No U-Turns
Jack Dennon at LewRockwell.com - Albert J. Nock and Lysander Spooner have elucidated in great detail why the United States Constitution is a really bad deal for you and me. Mr. Dennon summarizes nicely. [lew]
In a letter of 1882 to Thomas F. Bayard, Lysander Spooner pointed out to Delaware Congressman Bayard that the legislative power created by the Constitution was "a pure usurpation, on the part of those who now exercise it, and not a 'trust' delegated to them." This reality is proved, wrote Spooner, "by the fact that the only delegation of power, that is even professed or pretended to be made, is made secretly -- that is, by secret ballot -- and not in any open and authentic manner; and therefore not by any men, or body of men, who make themselves personally responsible, as principals, for the acts of those to whom they profess to delegate the power."
The Constitutional implementation of this reality can be found in the first paragraph of Article I, Section 6, which prescribes:
For any speech or debate in either house, they [the Senators and Representatives] shall not be questioned [held to any legal responsibility] in any other place.
"This provision," wrote Spooner, "makes the legislators constitutionally irresponsible to any body; either to those on whom they exercise their power, or to those who may have, either openly or secretly, attempted or pretended to delegate power to them. And men, who are legally responsible to nobody for their acts, cannot truly be said to be the agents of any body, or to be exercising any power but their own: for all real agents are necessarily responsible both to those on whom they act, and to those for whom they act."
