Honor Thy Founding Document

NOTE: Most my time and columns have been dedicated towards assisting with the relief effort and chronicling the killer storm known as Hurricane Katrina. As time passes, I will begin posting on non-forces of nature issues on a more regular basis.

For years I have eagerly awaited the creation of Constitution Day, a recognized holiday celebrating the adoption of America's current organic law. My silent vigil has ended with the attachment of a seemingly non-germane amendment to a spending bill with the creation of a day honoring America's governing charter.

The US Constitution was the colonial separatists' second attempt at establishing a lasting national government. The original constitution was the Articles of Confederation, a document that provided for a weak central government that recognized the several states as a loose association of pseudo-republics.

Thankfully wise men such as Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, John Jay, and James Madison were aware of the flaws of the first system and plunged ahead with the adoption of a pragmatic document that would preserve the union.

Had the Constitution not been drawn up and ratified, the United States as we know it would not have survived the political-military sectional crisis known as the War of 1812, a conflict ignited by British contempt for the colonies evidenced through their impressment of American sailors and expansionist politicians inflamed by British-incited Indian attacks on western settlers who also desired the "liberation", or rather expropriation, of Canada.

New England, a region that had once been the hotbed of rebellion to King George during the Revolution, had established strong commercial ties with the Mother Country and saw the war as disastrous for their merchants. Northeastern Federalist politicians shut out from the new Democratic-Republican governing dynasty hardly contained their glee over initial American military setbacks. The more militant elements of this crowd met at the Hartford Convention to explore their options, including possibly leaving the Union.

While the northeastern secessionist push dissipated in the wake of Andy Jackson's stunning victory on the plains of Chalmette at the Battle of New Orleans, it is doubtful that the United States would have survived Mr. Madison's War intact, assuming the union under the Articles of Confederation would have made it into the 19th century.

The US Constitution was one of history's most successful political horse-trades. Small states received protection through the creation of an equally apportioned US Senate while the larger states were afforded their proportional voice in the US House of Representatives. State rights advocates were appeased by the legislatures' authority to determine the composition of their state delegations to the US Senate, until this fell victim to early 20th century populism. Classical liberals managed to have their way by locking certain protections through the Bill of Rights.

France, by comparison within a similar timeframe, needed to go through four republics (the first of questionable legitimacy), a Nazi-puppet regime, two empires, and a few kings to get it "right" with their current Fifth.

Actually Constitution Day is not really a full Federal holiday, which was snuck into an education bill by Senator Robert Byrd of WV as a rider amendment. The amendment mandates that all schools that receive Federal financing must take part in the celebration by reserving time to herald the great document, an ironic twist since one could argue that such an order violates the regularly trudged upon 10th Amendment that guarantees (HA!) states' rights.

I believe September 17th merits full national holiday status, even though it comes roughly within two weeks of the floating Labor Day holiday. The adoption of the US Constitution is only second to the day America became a sovereign state in importance.

Senator Byrd decried the reality that Americans spend more time on "Desperate Housewives" than they do focusing on the legal foundation of our Federal republic. I concur with "Sheets" on this matter on principle and for partisan reasons.

As we have seen once again with the latest ludicrous edict emanating from the California-based Ninth Circus Court of Appeals, two centuries of precedent and tradition are routinely tossed out by Federal judiciary on the whim of unelected judicial legislators.

The public would be more irate over the taxes they pay to Washington and would begin holding their state officials to a higher standard, as locals would no longer be able to bumble without consequence hoping Uncle Sam will bail them out.

New Jersey residents would no longer be financing million dollar bus stops in Alaska as less revenues stream into the Beltway for redistribution from sea to shining fjord, and instead detour straight to the state capitals.

If people became more educated on the limits of the national government's authority as intended by the Founding Fathers, there's a chance the Democratic Party would be decimated at the polls and just maybe the GOP could get back its soul.

Happy Constitution Day.