Does the United States really exist? (continued)
In the National Archives of the united States, located in the United States' District of Columbia, millions of tourists have seen a rare original of a document styled the Constitution of the United States of America. I do not think anyone has suggested that it is a fake, because those pesky museum-curator types can trace the chain of custody back to 1787. I am not writing this from the National Archives, however, but I am using a version of that document with proper capitalizations faithful to the original. It is from Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law (2d Ed. 1988).
Pure-trust advocates quote the "Constitution" as a form or highest common law for the united States; therefore, I will assume that The Constitution of the United States of America has some legal effect on the united States of America. I am not aware of any Constitution of the united States of America. The Constitution of the United States of America begins as follows:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Note that "United" is the only adjective that begins with a capital letter. Those writers in the eighteenth century lovingly sprinkling those capital letters around rather liberally. (Sorry about using the "L" word). In any event, the source document supports the argument that the respective states are the "United States," and that the notion of the "united States" is a rather kooky daydream.
If the pure-trust folks are correct, then this document (i.e., the Constitution) only applied in the Northwest Territories which were already organized under the Northwest Ordinance adopted under the Articles of Confederation. The District of Columbia, founded in 1800, was not yet in existence. Why was this document not entitled the "Constitution of the Northwest Territories?" What needed to be united? Curiously enough, the Northwest Ordinance was passed at the same time in 1787 as the Constitutional Convention was assembling in Philadelphia.
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