“He
therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of
his country who tries most to promote its virtue,
and who, so far as his power and influence extend,
will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office
of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous
man…” Samuel Adams
Volume 4, Issue
10 www.IOTConline.com October 2004
If the November 2004 election for
President of these united States is in any way
similar to the presidential race of 2000, we can
expect renewed noises to abolish the electoral
college. In fact, even before the votes are cast
many are calling for the abolition of the electoral
college. They argue that in a democracy, the electoral
college obstructs the whole purpose of an election,
which is of course majority rule.
That argument presupposes that we
are a democracy. Most people believe this to be
the case because they have heard the lie repeated
so often and for so many years they have come to
believe it must be true. Our founding fathers took
an un equivocal stance against democracy. They
warned that our country would be in grave danger
if it ever became a democracy.
Our fourth President James Madison,
who is called the father of the constitution noted, “ [D]emocracies
have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention;
have ever been found incompatible with personal
security, or the rights of property; and have,
in general, been as short in their lives as they
have been violent in their deaths.” Madison
also stated, “ [D]emocracy will soon degenerate
into an anarchy; such an anar chy that every man
will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's
life or property or reputation or liberty will
be secure, and every one of these will soon mould
itself into a system of subordination of all the
moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the
powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to
the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and
the execrable [abominable] cruelty of one or a
very few.” Noah Webster observed, “ In
democracy . . . there are commonly tumults and
disorders. . . . Therefore a pure democracy is
generally a very bad government. It is often the
most tyrannical government on earth.” Next
time someone tells you we are a democracy remind
them of these quotes from our founders. Our second
President, John Adams warned, “ Remember,
democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts,
and murders itself. There never was a democracy
yet that did not commit suicide.” Our founders
put into play a variety of impediments to prevent
democracy from encroaching upon this Constitutional
Republic. One of those impediments was the Electoral
College.
Article Two, section one of the
Constitution spells out the details of the Electoral
College. It was subsequently altered by the twelfth
amendment. In essence the election of a President
involves a two stage procedure. Each state chooses
its own electors equal to the total number of Senators
and Congressmen from that state. In the current
rendition this means whoever wins the popular vote
in that state will have all the electoral votes
for that state. But that is not how the Electoral
College was originally designed to function. There
are two states which have retained the original
practice, Maine and Nebraska. In those states the
winner of each Congressional district wins that
electoral vote from that district. This was a far
better design because it allowed the more thinly
populated parts of a state to be adequately represented.
As it is in most states today, the cities control
who wins all the electoral votes for that state.
The Electoral College was designed
to be a state check on Federal power. By protecting
the smaller states, they have a greater say in
the election of a President. Their protection is
abolished by the purely popular vote system advocated
by those who desire to do away with the Electoral
College. These noise makers would like nothing
more than “the mob” in the most populous
States to control the outcome of the election.
Our founders wisely protected the rural or more
thinly populated portions of our country by this
mechanism.
Furthermore, in our day we find
that most voters take their cues from the major
media. These media outlets are hardly unbiased.
They don’t present anything but the two party
monopoly which is currently moving our country
efficiently down the road to complete socialism.
The major media is no friend of liberty, and cannot
be trusted to preserve our Constitutional Republic.
To abolish the Electoral College would give greater
powers to an already overly powerful socialist
media.
Electors are normally pledged to
support the candidate who carried their state.
However the design of our founders was intended
to prevent mobocracy. The electors could, if they
deemed the decision of the majority destructive
to the Constitutional Republic, vote contrary to
the wishes of the majority. The actual selection
was left to the elected representatives.
What we must remember is that we
are a representative system of government, not
a democracy. Those who are afraid of the Electoral
College, are afraid of the Constitutional Republic
that our founders carefully constructed. Fisher
Ames, Author of the House Language for the First
Amendment said, “ A democracy is a volcano
which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction.
These will produce an eruption and carry desolation
in their way... The known propensity of a democracy
is to licentiousness [excessive license] which
the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be
liberty.”
The difference between a Republic
and a Democracy can be illustrated by the typical
Western. The bad guy rides into town. We know he
is the bad guy because he is wearing a black hat.
He ties up his horse in front of the saloon. Shortly
after he enters that establishment, a fight breaks
out. The bad guy emerges followed by the town hero.
They stand back to back in the center of the dusty
street and walk ten paces. Both turn and guns blaze
as the lead flies. When the dust settles one man
is lying dead—the town hero.
The crowd yells for the sheriff
who duly arrives on the scene and arrests the bad
guy hauling him off to jail. The dejected towns
folk gather around the town’s charismatic
leader. Watch him carefully, He is the demagogue,
the promoter of democracy. With his flaming passionate
rhetoric, the demagogue soon has the crowd in the
palm of his hands. He molds them into a potent
weapon the mob. He challenges the wisdom in waiting
for a trial. They all know what took place in their
town. They know what is right, and they know who
should hang. They must not wait for the slow wheels
of justice. A trial will take months. They will
have to feed and house this murderous criminal
for many months at tax payers expense. He rouses
the crowd to a fever pitch.
Under his influence they swarm around
the jail and demand the prisoner be released immediately,
so they can administer justice. Some one grabs
a rope. It is thrown high, up and over the limb
of the tallest tree. The mob is growing surly as
the sheriff emerges from his office. Watch him
carefully for he is the Constitutionist the promoter
of the Republic. He clears his throat and motions
for the mob to be silent. This takes awhile. Finally
someone says, “Let’s let him speak.” “Men,
when you elected me as your sheriff, before I took
office, I swore a solemn oath. Now an oath is not
just some nice toss off ceremony. It is a serious
thing, because to take an oath is to make a solemn
vow before Almighty God. Thomas More said that ‘ people
who take an oath, take their eternal lives in their
hand.’ God inspired King Solomon to write
in Ecclesiastes 5, ‘
When you make a vow to God, do not
delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed—Better not to vow,
than to vow and not pay. Do not let your mouth
cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger
of God that it was an error. Why should God be
angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your
hands.’ The solemn, holy vow I took before
Almighty God as I assumed the office of sheriff,
was an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the
Constitution of this State, as well as the Constitution
of these united States. If I were to knowingly
violate that oath, I place my eternal soul in jeopardy.
The Fifth Article of the united States Bill of
Rights states, ‘ No person shall be ….
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law;’
Now I know you are impatient for
justice. But justice will not be served if you
hang this man. He must have his day in court. That
is the rule of law. We are a country ruled by laws
not by men. We are a Republic not a Democracy.
I intend to see that here in this town we continue
to be ruled by laws and not by men. Now you all
head on home. Enough trouble has been done here
for one day.”
The sheriff’s words are more
powerful than the demagogue’s. So with that,
the mob shuffles its feet, mutters a few words
and disbands and ambles back home.
We must remember the lesson that
this sheriff taught. Our founders clearly labeled
democracy—mobocracy. What the demagogues
of today are promoting is socialism. It is an evil
system tried and found wanting. It cannot succeed
as a system of government which secures our God
given rights because it is committed to the doctrine
that government is God. Our founders clearly believed
that civil government was ordained by God and therefore
could only rightly function within its God boundaries.
Socialism believes government should have no boundaries,
it should be unlimited in its functions because
after all it is God.
What we really need to understand
is that those who are clamoring for democracy are
aiming at one common goal; the destruction of our
Constitutional Republic. Rather than fight a direct,
all out war, they engage in subterfuge, deceit
and misinformation.
But providentially, we have the
tools available to dispel the lies. The words of
our founding fathers have not been erased, but
simply ignored. At Institute on the Constitution
we are dedicated to teaching millions of Americans
the truth about our Constitutional Republic.
Our host kit is designed so that
anyone, anywhere with any group of people can teach
what our founders believed about law and government.
It is heartening to see eyes opened to the truth
about America.
Many people are intimidated by the
thought of conducting a class on the Constitution
to teach the history and heritage of our Constitutional
Republic. I often hear, “Who me host the
Institute? I can’t do that! I am not a legal
scholar, historian or a teacher.
The good news is you don’t
have to teach or even have any special knowledge
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Dr. John Eidsmoe does that work for you in the
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questions following each lecture. We provide the
answers and supplemental materials.
We’ve designed this host kit
so that anyone can effectively lead a group to
understand our Constitutional Republic. We invite
you to join in the cause of preserving our God
given Liberty, and restoring our Constitutional
Republic. If you don't defend Liberty, who will?
Order a host kit today 8667309796 or order online
at IOTConline.com.
by Pastor David Whitney
