A Few Words from George Washington on the Constitution and a Challenge

“The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will, be recalled.” George Washington (1787) The Writings of George Washington by John C. Fitzpatrick, GPO, 1931-44. Vol. 32:2

Notice what the hero of the American Revolution and President of the Constitutional Convention had to say about that document in the quote above. First, he reminds us that the power in our government was meant to always reside in the people and that it is only entrusted “for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period” to representatives of our own choosing.  We must study the Constitution for ourselves. It was meant for the people to read. We must know what the limits of the U.S. government are supposed to be so that we can demand that government not exceed those limits. 

Those “certain defined purposes” are spelled out in the Constitution itself. This is why as patriots we must diligently study its text. It was meant for us to understand and when he says “defined purposes” that means that if our government officials go beyond what is specifically defined in the Constitution as their powers, they are acting unconstitutionally. For over a hundred years now, progressives in congress and the white house have been doing just that, though usually trying to cloak their efforts in legalisms. Today, they often don’t even bother with those. We must hold them to account for their violations of the constitutional limits which our founders placed on the central government. Too long, we have allowed them to subvert the system and accrue power to the central government which by rights is and should be in the hands of the states and the people.

According to Washington, we have no excuse. We must stop voting back into office people who are working against what is in the best interest of the liberty of the American people. It is up to us to call government to account and some of us have started doing that. More of us need to. Remember the real power is in our hands not theirs. Don’t let them condescend to you, talk down to you, or try to intimidate you. Look them square in the eye and tell them that you intend to vote them out if they do not listen and that you will do your best to convince your neighbors and friends to join you in doing so.

Also note that George Washington felt himself as President to be constrained by the text of the Constitution. In 1790, he wrote that “The Constitution of the United States, and the laws made under it, must mark the line of my official conduct.” (Ibid. 31:9) He tried to live up to that. For example, he never appointed a shadow-cabinet of Czars who, thereby, avoided the need for the advice and consent of the Senate to hold office.

Washington also feared that people might try to twist the meaning of the Constitution to gain power. In 1796, he wrote “Towards the preservation of our government…it is requisite…that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.” (Ibid. 35:225) For many years this is what many in our government, especially those on the left, have been doing. Washington was warning us, future generations, that we must “resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles.” We must roll back what the left has been trying to do in this country for over 100 years. Progressives want a managed society, not a free one. They do not trust ordinary Americans to run their own affairs. They crave the power to tell us how to live and what we can and cannot do. It is up to us to stop them. We must return to the basic principles of the Constitution and remove their disastrous innovations that have been slowly choking the life out of our freedom. We must root their weeds from the garden of American law. They have undermined the system for years and appear to be about to try and overthrow it openly. Now is the time to heed the first President to serve this nation under our Constitution. Now is the day of battle.