Page 19 - Fruits from a Poisonous Tree

Mel Stamper 3

of an all-powerful central government must be replaced with a firm separation
of powers if this republic is to survive.
Increasingly in the last hundred years, powerful corporate interests
have deliberately subverted the intent of the Founders by financing the
appointment of judges who would enhance corporate and federal power and
weaken the constitutional system of checks and balances.
While many today attack the New Deal as representing the demise of
constitutional government in America, the assaults actually began in the late
1800s, when federal courts led by the Supreme Court started chipping away
at state sovereignty. This allowed the federal government to assume numerous
duties and responsibilities that under the constitution had been reserved to
the states or the people.
Recalcitrant southern states did not turn to the Supreme Court to leave
the Union before the Civil War, partly because the Constitution does not
grant the federal courts the right to control state sovereignty. The Constitution
did not create a judicial supremacy, and there is extensive evidence that
the Founders never granted the Supreme Court the power to rule over the
President, Congress, or the states.
th
Every July 4 we honor the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
By signing that document, the founding fathers, many of whom were Deists,
pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the premise that all men
are created equal, endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, to be
secured by a government that was subject to and inferior to the consent of
the governed.
The British pursued them as traitors to the king. Of the fifty-six original
signers, nine did not live to see freedom, five were imprisoned, and seventeen
lost everything they had. Their sacrifice for the Constitution of the United
States has guided this nation through a continuing effort to bring liberty and
justice for all. Can any of us do less?
The courage of America’s founders was based on their belief in God’s
Providence. George Washington called America’s liberties “the object of
Divine protection.” James Madison, President and signer of the Constitution,
affirmed their beliefs, saying, “Before any man can be considered as a member
of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the
Universe.”
At the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin began the
tradition of prayers in Congress, saying, “In the beginning of the contest
with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in
this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were
graciously answered. I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the
more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs