SEPTEMBER 17, 1787

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America..."

221 Years ago today, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified on September 17, 2008. Our government is unique in human history, in that it was established by the WILL of the people. Nearly every other government on earth was historically established by brute force, i.e. the person with the most weapons seized control. The rise to power for history of governments has been through fraud, force or accident.

Many of the American "Founders" who sacrificed their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in establishing the Constitution referred to final version of the document as a "miracle." [1]

In a letter to the Marquis de Lafayette on February 7, 1788, George Washington wrote, "It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the delegates from so many different states (which states you know are also different from each other, in their manners, circumstances, and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of national government." [2]

James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson in France on December 9, 1787, saying it was "impossible to consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle." [3]

The prosperity, liberty, and freedom achieved in the United States of America is a direct result of the limitations placed on government by the Constitution. In order for secure our freedom, prosperity, and continued liberty, we must become familiar with the document that has had such a large part in creating it.

One of the most damaging causes to worldwide peace and prosperity is the foreign policy of the United States of America. Our current foreign policy has strayed radically from the original intent of the Constitution and from the intent of the people who wrote it.

J. Reuben Clark, former Under Secretary of State and former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, described the role of America as a great world peacemaker. He wrote:

"America, multi-raced and multi-nationed, is by tradition, by geography, by citizenry, by natural sympathy, and by material interest, the great neutral nation of the earth. God so designed it. Drawn from all races, creeds, and nations, our sympathies run to every oppressed people. Our feelings, engaged on opposite sides of great differences, will in their natural course, if held in due and proper restraint, neutralize the one [with] the other. Directed in right channels, this great body of feeling for the one side or the other will ripen into sympathy and love for all misguided and misled fellowmen who suffer in any cause, and this sympathy and love will run out to all humanity in its woe....

"Having in mind our position as the great world neutral, ... we should announce our unalterable opposition to any plan to starve these innocent peoples ... -- the women, the children, the sick, the aged, and the infirm -- and declare that when actual and bona fide mass starvation shall come to any of them, no matter who they are, we shall do all that we properly may do to see that they are furnished with food....

"If we shall rebuild our lost moral power and influence by measures such as these which will demonstrate our love for humanity, our justice, our fair-mindedness, we ... shall then be where ... we can offer mediation between the two belligerents.

"America, the great neutral, will thus become the Peacemaker of the world, which is her manifest destiny if she lives the law of peace." [4]

Washington then made his famous declaration of the Founders' policy of foreign relations:

"The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop."

Only recently, Washington had seen certain American politicians getting the United States embroiled in European quarrels. He saw these operating to the distinct disadvantage of the United States. Therefore, he warned:

"Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.... Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interests, humor, or caprice?" [5]

Take time today to think of the tremendous blessings that have arisen in your life due to the Constitution of the United States of America. More importantly take time in the future to study the Constitution and vote only for people who will truly support and defend it.

[1] Bowen, Catherine, Miracle at Philadelphia. p. 213
[2] Skousen, Cleon, The Making of America. p. 4
[3] Ibid.
[4] Skousen, The Five Thousand Year Leap. pp 276-278.
[5] Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 35:234.