Dear [Governor/Senator/Representative],
I am writing today to encourage you to help restore the historic and proper of balance of power between the Federal and State governments in our country. I fear that the Federal government has become far too powerful and corrupt to offer any reasonable hope for reform from within. I have now become convinced that the only hope for our country lies in the States operating, as they were intended, as the major check and balance to the centralized power of the Federal government.
As you no doubt know, the United States of America was founded as a federation of free and independent States. As James Madison stated it in Federalist 39, "Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a Federal, and not a National constitution." The struggle against nationalist sentiment within the Federal government has gone on since the beginning of our republic. However, possibly the largest single blow to the principles of balanced power designed into the U.S. Constitution happened in 1913, with the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. With this one amendment, the States lost almost all of their ability to counteract unconstitutional usurpations of their power by the Federal government. Senators, who were originally intended to represent the interests of the States, have, in many ways, become more powerful than the States themselves...now dictating to them instead of representing them.
The Seventeenth Amendment has been a chief catalyst to the concentration of power in the central government. As Thomas Jefferson pointed out, "What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government that has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate." This concentration of powers in the United States of America has lead to the situation in which we now find ourselves; with a Federal behemoth that has no regard for constitutional limits on its power. This government believes itself free to force unwanted policies and regulations on the States and the People, regardless of whether it has legal power in these areas or not. The steady movement toward total nationalism has brought us to the point of out of control spending and unbelievable debt that now threatens our very national security and world standing.
This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue, since both parties have been complicit in the abuse of power. Neither is it a Liberal or Conservative issue since, though we may disagree in the specifics, we all generally agree in the liberty granted us by our founding documents.
As a leader of our state, then, I implore you to study this issue for yourself and to consider how you may be able to help champion the cause of repealing the Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution. With U. S. Senators restored to their proper roles, the States will also be able to retake their proper positions as the chief check on centralized government power. It is with the members our State governments…with you…in which our hope lies for restoring our country to its founding principles. The Federal government was created by the States and received its power from the States and from The People. It is time for the States to reassert themselves and roll back the power of the Federal government.
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”– James Madison; Federalist No. 45
Sincerely,
