WEBVTT NOTE Call of Duty V - Article V Convention 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.280 Rodney gave you the nuts and bolts of how upside down and messed up this situation is. 2 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:10.440 I don't think he's actually telling you the entire truth, because the number I've seen 3 00:00:10.440 --> 00:00:18.120 is $120 trillion in unfunded liabilities if you roll in Social Security, Medicare and government 4 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:21.800 retirement programs. That's how deep the debt is. We don't even know what we have overseas 5 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:26.120 because they can't count it. The Pentagon won't do an audit because they don't have 6 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:29.120 I don't have enough auditors on earth to count the debt. 7 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.120 That's how out of control this is. 8 00:00:32.120 --> 00:00:37.120 But what I wanted to do is give you a little historical perspective on this. 9 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:40.120 Rodney said, and I saw the show of hands, 10 00:00:40.120 --> 00:00:43.120 a lot of people here that don't think, 11 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:46.120 we don't want an amendment, we don't want a con con, 12 00:00:46.120 --> 00:00:48.120 no constitutional conventions. 13 00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:52.120 The framers are sitting there in heaven looking down going, 14 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:58.640 You do it. I told you not to do it. I'm here to tell you that the framers are sitting 15 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:06.120 up in heaven and going, what are you waiting for? You guys are 230 years too late. That's 16 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:12.600 how dire the situation is. So let's go back to 1788. That's why I call this little talk 17 00:01:12.600 --> 00:01:20.400 Article 5, Call of Duty, because it's a video game. We get to shoot a lot of people. I'm 18 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:35.720 In 1788, a man by the name of George Mason went to the Federal Convention in Philadelphia. 19 00:01:35.720 --> 00:01:38.320 You probably call it the Constitutional Convention. 20 00:01:38.320 --> 00:01:42.380 Well, since they weren't sent there to draft the Constitution, it couldn't possibly have 21 00:01:42.380 --> 00:01:44.380 been a Constitutional Convention. 22 00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:48.560 So it was called the Federal Convention of 1787. 23 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:52.200 The great Melvin Bradford called it the Great Convention, because it was. 24 00:01:52.200 --> 00:02:00.040 It produced the most long-standing, semi-effective governing document in the history of the planet. 25 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:07.240 So if we go back to 1787, during the summer, as they debated and as they talked about this, 26 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:09.600 they're coming to the end of the convention. 27 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:16.800 On the afternoon of the 12th of September, 1787, each delegate to the Federal Convention 28 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:21.760 meeting under a cloak of secrecy, you know, they were told, don't write any letters home 29 00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:25.680 to your Aunt Mamie, don't tell anyone what you're doing here, man, you'll blow the whole 30 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:30.040 thing. So they're all taking a note not to say anything, they're operating under a cloak 31 00:02:30.040 --> 00:02:36.600 of secrecy. But on the September the 12th, 1787, they were all issued a draft of what 32 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:41.440 we know today as the U.S. Constitution for their consideration. They had been debating 33 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:45.480 this for quite some time, and a gentleman by the name of Govindor Morris, who had a 34 00:02:45.480 --> 00:02:55.480 and a very, very nice script, that's what's actually on the photocopy documents that you see today, gave each one of them a copy. 35 00:02:55.480 --> 00:03:06.480 Now, there aren't very many records about this event, but we can scrutinize one of the copies that survives and it is in the collection of Virginia delegate George Mason. 36 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:10.480 That's how we know that those copies went out on that day. 37 00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:12.480 Now, George Mason, who was his cat? 38 00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:17.320 Well, he was called the wisest man of his generation. 39 00:03:17.320 --> 00:03:20.760 By someone you may know, I think his name was Jefferson, 40 00:03:20.760 --> 00:03:23.080 Tom, Thomas, something. 41 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.520 Jefferson called him the wisest man of his generation. 42 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:28.560 That's high praise. 43 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.820 That's about as high as it gets in the 1770s, 1780s. 44 00:03:33.720 --> 00:03:37.160 But George Mason was better known for things 45 00:03:37.160 --> 00:03:38.880 that we don't know him for today. 46 00:03:38.880 --> 00:03:45.880 For example, he was a leading voice in Virginia for Virginia's call for independence. 47 00:03:45.880 --> 00:03:52.880 A lot of people don't know this, but because, you know, in today's Mark Levin, Sean Hannity world, 48 00:03:52.880 --> 00:03:57.880 it was the Constitution that created the states. 49 00:03:57.880 --> 00:04:01.880 And then we're all set on our little mission to go bomb brown people all around the world. 50 00:04:01.880 --> 00:04:04.880 That's not the way it actually happened. 51 00:04:04.880 --> 00:04:12.080 Virginia seceded first. That's right, I said secede. They seceded from the Empire 52 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:18.560 of Great Britain first on May the 15th, 1776. They said we're done. They began 53 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:23.120 the process of drafting a constitution for the state of Virginia, the first 54 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:30.200 document ever drafted and ratified by a free people in the history of the planet. 55 00:04:30.200 --> 00:05:00.200 That's how significant that event was. If we go back two years further, we will find a younger George Mason sitting in the backyard of George Washington's Mount Vernon, sipping mint juleps probably and watching the river go by, hanging out with Jefferson, Henry and Washington. Mason was asked to put the colonist complaints into words. They called this the Fairfax Resolves. 56 00:05:00.200 --> 00:05:06.440 1974, that's what they did. They laid out the case of why they were upset with the king. What was he doing wrong? 57 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:08.800 What was the Parliament doing wrong? 58 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:16.040 And what they did was they stated the case of the rights that they were trying to reclaim. This is key. 59 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:18.900 They're reclaiming their rights. They're not inventing anything new. 60 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:25.800 Again, another blow to the Stroussing and Neocons. They already had these rights. Brits were taking them away. 61 00:05:26.760 --> 00:05:28.760 Now to put in context today 62 00:05:28.760 --> 00:05:37.420 Today, what Mason was doing, Mason would have been, he goes to this convention in Philadelphia, 63 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:43.280 he would have been as likely to propose and support centralizing power as a member of 64 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:48.120 today's Congress would be to propose and vote for the balanced budget amendment that Rodney 65 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:54.180 told you about. He was as vehemently opposed to this as he could have been, but yet he 66 00:05:54.180 --> 00:06:01.960 Now, Mason had offered many objections during the Great Convention, but had become increasingly 67 00:06:01.960 --> 00:06:06.780 concerned over the seeming rigidity of what they were calling the general government in 68 00:06:06.780 --> 00:06:07.780 the Convention. 69 00:06:07.780 --> 00:06:11.500 This is what the new Constitution would create. 70 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:17.100 Mason kept standing up and urging over and over again that, look, the people didn't send 71 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:23.260 us here to write a new Constitution, so I think we ought to put all this on hold, go 72 00:06:23.260 --> 00:06:27.900 Go home and tell them what we're up to and then we'll have another convention. 73 00:06:27.900 --> 00:06:31.740 He thought that once the states learned what the convention was about to produce that they 74 00:06:31.740 --> 00:06:35.820 would just reject it and then we would still have the Articles of Confederation. 75 00:06:35.820 --> 00:06:38.300 Fortunately, he lost. 76 00:06:38.300 --> 00:06:41.700 While he was losing though, he also insisted that, look, if you guys are going to persist 77 00:06:41.700 --> 00:06:49.140 in this insane idea of yours, then the states have to have the ability to amend this constitution 78 00:07:19.140 --> 00:07:32.140 So after receiving his copy of the draft of the Constitution on the 12th of September 1787, Mason began reviewing his work and there was an awful lot that he didn't approve of. 79 00:07:32.140 --> 00:07:39.140 Among other valid complaints, he noted that Article 1 Section 8 powers were weak and ill-defined. 80 00:07:39.140 --> 00:07:46.140 I'm sorry. Imagine if he could see what we do with Article 1 Section 8 today. 81 00:07:46.140 --> 00:07:54.140 He accurately predicted what Congress would become and at what price to commerce and trade, noting, and this is a quote, 82 00:07:54.140 --> 00:08:07.140 It is at present impossible to foresee whether this government, in matters of commerce, will produce a monarchy or a corrupt, tyrannical, oppressive aristocracy. 83 00:08:07.140 --> 00:08:15.140 It will probably most likely vibrate some years between the two and then terminate in one or the other. 84 00:08:15.140 --> 00:08:23.140 Well, we know that it's terminated in an oligarchy, basically, an oppressive oligarchy, and so Mason was correct. 85 00:08:23.140 --> 00:08:32.140 Now, if you're wondering, what is the point? I'm laying out the case for what the framers who opposed ratifying the Constitution, 86 00:08:32.140 --> 00:08:40.140 that they would want you in this room today to stand up and say, call a convention and fix this or get rid of it. 87 00:08:40.140 --> 00:08:47.460 Mason then sets his sight and professorial skills on the Constitution's fifth article, 88 00:08:47.460 --> 00:08:52.180 which on that evening, written in Govan R. Morris's hand, read, and I'm quoting from 89 00:08:52.180 --> 00:08:55.420 the original draft, Article 5, 90 00:08:55.420 --> 00:09:00.820 The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem necessary, or on the application 91 00:09:00.820 --> 00:09:06.180 of two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states, shall propose amendments to this Constitution 92 00:09:06.180 --> 00:09:10.980 which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part thereof, when the same shall have 93 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:16.380 been ratified by three-fourths of the legislatures of the several states, or by the conventions 94 00:09:16.380 --> 00:09:22.100 and three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed 95 00:09:22.100 --> 00:09:24.140 by the Congress, and they talked about amendments. 96 00:09:24.140 --> 00:09:28.520 You'll notice if you're a student of the Constitution, there's a sentence that's not in there. 97 00:09:28.520 --> 00:09:30.940 That's why we're here today, to talk about that sentence. 98 00:09:30.940 --> 00:09:36.500 And you can just imagine George Mason, the author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, 99 00:09:36.500 --> 00:09:42.300 and a leader in the push to break from the central authority that was not permitting 100 00:09:42.300 --> 00:09:49.720 the colony's governments to amend their own charters, reading what seemed to him like 101 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:55.660 a near copy of the centralized government of Great Britain, the same man who inspired 102 00:09:55.660 --> 00:10:00.460 Here are the instructive parts of the Declaration of Independence's preamble in Virginia's 103 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:01.460 Declaration of Rights. 104 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:03.460 A lot of people don't know this. 105 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:08.100 Jefferson was taking a sneak peek at Mason when he wrote our declaration. 106 00:10:08.100 --> 00:10:11.500 Here's what Virginia said and what Mason wrote, quote, 107 00:10:11.500 --> 00:10:16.540 Whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, the majority 108 00:10:16.540 --> 00:10:23.820 of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or 109 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:29.760 Abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged, most conducive to the public wheel. 110 00:10:29.760 --> 00:10:31.980 What does Jefferson's text in the Declaration say? 111 00:10:31.980 --> 00:10:35.220 Pretty much the same thing, just differently ordered words. 112 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:41.420 But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces 113 00:10:41.420 --> 00:10:47.020 a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, as your 114 00:10:47.020 --> 00:10:52.420 operative word, to throw off such government, to provide new guards for their future security. 115 00:10:52.420 --> 00:10:58.740 Now, back to George Mason and the problems he had with the Constitution. In the margin 116 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:03.860 of his copy that I told you he took home on or back to his hotel room, you don't have 117 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:10.300 hotel room, Mike, back to his lodgings as he would have called them, that night in the 118 00:11:10.300 --> 00:11:17.340 margin of his copy next to the citation for Article 5 he wrote, quote, Article 5, by this 119 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:22.340 This article, Congress, only have the power of proposing amendments and at any future 120 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:29.100 time to this Constitution, and should it prove ever so oppressive, the whole people of America 121 00:11:29.100 --> 00:11:37.400 can't make or even propose alterations to it, a doctrine utterly subversive of the fundamental 122 00:11:37.400 --> 00:11:40.080 principles of the rights and liberties of the people. 123 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:43.660 He's scared, he's mortified. 124 00:11:43.660 --> 00:11:48.660 Here he is relishing the newfound freedom that they established and yet they're about 125 00:11:48.660 --> 00:11:52.060 to draft a constitution that's going to wipe it out. 126 00:11:52.060 --> 00:11:58.220 So when the convention reconvened the next day, Mason began lodging his complaints clause 127 00:11:58.220 --> 00:12:05.680 by clause, biding his time until the debate got really busy and they got to Article 5. 128 00:12:05.680 --> 00:12:09.260 Before Mason could stand yet again this day and oppose the current language of Article 129 00:12:09.260 --> 00:12:15.260 5, he would have to wait until his friend Elbridge Gary of Massachusetts took a swipe 130 00:12:15.260 --> 00:12:20.940 at the clause and from James Madison's notes we know what transpired and Madison said that 131 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:26.100 Mr. Gary stood up and proposed all sorts of amendments and that we insert a new sentence 132 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:31.420 into the document that would clarify and give the states the right to not only call the 133 00:12:31.420 --> 00:12:37.720 convention but they would participate in it, not the Congress. Congress could go back and 134 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:46.720 So, Colonel Mason thought the plan of amending the Constitution was exceptional and dangerous. 135 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:49.720 We're summarizing here. 136 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:54.940 As the proposing of amendments is in both the models or modes that depend in the first 137 00:12:54.940 --> 00:12:59.280 immediately and in the second on Congress, no amendments of the proper kind would ever 138 00:12:59.280 --> 00:13:04.780 be obtained by the people if the government should become oppressive, as he verily believed 139 00:13:04.780 --> 00:13:05.780 would be the case. 140 00:13:05.780 --> 00:13:35.780 I think it's fair to witness today that he was verily correct. Of course, James Madison being James Madison, he couldn't imagine that the magisterial federal government that they were getting him ready to create wasn't up to any task that could ever be proposed to it, so he went, eh, Mason might have a point, but I don't think it's really necessary. They persisted and the language was changed. We know this today that Article 5 now contains a call to the people 141 00:13:35.780 --> 00:13:43.060 in its text that the people in the states, three quarters of them, can call for a convention. 142 00:13:43.060 --> 00:13:48.260 Congress has to convene it and then the people will decide that Congress can say, okay you guys are 143 00:13:48.260 --> 00:13:51.380 going to meet in Milwaukee or you can meet in Auburn, Alabama. There's a big stadium there, 144 00:13:51.380 --> 00:13:57.540 you'll like it. Then the people in the sovereign states take over. Those were the last words that 145 00:13:57.540 --> 00:14:01.460 were spoken in the federal convention and I have some more here that I'd like to share with you but 146 00:14:01.460 --> 00:14:13.460 I don't have time. Suffice it to say, though, that Article 5 was left to us by the wisest man of his generation as something we were supposed to use. 147 00:14:13.460 --> 00:14:26.460 We're about 230 years too late. The work of these men and the Great Convention did preserve much of those rights, but as we know today, not nearly enough to prevent the fake Federalists 148 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:37.460 to turn nationalists into bringing the 232-year-long project to transform the Constitution from a little instrument of how you plan a government to a big giant Leviathan that you can do anything with. 149 00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:50.460 And perhaps this is why the one vestige of Mason's work, the amended Article 5, remains never having been used by the principal objects of its amended form, the sovereign people of the states. 150 00:14:50.460 --> 00:14:52.460 We're supposed to use it. 151 00:14:52.460 --> 00:15:22.460 If the Constitution is to ever regain the initiative in the great battle to reestablish its beauty and original form of being a plan of government for the states that enter into the Compact with not equal but superior powers, then it will be necessary for the states to call an Article 5 convention and enter into the labor which must be applied to repair the damage and prevent new usurpations if indeed that's possible. That is our call of duty, ladies and gentlemen. 152 00:15:22.460 --> 00:15:39.460 call the convention, send the men most committed to the cause of our forefathers and pray for the best as an appeal to God and this endeavor may indeed prove to be the last best hope of Earth.