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Engagements can be properly construed to mean any agreement characterized by the exchange of mutual promises. That includes the Articles of Confederation. Thus, Article VI, Section 1 recognizes, by reference, the Articles of Confederation as a valid engagement of the United States. Such an interpretation is reinforced by Article VI, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.
When the Articles of Confederation were enacted, the states were politically independent nations. Therefore, the Articles of Confederation can reasonably be regarded as a treaty. The arrangement of grammar in Article VI, Section 2 ("...all treaties made, or which shall be made....") indicates treaties that were already in existence at the time as well as future treaties. That includes the Articles of Confederation. The clause also provides that legislation, but not treaties, must be "...made in pursuance thereof....". That is, legislation but not treaties must be constitutional. By Article VI, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, having never been terminated, are a part of the supreme law of the land. There's other evidence that the Articles of Confederation continue in operation today. The most spectacular and tragic is the War Between the States. The Articles of Confederation established the union as perpetual. However, only once did the Constitution address the expected duration of its union. That's in the Preamble.
Unlike the wording in the Articles of Confederation, the wording in the Constitution doesn't mandate perpetual union. Yet over 70 years after the Articles of Confederation were presumably superseded, perpetual union was enforced by the northern states. If the northern states were justified in their action, then the justification could have come only from the Articles of Confederation because there isn't any perpetual membership requirement in the U.S. Constitution. For more than 140 years, the requirement of perpetual union has been tacitly accepted as a part of the supreme law of the land. That requirement proves the continued operation of the Articles of Confederation. Further evidence of the continued operation of the Articles of Confederation is provided by the post office, which is usually presumed to op-
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erate under authority provided by the U.S. Constitution.
However, the only wording in the entire U.S. Constitution that deals with
the post office is in Article I.
That's a simple grant of a power, without wording that can be construed as making the power exclusive. Nevertheless, the post office exercises an exclusive power. The exclusive power comes from the Articles of Confederation.
Thus, not only the monopoly on mail delivery but also the authority to require postage on the mail is provided not by the U.S. Constitution but by the Articles of Confederation. The final irony of this particular example is that, even under the Articles of Confederation, the power to exact postage extends only to "papers." Presumably, postage cannot be legitimately required on things traveling through the mail if those things are not "papers." Another example of the ongoing operation of the Articles of Confederation is the coins. The union is empowered by Article 9 of the Articles of Confederation to have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coins. The Constitution mentions only gold or silver coins. Thus, the coins that are in common use today are authorized by the Articles of Confederation but not by the U.S. Constitution. The exercise of powers granted only by the Articles of Confederation proves the continued operation of those Articles. Thus, it appears that two mutually exclusive and contradictory contracts between the states exist simultaneously. Whichever contract is presumed to authorize the present union, examples can be found of powers presently exercised and granted only by that contract. Whichever contract is considered, a violation can be discovered.2 Regardless of the powers provided or the violations committed, a union cannot be valid when it is created by two different and contradictory contracts. That's as true of a union of states as it is of, for example, a marriage. In fact, the situation is more complex than I've demonstrated in this article. More information is available in my essays that are listed following the article. I suggest that you study the essays listed there and form your own conclusion. They're all available on Pharos at http://pharos.my3website.net/. My conclusion is that the union doesn't have any legitimacy at all and that it should be terminated. Lacking the ability to destroy it, I've abandoned it. That is, I avoid anything that will tend either to support it or to legitimize it. I suggest that you do the same. A plan for beginning such abandonment is suggested in the essay listed at Reference 3. Essays for Further Study
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Acknowledgments My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; my mother; Dewey and Betty; Joseph, of Northridge, California; and Doug, of Walton County, Georgia. — editor
Court Quotes From Humor in the Court and More Humor in the Court, by Mary Louise Gilman, editor of the National Shorthand Reporter. Forwarded by Don G.
Definitions Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Don G.
Another Description of Stupidity Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Don G.
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