Bill of Rights - Article the First by National Archives
In 1791
the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights , went into effect, having been ratified by two
thirds of states. One of the original articles in the Bill of Rights , the first one, was not ratified. It is this article
that can save America.
It is a
little known fact that there were originally twelve amendments proposed. What
we know today as the First Amendment was really the third proposed.
Had all twelve
been passed the NRA would be an ardent lobby for Fourth Amendment rights. There
would be rallies to "Restore the Sixth." The Third Amendment would grant
freedom of religion.
The first
two articles, however, were not passed. One of them, having to do with
congressional raises, would be ratified in 1992, a full 203 years after its
1789 proposal. What was at the time the second proposed amendment is now the
Twenty Seventh Amendment.
Article the First
Today the
federal government is run by an elite two party system that acts as one party
more often than not, catering only to corporations and the special interests
that fund their campaigns. They are locked in perpetual war, fighting not for
what is in the best interests of their constituents, but what is in the best
interest of their party and their party's big donors.
Even
before the Constitution was adopted this outcome was feared. The Founding
Fathers foresaw population growth and the potential for corruption in the
government. They knew that for a people to be free that they must govern
themselves. The people of the republic must elect representatives to congress;
people who literally represent the community from which they were elected.
The
original size of the House of Representatives was to be only sixty five, with
Article I, Section 2 only prescribing that there be not more than one
representative per 30,000 citizens. This was so disturbing to the
anti-federalists that James Madison penned Federalist
No. 55 , in which he declared the anti-federalist concerns to be moot,
because, among other things, the number of total representatives was to
increase ever ten years following the census.
When it
came time craft the Bill of Rights, it was feared that the number of
representatives might not increase with the growing population. Therefore they
crafted an amendment to the constitution that was so important that it was put
first. Article the First, as it is known, caps the size of a congressional
district to 50,000.
It reads
as such:
Article
the first... After the first enumeration required by the first article of the
Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand,
until the number shall amount to one hundred; after which the proportion shall
be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred
Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand
persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after
which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be
less than two hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for
every fifty thousand persons.
Size of the New House
The
effect of recognizing and honoring the ratification of Article the First would
provide great benefits to citizens of the United States.
The House of Representatives would be forced to increase in size
from the current arbitrary number of 435 to over 6,100. This is not a matter of
increasing the size of government. It's not solving the problems of government
with "more government." It's placing the control of the government correctly in
the hands of the actual people.
The number of 435 was settled on in 1911. Up until that time,
every ten years, following each enumeration, the House of Representatives added
new seats. But we haven't added any new seats in over 100 years.
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