Perhaps the greatest lie uttered by anyone seeking the presidency was made by Aaron Burr.  He agreed to be vice president under Thomas Jefferson in 1800.  The “ticket” of Jefferson and Burr won.  But Article II then provided that the leading vote-getter in the Electoral College would be president, the runner-up, vice president.

Since Burr and Jefferson tied, Burr claimed the presidency, and sought to steal it through the House of Representatives, which under the Constitution had to decide.  Fortunately for history, the House chose Jefferson.  Promptly thereafter, the Twelfth Amendment provided that the president and vice president would be separately balloted.

Amendments Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen are the Civil War Amendments.  The first abolished slavery.  The second has numerous applications today, of greater or lesser validity.

For instance, Fourteen guarantees “due process” and “equal protection of the laws” to all citizens of every state.  Who are citizens?  The language is “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction.”  Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment appears in many others.  “The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

So, the problem of pregnant aliens struggling through the deserts of Arizona to have a baby in the United States, who would be a birth-right citizen and help the whole family get into the United States, is easily solved.  Congress can BY LAW define such children as “not subject to the jurisdiction,” just as it has historically for foreign embassy personnel in D.C.  That would solve this problem. 

This is just one of many examples why the people should read the Owner’s Manual, then demand that the press read it, then demand that members of Congress read it, so public policies can be correctly handled.

Amendment Fifteen provided that no citizens should be denied the right to vote because of race.  Other voting Amendments are Nineteen, enfranchising women; Twenty-four, barring poll taxes; and Twenty-six, lowering the voting age to 18.

Amendment Sixteen, thought to be a good idea at the time, has had major, unintended consequences.  During the Civil War, Congress established an income tax to provide more money for the war.  The Supreme Court struck down the tax as unconstitutional, because the Constitution barred any “direct Tax” except in proportion to population.  This Amendment, therefore, is the basis of the income tax.

Congressional opponents of the tax had the votes to cap it at 10%.  They rejected this, because they thought it might encourage the government to increase taxes to that level.  (Now there’s a quaint idea.)  Many changes in the Constitution and in court decisions have led to the current federal government which is large, intrusive, expensive, and debt-ridden.  None are more important than the 16th Amendment.

The other amendment causing a radical change in American government was the Seventeenth.  This ended the original design where senators were elected by the state legislatures, to having them elected by popular vote.  Senators then became national figures, reporting to national constituencies and favoring national fund-raising, rather than being the voices of the states in the federal government.

The Eighteenth Amendment, which created Prohibition, and the Twenty-first, which ended it, are further proof that Jefferson was right.  Even when the people make a mistake, as with Prohibition, the only proper source of sovereignty is in the people.

The Twentieth Amendment shortened the “lame duck” period for Congress and the president, moving the swearing in from March to January.  It also allowed Congress to deal with untimely death of the president before swearing-in.  The Twenty-second Amendment limited president and vice president to two terms.  (Many states have term limits on officials, creating what the framers called “rotation in office.”)

Amendment Twenty-three gave the District of Columbia three Electoral College votes.  Amendment Twenty-five covers replacement of the president in the event of death or disability.

The amendments altogether make a general point: Every change made legitimately, through Article V with ratification, respects the Constitution and popular sovereignty.  Every “amendment” which is made surreptitiously, by the Congress, the court or the president without ratification, disrespects the Constitution and the people.

No one said this more clearly or more elegantly than Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798: 

“In questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”