Williamsburg Resolve

         On November 22, 1994, 30 of our states Republican governors unanimously adopted the “Williamsburg Resolve.” In it, they declared:             

“The challenges to the liberties of the people... comes from our own Federal government that has defied, and now ignores, virtually every constitutional limit fashioned by the framers to confine its reach and thus to guard the freedoms of the people” and that “Federal action has exceeded the clear bounds of... the Constitution, and thus violated the rights guaranteed to the people” 

          In order to better understand what would incite 30 of our state governors to make such a bold indictment of the Federal government, a brief history lesson is in order. 

          Our Founding Fathers, acting on a mandate of the American people, created America as a constitutional Republic that was to be ruled and governed by the consent of the American people with the Federal government given very little power or authority over the internal affairs of the individual sovereign states. James Madison said the following in support of the Constitution:             

         “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those [powers] which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The [federal government] will be exercised principally on external objects such as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce… The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvements and prosperity of the states.” 

          Alexander Hamilton, a leading advocate for the creation of a Federal government wrote to assure the American people that by ratifying the constitution, the American people were not surrendering any of their sovereign rights. He wrote the following in the Federalist Papers # 32: 

         “But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, exclusively delegated to the United States.”

          The American people, knowing that politicians oftentimes say one thing and do another, insisted that before they would ratify the constitution that would create a Federal government; they wanted to be guaranteed in writing, that the federal government would never have the constitution authority to impose its will on what were individual, sovereign states. 

          Before the American people would ratify the constitution in their states, they insisted that the Constitution contain a Bill of Rights that would forever restrict the federal government from usurping the right of the states and of the people to govern their respective societies. This clause took the form of the 10th Amendment.  It reads: 

          Amendment 10 - The powers not delegated to the United States [Federal Government] by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. 

          World Book encyclopedia explains the original intent of the Constitution’s framers when adopting the 10th Amendment: 

         “This amendment was adopted to reassure people that the national government would not swallow up the states. It confirms that the states or the people retain all powers not given to the national government.”  

           However, over the last 80 years, the federal government has grievously exceeded its constitutional authority and has illegally and unconstitutionally revoked the right of self-government from the American people. This usurpation of power is the underlying cause for much of the moral and social upheaval in our nation. 

          As Alexander Hamilton notes, a constitutional Republic requires that the American people and their respective representatives at the state level, protect one another from a federal government when it oversteps it constitutional authority and thus violates that rights of the people and the states. 

          Therefore we must go beyond mere resolutions and each state must be encouraged to pass state constitutional amendment or binding resolution that would essentially declare a limited “Declaration of Independence” from the Federal government that would restore the original balance of power between the state and federal government.  

          The American Leadership Network therefore encourages all state governors, Senators and Representatives to fulfill their oath of office to “support and defend the constitution” by protecting the rights and freedoms of their constituents from the illegal and unconstitutional usurpation of power from the Federal government.