The Constitution of No Authority.
The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or
obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so
much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing. It
purports, at most, to be only a contract between persons living eighty years
ago.
And it can be supposed to have been a contract then only between persons
who had already come to years of discretion, so as to be competent to make
reasonable and obligatory contracts. Furthermore, we know, historically, that
only a small portion even of the people then existing were consulted on the
subject, or asked, or permitted to express either their consent or dissent in any
formal manner. Those persons, if any, who did give their consent formally, are
all dead now. Most of them have been dead forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years.
And the Constitution, so far as it was their contract, died with them. They had
no natural power or right to make it obligatory upon their children. It is not
only plainly impossible, in the nature of things, that they could bind their
posterity, but they did not even attempt to bind them. That is to say, the
instrument does not purport to be an agreement between any body but "the
people" then existing; nor does it, either expressly or impliedly, assert any
right, power, or disposition, on their part, to bind anybody but themselves. Let
us see. Its language is:
We, the people of the United States (that is, the people then
existing in the United States), in order to form a more perfect
union, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, 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.
It is plain, in the first place, that this language, as an agreement, purports to be
only what it at most really was, viz., a contract between the people then
existing; and, of necessity, binding, as a contract, only upon those then
existing. In the second place, the language neither expresses nor implies that
they had any intention or desire, nor that they imagined they had any right or
power, to bind their "posterity" to live under it. It does not say that their
"posterity" will, shall, or must live under it. It only says, in effect, that their
hopes and motives in adopting it were that it might prove useful to their
posterity, as well as to themselves, by promoting their union, safety,
tranquility, liberty, etc.
So it was with those who originally adopted the Constitution. Whatever may
have been their personal intentions, the legal meaning of their language, so far
as their "posterity" was concerned, simply was, that their hopes and motives,
in entering into the agreement, were that it might prove useful and acceptable
to their posterity; that it might promote their union, safety, tranquility, and
welfare; and that it might tend "to secure to them the blessings of liberty." The
language does not assert nor at all imply, any right, power, or disposition, on
the part of the original parties to the agreement, to compel their "posterity" to
live under it. If they had intended to bind their posterity to live under it, they
should have said that their object was, not "to secure to them the blessings of
liberty," but to make slaves of them; for if their "posterity" are bound to live
under it, they are nothing less than the slaves of their foolish, tyrannical, and
dead grandfathers.
It cannot be said that the Constitution formed "the people of the United
States," for all time, into a corporation. It does not speak of "the people" as a
corporation, but as individuals. A corporation does not describe itself as "we,"
nor as "people," nor as "ourselves." Nor does a corporation, in legal language,
have any "posterity." It supposes itself to have, and speaks of itself as having,
perpetual existence, as a single individuality.
Moreover, no body of men, existing at any one time, have the power to create
a perpetual corporation. A corporation can become practically perpetual only
by the voluntary accession of new members, as the old ones die off. But for
this voluntary accession of new members, the corporation necessarily dies with
the death of those who originally composed it.
Citizen or National?
Posted By:
Wednesday, May 20th 2009 at 10:03AM
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