The intent, in 1787, was to change the AOC:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?a ... it(jc03225))
The link is broken. It is not absurd that George Washington and his ilk created, with the resolutions, the means to create a Constitutional dictatorship.
Please try to copy and paste the link. The hyperlink cuts off the parenthesis at the end for some reason.
I guess it is more speculation and presumption than prediction. It is probably just better to stick to facts rather than presume you know what was going on in their heads, KWIM? You could very well be right about their intentions, based on their fruits, (I tend to believe the whole deal, including DOI and AOC, were designed to fail, kinda like the controlled opposition) but think of the ramifications of giving something that does not yet exist authority. Are you saying that the “United States” in the AOC is also referring to a not-yet-in-existence entity? I believe that whatever “United States” is in the AOC is the “United States” referred to up till the “more perfect union” “United States” was created in the constitution. Has your position changed? Some of your posts have been edited, and it seems that you are now saying that the AOC morphed into the constitution, and that the “perpetual union” morphed into the “more perfect union”. Is this what you are saying?
Confederation is NOT defined as federal, and I think you are inserting a definition that's not there. Yes, they are a union, a confederation, not federal anything. The States under the Constitution are a federal union, the second union.
Thank you for the chart differentiating between confederate and federal. I agree those are the applicable meanings in today's usage. As the meanings of words are constantly changing, I try to use dictionaries from as close to the time period of the writing that I can find. As you read these definitions in chronological order, you will see how they changed. In 1828, there was little if any difference between confederation and federation. In fact, the root word con means union and federatio means league, so confederacy directly means federal union. By 1856 new definitions were added, and by the 20th century “confederacy” is a negative thing, actually called a “conspiracy”.
Webster’s 1828 –
Confederacy, n. –
[From con (union) and federatio, a league. See Federal and Wed.]
1. A league, or covenant; a contract between two or more persons, bodies of men or states, combined in support of each other, in some act or enterprise; mutual engagement;
federal compact.
2. The persons, states or nations united by a league.
3. In law, a combination of two or more persons to commit an unlawful act.
Confederate, a. –
1. United in a league; allied by treaty; engaged in a confederacy.
Confederate, n. –
1. One who is united with others in a league; a person or nation engaged in a confederacy; an ally.
Confederation, n. –
1. The act of confederating; a league, a compact for mutual support; alliance; particularly of princes, nations or states.
2. The United States of America are sometimes called the confederation.
Federal, a. –
1. Pertaining to a league or contract; derived from an agreement or covenant between parties, particularly between nations.
2. Consisting in a compact between parties, particularly and chiefly between states or nations; founded on alliance by contract or mutual agreement; as a federal government, such as that of the United States.
3. Friendly to the constitution of the United States.
Federal, n. –
1. An appellation in America, given to the friends of the constitution of the United States, at its formation and adoption, and to the political party which favored the administration of President Washington.
Federate, a. –
1. Leagued; united by compact, as sovereignties; states or nations;
joined in confederacy; as federate nations or powers.
Federation, n. –
1. The act of uniting in a league.
2. A league;
a confederacy.
Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law, 1856:
CONFEDERACY, intern. law.
1. An agreement between two or more states or nations, by which they unite for their mutual protection and good. This term is applied to such agreement between two independent nations, but it is used to signify the union of different states of the same nation, as the confederacy of the states.
2. The original thirteen states, in 1781, adopted for their federal government the "Articles of confederation and perpetual union between the States," which continued in force until the present constitution of the United States went into full operation, on the 30th day of April, 1789, when president Washington was sworn into office. Vide 1 Story on the Const. B. 2, c. 3 and 4.
CONFEDERACY, crim. law.
An agreement between two or more persons to do an unlawful act, or an act, which though not unlawful in itself, becomes so by the confederacy. The technical term usually employed to signify this offence, is conspiracy. (q. v.)
CONFEDERATION, government.
1. The name given to that form of government which the American colonies, on shaking off the British yoke, devised for their mutual safety and government.
2. The articles of confederation, (q. v.) were finally adopted on the 15th of November, 1777, and with the exception of Maryland, which, however, afterwards also agreed to them, were speedily adopted by the United States, and by which they were formed into a federal bod y, and went into force on the first day of March, 1781; 1 Story Const. §225; and so remained until the adoption of the present constitution, which acquired the force of the supreme law of the land on the first Wednesday of March, 1789. 5 Wheat. R. 420. Vide Articles of Confederation.
FEDERAL, government.
1. This term is commonly used to express a league or compact between two or more states.
2. In the United States the central government of the Union is federal. The constitution was adopted "to form a more perfect union" among the states, for the purpose of self protection and for the promotion of their mutual happiness.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, 1991
Confederacy –
1. The association or banding together of two or more persons for the purpose of committing an act or furthering an enterprise which is forbidden by law, or which, though lawful in itself, becomes unlawful when made the object of the confederacy. More commonly called a “conspiracy.”
2. A league or agreement between two or more independent states whereby they unite for their mutual welfare and the furtherance of their common aims. The term may apply to a union so formed for a temporary or limited purpose, as in the case of an offensive and defensive alliance; but it is more commonly used to denote that species of political connection between two or more independent states by which a central government is created, invested with certain powers of sovereignty (mostly external), and acting upon the several component states as its units, which, however, retain their sovereign powers for domestic purposes and some others.
Confederation –
A league or compact for mutual support, particularly of nations or states. Such was the colonial government during the Revolution.
(there are more Black's definitions but I got tired of typing...
)
Here are some examples of federal union used in a general sense. A federal union was not always something to be despised, as you can see in
Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge. I'm not including these excerpts to start a debate about the Reformist theology (we'll save that for another day
) but just as points of interest.
Part 2, Chapter 8, section 9:
That which is adopted by Protestants generally, as well Lutherans as Reformed, and also by the great body of the Latin Church is, that in virtue of the
union, federal and natural, between Adam and his posterity, his sin, although not their act, is so imputed to them that it is the judicial ground of the penalty threatened against him coming also upon them. This is the doctrine of immediate imputation. The
union between Adam and his posterity which is the ground of the imputation of his sin to them, is both natural and
federal.
Part 3, Chapter 3, section 4:
The Scriptures teach that the Logos is everlasting life, having, life in Himself, and the source of life, physical, intellectual, and spiritual. They further teach that his incarnation was the necessary condition of the communication of spiritual life to the children of men. He, therefore, is the only Saviour, the only source of life to us. We become partakers of this life, by
union with Him. This
union is partly federal established in the councils of eternity; partly vital by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; and partly voluntary and conscious by faith.
Part 3, Chapter 7, section 6:
No doctrine of the Bible, relating to the plan of salvation, is more plainly taught or more wide reaching than that which concerns the union between Christ and his people. That
union, in one aspect, was from eternity, we were in Him before the foundation of the world; given to Him of the Father, to redeem from the estate of sin and misery, into which it was foreseen our race would by transgression fall. It was for the accomplishment of this purpose of mercy that He assumed our nature, was born of a woman, and did and suffered all that He was called upon to do and to endure in working out our salvation. He did not, therefore, come into the world for Himself. It was not to work out a righteousness of his own to entitle Him to the exaltation and power which in our nature He now enjoys. In virtue of the Godhead of his personality, He was of necessity infinitely exalted above all creatures. He came for us. He came as a representative. He came in the same relation to his people, which Adam, in the original covenant, bore to the whole race. He came to take their place; to be their substitute, to do for them, and in their name, what they could not do for themselves. All He did, therefore, was vicarious; his obedience and his sufferings. The parallel between Adam and Christ, the two great representatives of man, the
two federal heads, the one of all his natural descendants, the other of all given Him by the Father, is carried out into its details in Romans 5:12-21. It is assumed or implied, however, everywhere else in the sacred volume. What Adam did, in his
federal capacity, was in law and justice regarded as done by all whom he represented. And so all that Christ did and suffered as a
federal head, was in law and justice done or suffered by his people. Therefore, as we were condemned for the disobedience of Adam, so we are justified for the obedience of Christ. As in Adam all died, so in Christ are all made alive. Hence Christ’s death is said to be our death, and we are said to rise with Him, to live with Him, and to be exalted, in our measure, in his exaltation. He is the head and we are the body. The acts of the head, are the acts of the whole mystical person. The ideas, therefore, of legal substitution, of vicarious obedience and punishment, of the satisfaction of justice by one for all, underlie and pervade the whole scheme of redemption. They can no more be separated from that scheme than the warp can be separated from the woof without destroying the whole texture.
Part 3, Chapter 8, Section 2:
Another argument is derived from the nature of the
union between Christ and his people. The Bible teaches,
(1.) That a certain portion of the human race were given to Christ.
(2.) That they were given to Him before the foundation of the world.
(3.) That all thus given to Him will certainly come to Him and be saved.
(4.) That this
union, so far as it was from eternity, is not a
union of nature, nor by faith, nor by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
It was a federal union.
(5.) That Christ, therefore, was a
federal head and representative.
As such He came into the world, and all He did and suffered was as a representative, as a substitute, one acting in the place and for the benefit of others. But He was the representative of those given to Him, i.e., of those who were in Him. For it was this gift and the union consequent upon it, that gave Him his representative character, or constituted Him a
federal head. He was therefore the
federal head, not of the human race, but of those given to Him by the Father. And, therefore, his work, so far as its main design is concerned, was for them alone. Whatever reference it had to others was subordinate and incidental. All this is illustrated and proved by the Apostle in Romans 5:12-21, in the parallel which he draws between Adam and Christ. All mankind were in Adam. He was the
federal head and representative of his race. All men sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. The sentence of condemnation for his one offence passed upon all men. In like manner Christ was the representative of his people. He acted for them. What He did and suffered in their place, or as their representative, they in the eye of the law, did and suffered. By his obedience they are justified. As all in Adam died, so all in Christ are made alive. Such is the nature of the
union in both cases, that the sin of the one rendered certain and rendered just the death of all united to Adam, and the righteousness of the other rendered certain and just the salvation of all who are in Him.
Part 3, Chapter 16, section 8:
The first effect of faith, according to the Scriptures, is
union with Christ. We are in Him by faith. There is indeed a
federal union between Christ and his people, founded on the covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son in the counsels of eternity. We are, therefore, said to be in Him before the foundation of the world.
