Join 16 year old Joshua Levesque as he covers the 2009 Continental Congress in St. Charles, IL

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By: Dr. Douglas F. Levesque, Founder of The Levesque Institute

The Continental Congress 2009 has convened in Chicagoland, Illinois. It is meeting to articulate grievances regarding the U.S. government’s abuse of power and disregard for Constitutional law. It will then determine what to do if the government decides to ignore the grievances. A public petition will be circulated to raise awareness and garner support. It is an historic occasion – no doubt. It’s effectiveness is yet to be seen. It’s legitimacy is the subject of this treatise.

Three delegates from each state have been elected to represent Americans in these delegations. The diversity is great. White, black, hispanic, and immigrant-citizens are here. Blue collar, white collar, college degrees, and self educated experts are here. Men, women, young, and old are here. Most are patriots, many are veterans, some are skeptics, and not a few seem anti-establishment, but all are come together as Americans. Some are God fearing, some are atheistic, but all are tolerant of the many prayers, hymns, chapels, and religious historical stories alluded to here. The level of Constitutional knowledge and legal understanding is as rich as any meeting in America. The hope for peaceful progress is seen in the smiling eyes and heard in the lively discussions at every break time or meal table. The determination to see this Continental Congress is high in most delegations. On the surface it is very real, and very serious. At the core it is noble, and for the Constitutional purist. But is it legitimate?

What makes anything legitimate? Does legitimate mean legal? This congress is legal. Does legitimate mean mature or meaningful? This congress is both of those things. Does legitimate mean popular or marketable? This congress has the potential to be explosive at the grass roots level and in the pop media. Does legitimate mean “as powerful” or more potent than the current government? That remains to be seen. Our forefathers certainly did not seem legitimate under any of these definitions, but today nobody questions their legitimacy. It is their universal acceptance and even their universal esteem that actually maximizes this Continental Congress 2009. Constitutionally, nothing could be more legitimate.

Biblically speaking, only an adherence to the sound national advice and wisdom within the sacred pages of Scripture will move the hand of heaven towards a lasting and effective legitimacy. Let us pray for both our current authorities and our Continental Congress 2009 delegates to reach for the examples set by our first representatives.

“But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bear rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.” -Nehemiah 5:15

Original article posted at the We The People Foundation website.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 may one day be known as the day the American People convened, for the first time in over two centuries, an Assembly of representatives of the People in order to fully exercise of the “Capstone Right” — i.e., the Petition clause of the First Amendment.

At approximately 3:00 pm Wednesday, WTP Chairman Bob Schulz convened the Assembly to begin the selection of Congress officers from the ranks of elected Delegates who will preside over the 11-day long Assembly.  Constitutional scholar and former Presidential candidate Michael Badnarik was selected as the presiding officer of the Congress while Delegate .

Following the ceremonial Liberty Banquet dinner at the St. Charles, Illinois Pheasant Run venue, the Delegates gathered in the main deliberation hall for the Opening Ceremony which wasbroadcast live.  The song-centered ceremony featured presentation of the fifty state flags by the Delegates, as well as several patriotic group songs and inspirational prayers.

For over a decade, WTP Foundation has championed an intensive, well-researched and coherent effort to hold the Government accountable for its escalating violations of fundamental Rights and the Constitution through use of the Right of the People to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”  Those ongoing abuses include violations of the Constitution’s tax, money, war, general welfare, privacy and other clauses that are at the heart of the conditions that now plague our nation.  (See our Petitions for Redress)

Although the public has known little about the history or nature of the Right to Petition, scholarly and historical research has established without argument, that the Right, first articulated as the cornerstone of Western Law in Magna Carta (1215), provides the People an individual Right to hold Government peacefully accountable for its abuses.

Far beyond the right to merely send “complaints” to the government (which are virtually ignored by all officials), the Right of Petition embodies the profound Right to enforce the Right to Petition by withdrawing support from the Government until Redress is secured.

Summaries of this important research can be reviewed as part of the legal pleadings of the 2004 landmark WTP lawsuit, We The People vs. United States, which sought to have the Judiciary declare – for the first time in history – the legal and constitutional meaning of the last ten words of the First Amendment. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear this controversial case involving the essence of Popular Sovereignty.

Continental Congress 2009 will take the process of holding Government accountable and restoring the Constitution to the next level by first creating a formal record of the vast violations of the Constitution and Individual Rights now suffered by the People.  Next, the Congress will debate and decide upon a series of practical but strong “Civic Actions” the People may take in order to restore their Liberty.

The agenda for the CC2009 Assembly also provides for the development and adoption of formal “Remedial Instructions” to be served upon federal and state officials, in essence ordering them to cease and desist their official abuses and giving them formal Notice as to the “Civic Actions” of (peaceful) resistance the People may take, en masse, if those officials, yet again, choose to ignore the People’s Petitions for Redress.

View a live video stream of the Continental Congress 2009 at http://www.biblenation.org/resources/event-live-streaming/

Join 16 year old Joshua Levesque as he covers the 2009 Continental Congress in St. Charles, IL

View live video from the Congress at http://www.biblenation.org/resources/event-live-streaming/

Join 16 year old Joshua Levesque as he covers the 2009 Continental Congress in St. Charles, IL

View live video from the Congress at http://www.biblenation.org/resources/event-live-streaming/

By: Jason Georges, Executive Director, Bible Nation Society

On September 5, 1774, the likes of George Washington, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Jay, John Adams, and fifty other delegates representing twelve of the thirteen colonies met in Philadelphia to begin the formal discussions that would eventually lead to the writing of the Declaration of Independence.  These men,  who today are considered patriots and founders, risked wealth, liberty, and even life to appeal to a higher authority (the God of the Bible) to separate from a repressive government.  In an attempt to form a better government, they created documents birthed from a view of a world whose ultimate judge was the God who revealed himself in the Bible.

Today, again, Americans find themselves unwilling subjects of yet another repressive government.  And, like our founders, citizens today have begun discussions of a return to the original intents of the Constitution.  In St. Charles, Illinois from November 11-22, 2009 a new Continental Congress of selected delegates from all fifty states will meet “to determine a legal and peaceful means to stop the violations of The Constitution of The United States of America and to restore Constitutional governance.” (More information about this meeting can be found at http://www.cc2009.us.)  Many today speak of reform, but to abandon one godless philosophy only to replace it with another godless philosophy regardless of how “conservative” will only lead to repression once again.  The founders appealed to the freedoms bestowed by “Nature’s God” and the “Creator” as justification to revolt.  Talk of change outside of the influence of the “Creator’s” revelation, the Bible, brings as much hope as the change promised by the current administration.  The Bible advocate understands that the only hope for meaningful reform is not simply a return to founding documents, but a return to original reliance on the Word of God.  Will these modern day dissenters recognize that the not so secret reason for our national success has been a reliance on the Scriptures?

Day 1 Report

Day 2 Report

Join 16 year old Joshua Levesque as he covers the 2009 Continental Congress in St. Charles, IL

View future BNS reports and watch a live video feed of the proceedings by clicking http://www.biblenation.org/resources/event-live-streaming/

By: Chuck Baldwin, former Presidential Candidate

This column is archived at
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20091013.html

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide
new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance
of these Colonies.”

I would argue that we, like our patriot forebears, have also endured
“patient sufferance.” For at least a half-century, we have patiently endured
the erosion and abridgment of our freedoms and liberties.  We have watched
the federal government become an overbearing and meddlesome Nanny State that
pokes its nose and sticks its fingers in virtually everything we do. We
cannot drive a car, buy a gun, or even flush a toilet without Big Brother’s
permission. We are taxed, regulated, and snooped-on from the time we are
born to the day we die. And then after we are dead, we are taxed again.

In the same way that Jefferson and Company patiently suffered up until that
shot was fired that was heard around the world, we who love freedom today
are likewise patiently suffering “a long train of abuses and usurpations.”
In fact, I would even dare say that these States United have become a
boiling caldron of justifiable frustration and even anger.

Accordingly, it is incumbent upon us to very seriously and thoughtfully
examine those principles that we absolutely will never cede or surrender. We
have already surrendered much of the freedom that was bequeathed to us by
our forefathers. We are now to the point that we must define those
principles that form our “line in the sand” and that we will not surrender
under any circumstance. Either that, or we must admit to ourselves that
there is nothing–no principle, no freedom, no matter how sacred–that we
will not surrender to Big Government.

Here, then, are those principles that, to me, must never be surrendered. To
surrender these liberties to Big Government would mean to commit idolatry.
It would be sacrilege. It would reduce us to slavery. It would destroy our
humanity. To surrender these freedoms would mean “absolute Despotism” and
would provide moral justification to the proposition that such tyranny be
“thrown off.”

*The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Men without guns are not free men; they are slaves. Men without guns are not
citizens; they are subjects. Men without guns have lost the right of
self-defense. They have lost the power to defend their families and protect
their properties. Men without guns are reduced to the animal kingdom,
becoming prey to the Machiavellians among them who would kill them for sport
or for their own personal pursuits. As King Jesus plainly ordered, “He that
hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” (Luke 22:36) This we
will do–at all costs.

*The Right to Own Private Property

Like the right of self-defense, the private ownership of property is a
God-given right that is rooted in the Sacred Text. As God told Moses, “Thou
shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set
in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy
God giveth thee to possess it.” (Deut. 19:14)

In fact, the history of Western Civilization is replete with the examples of
free men who were determined (even at the cost of their very lives) to
defend the right to own property. Without private property rights, men are
reduced to serfs and servants. Like chattel, they feed themselves by
another’s leave. This we will not do.

*The Right to Train and Educate Our Children

Education has never been the responsibility of the State. From time
immemorial, education has been the right and responsibility of the family.
This, too, has its foundation in the Sacred Volume. “And, ye fathers,
provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord.” (Eph. 6:4)

Therefore, the absolute right of homeshooling or private/parochial/Christian
schooling must never be surrendered. Homeschooling, especially, is
fundamental to freedom. It is not a coincidence that throughout history,
most totalitarian governments forbade parents homeschooling their children.
Any government–federal, State, or local–that forbids, or even restricts,
the right of parents to homeschool their children has taken upon itself the
uniform of a tyrant.

*The Freedom of Speech and Worship

Speech and worship are matters of the heart and conscience (Luke 6:45;
John 4:24). Only tyrants seek authority over matters of the heart. But, of
course, that is what tyrants do: they seek to control men’s thoughts and
beliefs.

Hence, the alternative media is essential to liberty: the Internet, short
wave radio, as well as independent magazines and periodicals. It is almost
superfluous to say that there is no such thing as a free and independent
press among the mainstream news media today. In fact, the major media more
resembles a propaganda machine than it does a free press.

The same can be said for most of the mainstream churches in America today.
They more resemble havens for politically correct, Big-Government ideology
than they do bastions of Bible truth. Therefore, home-churches and
non-establishment churches are increasingly requisite to a free people.

*The Right to Determine One’s Own Healthcare

The marriage of Big Government and Big Medicine has created a healthcare
monster. Already, the dispensing of medical treatment is micromanaged by Big
Brother in a way that has resulted in skyrocketing costs and inferior care
(and in some cases, even death). President Obama’s universal health care
initiatives that are sure to come (in one form or another) will only
exacerbate an already untenable situation.

Free men and women absolutely have the right to refuse vaccinations for
themselves and their children. Forced vaccinations (of any kind) are an
assault against the very foundation of freedom. Free men have the right to
choose their own physicians, their own hospitals, their own insurance
programs, etc. They also have the right to refuse any and all of the above.

God is Creator. He is also Healer (Exodus 15:26). Therefore, how men choose
to seek God’s healing is a private matter between them and God. Alternative
medicine is a right. Already, our military personnel are used as human
guinea pigs to test a variety of drugs and chemicals. Public schools also
require forced vaccinations. And now the push is on to force the general
population to take the Swine Flu vaccine. At the current pace, it won’t be
long until all alternative medicines and treatments will be illegal and the
federal government will be America’s doctor. This is not acceptable.

*The Right to Life

2000 years of Western Civilization have perpetually reconfirmed that life is
a gift of God. Both Biblical and American history repeatedly honor God as
the Source and Sustainer of man’s existence. Therefore, evils such as
abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia must be vehemently resisted. It is bad
enough that any government (especially one such as ours) would legalize
abortion, but the concept of FORCED abortion, infanticide, or euthanasia
could only be regarded as a despotic attack on life and liberty of the
gravest proportion. In fact, under Natural Law, such an attack would remove
said government from the protection of Heaven and would place it in a state
of war.

*The Right to Live as a Free and Independent People

God separated the Nations (Genesis 11). Therefore, it is absolutely
necessary that we Americans maintain our independence and national
sovereignty. We simply cannot (and will not) allow ourselves to become part
of any hemispheric or global union.

There they are: seven freedom-principles that are not negotiable. As
Jefferson said, we are “disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable.” But
cross these lines and free men must do what free men must do: “throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these
editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by
credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/donate.php

(c) Chuck Baldwin

By Chuck Baldwin, former Presidential Candidate

As we approach Independence Day, it behooves us to recall the principles of
America’s founding, especially in light of the ongoing attempt by today’s
political and commercial leaders to merge the United States into a
hemispheric government. In fact, the clarion call for independence is just
as fundamental, just as revolutionary as it was 233 years ago.

Regarding the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams said,
“[Independence Day] will be the most memorable epoch in the history of
America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding
generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated
as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It
ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports,
guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to
the other, from this time forward forevermore.”

Adams went on to say, “You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I
am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost
us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet
through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory; I can
see that the end is more than worth all the means, that posterity will
triumph in that day’s transaction, even though we should rue it, which I
trust in God we shall not.”

Indeed, the signers of America’s Declaration of Independence endured the
sacrifice of both toil and blood. Pertaining to the lives of the signers,
David Limbaugh writes, “Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of
Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were
captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost
wives, sons or entire families. One lost his thirteen children. Two wives
were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of
manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes
completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned.”

Yes, America’s Declaration of Independence, which is our nation’s birth
certificate, was purchased at a very high price. Rightly did its primary
author, Thomas Jefferson, invoke God’s name no less than four times in the
Declaration. Without God, our struggle for independence and freedom would
surely have failed.

Jefferson, along with the vast majority of America’s founders, knew that
freedom was, first, the gift of God, not the accomplishment of men. He
further understood that man’s law must be subordinate to the natural laws of
God.

Therefore, with an appeal to Heaven for the “rectitude of [their]
intentions,” America’s Founding Fathers courageously forged a document that
would put their own lives at risk, but would also change the course of
history.

The question now is, “How long can we maintain our nation’s independence?”
The forces of global government seem to dominate both major parties in
Washington, D.C., most corporate boardrooms, and most newsrooms.

In fact, hemispheric or regional government never had more powerful and
committed allies than former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton,
George W. Bush and now President Barack Obama. Mark my words: if and when
America loses its independence, it will have been these Presidents that led
the way in making it happen.

If the United States is going to maintain its independence and freedom much
beyond the year 2010, it will only be because millions of freedom-loving
Americans (and the governments of the States in which they reside) are
willing to fight for it.

Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826. Daniel Webster
gave the eulogy for both men on August 2 of that year. Included in his
remarks on that notable day were these words: “It [the Declaration of
Independence] is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God, it shall
be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and independence forever.”

To Webster’s words, I say a hearty AMEN! I promise no loyalty to the North
American Union, the United Nations, or any other brand of global government.
When the day comes that I am required to submit to any form of global
authority, I will be an outlaw. There is no freedom without independence,
and there is no independence without eternal vigilance. To my dying breath I
will say with Daniel Webster, “Independence now, and independence forever!”

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these
editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by
credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/donate.php

This column is archived at
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090701.html

By James R. Patrick, Founder of The MacArthur Institute
Excerpted from the “Foundations of Liberty” Series

An Overview of “The New Deal”

“He has great imagination. . .  If he had been President at the time when the Treasury was overflowing, he would have gone down in history as the greatest builder since the world began,” so stated interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes in 1934 of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ¹

Former President Herbert Hoover did not agree.  He stated, “Along with currency manipulation, the New Deal introduced to America the spectacle of fascist dictation to business, labor, and agriculture.” ²

Curtis B. Dall, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s son-in-law, made these comments:

“Speaking politically, I regard Woodrow Wilson as a man who sold his soul to the internationalists’ program, to the One World Debt-Finance Forces, and thereby opened the first big holes in our Constitutional and financial “dikes.”  I regard Franklin Roosevelt, after 1932, as likewise selling his political soul to the same One-World, Internationalist Debt-Finance Forces and, under their coercion; he made larger the Woodrow Wilson “holes in the dike.” The net result, devoid of political and ideological fanfare, if such could ever happen, is obvious.  Both men failed in providing a sound leadership for America, but succeeded in furthering themselves and a pattern of policy which advanced various alien backed programs, our Foreign Policy.  This result was especially noticeable in respect to FDR as his health began to fail and his Advisers took over.” ³    

Adlai E. Stevenson said of Franklin Roosevelt:

The Democratic Party took over when the nation was almost in a state of receivership in 1933.  Fortunately, we had a great and revered leader, Franklin Roosevelt. Under his leadership the Democratic Party dedicated itself to improving opportunity and security for all citizens.” ⁴

Journalist H. L. Mencken provides us with a different slant.

“If [President Roosevelt] became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he so sorely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House backyard come Wednesday.” ⁵

It is obvious that he, more than the average President, tended to bring raves of approval or highly critical remarks.  Roosevelt sent mixed signals.  It was hard to discern where he really stood and what he really believed.  To the casual listener, he seemed to be conservative in philosophy with a clear understanding of the Constitution, but if you listened closely to what he said, you would find his choice of words implied a belief that government needed to add just a little bit more to the kettle of freedom.

After carefully reading the measures passed into law (The Social Security Act), it is obvious that Franklin Roosevelt does not stand on par with the original intent of the Founding Fathers.  They envisioned a limited constitutional republic wherein the federal branch of government would be very limited in authority.  They envisioned federal union wherein the states would retain all powers not specifically granted to the federal branch.  The responsibility of the government was to provide for the people a shield of defense, but they were bringing about their own success.   

By contrast, President Roosevelt believed that the government best served the people when it assisted their efforts.  He saw the state as a benevolent helper, advisor, guide, or an overseer.  To him, the master planners were wiser in that they could direct the total program.  To accomplish that feat would require unlimited power and control over the national treasury-and that is the material of which despots are made. 

FDR’s First Inaugural Address

President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:

This is a day of national consecration, and I am certain that my fellow-Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our nation impels.

This is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.  Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.  This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.  I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.  I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties.  They concern, thank God, only material things.  Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen, government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return.  Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance.  We are stricken by no plague of locusts.  Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for.  Nature still offers her bounty, and human efforts have multiplied it.  Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.

Primarily, this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the courts of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True, they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition.  Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money. 

Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence.  They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.

They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.  We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.

The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.  These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow-men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing.

Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance.  With them it cannot live.  [speech continues...]        

In the field of world policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor – the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others – the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never before, our interdependence on each other; that we cannot merely take, but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline, no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective.

We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good.

This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people, dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors.

Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes to emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form.

That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced.  It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us.  But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from the normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require.

These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me.

I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis – broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency as great as the power that would be given me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time.  I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike.

We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy.  The people of the United States have not failed.  In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action.

They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership.  They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift, I take it.

In this dedication of a nation we humbly ask the blessing of God.  May He protect each and every one of us!  May He guide me in the days to come.

(Editor’s Note: All underlined portions represent the “Bible-speak” then understood by a Biblically literate population.  Although Roosevelt represented a great shift left in American politics, even the left, were fully aware of his Scriptural references.  Too bad even the political right is devoid of such ‘Bible-speak’ today.  The greater population are in the dark regarding even a rudimentary understanding of the Bible.  The Bible Nation Society seeks to remedy this sad circumstance by an energetic advocacy.)

James R. Patrick founded the Victory Baptist Church in 1967 and the East Moline Christian School in 1978.  He is the Director of the MacArthur Institute which publishes the Foundation of Liberty Series, an extensive conservative curriculum for homes, schools and churches.  For more information or to order materials write to:

The MacArthur Institute,  900  46th Avenue,  East Moline, Illinois 61244-4406. 

Footnotes: 
1 The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes: The First Thousand Days, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953, p. 206
2 Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, New York: Macmillan, 1951-1952, Vol. III, p. 408.
3  F.D.R.-My Exploited Father-in-Law, Curtis B. Dall, pp. 134-135.
4  Bert Cochran, Adelai Stevenson: Patrician among the Politicians, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969, p. 217.
5  Coley Taylor and Samuel Middlebrook, The Eagle Screams, New York: Macauley, 1936, p. 171.