Introduction

The United States of America was founded as a federation of
Republics whose sole purpose was to protect persons and their
property. Without regulations, subsidies and other privileges,
individuals and businesses co-evolved in a competitive environment
to be the most inventive and efficient on earth.
Democracy -- rule by the majority; disregard for individual rights
-- has perverted what was once a symbiotic relationship among
individuals and businesses into a parasitic relationship. Even our
massive deficit spending can no longer hide our decline.
-- William Holmes

"These United States Of America . . . Are Not a Democracy!" James
Kraft-Lorenz

This nation was never intended to be a democracy. The framers and
ratifiers meant to impose the stable rule of law and not the rule
of men, motivated, at the instant, by whim and passion. Democracy
is the antithesis of the rule of law, for it is precisely the rule
of the voters: that is, rule without limits, obtaining its power
from 50%, plus 1, regardless of the established law. Under demos
(populace) kratos (master), from the Greek, the mere whim of the m
ajority, right, wrong or indifferent, becomes the law. A lynch mob
is democratic within this definition.

Look at the Internal Revenue Service or the DEA -- do they not
violate the Law guaranteed by the Bill of Rights? Aren't they a
product of the legislative democracy, outside the rule of the
ratified Law? Yes, but they are certainly democratic. The voters
in the States elected the whole Congress. The majority in Congress
voted to empower these agents beyond the powers given to Congress
by the People. Both votes, the direct election of Senators and the
Congress's vote to bestow powers they do not Lawfully have, are
contra to the Constitution as Lawfully ratified.

Consensus facit legem is an incontrovertible rule of law which
means 'consent makes law.' How does a minority in the right oppose
a majority in the wrong, without resort to a fixed rule of law? It
cannot. Without a republican form of government a peaceful defense
of rights may not be possible.

In short, the operative word is republican. (Not to be confused
with the modern Republican party.) Article IV Section 4 of the
Constitution states: "The United States shall guarantee to every
State in this Union a Republican form of Government, and shall
protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the
Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be
convened) against domestic Violence." A serious and potentially
damaging bit of misinformation usually follows this line: "Our
Treasured Basic Freedoms . . . the historical basic documents that
laid the foundation for our democracy, etc." The author of this
mistake is usually innocent. He or she is not aware of the real
foundation of our federated government.

The closest American dictionary to the ratification period is Noah
Webster's "An American Dictionary of the English Language,"
printed in 1828. Noah Webster says in part:

REPUB'LIC, n. [L. respublica; res and publica; public affairs.]

A commonwealth; a state in which the exercise of the sovereign
power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. In
modern usage, it differs from a democracy or democratic state, in
which the people exercise the powers of sovereignty in person.

REPUB'LICAN, a.

Pertaining to a republic; consisting of a commonwealth; as a
republican constitution or government.

Seems pretty clear, for the then commonly understood definition of
'republican.'

The Declaration of Independence (the Primary statute), along with
the Constitution (the Organic Law), as properly ratified, by two-
thirds of the states' votes, is the total and perfect definition
of the American republic. The only external interpretation is the
intent of the framers and ratifiers.1

Our nation is, properly, a limited constitutional federal
republic, formed of limited constitutional state republics, all
using majority rule to fill certain elective offices and decide
certain matters. With the ratification of the Constitution and the
Bill of Rights, the People reserved only four direct (majority)
votes:

1. Direct election of Representatives to Congress;

2. Direct election of Presidential Electors;

3. Direct votes as Jurors;

4. Direct votes as Grand Jurors.

We are democratic to the extent of these direct votes of the
People. Our government's model is republican in form.

The Fully Informed Jury

What is to keep the Republic just and free? Who watches the
watchers? Fully informed jurors are the palladium of liberty.2
Statutes are formed by the various legislatures, and must be
confirmed by fully informed Juries of the People, who have no
tenure to earn, no election to win, no office to save but one: a
safe home protected by peace and justice.

What is the Common Law? It is the law of common sense. It is the
pursuit of justice tempered with mercy. It is the final barrier to
overzealous legislation and enforcement. If there is no injury,
there is no crime. No one can be arrested without probable cause.
No ex post facto tricks; Habeas Corpus; no entry or search without
a valid warrant. No life, liberty or property can be taken absent
a judgment of peers, with all due process.

Grand Juries are required to return True Bills of indictment, or
no trial may begin. Juries know of their right, power and duty to
judge the statutes, the law and the facts, and the application of
all to the case in question. This is the Law of which no competent
adult can plead ignorance. It is based on the presumption that all
are innocent persons of goodwill until conviction on charges of a
crime that has caused injury.

What did Noah Webster say on the subject of the jury?

JU'RY, n. [Fr. jur , sworn, L. juro, to swear.] A number of
freeholders, selected in the manner prescribed by law, empannelled
and sworn to inquire into and try any matter of fact, and to
declare the truth on the evidence given them in the case. Grand
juries consist usually of twenty four freeholders at least, and
are summoned to try matters alledged in indictments. Petty juries,
consisting of twelve men, attend courts to try matters of fact in
civil causes, and to decide both the law and the fact in criminal
prosecutions. The decision of a petty jury is called a verdict.

It is on the authority of the People that the Constitutions for
the States and for these United States of America exist in the
first place. When an American Jury renders a verdict, they have
spoken, as WE THE PEOPLE, resuming their delegation of
legislative, executive and judicial authority, limited to the
circumstances in the instant case. The verdicts of fully informed
American Juries are not subject to rebuke or censure: they are the
in-person voice of the true Sovereigns. The government can create
any 'law' by statute, rule or regulation, but as long as the Jury
stands between the accused and the accuser, neither life, liberty
nor property can be taken without the knowing consent of twelve
other potential victims of the same bad law. This right to trial
by Jury is the glory of our English legal heritage and the
cornerstone of our Republic.

American Juries are limited by due process and the common law,
preventing legal murder. Juries have no power to create
legislation, only to veto the statute before them. Juries have no
power to execute law that is not already in existence, but they
can refuse to act on it. Juries cannot judge the conduct of the
defendant beyond the scope of the indicting charges, but they can
refuse to convict. Juries of the People are, comparably to the
Supreme Court, not bound by any precedent. If a legislated 'crime'
is no longer seen as such by Juries, they can and do ignore the
statute, acquitting in the face of the law and the facts.

This was the trend in the Fugitive Slave Law cases and in the
Volstead Act cases during alcohol prohibition.

All action to legislate, to execute, and adjudicate, was delegated
by the people, under the Constitution (the rule of Law), to the
States and the threemajor branches of the National Government.
All officers of State and National Government swear or affirm to
protect and defend the appropriate constitutions. But Jurors do
not take that oath, for they are not bound as servants: here, they
are masters in their own house. This is the essence of res publica
(affairs of the public).

Republic: Loss and Restoration

In our current society the word 'democracy' is used to signify a
move away from the limited, enumerated constitutional powers. Away
from the specific grants of power, delegated by the people, that
are required to exist within our republican form. It is important
to remember that what has been delegated can be resumed by the
lawful holder of the power.

An excerpt from the script of a videotape which I helped produce3
tells part of the story of the drift:

Our founders were students of history, and they designed the
Constitution for the United States of America to guard against
such encroachment. But the tyrants eventually uncovered a flaw. It
is precisely located in the Constitution in Article 1, section 8,
clause seventeen. The clause reads:

[Congress shall have the power] I "To exercise exclusive
Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not
exceeding 10 miles square) as may, by Cession of particular
States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the
Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority
over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the
State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts,
Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; I"

Clear enough. The Constitution remains as a limitation on the
federal government's authority in the States, while Congress is
permitted to make all laws governing the territories and property
under its jurisdiction. However, in the years following the Civil
War, the 39th and 40th Congresses perverted the intention of the
language such that the municipal government based in Washington,
D.C . has come to control virtually every political, social and
geographical subdivision of the individual States, effectively
destroying their sovereignty and converting their citizens into
federal subjects.

Prior to the 1930s, the United States of America was rarely
referred to as a democracy. In a Republic, every individual is
recognized to have certain absolute rights. The sole purpose of
government is to secure those rights. In a democracy, individuals
are dissolved into the body politic and are granted rights which
vary according to the will of the majority.

Our restoration as a Constitutional Republic depends upon our
individual knowledge of these essential facts and concepts. They
are seldom mentioned in the government-controlled schools and
almost never in modern schools of law. Monitor a class for
yourself; ask the students about these 'revolutionary' ideasI

There is one thing Karl Marx had right when he said: "If you can
cut people off from their history they can be easily persuaded."
Who we are and what we are is vitally connected to who we were. It
all hangs on a word.

The framers and ratifiers did not intend to establish a democracy.
As Dr. Franklin is reported to have said to an inquirer at the
closing of the Constitutional Convention, "Madame, We have given
you a Republic, if you can keep it."

James Kraft-Lorenz is a freelance writer and lecturer and has
appeared in the Truth Seeker often. He resides in Salt Lake City,
Utah.

References:

1. The Federalist Papers, the Anti-federalist Papers, Madison's
Notes, the constitutional debates (various). The Articles of
Confederation, and the principal documents that preceded the
American revolution, such as the various letters of Sam Adams'
Committees of Correspondence, and Common Sense and The American
Crisis, by the honorable Thomas Paine, whom George Washington
credited with the title "Author of the Revolution."

2. The Palladium was the shrine of Athena, goddess of wisdom, war
and justice. In ancient Greece it was allowed to be used as a
sanctuary by the accused -- in a word, the last refuge of freedom.

3. "Liberty In The Balance: America, the Fed, and the IRS," Mosaic
Media, Common Law Copyright, 1993, Pasadena, California Republic.
This 50-minute tape is available from the National League for the
Separation of Church and State, P.O. Box 2832, San Diego, CA,
92112. $29 + $3 postage and handling.

For information on Fully Informed Jury Association call or write:
F.I.J.A., P.O. Box 59, Helmville, Montana 59843. (406) 793-5550.

Any information in this article pertaining to legal or medical
matters is not to be construed as professional advice.
Copyrights remain the property of the authors.

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