The inclination to grant monopoly power to the federal government in order to define the extent of its own authority has proven disastrous. Instead, we can bring about the potential of nullification with the understanding that liberty is more likely to exist when localities are spurred to act as a bulwark of resistance against federal overreach. The catalyst for this remedy must always be the individual.
While it may surprise many, Jefferson Davis detested nullification. Davis went to lengths not only to condemn nullification itself, but also to criticize proponents of nullification within his own state.
Despite all historical evidence to the contrary, it is often claimed that the Constitution is a “living document” that is easily malleable through semantics and modern desires for extended federal power.
I believe Mason, Randolph, Wilson, and Sherman were correct in their view that such a convention is the superior way to amend the Constitution, rather than relying upon the federal government to be the sole body to propose amendments.
Two measures of federal overreach – The Writs of Assistance and the NSA. One from the 1760s and one contemporary, both can be rejected in the same way.
Called “His Accidency” by his political adversaries to refer to the way in which he assumed the office, John Tyler is perhaps the most underrated President in United States history.
