In another thread, I encountered a claim that I have never heard before. The claim: "The United States are a federation of sovereign, independent nation-states." I personally think this claim is beyond ludicrous.
However, because several people seem to vehemently believe in this claim, I've decided to put this argument up to a poll in order to see whether or not this is a commonly held belief that I've just become aware of in the last few days (or at least a popular argument that I've never encountered before). I accept that I could just be generally ignorant - though my history classes disagree.
Simple question: Is the United States a single nation like Germany, China, etc. OR is it a federation of nation-states similar to the EU or the UN? Why or why not?
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. When we talk about the "founding fathers," we are primarily talking about these two men. What they created was a constitutional republic, a voluntary union of sovereign states, in which the limited central (federal) government was given very few and specific powers.
How long was it before there was trouble? Well, trouble started with the first president's administration. That's right, George Washington was the first president to muddy our country's waters. Alexander Hamilton didn't think the "common man" was capable of voting for what was BEST for our country. You might say, Hamilton was the "Dick Cheney" to the first President George.
Alexander Hamilton formed the Federalist Party, the first political party - 1792 to 1816, which was in power until 1801. George Washington didn't want to be king but Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Party weren't as freedom-loving. They passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 (designed to stifle criticism of the administration).
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison flipped-out when they saw the train had been taken off the tracks and driven into the woods. They started Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party and the wrong direction the country was going.
The Democratic-Republicans denounced the Sedition Act as invalid and a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights, which protected the right of free speech.
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which called on the states to nullify the federal legislation.
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions reflect the Compact Theory, which holds that the United States is made up of a voluntary union of states that agree to cede some of their authority in order to join the union, but that the states do not, ultimately, surrender their sovereign rights. Therefore, under the Compact Theory, states can determine if the federal government has violated its agreements, including the Constitution, and nullify such violations or even withdraw from the union. Variations of this theory were also argued at the Hartford Convention at the time of the War of 1812, and by the southern states just before the American Civil War.
There is no doubt that if Madison and Jefferson had been alive during Lincoln's day, any state that wanted to secede from the Union would have been allowed to do so.
Madison WROTE the U.S. Constitution and Jefferson WROTE the Declaration of Independence.
STATES are sovereign and the Federal Government is just a "replaceable" manager and agent that we delegate some duties to. (10th amendment) at the Civil War. It's a war that was started by the imperial federal government "ILLEGALLY."
I would call Jefferson and Madison libertarians.
So, before the Civil War, the states were sovereign and the federal government was a replaceable provider of services. Abraham Lincoln was NOT on the right side of this issue. He lawlessly started the worst war of our nation's history. At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War.
After the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment twisted the knife blade that had been thrust deep inside our broken nation.
The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868.
The 14th Amendment is "part of the collapse of this country" because it aggrandized the central government at the expense of state sovereignty, concentrating power, and leading to greater tyranny.
"Section 4 has an insidious "Incorporation Doctrine," in which the 14th Amendment is ridiculously interpreted to extend the Bill of Rights, which originally underscored the limited powers of the federal government, to the states. Thus, instead of being the umbrella organization of the states for mutual defense and management of trade, the federal government became the "defender" of individual "rights" against the states -- a task for which it is not fit, as history and the present (see the Patriot Act) shows.
ALL RIGHTS are inherent in individuals, and no government at any level has the right to abrogate any of my rights or yours. However, in making the federal government the supposed defender of individual liberty, the 14th Amendment reduced state sovereignty. This is a concentration of power that always leads to greater tyranny and less freedom. Under an Originalist Union, if Michigan became tyrannical, I could move to Ohio."
Our country, as originally intended, ceased to exist on on July 9, 1868.
I hope that helps.
Just the facts...
