NH draws line in sand on federal intervention

from The Betrayal:

The New Hampshire state legislature took an unbelievably bold step today by
introducing a resolution to declare certain actions by the federal government to
completely totally void and warning that certain future acts will be viewed as a
“breach of peace” with the states themselves that risks “nullifying the
Constitution.”

This act by New Hampshire is a clear warning to the federal government
that they could face being stripped of their power by the States (presumably
through civil war!)

The remarkable document outlines with perfect clarity, some basics long
forgotten. For instance, it reminds Congress “That the Constitution of the
United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason,
counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies,
and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of
nations, slavery, and no other crimes whatsoever;. . . . . therefore all acts of
Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so
enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force;”

Federal gun crime laws? Void. Federal drug crime laws? Void. The
gazzillion other federal criminal laws that deal with anything other than the
specific enumerated crimes? ALL VOID.
One would think that if any lawyer
anywhere in the entire country was worth his salt, all federal criminal trials
would have ended years ago. This seems to prove that most lawyers are
dullards.

New Hampshire deals a complete death blow to the pending federal
hate crimes legislation by pointing out “That, therefore, all acts of Congress
of the United States which do abridge the freedom of religion, freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, are not law, but are altogether void, and of no
force; . . . . .”

Later in the Resolution, New Hampshire makes clear what the feds are
now risking if they proceed further: The removal of all powers from the federal
government by the States!

Quoting directly from the Resolution: “That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:

I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the
States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the
legislature of that State.
II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.
III.
Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age
of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.
IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.
V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of
the press.
VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United States of
America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several
States individually.”

Read the full New Hampshire Resolution:

HCR 6 – AS INTRODUCED
2009 SESSION
09-0274
09/01
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 6
A RESOLUTION affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian
principles.
SPONSORS: Rep. Itse, Rock 9; Rep. Ingbretson,
Graf 5; Rep. Comerford, Rock 9; Sen. Denley, Dist 3
COMMITTEE: State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs
ANALYSIS
This house concurrent resolution affirms States’
rights based on Jeffersonian principles.
09-0274
09/01
STATE OF NEW
HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine

A RESOLUTION affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian
principles.
Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 1,
Article 7 declares that the people of this State have the sole and exclusive
right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and
do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction,
and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them
expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled;
and

Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 2, Article
1 declares that the people inhabiting the territory formerly called the province
of New Hampshire, do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other, to form
themselves into a free, sovereign and independent body-politic, or State, by the
name of The State of New Hampshire; and
Whereas the State of New Hampshire
when ratifying the Constitution for the United States of America recommended as
a change, “First That it be Explicitly declared that all Powers not expressly
& particularly Delegated by the aforesaid are reserved to the several States
to be, by them Exercised;” and

Whereas the other States that included recommendations, to wit
Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia, included an
identical or similar recommended change; and

Whereas these recommended changes were incorporated as the ninth
amendment, the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, and the tenth
amendment, the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people, to the Constitution for the United States of America; now,

therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate
concurring:

That the several States composing the United States of America, are not
united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but
that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United
States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for
special purposes, — delegated to that government certain definite powers,
reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own
self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated
powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this
compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States
forming, as to itself, the other party: that the government created by this
compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers
delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the
Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of
compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to
judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress;
and

That the Constitution of the United States, having delegated to
Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current
coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas,
and offences against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes
whatsoever; and it being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments
to the Constitution having also declared, that “the powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” therefore all acts of
Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so
enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force; and that
the power to create, define, and punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of
right, appertains solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within
its own territory; and

That it is true as a general principle, and is also expressly declared
by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that “the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people;” and that no power over
the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were
reserved to the States or the people: that thus was manifested their
determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the
licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening
their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from
their use should be tolerated, rather than the use be destroyed. And thus also
they guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of
religious opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of
protecting the same. And that in addition to this general principle and express
declaration, another and more special provision has been made by one of the
amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares, that “Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press:” thereby
guarding in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of
religion, of speech, and of the press: insomuch, that whatever violated either,
throws down the sanctuary which covers the others, and that libels, falsehood,
and defamation, equally with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the
cognizance of federal tribunals. That, therefore, all acts of Congress of the
United States which do abridge the freedom of religion, freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, are not law, but are altogether void, and of no force;
and

That the construction applied by the General Government (as is
evidenced by sundry of their proceedings) to those parts of the Constitution of
the United States which delegate to Congress a power “to lay and collect taxes,
duties, imports, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common
defense and general welfare of the United States,” and “to make all laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by
the Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or
officer thereof,” goes to the destruction of all limits prescribed to their
power by the Constitution: that words meant by the instrument to be subsidiary
only to the execution of limited powers, ought not to be so construed as
themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the
whole residue of that instrument: that the proceedings of the General Government
under color of these articles, will be a fit and necessary subject of revisal
and correction; and

That a committee of conference and correspondence be appointed, which
shall have as its charge to communicate the preceding resolutions to the
Legislatures of the several States; to assure them that this State continues in
the same esteem of their friendship and union which it has manifested from that
moment at which a common danger first suggested a common union: that it
considers union, for specified national purposes, and particularly to those
specified in their federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness and
prosperity of all the States: that faithful to that compact, according to the
plain intent and meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by the
several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation: that it does also
believe, that to take from the States all the powers of self-government and
transfer them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the
special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not
for the peace, happiness or prosperity of these States; and that therefore this
State is determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, to submit to
undelegated, and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men on
earth: that in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the
General Government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be
the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not been
delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State
has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus non foederis), to
nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their
limits: that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and
unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them: that
nevertheless, this State, from motives of regard and respect for its co-States,
has wished to communicate with them on the subject: that with them alone it is
proper to communicate, they alone being parties to the compact, and solely
authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised under it,
Congress being not a party, but merely the creature of the compact, and subject
as to its assumptions of power to the final judgment of those by whom, and for
whose use itself and its powers were all created and modified: that if the acts
before specified should stand, these conclusions would flow from them: that it
would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to
silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere
the parent of despotism — free government is founded in jealousy, and not in
confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited
constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power: that
our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our
confidence may go. In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of
confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the
Constitution. That this State does therefore call on its co-States for an
expression of their sentiments on acts not authorized by the federal compact.
And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their
attachment unaltered to limited government, whether general or particular. And
that the rights and liberties of their co-States will be exposed to no dangers
by remaining embarked in a common bottom with their own. That they will concur
with this State in considering acts as so palpably against the Constitution as
to amount to an undisguised declaration that that compact is not meant to be the
measure of the powers of the General Government, but that it will proceed in the
exercise over these States, of all powers whatsoever: that they will view this
as seizing the rights of the States, and consolidating them in the hands of the
General Government, with a power assumed to bind the States, not merely as the
cases made federal, (casus foederis,) but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made,
not with their consent, but by others against their consent: that this would be
to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving
its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the
co-States, recurring to their natural right in cases not made federal, will
concur in declaring these acts void, and of no force, and will each take
measures of its own for providing that neither these acts, nor any others of the
General Government not plainly and intentionally authorized by the Constitution,
shall be exercised within their respective territories; and

That the said committee be authorized to communicate by writing or
personal conferences, at any times or places whatever, with any person or person
who may be appointed by any one or more co-States to correspond or confer with
them; and that they lay their proceedings before the next session of the General
Court; and

That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of
the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the
Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated
to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United
States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the
several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the
Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United
States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are
not limited to:

I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the
States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the
legislature of that State.
II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or
governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to,
or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.
III.
Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age
of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after
due process of law.
IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to
any corporation or foreign government.
V. Any act regarding religion; further
limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of
the press.
VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms
including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or
Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United
States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the
several States individually. Any future government of the United States of
America shall require ratification of three quarters of the States seeking to
form a government of the United States of America and shall not be binding upon
any State not seeking to form such a government; and

That copies of this resolution be transmitted by the house clerk to the
President of the United States, each member of the United States Congress,
and the presiding officers of each State’s legislature.

.