America has lots of problems. It's a fact that every American (or the aware ones, at least) has come to realize. What most people don't know about is the cause of the problems, and although it is not the cause of all of what ails us, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is responsible for almost any issue in which the federal government controls the people.
The 14th amendment was 'ratified' in 1868. It is one of the more extensive amendments in the constitution, containing five sections. The first section is concerned with citizenship. Section two deals with apportionment of representatives. The third section prohibits people who broke the oath to 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution' from serving in a public office again, unless Congress approves by a two-thirds majority. The fourth section makes 'illegal and void' all of the debts incurred by the Civil War, and the fifth section gives Congress the power to enforce the 14th amendment with legislation.
Section one of amendment 14 is probably the most important and powerful section in the amendment. It was included because there were many freed slaves who would not be accepted by states as Citizens. The constitution refers to 'the Citizens of the United States,' and it was always assumed that this meant the citizens were of the state first, but to refer to them all it was said 'Citizens of the United States.' It was not implied that the people were citizens of some other body called 'the United States.' However, it was never specifically clarified, and the 14th amendment takes advantage of this to change everything:
What's worse about that first sentence, is that it was never altered or omitted. Instead, it has been reinterpreted over and over again since its inception. Apparently, according to opinions of 'those in charge,' the second type of citizen (little 'c') does not enjoy all of the basic rights granted to us in the first ten amendments that the Citizens (big 'C') enjoy. Obviously, if the government has the audacity to violate one part of the Bill of Rights, and the Americans let them do so, nothing is stopping the elimination of all rights. Welcome to the Twentieth Century: the government owns you.
It taxes you, and provides for you, and you turn to it whenever you have the slightest problem; it is always there. In return for this help, we are expected to give up a little freedom, and to relinquish a little control, to the federal government. This relationship with a strong central government did not exist in the early 19th century! It was established by the 14th amendment, and also other federal expansion sanctioned by the Elastic Clause.
An important issue (to some people, at least) in America today is illegal immigration. There are immigrants from other countries who come to this country, have a child on American soil, and that child is granted citizenship. This automatic system of citizenship was dropped years ago in England and several other European countries, because of abuses to the system such as the ones we see in our country today. So why does the government grant them citizenship? They say because of the 14th amendment. But wait! When did the Constitution grant the United States with power over foreign countries? The first sentence of the 14th amendment clearly states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens..." (emphasis added). This means that the automatic citizenship clause only applies to people who are under the authority of the United States government. A Mexican, German, or any other citizen of a foreign country is not under the jurisdiction of the government. This statement also applies to diplomats who have their children in America: those children are not U.S. citizens. But for some reason, the children born in America, of an illegal immigrant, are recognized as citizens.
The next phrase ensures the federal government's supreme ownership of the American citizen: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States..." This is interestingly related to Article IV Section 2 of the Constitution: "The Citizens [note the capital 'C'] of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States". Now, instead of allowing state laws to be made and observed throughout the land, the government is writing the rules, and prohibiting the 'several States' from violating those rules. Quite a subtle shift of power. But it is a shift that has been underway since the inception of our nation: from the idea of a Republic (Constitution, Article V, Section 4) to the somewhat common and easily controlled democracy. Therefore, this part is democratic in the sense it gathers us under one big central government in which we supposedly have a part, and the state governments are excluded. If this had the effect of increasing our freedom, it would be okay, but the assimilation of the American people by the federal government is not right, and decidedly un-American.
The remainder of the first section of the 14th amendment simply reiterates the rights to due process and equal protection under the law, rights already granted to the People by the Bill of Rights. Even though this is perhaps the most meaningless portion of the 14th amendment, because it is a redundancy, the amendment is still known for its due process clause.
The second section of the amendment involves a very important clause about apportionment of state representatives. The Constitution says, in Article I section 2, that persons who are not free Citizens (i. e., slaves) only count for three-fifths of a person. Thus is created a sub-human class of people, which is unfair and undemocratic. The 14th amendment corrects this Constitutional bigotry by apportioning representatives according to the "whole number of persons in each State". However, further on in section two, the amendment makes it clear that the people that should be voting are only male: "...the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age..." (emphasis added). This is the first instance in the Constitution and its amendments that women citizens are specifically denied something. In fact, the writer of the 14th and 15th amendments, House Majority Leader Congressman Bingham, did not regard women to even be citizens. Restrictions upon the female sex had to be removed by later amendments, where a court ruling would have freed women had the 14th amendment not reinforced the male gender's domination in government.
The third section outlines some qualifications for office, stating that former officials, who had taken the oath to 'preserve, protect, and defend the United States Constitution' and then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the U.S., could not become a public official ever again, unless they were approved by a two-thirds majority vote from Congress. This is obviously to forbid those officials who supported the Confederacy in the Civil War to serve in congress, and limited the president's power to pardon those involved. This section had more to do with politics than the Constitution.
The fourth section is a very important section in regard to our economic freedom as Americans. Very subtly, it made almost every American responsible for the United States government's debt. The specific wording: "The validity of the PUBLIC debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned." The tone of the Section implies that it is only concerned with the Civil War ("insurrection or rebellion") but in truth it creates the public debt, heretofore unmentioned in the Constitution. Article I section 7 allows Congress to "borrow Money on the credit of the United States," but because section one of the 14th amendment has made us property of the federal government, we are now responsible for paying their debts (after all, we are their "beneficiaries"). And if the first section wasn't enough: because our job is to pay the government's debts, we are the credit of the United States. Be assured that the government wants to keep its credit rating good; it has economic justification to search our papers, intrude in our personal lives, impose regulations on our lives, and otherwise violate our first and fourth amendment rights, to make sure we are carrying our "fair" share of the national debt. It also gives them license to stick their nose into private (contractual) law, even though that section 10 of Article I denies even the states the power to pass laws "impairing the Obligation of Contracts". If we are not supporting them, we are questioning the validity of the public debt, and, according to the 14th amendment, the "validity of the public debt... shall not be questioned".
In conclusion, the fourteenth amendment makes us federal property in more way than one: the stateless citizen of the first section, and the economic slave of the fourth. The fourteenth amendment contained useful alterations and additions to the Constitution, such as found in the second and third sections, but the uselessness, unconstitutionality, and illegalities of the first and fourth sections make the amendment as a whole a thing to be rejected. An amendment should not add so much that the entire structure of the nation is changed, but they can, and they do. Also, a never-ending spiral ensues when the government tries to pass an amendment to do something right (granting citizenship to freed slaves) but only takes more power away from the people, and perhaps the most dangerous result of all: it leaves open ends that can be interpreted by future generations. The elastic clause of the Constitution allows Congress to make all laws necessary for executing the powers of government. The 14th amendment gives the central government the authority to directly interact and more or less own the People. With the combination of these two keys to tyranny, the gates are opened. All of the ways federal government is entwined with our lives -- affirmative action, immigration and naturalization, welfare and Medicare, income taxes, right down to transportation and the water we drink -- basically our entire life is controlled ultimately by our government. But what many do not understand is that the original American government was not created as a horrible Big Brother figure, destined to stagnation and entropy! It was created as a republic, with levels of government and layers of insulation between the people and the central government. From the 14th amendment, those layers were slowly peeled away by years of interpretation and legislation, and the American people now live in the shadow of a massive government that controls every aspect of their lives. Due to political idealism and over-involvement, America has amended their Constitution with so many unrelated subjects and open-ended statements that we have almost severed every tie with the United States of 1789. However, as long as the Americans themselves walk around in a haze of government propaganda and 'traditional values' such as patriotism, hearing only what they want to hear, the United States will never make a change for the better, because the only thing that can change it is the collective society. Not trite amendments or judicial acts. People.
-- wrythe 12.14.97