Thomas Paine wrote his first Crisis essay (aka “American Crisis”) in December 1776. Paine wrote the essay, which begins with
These are the times that try men’s souls
to discuss the dire situation that had befallen the Continental Army and to implore the Army’s men to continue in the fight for liberty. The Army had been soundly defeated in New York but had miraculously managed to escape across the Hudson and found themselves in New Jersey being pursued by the British. Most of the Army’s men had enlistments that were due to expire in January 1777. The men were ill-equipped, many without shoes despite the winter weather. Many members of Congress had begun to doubt if General Washington would be able to recover and take the fight to the British. Washington knew he needed a victory to prove that we could win and to show Congress, men that might reenlist, and potential new recruits that they could be a part of making history. As Paine wrote:
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Washington got word of the essay and had each of his officers read it on Christmas Eve in the hopes it would provide inspiration as they embarked on the daring Delaware River crossing and the subsequent battle of Trenton. Despite all odds, including bitterly cold weather and ice floes in the river, the Army crossed the river with no loss of life, marched through the night with many men’s bare feet leaving blood on the icy road, and won a crucial victory in their battle against the Hessian mercenaries.
I believe we are in a similar situation now as the Patriots were in December 1776. Much of America is either actively involved in the Marxist movement or is staying out of the battle. Those staying out of the battle may be simply ignorant, but many aren’t engaging because they fear retribution, such as losing their jobs, friends, or family members, or being publicly ridiculed and ostracized. The ignorant are keeping their heads down and don’t appreciate the dire situation we will be in if the Marxists are allowed to continue to conduct fraudulent elections. We need some victories to help wake up the ignorant and encourage those on the sidelines to join the fight. Perhaps the Arizona audit will be the first victory.
Those fighting in the Revolutionary War knew what they were fighting for – Liberty and Independence. Do we know what we are fighting for? Most would say we’re fighting to defeat the Marxists and preserve America as it was founded. But I believe it needs to be more than that. I know many people that believe we will win this war but believe that will only result in a temporary return to the status quo where political power oscillates between two political parties, both of which are more concerned with political power than the America people (albeit this problem is most prevalent with the Democrats). The prospect of a prolonged war against Marxist ideologies might be like the guerrilla war we waged and eventually lost in Afghanistan. The Marxists will never give up and will continue infiltrating American institutions to poison the minds of Americans, especially children and young adults. So, we might know we’re fighting against Marxism, but is there an ideal even greater than America as originally conceived we could be fighting for?
Daniel Webster, one of America’s greatest senators, served as the headmaster of Fryeburg Academy in Fryeburg, Maine when he was only 20 years old. In a Fourth of July Oration in 1802 he said the following:
If an angel should be winged from Heaven, on an errand of mercy to our country, the first accents that would glow on his lips would be, Beware! Be cautious! You have everything to lose; nothing to gain. We live under the only government that ever existed which was framed by the unrestrained and deliberate consultations of the people. Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in six thousand years cannot be expected to happen often. Such a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for ages, with revolution and tumult, riot and despotism.
America is rotting away at its foundation. If we chose to only prop it up with temporary repairs and duct tape, I fear that an inevitable collapse will occur. So, what are we fighting for? In my humble opinion we must fight for the Rebirth of America by calling for a Constitutional Convention as allowed by Article V of the Constitution.
Obviously, the war must first be won, but my heart and my soul and my intellect leads me to believe the Patriots will win and the Truth will prevail. To squander this victory by allowing a continuation of the current two-party system, which I believe is irreparably broken, would be a tragedy. Having won the Revolutionary War, did our Founding Fathers choose to create 13 Kingdoms? No - they knew the evil of tryanny and chose to create a new form of government. And so must we! Anyone that is a true Patriot will know this is a necessity. So, I implore you, my fellow Patriots, to hear what I am saying and join me by “going big” versus taking the easy-way-out.
When the Constitutional Convention began in 1787, the colonies were united, but essentially independent, and the federal government (as established by the Articles of Confederation written in 1777 during the Revolutionary War) had some weaknesses, including the inability to raise funds and a weak federal government. As Daniel Webster said in the quote above, the founding of the United States of America was a miracle. The circumstances at the time allowed for a group of men to gather at the Constitutional Convention with a common goal - write a constitution to create a new form of government to govern the united colonies. Some of the men that went to the convention were interested in maintaining autonomy for the colonies, but most were in favor of creating a new federal government composed of states. The fact that the delegates were able to put the will of the people first and limit the powers of the government was an extraordinary (miralculous) event, and the Constitution has served the people well over 200 years.
James Madison was in favor of establishing a new federal government and was instrumental in creating the Constitution. Madison had helped develop Virginia's Constitution 11 years earlier, and it was his "Virginia Plan" that served as the basis for debate in the development of the U.S. Constitution. Madison argued strongly for a strong central government that would unify the country.
Following adoption of the Constitution by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention, two-thirds of the thirteen states (nine states) had to ratify the proposed Constitution. James Madison, along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, wrote a series of essays, called the Federalist Papers, that were anonymously published in various New York newspapers with the goal of convincing the New York state legislature to ratify the Constitution.
Much of the content of these essays explained the reasoning behind the Constitution. In the case of the American Rebirth Papers, of which this essay explains their genesis, the essays will provide a basis for a new Constitution that will be created by the first-in-history Constitutional Convention.
I am not an eloquent statesman like James Madison. I am a regular American with no political experience and no PhD in America History or Political Science (I have a Masters in Chemical Engineering). I do have an intense interest and in-depth knowledge of American History, Economics, and Politics. It is my hope, in writing these American Rebirth Papers, that others will join with me to write essays that will be useful in the Constitutional Convention and to work to convince the State Legislatures to call for the convention.
The format of each essay will be as follows:
Identify a problem (or problems) with our governmental system (federal, state, and/or local).
Propose a framework for solving the problem(s).
That’s it for No. 0. American Rebirth Paper No. 1 will cover problems that are caused by our current two-party political dynamic.