a means to collect more power.  One ad during the past census season made it appear that the purpose for the census was to share our heritage, and the woman in the ad went on to name various cultures in the pacific islands, only one of which was a state (Hawaii) and another was partly a US Territory (the American side of Samoa called America Samoa, but the ad didn’t differentiate) the other cultures named are not American.  Sharing our cultural heritage is not the Constitutional intent of the census, gathering numbers of legal residents eligible to pay taxes with proper representation is Congress is the intent.

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

Congress has power to borrow money on the credit of the United States, true.  If you have a credit card, you have power to borrow money.  Is your power to borrow limited or limitless?  Common sense dictates that the power of Congress to borrow money should be limited, it should not be done so as to impoverish future generations and it should not be done so that countries antagonistic towards our own