FREEDOM
Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 12 Location: Illinois
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:19 pm Post subject: Congress can NOT exempt themselves from laws they make |
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Congress can NOT exempt themselves from laws under which the People are compelled to live
The following just scratches the surface concerning this issue. The following provides plain evidence as to what Madison says is the “genius of the whole system” — the inherent natural checks and balances against oppressive measures; — that Congress can not exempt themselves from laws so as not to feel and experience that which they cast unto the masses as being beneath them; — that our servants are not above us, their masters, and have utterly no privilege to make laws that are meant to treat themselves as if they were nobles, while making different laws, to which they are exempt, that treat the People, who are their masters, as if they were mere peasants.
In convention, Thu, Jun 21, 1787:
Mr. Sherman preferred annual elections, but would be content with biennial. He thought the Representatives ought to return home and mix with the people. By remaining at the seat of Govt they would acquire the habits of the place which might differ from those of their Constituents.
In Convention, Thu, Jul 26, 1787:
Col. Mason ...the preservation of the rights of the people, he held it as an essential point, as the very palladium of Civil liberty, that the great officers of State, and particularly the Executive should at fixed periods return to that mass from which they were at first taken, in order that they may feel & respect those rights & interests, which are again to be personally valuable to them.
Docr Franklin. It seems to have been imagined by some that the returning to the mass of the people was degrading the magistrate. This he thought was contrary to republican principles. In free Governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors & sovereigns. For the former therefore to return among the latter was not to degrade but to promote them. And it would be imposing an unreasonable burden on them, to keep them always in a State of servitude, and not allow them to become again one of the Masters.
Madison fp 57:
I will add, as a fifth circumstance in the situation of the House of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive measures, that they can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interests and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny. If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer: the genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional laws; and above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.
If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate any thing but liberty.
Jay fp 64:
It will not be in the power of the President and Senate to make any treaties by which they and their families and estates will not be equally bound and affected with the rest of the community; and, having no private interests distinct from that of the nation, they will be under no temptations to neglect the latter. |
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