Fighting the Invisible Enemy

By KrisAnne Hall, JD

How much thought does the average American put into their Rights on a daily basis?  Perhaps not much, but that is all about to change.  For generations the Supreme Court has called protection of the individual’s rights the bedrock of American principles.  Those who ratified our Bill of Rights knew how vital these rights were to the very preservation of all liberty.  Among these rights are those that our founders would formally declare as being absolutely essential to life itself; freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, along with the individual right to keep and bear arms, security of personal property, and indispensable rights of due process.  Today these rights are at risk from an “invisible enemy.”

In 1788, the State of Virginia was refusing to ratify the Constitution without greater safeguards for these individual rights.  In that same year, Richard Henry Lee, Congressman from Virginia, described our Bill of Rights, the enumeration of rights of the individual in our Constitution, as:

“visible boundaries, constantly seen by all, and any transgression of them is immediately discovered: they serve as centinels for the people at all times, and especially in those unavoidable intervals of inattention.” (sic)

Unfortunately, we have entered into that “interval of inattention” as very few Americans can name all five liberties identified in the First Amendment; national polls put the number at less than 2%.  If we do not know what our Rights are, how do we know they are not already gone?  How will we know when people in power, either through good or malicious intent, move against our Rights; we cannot defend what we cannot define. 

Our founders lived in the midst of the greatest tyranny America has ever known.  It was wrecking their churches, destroying their businesses, and tearing apart families and homes.  Even in their day of limited technology they knew who the enemy was; not a King, not a country, not even a virus.  The understood the enemy to be anything that jeopardized the inherent and individual rights of the people.  They knew from personal experience that when essential liberties of the people are even partially limited by government force, they are never truly restored.   Our founders spoke incessantly of the importance of fully securing our individual rights.

 “Liberty must at all hazards be supported.  We have a right to it derived from our Maker.” (sic) John Adams 1765

“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved.” (sic) Samuel Adams 1775

“Give me Liberty or give me death.” Patrick Henry 1775

 Those who fought to secure our liberties today were firmly educated and intimately associated with their Rights and could easily identify their violations.  Today our dearth of education in American history is only surpassed by the misinformation we are fed about the purpose and power of government.  How easily this designed ignorance makes us fall prey to the undying argument that its necessary to “temporarily suspend” our Rights for some new and frightening boogey man. 

Perhaps today we are being presented with the ultimate power poltergeist: an “invisible enemy” that can only be seen by those in government.  Because of a virus, that has no face and no foreseeable end, we are told that it is necessary to temporarily suspend our rights for the safety of the community.  However, all of history screams out to us in horror, “Rights are NEVER suspended temporarily, and safety is a ravenous phantom that can never be satisfied.  Once your rights are surrendered, they are never peacefully restored.”

Learn YOUR Constitution at LibertyFirstSociety.com – The Constitution as if the founders themselves were teaching it.  An education worthy of the highestest institutions of learning because they won’t teach truth anymore!

The mantra, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one” is a Marxist principle not just a line from Star Trek dialogue.  This ideology is not what America was founded upon, quite the opposite.  Our governments, since the foundation of our States in 1776 are based upon the fundamental principle that the sole purpose of government is the secure the Rights of the INDIVIDUAL, not to appease the collective.  The cornerstone of American government is the responsibility of the people to self-govern.  It is not selfish for a person to demand full protection and security of their individual rights to freedom of religion, speech, assembly, and property. On the contrary, it is wholly selfish for the community to demand that the force of government deprive individual rights because there are a few who refuse to act responsibly in securing their own health and welfare.  Mass curfews and quarantines are not the American way, they are the communist way.  The American way says that we do not use force to compensate for the irresponsibility of the few.

Our State Constitutions and the Constitution of these United States were established as written standards to protect the individual from the will of the majority, to secure the rights of the minority.  Ironically the needs of the many argument used today to justify a cry for national curfews, business closure, and forced quarantine, justified by the needs of the many, is the same argument used throughout history to justify slavery and the involuntary and indefinite incarceration of innocent people, even in America’s history.  If residents wish to voluntarily follow guidelines and act responsibly, then so be it.  But when business owners, Pastors of churches, and Sheriffs’ defending rights, refuse to obey any of these unconstitutional mandates, they are not acting lawlessly because it is actually those in government who are violating the Supreme Law of the land.  These individuals are enforcing the law in the face of lawless government.

Our founders had very strong words for those in power who attempted to interfere with these inherent and essential rights.  Benjamin Franklin, writing under the pseudonym of Silence Dogood wrote in 1722 that only “Publick Traytors” (sic) would attempt to subdue these Rights.  He also remarked that when a person cannot freely express these Rights they live in a “wretched country” where he has no property rights.

In 1774 Thomas Gage, Governor of the colony of Massachusetts, issued a law outlawing all public meetings except one a year, but only when proper permit was obtained from Gage.  Those who would write our First Amendment classified Gage’s actions as an act of war against the people.  As soon as Gage issued his order 300 people assembled in Salem to protest the limit on their freedom of speech & assembly.  Gage would send troops to disband the protest only to see an additional 3,000 people immediately assemble and chase his troops away.  Thomas Jefferson issued instructions to the Virginia Congress in which he declared Gage’s law as an act of “Treason” and “the most alarming Process that ever appeared in a British Government.”

Now more than ever we must hold tight to the principles that founded America.  Through the full application of true America principles, we can defeat any enemy while simultaneously securing the individual liberties of the people.  We are about to travel a road our founders traveled, so let us pick up the wisdom of experience and move in the proper direction.  Samuel Adams said,

 “Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance. Let us remember that “if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom,” it is a very serious consideration … that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.”

What we do, what we allow those in government to do over the next few weeks, will determine the future fate of people in America and around the world.  We cannot give into the “invisible enemy” and their siren song of the “necessity” which sets a precedent for our inherent rights to be brushed aside so easily.  William Pitt The Younger gives this wisdom to our generation:

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” 1787

When facing an alleged threat today, we must pause to ask, “will this make it easier for our essential rights to be dismissed tomorrow?”  Are building a future where are descendants view that which is fundamental as something granted and taken at the whim of rulers and masters?  Didn’t we found this Constitutional Republic to escape that very scenario?  Will a viral threat change our identity and have us cease to be America?  What we do in the next few weeks will inevitably answer these questions.

Learn YOUR Constitution at LibertyFirstSociety.com – The Constitution as if the founders themselves were teaching it.  An education worthy of the highestest institutions of learning because they won’t teach truth anymore!

Flag Burning & Free Speech

by KrisAnne Hall, JD

KrisAnneHall.com

The flag represents “the Republic for which it stands.”  That Republic is the foundation for maintaining our Union of States.  The purpose for creating and maintaining the Union of States is to “secure the Blessings of Liberty, to ourselves and our Posterity.”  The first principles of that Liberty are codified in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.  How is it that so many people are more attached to the flag than those inalienable, God given Rights that we are supposed to be defending?  How can we make it illegal to burn a flag, and sit back, day after day, as our own representatives tear through our Liberty like a whale through a net?  I know from public polls and personal experience that less than 2% of Americans can name all five Liberties in the First Amendment, from memory, without looking for the answer.  How can some Americans become more attached to a flag than the Liberty that America was created to protect?  Perhaps it is because Americans, as a whole, have become so ignorant of their Rights that many will desperately cling to symbols instead of standing for our Liberty.

It is not a flag we fight for. It is not a flag that makes America great. It is the protection of Liberty that recognizes our Right to burn that flag that makes us different from everyone else. See what happens if you burn a flag in China, Iraq, or North Korea. Is that really the model we are striving toward?

Sure it’s offensive. Sure it’s disrespectful. But you have no right to not be offended and you have no right to be respected. I have a Right to offend and disrespect. Without that Right, you are a slave.

Not too long ago many were shouting that mantra at the liberals and the LGBT, declaring it “unAmerican” to censor people they deemed “offensive.” How quickly the terms of Liberty are forgotten and how fickle people become when they are now offended.

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know.

“This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech; a Thing terrible to Publick Traytors.” Silence Dogood #8

There is another issue of property.  If you own the flag it is your property to burn.  The federal government made the burning of money illegal, because they say that the paper money is federal property.  Are we saying that every flag we buy is still owned by the government so they can prosecute us for burning their property?  What if I take a bed sheet and draw a US Flag on it and burn it, will I go to jail or have my citizenship revoked for that, too?  Who defines this offense?  Who punishes this offense?  It will be those in government who have proven themselves ignorant and irresponsible to Liberty; those in government who wrap themselves in that flag and then torch our Bill of Rights.  That is a power we ought not allow government to exercise, it is one they have proven they do not deserve to wield.

Those in government who are ignorant of Liberty and those in government disposed to usurp are not going to overturn the Right to Free Speech by amending the Constitution, but what they will do is create laws attacking specific aspects of Free Speech or engage in efforts of societal censorship (political correctness) and make us censor ourselves. Self censorship is the greatest form of servitude because the slaves never see the chains that bind them.

We must KNOW that speech cannot be censored by government, and the people should not be afraid to speak!

“For no People will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when Knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” Samuel Adams 1775

The founders of our Constitutional Republic burned their flag, they burned effigies of their politicians and tax collectors, too.   They burned their flag as an expression of sadness over their Liberty lost through government usurpation.   They burned their flag as an expression of disgust over the despotic attack by their government upon their Liberties.  Their flag meant no less to them than our flag means to many Americans.  They loved their country of Great Britain.  They continually prayed for reconciliation with their country, up to and even beyond the Declaration of Independence.  To them, burning their flag, was the most powerful way to express the utter despair they felt over their government’s refusal to recognize the Rights of all Englishman as guaranteed by their Constitution and by God.  To them, burning effigies of their tax collectors and politicians, was the most peaceful way to show their complete disgust for the negligence and criminality of those they had entrusted as guardians of their Rights.

As a matter of fact, the colonists did something “worse” than burning the Union Jack, they created a whole new flag as a statement of their defiance and independence!  Therefore, it is not even historically accurate to claim that our founders would not advocate burning the flag in protest.  They personally knew that power of that free expression.

We must get our priorities in line.  We must develop a fonder attachment to Liberty than to paper and cloth.  Without that Liberty, the only paper and cloth you will possess are the ones that our government gives you permission to possess and you will only possess it under their terms and conditions.  Let us Love Liberty over Security and Comfort, Principles over Parties, and Truth over Personality.

I doesn’t matter how you feel about the President. It doesn’t matter how you feel about burning a flag. My Rights are not based upon your feelings. They are inalienable gifts from God.

“Let us remember that “if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.” It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.” Samuel Adams 1771

The quickest way to identify a tyrant is find the one who wants to diminish your Rights so people can be happy. The quickest way to find a slave is to locate those agreeing with the tyrant.

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”  William Pitt, the Younger

Perhaps if we had spent more time in school memorizing the Bill of Rights than the Pledge of Allegiance, we would be having a different conversation.

A Short Message

On The Right To Keep & Bear Arms

By KrisAnne Hall, JD

Watch KrisAnne give this message on YouTube

The Right to keep and bear arms is an essential protection for Life and Liberty.

Samuel Adams wrote in 1792:

“Among the Natural Rights of the Colonists are these First Life, secondly Liberty, third property, together with the right to defend them in the best manner possible.” 

Adams continued his point by noting that these rights are a direct product of the First law of Nature, the Duty of self-preservation.

Those who would stand for the Right to keep and bear arms do so with the interest of preserving Life and Liberty – not destroying it.  Those who support the Right to keep and bear arms support the Natural Right and duty of self-preservation, they support the ability to defend Life and Liberty not only for themselves but for their neighbors.  They support freedom and just government, they support ensuring that our future generations will able to be a government of the people, not subject to a government over the people.  The keep and bear arms, they train in the skill of defense BECAUSE they love their children, their families, and their neighbors and want to defend the most precious gifts of Life, at their own expense, if necessary.

Those who oppose the Right to keep and bear arms, whether intentionally or not, support the opposite of Life and Liberty – they support slavery, they support oppression, they support despotic government rule over the people. 

Those who ignorantly support disarming the people do so because they have been convinced of one eternal error – that those in power respect the lives and liberties of the people and will protect them.  There is absolutely NOTHING in the history of man that ought to give someone that false delusion of hope.  History is ripe with one oracle of truth – when the people are disarmed they are inevitably enslaved by the more powerful, more able, or more populated groups.  Disarming the people never ever frees the minority, to the contrary, in a disarmed society the minority becomes the first to be converted to chattel.  Slavery is not possible in a society where the people are well armed and well trained in the skill of defense and the knowledge of the value of Life and Liberty worth defending.

Those who knowingly support disarming the people do so because they are power hungry, lack respect for Life, and wish to control and dominate Life, Liberty, and Property.  The know just how to motivate the ignorant through the greatest human deception, contrived necessity.  They know how to control the powerless, corral the weak, and convince a morally depleted population to organize and come against their own neighbors.  They are those among us who endeavor to rob the innocent of their God given rights to enrich and empower themselves and endanger most precious gifts of Life and at the fatal cost of a free future.  They care only about themselves; they are the ones who pass by a neighbor in need and demand the right to take Life out of a feigned excuse derived from the most selfish center of humankind.  They seek to rob, kill, and destroy Life, Liberty and Property and they are the very spirit that has caused the institutions of slavery and despotism to rise throughout history.

William Pitt, The Younger summed it up best when he said,

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom, it is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.”

There is a day where every American reflects on who they are, who they want to be, and takes the time to classify themselves.  Are you a slave?  Are you a tyrant? Or are you a freeman?

If you have determined that you love your neighbor as yourself, if you love your children and your children’s children, if you wish to remain a freeman and not encourage slavery at the hand of the despot, then what comes next is your only choice…John Adams wrote,

“Liberty must at all hazards be defended, we have a right to it derived from our maker.  But if we had not, our fathers have bought and purchased it for us at the expense of their ease, their estates and their pleasure and their blood.”

So, first, You Stand UP FOR the weak and ignorant.  You Stand up to say, we will not let you be enslaved.  We will defend you as well as our own because that is the call of Liberty that Makes America Great

Second, you Stand up TO tyrant.  You declare your Natural Rights just as we did on July 4, 1776 – That all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.  That these rights, being derived from Nature, a gift to all mankind, precede all government and all law; that all laws must be made to conform to our Natural Rights, or they are no law at all.  You tell the tyrant that you hold no ill will, that you love him and pray peace, and because you love him you will not allow him to enslave your neighbor and you will not allow him to deny us and our future a Right guaranteed by our Creator.

Mercy Otis Warren made this plea:

“America stands armed with resolution and virtue; but she still recoils at the idea of drawing the sword against the nation from whence she derived her origin. Yet Britain, like an unnatural parent, is ready to plunge her dagger into the bosom of her affectionate offspring. But may we not yet hope for more lenient measures!”

You see, it won’t be those who defend Liberty who pray violence.  Those fighting for the Right to keep and bear arms are armed, yes, with resolution and virtue to preserve Life, not end it, to secure Liberty, not destroy it.  It will be those who have no respect for Life, that hold no love for their brother, who love self more than Liberty and Life – the tyrants and slaves – who will bring violence for violent ends.

THESE are the times that try men’s souls.  These are the days when choices must be made.  Today we choose peace.  Today we choose Life.  Today we choose Liberty.  And because we’ve made these choices, today we choose to defend our right to secure Life, Liberty, and Property from those who would come to rob, steal, and destroy.  Today we stand in defense of our Natural Right to keep and bear arms.

And if you find yourself in opposition to this essential Right.  If you find yourself thinking it’s necessary to deny us this Right or that someone must control and disarm the people, you have classified yourself… as either the tyrant or the slave.

You see if we are historically honest there is only one question necessary in the gun control discussion –

Do you trust that the people in power will never use the force of government to take your Life, Liberty, or Property?

If the answer to that question is NO.  The discussion is over and you now, finally know, why we stand before you today and every day, armed with virtue and resolution to declare

244 years ago we took a stand and said, NO MORE KINGS, and we’re not about to change our minds now.

Want To Know The Hope Of America’s Founders?

by KrisAnne Hall, JD

Listening to the news, watching the headlines has become a requirement for my current ministry. But I have come to realize that a daily diet of this is hazardous to my health. This never ending caustic supply of drama and crisis is not healthy for the body or the soul. IT makes me want to cry out, “Peace on Earth? Good will toward men? Where is it!”

There have been many in this battle for Liberty who have succumbed to the overwhelming negativity of the media invented reality, leaving behind the battle to search for the “normal life.” We must guard against this intrusion and obstruction to the defense of Liberty. I am convinced the ever-continuing crisis after crisis is purposed to dishearten the patriot and discourage the fight. So what is the solution? We must learn to find our hope and center ourselves on the true reality, not the one contrived by those receiving their marching orders from Alinsky, Cloward and Piven. We must know that just as we have inherited the Liberty we enjoy, we have also inherited the enemies of Liberty. We must pick up the mantle of those that came before us and learn from their courage and resolve. Will we be sunshine patriots or true victors of Liberty?

Our history is rich with men and women who have surrendered all so that many could have the greatest nation the world has ever known.  On December 23, 1776 Thomas Paine penned these words:

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by 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.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

December 25, 1776 George Washington led those who stood by Liberty across the Delaware in a logistically challenging and very dangerous operation that resulted in a victory over the Hessians.   It the midst of a battle not only for their lives but for the Liberty of generations to come, those who forged this new Constitutional Republic KNEW there was a cause worth fighting for and worth every sacrifice.  What could possible drive a people to stand in the midst of great dangers and admittedly  against insurmountable odds?  In 1765 John Adams wrote:

“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.”

For over 700 years before the Declaration of Independence, men and women were learning the lessons that would be taught to our founders. Lessons that would infuse our founders with a courage and a hope that would build the greatest nation in the world. Patrick Henry said, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way to judge the future but by the past.” He was letting us know that his knowledge of those last 700 years, were the very reason he knew how this fight would turn out. He knew that every time men and women understood the value of Liberty and pledged all to protect it, they were always victorious. These guarantees of history must have raced through Henry’s head; 1100 Charter of Liberties, Magna Carta, 1628 Petition of Right, 1641 Grand Remonstrance, and his very own Bill of Rights of 1689. These were battles fought in the name of Liberty and he knew that victory was a guarantee. This is our history. This is our guarantee. This is our victory!

Did these brave men and women live without fear? Hardly so! Mercy Otis Warren articulated this dilemma so well.

“I have my fears. Yet, notwithstanding the complicated difficulties that rise before us, there is no receding; May nothing ever check that glorious spirit if freedom which inspires the patriot in the cabinet and the hero in the field, with courage to maintain their righteous cause, and to endeavor to transmit the claim to posterity, even if they must seal the rich conveyance to their children with their own blood.”

They knew that bravery was not the absence of fear, but doing what you must in the face of fear. They knew that the battle for Liberty, as Mercy called it, was a righteous cause. Knowing the source of her courage is the key to understanding her resolve. In a letter to her friend Mrs. Macauley, in 1774, lies the key to the source of her strength. She said they were “ready to sacrifice their devoted lives to preserve inviolate, and to convey to their children the inherent rights of men, conferred on all by the God of nature.”

You see, the battle for Liberty is a battle for the gifts of God. Thomas Jefferson said, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that is justice cannot sleep forever.”

For Patrick Henry, courage not only came from knowing the history that “guided his feet” or fighting with the “vigilant, active, and the brave,” but also knowing they served a “just God who presides over the destinies of nations” and when standing for Liberty, a gift from God, they could not fail.

He declared,

“We are three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.”

The key to victory, the key to the courage that brings victory is not simply fighting the fight, but KNOWING we fight a righteous battle for the One who gave us that Liberty. Our founders were in a position to pledge their lives, the lives of their families, everything that they had because they were firmly rooted in ALL the assurances of Liberty. Our founders knew that Liberty is a gift from God, and those that stand for God’s gifts will be victorious through God’s promises. They firmly believed that living in tyranny was worse than dying for Liberty. They knew that through their faith in Christ, their rewards in standing for God’s gift would be certain, whether on the battle field or in Heaven.

As Thomas Paine so eloquently put it, “THESE are the times that try men’s souls.” But Paine’s full statement gives a richness that is lost with the initial quote alone. Payne gives US a wisdom to tell us who will last in this battle and WHY they will last.

“…yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing (sic) its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

If we wish to have the resolve that Mercy Otis-Warren spoke of, the confidence that Patrick Henry displayed, we must KNOW what Thomas Jefferson knew so we will not become the sunshine patriots Thomas Paine condemns. We must know Liberty is a gift from God, this Gift, although comes at a high price, is worth fighting for because God is with us. If God be with us, who can be against us?

This is not yet the darkest hour experienced by our nation by far. We still live in the greatest nation in the world. A nation built upon the principles of Liberty. The principles that cry all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. A nation where all men have equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No other nation can make that claim. No other people have that birth right. But with that gift comes great responsibility to secure that Liberty for generations to come. We cannot lose hope. We cannot let Liberty slip. Because, it is not our hope, it is not our Liberty, it is the hope and Liberty of ages and millions yet unborn. We must reacquaint ourselves with the lamp of experience that gives us the courage to see a guaranteed victory. But we must also reacquaint ourselves with the Giver of that gift of Liberty and the provider of the hope of victory.

In one of the darkest moments of our history, a story is told of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Henry’s wife had been tragically and fatally burned in June of 1861. Henry, himself, was badly burned trying to put out the fire that consumed his beloved wife. He was so consumed by grief over the loss of his wife, at Christmas he wrote in his journal, “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays.” One year later, Henry wrote, “A merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.” That following year, Henry learns that his oldest son was severely wounded in the Civil War after a bullet passed under his should blades damaging his spine. His journal was blank on Christmas on 1864. However, on Christmas day, 1865, Henry penned the words to “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. During one of the darkest times our nation has ever known, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow found his hope;

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

 

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

 

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

“For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Henry awoke from his despair and realized that God is not dead and is still the Giver of peace and hope. He knew that God promises victory to those who trust in Christ and will stand for God’s gifts. He was able to express that hope in the phrase, 

“God is not dead; nor does he sleep! The Wrong shall fail; the Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men!” 

That same promise belongs to us, the greatest nation this world has ever known. We simply must place our trust in the right place. My hope is not in Congress. My hope is not in any man or his government. In this holy season, let us not forget that through the shed blood of Christ, whether the victory is on the battle field or through the gates of Heaven, we are winners either way. 

This is the REAL HOPE; a hope that has changed the world. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS from KrisAnneHall.com

The Constitutionally & Historically Established House Procedures For Articles of Impeachment

By KrisAnne Hall, JD

The deceivers in Congress and MSM want you to believe that the Constitution is “vague” on House procedures for bringing articles of impeachment.  That is only because they WANT to evade the Constitution and have the authority to act arbitrarily to deny their obligations to the Constitution and due process.  Understanding how the House is supposed to proceed in the filing of impeachment is really not that complicated, the deceivers just want you to think it is.  So, as briefly and plainly as possible, here is how it is supposed to work….

If we work backwards it is the easiest way to logically understand the proper procedure for the House to file Articles of Impeachment. 

1.  We know from those who ratified the Constitution, our most relevant source, that the Senate is the “court” that will “try” the impeachment.  (Read Federalist 65 and http://bit.ly/FoundersImpeachment)

2.  We know from Article 2 section 4 of the Constitution (the Supreme Law of the Land) that impeachment is valid for the crimes of Treason, Bribery, High Crimes and Misdemeanors.

              A.  Article 1 section 3 clause 7 of the Constitution states that after impeachment the convicted can no longer hold public office AND can be tried in a criminal court for the SAME crime and held accountable under the law.

              B.  All four of the grounds for impeachment are actually CRIMES, subject to the terms criminal prosecution.  Alexander Hamilton discusses this in Federalist 65 when he explains why the Senate and not the Supreme Court is the proper body to try impeachments:

“Who would be willing to stake his life and his estate upon the verdict of a jury, acting under the auspices of Judges, who had predetermined his guilt?”

Hamilton says since the accused can be tried in a criminal court for the same crimes that brought about impeachment, it would be inappropriate for the Supreme Court to handle impeachment and also have the possibility of having the criminal case come before them as well.  With that being said, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will still preside over the impeachment trial to ensure the proper rules of due process are followed by the Senate. (See Federalist 65)

3.  In Federalist 65, Hamilton calls the Senate the COURT and speaks of the proceeding as a TRIAL and even indicates that the same process will be followed by the lower courts when trying the accused outside of impeachment.  Hamilton even explicitly states that the proper conduct for the Senate is to judge the accused by the “real demonstration of guilt or innocence,” once again using the legal vernacular appropriate of a true trial of justice.

4.  Since the accused (president, vice president, or any civil officer) will be having a legitimate trial in the Senate, with all due process considerations of a court of justice, it will only be fitting to describe the role of the House as the “prosecutor” who reviews the allegations and the evidence and has the responsibility of filing the charges against the accused.

A prosecutor (I know, I was one for nearly a decade) does not file every allegation that comes along.  A prosecutor does not even file a case against every person “believed” to be guilty of a crime.  The belief of guilt is irrelevant in the criminal justice system.  The only thing that matters in a true court of justice, is what can be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” in the framework of the statutory crime, the evidence admissible, and the rules of due process.

5.  Since the Senate is the Trial phase and the House is the filing stage, the House procedure for filing impeachment will logically be the same as that of a prosecutor. 

A.  The House members must look at the allegations.  They must then look at that law and determine if the allegations fit the law.  The Constitution establishes the law and that impeachment can only be brought for Treason, Bribery, High Crimes, or Misdemeanors.  If the allegations do not fit into one of those four categories, then the House, just like any good prosecutor, must refuse to file impeachment.  If you are confused by the current assertion that the Constitution permits the House to bring impeachment for “political” reasons, please read this article to help you understand why that reasoning is false: http://bit.ly/FoundersImpeachment

B.  If the allegations fit into one of the four categories of impeachable crimes, then the House members must review the evidence and determine 1. if the evidence is admissible, 2.  if the admissible evidence satisfies the elements of the crime, and 3. if the relevant evidence is sufficient to prove guilt.  If the answer to any of these questions is “no” then the House must refuse to file impeachment.  If the answer to all these questions is “yes” then the House must file impeachment and put together the case for trial in the Senate.

That’s it.  That is the procedure for the House of Representatives for bringing articles of impeachment according to the intent of the founders and the Constitution.  Perhaps it seems very simple to me because this is the process I engaged in every day of my life for nearly a decade.  I was even blessed enough to train new prosecutors in this process.  The presence of due process in America is such a precious jewel and as not only a prosecutor, but one who trained future prosecutors, my philosophy was never “win at all costs” but to consider the lives of the people, both victims and accused, stay within the lanes of the law, and above of all preserve the Rights of the people involved so that the system doesn’t become a tool for vengeance and destruction. 

Our House members should hold the procedure of impeachment with the same reverence and respect.  The fact that every civil officer in our Constitutional Republic can only be impeached from office through the respect of law and due process is priceless and ought to be seen as invaluable.  It is truly one of the things that separates our Constitutional Republic from an arbitrary and lawless Banana Republic.

The thing I find interesting is that many of these House members are lawyers and many of the lawyers have trial court experience.  For these people to claim that they are “confused” as to this procedure seems very disingenuous and self-serving.  If American prosecutors handled cases the way the House Judiciary Committee is handling this impeachment, their cases would be thrown out of court, they would likely be looking at sanctions from the BAR Association, and could even face their own criminal trial for the crime of “vindictive prosecution.”  Perhaps one lesson our House members would do well to learn, the first lesson I taught all my prosecutors in training, we are “prosecutors” not “persecutors” and we must know the difference.  

It should be very important to every American that our House does not engage in vindictive prosecution and is diligent to the rights of due process.  What these people in high office are allowed to do to the president, or any other civil officer for that matter, will not only set a legal precedent but also a cultural one that will put the due process and fundamental rights of every American at peril.  I will close with the words of Hannah Winthrop, one of the founders of America: “How often do we see people blind to their own interests precipitately maddening on to their own destruction!”