The Seventeenth Amendment Buried the Republic

Robert Godwin

The 17th Amendment buried our republican form of government in 1913, with the original constitutional method of legislative choice of two Senators being replaced by popular vote. “State” representation to the federal government ceased to exist in that year. With the synergistic passage of the Federal Reserve Act and the 16th Amendment, Congress now had unlimited power to have a private bank to print money to be used for whatever schemes Congress deems fit – all in the name of the people and for the people – outside the enumerated powers of Article One, Section Eight of the U.S. Constitution.

A democracy, rather than a constitutional republic was established in 1913. It became a system of government that the Framers of our constitutional republic abhorred. The Constitution guaranteed to every State in the Union a republican form of government. Article IV, Section 4 of our U.S. Constitution states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government.”

Article VI, Clause 2 states: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; . . .under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the land. . .” Our republican form of government is one with checks and balances between the three branches of the federal government. Our republican form of government is also a check and balance between the sovereign states and the national government. Destroy this concept of checks and balances and our nation ceases to function as a republican form of government.

According to The Federalist Papers, No. 51, in a republican form of government, Madison asserts, the legislative branch is the strongest, and therefore must be divided into different branches, be as little connected with each other as possible, and render them by different modes of election. He stresses the need for the checks and balances. The government is guarded from usurpations because it is divided into distinct and separate departments. In 1788, power over people was divided both through federalism (between the federal government and the state governments) and through branches (the legislative, judicial and executive) within the national (or federal) government. Because of the division of power, a “double security arises to the rights of the people. The governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”

Can this guarantee be revoked by a constitutional amendment? What is this guarantee as understood by the Framers and the people of that era? Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines guarantee as: “To undertake to secure for another, at all events, claims, rights, and possessions; the undertaking that the engagement or promise of another would be preformed.” Did the 17th amendment change our republican form of government from a constitutional republic of sovereign states as it was in 1787 into a democracy in 1913 when the 17th amendment was added? Is the 17th amendment a lawful amendment to our federal constitution if it changed our republican form of government into a direct democracy by popular election of United States senators rather than appointment by state legislators? Can Congress and the president at the time (Woodrow Wilson ) or the people of that era have legal authority under the Constitution to change our republican form of government into a direct democracy? I contend that the 17th amendment is not a legal amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as it is not pursuant to the Constitution, therefore, the state legislature can nullify the 17th Amendment to make it void and inoperable and appoint two U.S. Senators from Oklahoma rather than electing them by popular vote. The Oklahoma Legislature ought to appoint the next two senators from Oklahoma without the need of a repeal amendment to do so.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments are the power amendments of our Constitutional Republic to nullify the 17th Amendment. It is time to restore our Republican form of government by repeal or by nullification by state legislatures – if we as a nation are to survive as a free people or be a conquered people by our own government. How can a Republican form of government be guaranteed, if it can be changed into a democracy by an amendment to the Constitution?

• Ad Your Comment

Reader Comments: