Revitalizing America: A Declaration Against Our Government

By Donald L. Cleveland

Revitalizing America is a timely and inspiring call to action. From the start, your passion, historical insight, and practical optimism shine through, making this book a valuable and engaging contribution to today's national conversation.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Glasslink Solutions
• Release date: Jun 13, 2025
• ISBN: 9798349306433

Donald L. Cleveland

Donald Cleveland has dual undergraduate degrees in political science and journalism and a graduate degree in policy planning and public opinion.  He served in numerous public interest capacities including:  president of a national governmental interest group; was involved in the evaluation of the Federal Intergovernmental Personnel Act;  delegate to a Federal Regional Council; a director of one of the country's largest public construction authorities; served as legislative liaison to a multi-state compact commission; was assistant director of a state legislative research department and headed a state governmental association.  His legislative and lobbying experience covered a span of thirteen years during which time he wrote over 400 laws or amendments and three constitutional amendments.  He was also instrumental in the initial funding of the Federal Rural Development Act.  He has been active in numerous governmental and development groups and associations.  He served in Europe as a captain in the U.S. Army during the "cold war."

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© 2025 Donald L. Cleveland. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by Glasslink Solutions

ISBN

979-8-3492-7759-7 (Paperback)

979-8-3493-0643-3 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023917468

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Dedication

There are several people who inspired and supported the work on this book including Albert L. Cleveland, my father, who died at the age of eighty-six. His life and example were filled with civic leadership and responsibility at the local level. His last public duty was performed after being ordered to go immediately to the hospital for surgery. Serving as a patient ombudsman inspecting nursing homes, he completed his scheduled inspection of a nursing home prior to checking into the hospital. My father died in the hospital after surgery.

Christa Anita Wahl became my wife in 1965 and has supported my endeavors with an unshakable faith. She has brought to this work and my life essential perspectives generated through exposure to the world outside North America, as well as the added gift of multiple languages; both her own multi-lingual skills and my need to keep up with them. These generous additions to my life have proven beyond a doubt that humankind is one race, and the majority strives for the same freedom, equality, and protection throughout the world.

Finally to JKL, for lighting the candle.

Introduction

This book is a new Declaration of Independence. Just like the original Declaration, it not only incorporates a long list of grievances citing the wrongs committed against the people, but it also incorporates the long-standing principles most Americans believe exist. Just as the colonists had many crimes committed against them by the king, Americans have been victimized over and over again by a system that is frequently deceptive, destructive, and unjust. Our representative democracy has been wrested away from the people; it has become tarnished through misuse and disfigured by large special interests that use the government for their own purposes. Those who are supposed to represent all the people end up being the beneficiaries of fabulous dinners in fancy clubs. They then introduce legislation that favors their hosts that grants billion-dollar tax breaks or imposes restrictions on their business competitors. The vast majority of the population is forgotten and has no practical mechanism other than election of different representatives to intervene or make the process more democratic.

Many U.S. residents believe that the broad statements of freedom and democracy about our system of government are actually written into law. Yet one of the most firmly held beliefs—that we have "a government of, by and for the people—has never been incorporated into a statute and has rarely been cited as a reason for reaching a decision in the courts. When most Americans are asked to recite something from the Constitution, they will recall those famous lines from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

So, the challenge today is to recognize that the Constitution and its drafters are mainly eighteenth-century creatures, and steps must be taken in the dawning of the twenty-first century to accomplish two major tasks. First, the beliefs of the people made through repeated promises found in an American myth must become fundamental law of the land. If these promises don’t become operative law, then people will continue to lose faith in the government and subcultures will continue to develop. These subcultures will mainly subvert organized government and the social fabric. Tax evasion is already rampant. More small businesses deal in cash now than ever before, and the purpose is obvious. Second, the barter system is also designed to avoid easy identification of the transfer of value. Those average Americans who abandon the law do so, because they’ve lost the dreams they had that were supported by the myth made up of the phrases liberty and justice for all, equal creation and inalienable rights.

On another extreme, many law enforcement personnel have become part of the problem rather than the solution, because the criminal justice system can allow the criminal to be on the street again before the victim is released from the hospital, or buried. Second, people must be granted the right to intervene in an organized way to right the wrongs committed against them by the government. We can’t establish something like the Nuremberg Code, and execute foreigners who violate it, if we don’t intend to follow the same code in the United States when our own government secretly poisons us. Further, compensation for victims of illegal acts or crimes committed by the government can’t be left up to the government to resolve. The age-old expression about there being honor among thieves certainly applies in this context. It is demonstrated over and over again when whistle-blowers are put on trial instead of the wrongdoers, when the ex-CIA chief of operations is appointed to be the chief postal inspector at the same time the CIA is secretly opening mail, and when records of secret radiation tests on humans are ordered destroyed by government physicians. The current process not only allows, but requires this incestuous process to exist. So it lets friendly bureaucrats judge the acts of each other. The ultimate loser is the citizen, who has lost his property or family member and must petition Congress for money damages over and over again. Many survivors die of old age before any form of compensation is granted. The process is villainous and only recalls the lord and vassal relationship of the Middle Ages. The right to intervene must also be coupled with the rights to secure enforcement of laws, create new laws, and change the Constitution through direct mechanisms. The new mechanisms must tear down the Washington Wall, just as the East Germans and other Eastern bloc people tore down the Berlin Wall. New democratic guarantees must bury the good old boy and spoils systems. The imprisoned East Europeans had the foresight and strength to cut the rings of barbed wire that formed the Iron Curtain. Do we have the courage to have an Orange Revolution or Cedar Revolution in America? Do we have the courage to put our lives on the line as the Poles, Czechs, East Germans, and Ukrainians put their lives on the line when it counted? Are Americans as brave, as bold, and as daring as they should be?

Can we repeat our Declaration of Independence and call for new constitutional amendments to once again balance our system of government and further the true goals of democracy? Is it enough to undertake a people’s constitutional convention, or must we take to the streets, storm our parliament buildings, and block a column of tanks with our own bodies as the brave did the Tienneman Square in Chi

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Prologue To America

Chapter I: AMERICA THE MYTH AND IDEALS

Chapter II: OVERVIEW OF A TRAGIC REALITY

Chapter III: WRONGS OF THE CROWN

Chapter IV: REAL PATRIOTS IN THE RANKS

Chapter V: THE POWERFUL ARE STEALING OUR RIGHTS

Chapter VI: TO TAX IS TO DESTROY

Chapter VII: HANGING THE DAY IN COURT

Chapter VIII: DEMOCRACY IN ECONOMICS

Chapter IX: IN THE NAME OF WAR OR TERRORISM

Chapter X: CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION

Chapter XI: CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES

Appendix A: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Appendix B: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Prologue To America

The Beginning - Religion and Far Away Wars

I wrote the book because, like many of you I have the feeling that things just aren’t right with our government. Too many special interests control the government for their advantages and to our disadvantage. Somehow the promises we believe were made to us have been and are being broken. Some parts of the government seem to be working against norms of common sense.

We aren’t alone; many Americans feel the same way! We’ve been taught to believe the promises of our governance that are made in the following documents:

1. A Declaration of Independence - All men are created equal, with certain unalienable rights, among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

2. The Preamble to the Constitution – We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty …

3. The Gettysburg Address – government of, by and for the people …

4. The Pledge of Allegiance – one nation …

Most of these fundamental promises have not been delivered to the average American, and many times they have been sacrificed or defiled to benefit a selected few. Just look at two examples:

1. When WW II came to an end, we punished, in fact executed Nazis, who conducted medical experiments on humans without their informed consent. The U.S. Government, a state government and state and county medical association did the same things involving experiments by withholding care from black syphilis victims to see how they would be deformed or die from the disease. The victims were never told they were the subject of a medical experiment. More illegal experiments using radiation, LSD and bacteria were carried out on the U.S. population, but no person has ever been charged with a crime, sent to jail or executed; even though numerous Americans have died as a result of these illegal experiments.

2. The court system is a terrible joke despite the 14th Amendment’s promises of due process and equal protection, Federal District Courts can have different rules of local practice, the rules of the court don’t even have to be published and reviewed as do other federal rules. The judges create their own kingdoms with their own laws. The U.S. Supreme Court’s behavior is deplorable. On average approximately 7000 appeals are made to the court annually, but only 70 or one percent are accepted by the court to be reviewed. So, they don’t review 99 percent of the cases sent to them. At the same time, the justices take three-month vacations to teach in other countries for which they get paid by students and universities. Chief Justice Roberts went to Malta, a Mediterranean island, to teach for the past two years. Further, they don’t publish their financial disclosure reports as do other Federal Officials.

Things need to change, but voting for candidates from one party or another, limiting terms, or sequestering appropriations won’t change a thing. The only change that will make the government obey and deliver is to change the rules of the government’s game – and the rules are in the Constitution.

The Constitution was not perfect when it was written, and we know that because it has been amended 27 times. With the Exception of Amendment VXIII – Prohibition, each change has moved us closer to a government that will give us equality, true justice, a single national purpose, and a government of, by and for the people.

So, this book not only discusses the failure of our governments to deliver on fundamental promises but proposes a series of Constitutional amendments to change the government game in favor of the average citizen.

However, we can’t arrive at an understanding of where we are today if we don’t know what got us here. So, I’ll spend some time dealing with just what got us here!

It starts over 3000 miles away and with a war that lasted 30 years. The 30 Years War was initially the consequence of the breakup of the Catholic religion and the emergence of the Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and followers of Zwingli mixed with the power struggles of kings, queen, and princes. Every branch of Christianity knew that their way to worship God was right, and they were willing to kill for it. Newly formed Christian groups all wanted to take the wealth and parishioners away from the Pope and the Catholic Church. During these struggles, the STATE, the kings, princes, and dukes threw their support behind the different religious groups. So, the state supported the establishment of religion, and the state established religion determined if you lived or died. That long religious based war caused thousands of Europeans to flee the slaughter and set out to a new continent to seek freedom from kings, princes, bishops, ministers and war they created.

BUT, it wasn’t only the one long war. Between 1600 and 1699, depending on sources, there were 59 separate wars in Europe not including the English Civil Wars. Those wars in the 1600’s were preceded by the 100 years war between the English and French in the 1500’s. If that wasn’t enough, there were another 27 wars in the 1700’s which preceded the American Revolution.

While a number of the wars were purely power struggles between individuals, the insertion of religion into the reason for killing each other gave new impetus driving the instability in Europe. These wars created grave insecurity for the average person in Europe. Religion gave the opposing sides a position of self-righteousness which justified calling others witches and heretics. It gave each side justification to hang, burn and dismember their neighbors, fellow countrymen and women, and commit cross boarder slaughter in the name of their God and their belief.

Based on my research, it appears that my own father’s ancestors fled to North America from Europe and settled in Connecticut in 1639. They, like many other such immigrants, were war refugees! Such refugees were grandparents and parents of the American revolutionaries and authors of our Constitution. They carried with them the stories of massacres, burning of cities and villages, and the plundering that went on from 1618 to 1648. One such story is the sacking of the city of Magdeburg in 1631 where 20,000 persons including soldiers and civilians were killed! Magdeburg was a Protestant city, and the army that plundered the city and killed its defenders and civilians represented the Catholic army supported by the Holy Roman Empire!

While many fled to America to escape from the religiously motivated strife, others brought it with them and carried on violence motivated by religious beliefs. A good example is the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 – 1693. The Puritans who landed at Plymouth were a breakaway group from the Anglican Church of England and actually banned the celebration of Christmas for ten years in their new American settlement. The Puritans had learned to despise Catholics and the Roman church in their European struggles. So, not surprisingly, anti- Catholic laws, disabilities, and hatred permeated almost all of the English colonies. To get around Protestant hatred, the Catholics also received a charter to found the Catholic Colony of Maryland in 1634. So, the seeds of government or state sponsored religious disharmony were already sewn in America during its colonization.

The colonies in America were themselves convulsed by the upheaval in England, and George Calvert’s (Maryland’s Founder) support of King Charles I, a Catholic king, put Maryland at risk of attack by its Protestant neighbors. The assault came in 1645, led by a Protestant trader, Richard Ingle, who represented the Puritan government in power in England at the time. He initially fled the colony but returned on a ship named Reformation with Puritan reinforcements constituting an anti-Catholic army. Ingle attacked St. Mary’s City, the then capital of Maryland, in 1645 and caused nearly two years of utter chaos. Jesuit priests were seized and sent in chains to England, and property of prominent Catholics was plundered and burned. Calvert fled to Virginia during the conflict but returned with an army in 1646 and restored some semblance of order. So, the seeds of government or state sponsored religious disharmony were already sewn in America during its colonization. The anti- Catholic war in Maryland, and other European Wars fought in North America including King William’s War, Queen Anne’s War, King George’s War, the French and Indian War, and the numerous Indian uprisings supported by either the English or French prior to the Revolutionary War were all evidence of foreign interference in the affairs of the American Colonies.

So, the slaughters in the European wars and the upheaval of the English Civil War, reached into the new colonies in America! The English Civil War started with the dethroning and beheading of a Catholic King, Charles I. Then, years of rule under the dictatorial Puritan leadership of Oliver Cromwell, which included prohibition of dancing, athletic games, theater and other amusements. These dictates led to his subsequent overthrow, and the restoration of a Catholic King, Charles II. Then, after Charles II died, he was replaced by his son, James II who was deposed, banished to the Netherlands, and replaced by his Protestant sister and her husband, William III and Mary II. So, government and religion were tied together at the hip. The state-controlled religion and religion controlled the state.

A rational human being must ask the question: who in their right mind would accept a faith or religion that declares members of other faiths infidels and considers them inferior. They are inferior just because their religion makes certain days of the week holy, or they wear required caps or scarves on their heads, they cover their faces or their bodies or are restricted from eating certain animals or foods! How ridiculous! Yet, these beliefs that others are inferior are the first step to allowing or undertaking their killing.

Sometimes when people push enough for freedom, the top echelons of power finally yield before they literally lose their heads. During the unrest surrounding the English Civil War, Charles II approved the Habeas Corpus Act in 1679. Before that act, a person could be held in a dungeon or jail without being produced to the court to be charged with a crime or released. Then in 1689, Parliament passed a Bill of Rights. This Bill of Rights:

- Restricted the king/queen from suspending laws, levying taxes, maintaining an army without the consent of Parliament.

- The king/queen could not interfere with parliamentary elections.

- Parliament was required to meet frequently.

- The king/queen must be Anglican (State establishment of Religion);

- The people were guaranteed basic civil liberties including petitioning government, protection against excessive bails and fines, and cruel and unusual punishment.

So, what would anyone, including the founding fathers, have learned from the history of chaos that preceded the establishment of the United States of America? Here are some lessons learned:

1. Kings, queens, and princes (royalty) cannot be included in a new government in the United States.

2. The power to tax, make war, and imprison citizens cannot be vested in one person or one branch of government.

3. The government should never be involved in or establish a religion and religion should never control government.

4. Standing armies controlled by one person make it too easy to go to war.

If we take the time to actually READ the Constitution, it’s possible to see how the authors dealt with each condition described above. There are three distinct branches of the government, no one branch has dictatorial powers or can establish a royal family. War, taxing and imprisonment are divided between the branches of government and while freedom of religion is granted, the government is prohibited from establishing a religion. So, they did a pretty good job didn’t they?

Not really, because the intent of the Constitution is set forth in the Preamble, and promises a democracy, but we were handed a Republic with slavery, no protection of human rights, and very few protective civil rights.

And that is why we need to REVIATLIZE AMERICA! We can’t wait, we must act now to:

1. make members of Congress ineligible to run for office if they don’t meet performance standards,

2. make the courts more transparent and serve justice,

3. permanently eliminate filibuster,

4. facilitate new business ventures for low- and middle-income individuals, and

5. adopt strong human rights standards to prevent government abuse at all levels.

6. Bring into existence a new constitutional crime for those who violate the constitutional rights of others. There is no such crime or penalty today.

Remember it’s been done 27 times before, and it is high time to act again, now – at this time, this day, this hour, this moment!!

THE FIRST BIG PROMISE TO US

Who makes promises to us in our lives? Basically, we allow someone or something in who or in which we need to place a great deal of faith to promise us something which we want to hear! We need to place that faith in that person or entity, because in many cases our very lives and dreams depend on it. When you marry, you allow your partner to promise that they will be faithful to you for the rest of your life. If we didn’t allow the other party to make us a promise, it would have no value. Most times, we have the choice of allowing a promise to be made to us. What if we didn’t have that choice? Well, when we are born, we have thousands of promises and obligations thrown on us by our government, and we can’t escape them! We’ve promised to pay taxes, be licensed to drive a car, buy insurance to drive a car, register for the draft, work or live on the street, not to be negligent, not to leave the country without a passport, go through security at the airports and more, and more, and more! But … what’s the counterpart from all those promises which we’ve been compelled to make to the government? What promises have been made in return? The first promise we have a right to accept from our government is found in Declaration of Independence. It’s the first promise from our developing government to us and it is a social contract with all of us. It’s a promise upon which we stake our lives and wellbeing!

So, how and when did the Declaration of Independence come into existence? Is it like many believe that the colonies just got tired of taxation without representation, wrote the Declaration of Independence and went into the Revolutionary War in 1776?

Well, it didn’t go down that way! Depending on sources, there were 31 battles, skirmishes or raids conducted by the patriots or British forces starting in September of 1774 and running through June of 1776 before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. These battles included Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. It’s also important to note that a large number of colonists were not in favor of revolting against the King. During the American Revolution, the colonies were a house divided, and choosing a side was no easy task. An estimated 500,000 (about 30 percent of colonists) were Tories, who stayed faithful to the British Crown. For years it was widely believed that one third favored the Revolution, one third opposed it, and one third were undecided. This stems from an estimate made by John Adams in his personal writings in 1815. But it is impossible to know the exact number of American colonists who favored or opposed independence. So, it’s possible that only one third of the colonists supported independence and the Revolution. The movement was in danger. It needed a PR miracle! That miracle was needed in the Summer of 1776, because George Washington and The Continental Congress had found out on June 11, 1776, that the largest invasion fleet ever to attack the Colonies was launched from Nova Scotia and was headed toward New York. The British invasion force was expected to arrive in late July or August of 1776. The Battle of Long Island took place on August 27, 1776. So, was it coincidental that the committee that wrote the Declaration was given the job to write it on the same day that Washington learned of the invasion force? The Revolution needed more believers, more followers and lots more support to defend against the British. The Revolution needed a Madison Avenue halo just like the one given to the WW I Propaganda efforts by that renowned center of advertising and merchandising. In fact, when time is taken to read the Declaration the reason for the timing of its issuance become highly visible.

So, let’s take a look at it. First a grand promissory statement is made: We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The people have the right to Institute a new Government laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. So, these are the headliners, the Breaking News, the hook to draw in support. Who doesn’t want the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? So, the call went out in handbill form, to taverns, town criers, newspapers, and militias. Yes, join us and you can have these unalienable rights! All these promises after it was known that the largest British invasion fleet was on its way.

Not only did the authors promise what really feels like a democracy with equality, liberty and happiness, but they also listed as series of 28 specific reasons for breaking with the King’s government. One of the reasons very specifically stated was the following:

He [the King] is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.

Then at the very end, the Declaration applies an oath to bind its believers to the service of the Declaration’s goals. The oath reads as follows: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

So, we have promises of democracy made in the face of pending doom and collapse of the revolution with an oath of allegiance sworn in blood and treasure at the end.

Well, what were some of the other complaints the Colonies had against the King? Let me point out of few:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He[the King] has forbidden his Governors [Governors of the Colonies] to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

To round things out, the Continental Army and their militias were badly defeated in the battle of Long Island. Had they not been able bring together ferrying boats during the night to aid them in escaping across the East River, Washington’s forces might have been captured and the Revolution lost on August 28, 1776. Check out the stories about the boatmen who aided the revolutionary forces several times during the war.

WE WON THE REVOLUTION –

WHAT NEXT? MORE PROMISES?

The British Army surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781, but the Revolutionary war didn’t officially end until the Treaty of Paris was signed by a representative of King George III and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783. Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams were key negotiators for the U.S. While the Revolution was being fought, the Second Continental Congress, an ad hoc committee representing the colonies, was trying to work out a way to create a unified national government. That Congress finally adopted the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777 and sent it to the colonies (states) for ratification. It became our first constitution in March of 1781. The Articles gave the American National Government many of the powers which had previously been held by the King of England. Further, Article I officially designated the national organization of the colonies as the United States of America. The designation of our country as the United States of America in Article I of the Articles of Confederation, seems to be the enduring part of the Articles. They also provided for free movement between states, extradition for treason, felonies and high crimes and full faith and credit between the states. It didn’t carry forward, however, either habeas corpus or the bill of rights that had been established under Charles I of England.

There are some distinct differences between the Articles of Confederation and its successor, the Constitution of the United States. The Articles did not separate powers or create executive or judicial branches. All the powers of the national government were given to the Congress. So, in many respects, Congress was to operate like a parliament. Even disputes between states were to be resolved by Congress. When Congress was not in session, the country was governed by a Committee of the States. The committee had a president, but the person could only serve one term as president. So, the first president of the United States was not George Washington. The first president of the United States of America was, John Hanson became the first President of the United States in Congress Assembled, under the Articles of Confederation in November 1781. Hanson was businessman and politician from Maryland.

Raising money for the government of the United States defense and general welfare [general government operations] was not a simple task. It was done by levying a form of property tax on each state in proportion to the value of all the lands within each state. The states continued to be the source of funding the defense and welfare of the U.S. government until the U.S. government was given the authority to levy direct taxes.

Instead of having elected representatives to the Congress of the United States, each state would annually appoint a delegation to represent it. A state could have up to seven delegates, but not less than two in Congress, but regardless of the number of delegates, each state had only one vote in Congress.

The drafters of the Articles of Confederation were also more pragmatic than the drafters of the Constitution. It was all business! There were no grand promises or statements about justice, welfare, tranquility and liberty. It simply started and concluded with the operations of the Confederation! This approach clearly kept down the hopes, beliefs and aspirations of individuals in society. In this respect, it didn’t draw on the criticisms levied against the King in the Declaration of Independence to inspire the citizens of our new nation as the Constitution seemed to do later in its fully amended form.

The Articles failed for several reasons, but a primary reason was that the national government wasn’t strong enough to manage uniform trade, lack of a national currency, taxation and defense between and across the states. Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts (August 1786 - January 1787) is given as an example of the woes suffered under the Articles and a motivating factor to give more authority to a national government.

In an effort to revise the Articles, the Philadelphia Convention was convened, and delegates from the states worked from the late Spring through the early Fall of 1787 to throw out the Articles and come up with the body of the existing U.S. Constitution. George Washington was elected to preside over the Convention. Since the Convention was authorized by Congress, it was not a coup, but a use of Congressional power to improve the governance of the country. Article XIII of the Articles of Confederation provided for its amendment. At the end of the Convention, George Washington sent a letter of transmittal to the Congress of the United States setting forth the mechanism for adoption of the new Constitution by the states and finally the Congress. This procedure was followed, because Congress had the authority to amend the Articles of Confederation with the agreement of the states. According to some accounts, the Convention delegates went to a local bar for a beer after the Convention adjourned.

A big question, like the Declaration of Independence remained: How do the authors of the Constitution get the support of the people to adopt it? How about making another big promise? So, here we go:

Constitution of the United States of America The Preamble

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The first phrase in the Preamble uses all-encompassing terms to incorporate everyone in reading and hearing range of its words: We the people of the United States… So, who wouldn’t feel touched by the this phrase? After all, I am We the people. We want tranquility, general welfare, justice, common defense and liberty. So, we want a constitution which encompasses all of these conditions for all of us. In other words, Me Too!

The basic Constitution (without the first 10 amendments) became the law of the United States on June 21, 1787. What we know as the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments had to be added and ratified on December 15, 1791. The basic Constitution without the Bill of Rights has seven Articles and that’s it!

Article I Executive Branch

Article II Legislative Branch

Article III Judicial Branch

Article IV States Relationships

Article V Amendments to the Constitution

Article VI Debts, Treaties and Oath of Office

Article VII Ratification by States

So, where are WE in this mix of articles?

Slavery was accepted in Article IV, and escaped slaves had to be returned to the slave state from which they escaped. Even though treaties are the law of the land, treaties with native Americans were broken all the time. Article III creates an independent judicial branch but gives the power to Congress to establish "regulations under which it operates. That also applies to the number of judges who can sit on the court.

One of the bigger jokes about we, is found in Article I in the description of who is eligible to be elected to the House of Representatives. The qualifications are as follows:

No person shall be a Representatives unless they have attained the age of twenty-five years and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall, when elected be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

It seems everything was going along fine until we reached the last phrase and saw that the Representative had to be he. So, I guess the women were zapped by that little phrase! I guess, Women, were not We! But he doesn’t rule out non-property owners or slaves, does it? Well, guess again. It did. So, how can We promote the general welfare and establish justice and liberty if women can’t be elected to the Congress, and slaves and non-property owners can’t vote either? So, in the end, We got a republic, not a democracy. However, that’s not surprising since the leaders in classical political thought, Aristotle, and Socrates, both felt that society was made up of classes, and some classes were just better than others. According to Socrates, the classes were gold, silver, and bronze or producers, auxiliaries, and guardians. A democracy, according to Aristotle, was the same as anarchy. These two sources of political thought were read by most educated people when both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution were adopted. Both authors were held up to political practitioners as leaders in democratic thinking because they were tied to Athens, Greece, supposedly one of the first democracies in the world. Anyone reading the Federalist Papers understands the numerous references to the Athenians, Aristotle, Pericles, and Socrates. We shouldn’t forget that the Athenians also had slaves.

Terribly Incomplete Business! Promises Ignored!

Before going into specific details of some failings on what happened in 1789, it’s important to look at two definitions. What is a human right, and what is a civil right?

Civil Right Definition: The rights guaranteed to U.S. Citizens and residents by legislation and the Constitution. [In other words, a civil right does not exist unless that right is given to anyone by the constitution or other law!].

Human Right Definition: Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination. [So, a human right exists even though there is no law or constitution describing it. It is given to every human where ever they are found in the universe.] The key, then becomes to recognize the human rights in the Constitution or statutes to make them enforceable civil rights! The Preamble to the Constitution promised a great, great deal! It was to give us justice, liberty, a common welfare, and defense. In other words, many of our human rights were to become our civil rights. However, the Constitution given to we the people; let’s call it the naked constitution, didn’t deliver! Instead, it gave us a framework of institutions that should have followed the guidance of the preamble to deliver on the promises. That naked constitution was lacking in normal civil and human rights. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the definition of a civil right, one of the only individual civil rights solidified in the naked constitution was the protection of the right of slave owners by requiring the return of escaped slaves to their masters in slave states. Even the fundamental right of Habeas Corpus was compromised by allowing Congress to pass laws nullifying it in the event of rebellion or invasion." Without the right of Habeas Corpus, the government can hold someone in secret, without publicly being charged for their alleged crimes. As later discussed in Revitalizing America, this guarantee was continually bashed by the Patriot Act despite the fact that there was no rebellion or active invasion of the United States.

Two other protections given in the naked constitution could have an indirect impact on human and civil rights depending on how Congress enacted laws. Congress was prohibited from enacting Bills of Attainder or laws that were Ex Post Facto.

According to the Supreme Court, a bill of attainder is "a legislative act which inflicts punishment without a judicial trial."

An ex post facto law is a legislative act that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, prior to the passage of the law. A good example could be changing a law which allowed marriage at age 16. Imagine a new law which made the legal marriage age 18, and at the same time abolished all marriages of persons who had been legally married at age 16. Among other things, the new law would destroy all of the property and child custody rights of persons who had legally married at age 16 prior to the new law.

During adoption of the naked constitution, in 1789, objections were raised about the lack of protection of individuals or the states. Several members of Congress, apparently led by James Madison and influenced by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton drafted the Bill of Rights or the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution to take care of these flaws. It is reported that these thought leaders took many of their ideas from the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted in 1776. It’s interesting to note that Article 1 of the Virginia Declaration read as follows: Section 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

While this section may have greatly contributed to the wording of the Preamble to the Constitution and influenced the tone of the Bill of Rights, it also demonstrated the blindness of its authors who led a government which embraced and supported slavery.

So, Madison, Hamilton and Jefferson thought that the naked Constitution needed to have some civil rights clothing, but it didn’t happen overnight, because the conditions laid out in the naked Constitution for amending it were cumbersome and time consuming. While the Constitution was adopted in 1789, It took another two years for the Bill of Rights or the first ten amendments to be adopted on December 15, 1791.

Civil and human rights interests also suffered another blow, when according to the National Constitution Center, Congress turned down five of the original amendments Madison wanted to include in the Bill of Rights. The importance of these excluded amendments is significant, because they gave the people of the United States additional civil and human rights beyond those incorporated in the first Ten Amendments. The deleted items included the following:

First, That there be prefixed to the Constitution a declaration, that all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That Government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people, which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution. This clause, which was excluded from the Bill of Rights, actually does what was promised to the people. It puts the words we were promised into words in law. It makes the promise