Thursday, March 24, 2011

Temecula Constitution Study: Amendment XII, and the Lost 13th Amendment

Constitution Study with Douglas V. Gibbs, March 24, 2011

The Twelfth Amendment, and the Lost Thirteenth Amendment

Amendment XII


The Twelfth Amendment changes the procedure for electing the President and Vice President originally provided for in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3. The procedure has remained the same since its ratification, save for the States changing their procedures from appointing the electors by the choice of the state legislatures, thus following the instructions of the state legislatures, to the citizens voting for who the electors are expected to vote for. Though the electors are free to vote for anyone eligible to be President, in practice they usually vote for the candidates chosen by the voters in their state. 1824 is the last election in which electors were appointed by their state legislature. In that election, six states followed that procedure.

Each state is constitutionally allowed to choose how to appoint or elect their electors, and the methods vary state to state. Generally, electors are nominated by their state political parties in the months prior to Election Day. In some states, the electors are nominated in primaries, the same way that other candidates are nominated. Other states nominate their electors in party conventions.


Before the Twelfth Amendment, electors could vote for two candidates, though at least one had to be from a state different from that of the elector. A majority of the vote needed to be received in order to win the presidency. If more than one candidate received a majority vote, then the House of Representatives chose the President.





The Twelfth Amendment indicates that no elector may vote for both candidates of a presidential ticket if both candidates inhabit the same state as that elector.

The Twelfth Amendment also clarified language to not allow those constitutionally ineligible to be President from being Vice President.

A majority of electoral votes is still required for one to be elected President or Vice President. As in the case before the Twelfth Amendment, when nobody has a majority, the House of Representatives, voting by states and with the same quorum requirements as under the original procedure, chooses a President. The Twelfth Amendment requires the House to choose from the three highest receivers of electoral votes, rather than the top five as was the process under Article II, Section 1, Clause 3.

The Senate chooses the Vice President if no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes.

The Twelfth Amendment requires a quorum requirement of two-thirds for balloting.


The Lost 13th Amendment


The original 13th Amendment was proposed in December of 1809, and ratified March 12, 1819. The amendment addressed the founders distrust of nobility.

The original Thirteenth Amendment instituted a penalty of the loss of citizenship for accepting or using a "Title of Nobility or Honor" to set oneself apart from, or superior to, or possessing of any special privileges or immunities not available to any other citizen of the United States, and to eliminate the widespread use of "emoluments" as bribery and of the legislatures and judiciary used to further the causes and positions of "Special Interests". It was an attempt to keep politicians and civil servants "Honest" in their service to the citizens. It added to Article I, Section 9, Clause 8, which disallowed any person holding office to accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. The original Thirteenth Amendment, however, applied the penalty to “any citizen of the United States.”

The original Thirteenth Amendment was proposed and properly ratified. Yet, over the years, it disappeared. The amendment was deleted without ever being repealed. Quietly faded out. It is believed it was finally completely stamped out in 1865, just in time for the new 13th Amendment.

The very existence of the original amendment was unknown until it was discovered in 1983 when researchers discovered in the public library at Belfast, Maine an 1825 copy of the U. S. Constitution, which included the lost amendment. More research since then has revealed numerous records listing the ratifying states, and showing the original Thirteenth Amendment in various state and territory records. In fact, the 1867 Colorado Territory edition of the Constitution actually includes both the "missing" Thirteenth Amendment and the current 13th Amendment, on the same page. The current 13th Amendment is listed as the 14th Amendment in the 1867 Colorado edition.

The 1876 Laws of Wyoming also shows the "missing" Thirteenth Amendment, the current 13th Amendment on the same page. The current 13th Amendment is listed as the 14th, the current 14th amendment is omitted, and the current 15th Amendment is in its proper place.

More amazingly, there was yet a third 13th Amendment tucked in between the original, and the current amendment, signed by President Buchanan on March 2, 1861, two days before Lincoln's inauguration, which would have permanently legalized slavery. Not enough states ratified it, however, and the onslaught of the Civil War kept it from going any further.

On December 18, 1865, the "new" 13th Amendment prohibiting and abolishing slavery (and according to some surrendering states rights to the federal government) was proclaimed adopted by Secretary of State Seward, replacing and effectively erasing the original Thirteenth Amendment that had prohibited acceptance of "titles of nobility" and "honors" and "emoluments."

Part of the reason for the amendment was to stop foreign influence on the American court system, which under John Marshall had been seizing power and growing as a political influence on the law. The fear was that a judicial oligarchy was forming, and that the lawyers would act as the henchmen of an activist judiciary.

The lawyers realized, it is theorized, that the original 13th Amendment would keep them in check; therefore, the lawyers saw the need to eliminate the amendment. Coincidentally, it was not until after the Civil War and after the disappearance of the original 13th Amendment, that the American Bar Association began to appear and exercise political power.

After the deletion of the original 13th Amendment, the newly developing Bar Associations began working diligently to create a system wherein lawyers took on a title of privilege and nobility as "Esquires" and receive the "honor" of offices and positions (like District Attorney or Judge) that only lawyers may now hold. By virtue of these titles, honors, and special privileges, lawyers have assumed political and economic advantages over the majority of U.S. Citizens. These privileges have given to the lawyers a two-tiered citizenship in this Nation where a majority may vote, but only the minority of lawyers may hold the afore mentioned political offices (often used to launch them into other political offices). This two-tiered system is contrary to America's political interests, economic welfare, and the Constitution's spirit of equal protection and uniform opportunities.

The lost 13th Amendment demonstrates that the Founding Fathers recognized the danger of an activist judiciary, and how the conniving methods of lawyers made the members of the legal community enemies of the people and of the United States.



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