Keep the Electoral College: Abolish Progressivism! by Diane Gilbert of the National Heritage Center for Constitutional Studies
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Camp Constitution Speakers Bureau Hosts Robert Brown on the Dangers of an Article V Convnention
Camp Constitution Speakers Bureau will host a speaking tour for Mr Robert Brown of Montana on the dangers of an Article V Convention. Mr. Brown, a Constitutional scholar and creator of the DVD series “The Constitution is the Solution,” will tour New Hamphire and Maine from Tuesday January 24 to Thursday January 26. His schedule:
Tuesday January 24:
-8:30 AM In Studio interview with Rich Girard of “Girard at Large Manchester NH
11:00 AM: Press Conference Legislative Office Building 33 North State St Concord, NH
12:00 Noon Private Lunch with NH legislatures
4:00 PM In Studio Radio Interview with Karen Testerman Manchester
7:00 PM Presentation Nashua Public Library 2 Court St. Nashua, NH Free admission
Wednesday January 25,
1:00 PM Press Conference Maine State Capitol Building Welcome Center
6:30 PM Presentation Lithgow Library 45 Winthrop St Augusta, MA Free admission
Thursday:
12:00 Noon Private Lunch with Maine Legislatures
7:00 PM Presentation American Legion Post 181 Jefferson St. Waldoboro, ME Free admission
For more information on this tour, please call Camp Constitution director Hal Shurtleff (857) 498-1309 or campconstitution1@gmail.com
Camp Constitution recently interviewed Mr Brown on the “Girard at Large Show”
Camp Constitution’s 2016 Review and Goals for 2017
Camp Constitution had its busiest year since its founding in 2009.
Annual Family Camp
We enjoyed the largest attendance in our camp’s history with about 120 people participating. Our featured instructors were Mrs. KrisAnne Hall, and John McManus. Mr. Mert Melfa, and Michael Smith did an incredible job videotaping the classes and activities and uploaded on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7jnzBzBiNYAKi9OYzt61K83fjwGrxP0 Mr. Mark Affleck did an excellent job as the camp’s newspaper editor and made copies available on the camp’s website https://s3.amazonaws.com/camppictures/CampArchive/index.htmllhttps://s3.amazonaws.com/camppictures/CampArchive/index.html
Outreach:
We had information tables at two home school conventions: Homeschoolers of Maine’s annual convention held in mid March, and the Mass Hope Home School Convention which is the largest homeschool convention in New England. We hosted a workshop at the Mass Hope Convention entitled “Dangers of an Article V Convention.” Our presence at these two conventions led to new families attending our summer camp, the distribution of hundreds of copies of the U.S. Constitution, and our publications and reprints.
We had a float in the Dedham, MA Flag Day Parade for the 2nd year in a row where we passed out over 500 copies of the U.S. Constitution, and Camp Constitution brochures. Thanks to Dan McGonigle and Emily Shurtleff, we manned an information table on July 4th at the Boston Common with the theme “Honoring the Signers. We challenged folks to name the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and distributed copies of an article on the signers of the Declaration of Independence and their sacrifices.
We held information tables at two venues on the same day Saturday September 17th in Boxboro, MA and Nashua, NH. The Boxboro event was the first annual “Reclaim America Rally” and the Nashua event was the National Heritage Center for Constitutional Studies’ annual Constitution Day Celebration where Camp Constitution’s director, Hal Shurtleff, was one of the speakers. Volunteers for these events were Rich Seron, Bob and Nancy Seeley.
Thanks to the Ferretti family, we were invited to participate in an all day (and evening) event celebratating the Constitution in Hyde Park, NY in mid September.
Pastor Scott Lively invited Rev. Craft, and Hal Shurtleff to participate in the first annual New England Biblical Values Summit where we had an information table, and were panelists.
Our newly created speaker bureau hosted Dr. Duke Pesta for four presentation in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a speaking tour Rev Steve Craft in Maine, and a presentation on the dangers of an Article V Convention in the Boston area. Many of these presentation have been videotaped and are uploaded on our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7ME18Q1xiqcrPEn5h5FbA
We sponsored a press conference for Rev. Steve Craft to speak on the drug addiction and race issues in Maine which resulted in front page coverage in most of Maine’s daily newspapers, and four TV stations.
Sam Blumenfeld Archives
Thanks to the efforts of Mark Affleck, and Eric Conover, the camp’s webmaster, we launched the Sam Blumenfeld Archives on our web site and are averaging over 150,000 views per month. People from all over the world are making use of the excellent resources on this page. http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/
Special Projects
We did a special project for Mr. G. Edward Griffin-videotaping a presentation of Dr. Willie Soon ,and will be in the credits for Mr. Griffin’s documentary exposing the global warming fraud.
Camp Constitution Press
Camp Constitution Press reprinted “Color, Communism, and Common Sense” by Manning Johnson, and have made plans for a speaking tour by Rev. Craft on this topic of how our nation’s enemies are using race to destroy our nation. We also attended and videotaped the first annual Nativity Celebration at the Massachusetts State House.
Social Media
Camp Constitution’s Youtube channel has close to 1/4 of a million views and over 1,200 subscribers. Our facebook page has over 1,000 likes. We also renewed our Vimeo page, and have increased the number of articles on our Camp blog.
Camp Constitution Radio
Camp Constitution Radio is in its second year. This weekly show broadcasts on WBCQ The Planet Shortwave and http://ipmnation.com/ Guests in 2016 year’s included Lord Christopher Monckton, Professor Willie Soon, Ed Martin, Director of Eagle Forum, Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America, Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center, and Joaquin Fernandez, co-director of the documentary “Indoctrination. We also appeared as guest on a number of radio shows including the Michelle McPhee Shoe in Boston, and guest hosted “The Girard at Large Show,: a popular morning show hosted by Rich Girard in Manchester, NH.
2017
We would like to expand our outreach and mission which includes starting other camps around the country, a greater presence at home school shows and other venues. We will be hosting Robert Brown, Constitutional Scholar and creator of “The Constitution is the Solution” in Maine and New Hampshire later this month to speak on the dangers of an Article V Convention, and have made arrangements to have an information table at the Nashua, NH gun show. We have several book projects underway including a book written by our campers.
What can you do?
Attend our 2017 Family Summer Camp and help get other families to attend. Download the 2017 camp brochure: https://campconstitution.net/public-essays/
Host a Camp Constitution speaker in your town and/or encourage local patriotic and civic groups to host a speaker.
Share our Youtube videos.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7ME18Q1xiqcrPEn5h5FbA
Promote our website. https://campconstitution.net/
Start a Constitution Club in your home, or local library.
Make a monthly donation via our PayPal account. https://campconstitution.net/set-up-recurring-donations/
And pray that God will continue to bless our camp, and our nation.
Camp Constitutuion Guest Hosts the “Girard at Large” Show on WLMW Manchester, NH
Rich Girard, host of the popular mornings drive time radio show “Girard at Large,” offered Hal Shurtleff, who has been a guest on the show over the past few years, an opportunity to guest host the show for a day. Hal took him up on the offer, and along with Camp Constitution instructors Tom Moor, and Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore, drove up from Boston in the early morning hours last Tuesday to be at the studio in time for the 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM show. It was a lively three hours with guests Rev. Steve Craft, Mrs. Diane Gilbert of the National Heritage Center for Constitution Studies, Ed Martin, director of Eagle Forum, Robert Brown, creator of the video series “The Constitution is the Solution,” and climate scientist, Professor Willie Soon of Harvard University. A link to the archive of the show http://www.girardatlarge.com/category/show-archives/page/2/
Camp Constitution Attends the 1st Annual Nativity at the Massachusetts State House
Camp Constitution attended the 1st annual Nativity at the Massachusetts State House Thursday December 22. This historic event was held in the Hall of Flags, and sponsored by the Renew Massachusetts Coalition and the Massachusetts Family Coalition. State Representative Jim Lyons, Republican from Andover, was able to secure the venue after some help from the Thomas More Society. Speakers included Rep. Lyons, Pastor Stephen Derrick of the Greenville Baptist Church Rochdale, MA, Father Gerald Souza of the Boston-Seaport Catholic Collaborative, and Pastor Kris Mineau.
This was the first time that a nativity scene was on display at the State House. A local atheist group wasn’t too happy about the event and its spokesman said that the group would have led a legal challenge if its members had more time. The true meaning of Christmas can be proclaimed even ii one of the most left-wing states in the country.
Camp Constitution wishes all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
THE WISDOM OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
By Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., Ph.D., J.D.
December 20, 2016
NewsWithViews.com – http://www.newswithviews.com/Vieira/edwin295.htm
Since the recent Presidential election, the media have overflowed with rather rancorous debates about the legitimacy of the Electoral College, in contrast to a simple count of the overall national votes for the two major candidates, Donald Trump (who, it seems, has won a majority of the Electoral College) and Hillary Clinton (who, it appears, has won a majority of the popular vote). These debates have usually assumed the simplistic form of one side’s contending that, as a supposed “democracy”, America should elect the President by majority vote; while the other side counters that the United States is a “republic” in which majoritarianism is not always desirable, let alone controlling. Both of these arguments miss a crucial point which derives from the federal system in general, and the duties of the States and the powers of the President within that system in particular.
In The Federalist No. 39, James Madison explained that
[t]he executive power will be derived from a very compound source. The immediate election of the President is to be made by the States in their political characters. The votes allotted to them are in a compound ratio, which considers them partly as distinct and coequal societies, partly as unequal members of the same society.
Here, Madison recognized the importance of the States’ continuing positions as semi-sovereignties within the Constitution’s federal system. As such, although they do not retain all of the rights, powers, privileges, and immunities of full and independent sovereignties, they continue to enjoy many of those legal attributes as component parts of that system. See, e.g., U.S. Const. amend. X.
Arguably the most important of these rights, powers, privileges, and immunities—and under the Constitution a duty as well—is for each of the States to maintain an armed force suitable to the “Republican Form of Government” which the Constitution requires each of them to preserve, and all of them, acting in the capacity of the United States, to “guarantee” to one another. See U.S. Const. art. IV, § 4. For sovereignty is the quintessence of political power; and all “‘[p]olitical power grows out of the barrel of a gun’”. Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Peking, China: Foreign Languages Press, 1966), at 61. This armed force is what the Second Amendment identifies as “[a] well regulated Militia”, which it declares to be “necessary to the security of a free State”. Each of the States must maintain “[a] well regulated Militia” in order to remain “a free State”, and thus to preserve for herself (as well as for her sister States) “a Republican Form of Government”. Moreover, each of the States must maintain “[a] well regulated Militia” in order to secure for Congress the forces the Constitution empowers it “[t]o provide for calling forth * * * to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions”. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 15.
Now, the Constitution invests the President with the status of “Commander in Chief * * * of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States”. U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1. Furthermore, except to “engage in War” when “actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay”, the States have at their own disposal no permanent armed forces other than their Militia; for they may not “keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace” “without the Consent of Congress”.
U.S. Const. art. I, § 10, cl. 3. And today, through the mutual “Consent of Congress” and the States, those “Troops, or Ships of War” are organized in the National Guard and the so-called Naval Militia, which in certain circumstances can be brought under the President’s authority as “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States”. Compare U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1 with, e.g., 32 U.S.C. § 101(3) through (7). Thus it is entirely fitting—indeed, one would think compulsory—for the President to be elected by a process which to the greatest practical degree maximizes the influence of “the States in their political characters”, as opposed to a simple majority vote within the nation as a whole which more or less disregards or even negates that influence.
For the Constitution plainly contemplates situations in which the States’ “‘[p]olitical power [which] grows out of the barrel of a gun” will be exercised by the President directly. One may question whether the Electoral College is, in abstract theory, the very best means to this end imaginable; but, in practice, it is undoubtedly one efficacious means, and the means the Constitution specifies.
Thus, the arguments put forward by those in Mrs. Clinton’s camp against the political wisdom of the Electoral College and in favor of raw majoritarianism as the best way to select the President are basically at odds with federalism in theory and constitutionalism in practice—and should be rejected on that ground alone.
© 2016 Edwin Vieira, Jr. – All Rights Reserved
Edwin Vieira, Jr., holds four degrees from Harvard: A.B. (Harvard College), A.M. and Ph.D. (Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), and J.D. (Harvard Law School).
For more than thirty years he has practiced law, with emphasis on constitutional issues. In the Supreme Court of the United States he successfully argued or briefed the cases leading to the landmark decisions Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, and Communications Workers of America v. Beck, which established constitutional and statutory limitations on the uses to which labor unions, in both the private and the public sectors, may apply fees extracted from nonunion workers as a condition of their employment.
He has written numerous monographs and articles in scholarly journals, and lectured throughout the county. His most recent work on money and banking is the two-volume Pieces of Eight: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the United States Constitution (2002), the most comprehensive study in existence of American monetary law and history viewed from a constitutional perspective. www.piecesofeight.us
He is also the co-author (under a nom de plume) of the political novel CRA$HMAKER: A Federal Affaire (2000), a not-so-fictional story of an engineered crash of the Federal Reserve System, and the political upheaval it causes. www.crashmaker.com
His latest book is: “How To Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary“ … and Constitutional “Homeland Security,” Volume One, The Nation in Arms…
He can be reached at his new address:
52 Stonegate Court
Front Royal, VA 22630.
E-Mail: Not available
POPULAR VOTE v. ELECTORAL COLLEGE; DEMOCRACY v. REPUBLIC
Daniel Vincent McGonigle III
20 Dec 2016
Assertions that: “the popular vote to determine everything is very compelling”, are nuts. The popular vote to determine everything would favor unequal population centers rights over States and rural rights; and, it would be a democracy, not a republic as guaranteed in Article IV Section 4, U.S. Constitution.
The D of I says: “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America”, not The unanimous Declaration of the united population centers of America.
The Constitution says: “We the People of the United States”, not We the People of the United population centers.
The enemies of America who favor disarmament of population centers (especially deep-water ports) are the same who favor popular vote democracy and rule by majority no matter the rights of the minority.
© 2016 – Daniel Vincent McGonigle III : Constitutional Militia Scholar
Bill of Rights Day December
Over the past few years, Camp Constitution participated in the annual Flag Day Parade in Dedham, MA- a town just outside of Boston. The first year we participated-2015-we passed out 500 copies of the U.S. Constitution and asked recipients one simple question: What are the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution called? Only a small percentage had any idea. But we had a much better response this year. Yesterday marked the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution which became known as the Bill of Rights. These amendments didn’t give the people any rights; they protected rights they already had while limiting the role Congress can have.
The Bill of Rights:
THE BILL OF RIGHTS:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or
retained by the people.
Boston Tea Party
Today marks the 243 anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Several years ago, Camp Constitution Press attended the reenactment of the historical event at the Boston Tea Party Museum. We post our video of that reenactment:
Camp Constitution Adds Mrs. Catherine White to its Speakers Bureau
Camp Constitution is pleased to announce the addition of Mrs. Catherine White to our speaker bureau. Mrs. White is an instructor at Camp Constitution.
Catherine G White is a Massachusetts native – born in Worcester, raised in Quincy, and a graduate of MIT. About a decade ago, she started a book club to read W. Cleon Skousen‘s “The 5,000 Year Leap.” Out of that grew a passion for the US Constitution and a US Constitution study group that now sees attendance of about 40 people each month. She also coordinates an ever-increasing schedule of lectures, talks, study groups, and events – all centered on teaching the amazing document that is the Supreme Law of the Land. Additionally, Catherine wrote a series of articles on the Constitution for the e-zine “MinuteMom” and has lectured extensively — from colleges like Brandeis and Middlesex Community, to rallies, and to a large number of local civic groups from Pembroke to Mansfield, Portsmouth NH to Groton, and from Boston to Worcester. She has also arranged group events such as guided tours of the Forefather’s Monument in Plymouth, an all day event with Michael Badnarik, 2004 Libertarian Party candidate for President, and a lecture by Professor Kenneth Calvert of Hillsdale College. You can read her articles and watch videos at her web site, The U.S. Constitution Decoded, and there is a “contact” link at the site for more information.★
Lecture Topics:
- The US Constitution in one hour
- Exegesis of the Declaration of Independence – religious foundation
- Exegesis of the Declaration of Independence – secular
- Preamble to the Constitution – the “mission statement” of the federal government
- US Constitution – Article I
- US Constitution – Article II
- US Constitution – Article III
- US Constitution – Articles IV-V-VI-VII
- US Constitution – Bill of Rights
Readers who are interested in booking Mrs. White or our other speakers may call Hal Shurtleff at (857) 498-1309 or visit our web site