Progressivism Warps Our Constitution

by

       M. Richard Maxson

      Woodrow Wilson was one of the first politicians to define and aggressively advocate the idea of a living, breathing, Constitution in his book Constitutional Government in the United States, and while stumping on the campaign trail in 1912. By living and breathing, he meant the Constitution was written as a “dynamic” document; flexible, so it can change with the times without a pesky Constitutional amendment.

      So this contract with the American people is flexible. Instead of maintaining a fixed meaning, judges, lawmakers and bureaucrats mold its various clauses and provisions to fit the needs of the day. Wilson stated, “Society is a living organism and must obey the laws of life, not of mechanics(i.e. the Constitution) - it must develop. All that progressives ask or desire is permission..” Many Americans today falsely view the Constitution “is a living, breathing document.” As a result, we live under the largest government in history.

      America’s founding document essentially serves as a contract between the people of the states. Through the Constitution, they formed the Union, set up a general government to administer specific objects and delegated to it specific, enumerated powers.

     Legally, you can’t have a living, breathing contract. Think about it. Would you sign a living, breathing mortgage? Would you enter into a living, breathing employment  contract? Would you sign a living, breathing agreement with a builder to put an addition on your house? No, because you would have no idea what that contract really means. Contractual provisions have a fixed meaning. When you sign a contract, you expect it to remain constant over time. When disagreements come up, both parties argue their position based on how they understood the contract when they signed it. Nobody would accept a any official saying, “Well, I know the contract meant so-and-so, but now it means something different. It’s a living breathing contract.”

      People can only live together and cooperate in a society with an agreed upon, consistently applied set of rules. We call this the “rule of law.” The principle roots itself in the idea that no individual or institution stands above the law, and that rules consistently apply equally to all people in any given situation. Rule of law creates a bulwark against arbitrary power, whether wielded by a totalitarian leader, promoted by mob rule, or exercised by duly elected legislators.

     The rule of law requires consistency. Otherwise, government becomes arbitrary. When the limits on government power become subject to reinterpretation by the government itself, it becomes limitless in power and authority.

      That’s exactly what we have today. The federal government makes up things as it goes along. The feds claim to power to do all kinds of things never authorized by the Constitution, all based on Wilson and his miss-guided ego thinking himself above the people, above the Founders, and above the Constitution itself.

     James Madison asserted in his letter to Henry Lee ,the sixth president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, “On every question of construction let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” In his full letter Madison wasn’t merely making a theoretical observation, when he was actually launching a full attack on what we would now call “living constitutionalism.”

      So we see, this is not a new idea. Anti-originalists will contend that originalism is a creation of modern conservatives. History renders this claim false. What it is to the Constitution is a cancer that is slowly destroying it. It’s time to kill this idea of a living breathing Constitution before it completely kills our Republic.

 

 *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

 

The Ashes of a Coup

by

        George Sontag

      Now that we finally have the tapes proving January 6th was not a violent insurrection 

we were told it was. That was a lie and a look in any dictionary would have proven that. 

No, this was a planned event. Planned by the Deep State in conjunction with the 

Democrat Socialists whose plans to restart wars around the globe, for profit, was their 

motivation and with President Trump in office, that could not happen. Let me enlighten

 you on what actually happened that day.

 

      Flashback to January 4th, 2021. Pence promised that he was going to “hear the objections and evidence”, in reference to the massive irregularities and voter fraud in the 2020 election. He would then send it back to the states for re-examination and certification. Pence never got to hear those electors air their objections or evidence. The January 6^th event at the Capitol was the means Pence used to justify NOT giving electors their day  in Congress. Pence claimed the acts by Trump and his supporters were so heinous, that he was just going to certify the election.

 

      Well, now that we have the January 6^th tapes, it is clear this event was facilitated and coordinated by elements in both parties and from within our own government, and the evidence of this was intentionally withheld, and still is, from the American People

in order to continue perpetuating this massive lie.

 

      You witnessed an insurrection on January 6th 2021, but it wasn’t by Trump supporters. 

It was by establishment politicians, elements within the intelligence community, and State-controlled MSM outlets, who coordinated to generate, escalate, and exaggerate

the situation in order to avoid electors airing their legitimate, and now proven truthful, 

objections, in order to certify a stolen election. Three years late, the massive proof of fraud

is now known but is still being suppressed. You and I witnessed treason and a war waged

on the American People and our freedoms.

 

       Joseph Stalin is credited with observing that, "It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes." Over the last two decades the Left has been changing both the rules of our election process and America’s demographics to suit their political agenda and THEIR candidate.

 

      For ruling class politicians to disingenuously act as if they are simple representatives of the people, when they clearly act in the interest of the billion-dollar Leftist oligarchs who finance their political adventurism, reveals a political system that clearly lacks legitimacy. The hijacking of the U.S. levers of power by a handful of elite families and institutions using crony politicians such as the Clinton's, the Obama's and the Biden's is unmistakable.

      Hatred and lies are the first words out of Mr. Biden’s mouth from the bully pulpit of this 

puppet faux leader in every speech he gives. The fighting continues and the cash rolls in so to financially enrich himself and those who have propped him up for this very purpose. This is a war for profit and anyone who gets in their way ends up being attacked and destroyed or dead. Even leaving innocent people to rot in jail for their so-called political crimes.  

 

      That’s what happened on January 6th. It was the latest American coup (The first being JFK). ALL of it was based on a lie. Our nation was stolen from us by corrupt elements within our own government in both parties. All the hatred, discrimination, censorship, and vitriol towards Trump and his supporters, which constitutes half of the country, continues to this day fueled by the Deep States desire to continue on to….WWIII?

A 232 Year History of our Fight Against Islam & Why it is no Longer Taught in our Public Schools

by

       M. Richard Maxson

      

       Most Americans are unaware of the fact that over two

hundred years ago the United States had declared war on Islam.At the height of the 18th century, Muslim pirates (the “Barbary Pirates”) were the terror of the Mediterranean and a large area of the North Atlantic. These extortionists of the high seas represented the North African Islamic nations of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers - collectively referred to as the Barbary Coast - and presented a dangerous and unprovoked threat to the new American Republic. In July of 1785, Algerian pirates captured American ships and the Dye of Algiers demanded an unheard-of ransom of $60,000. It was a plain and simple case of extortion and Thomas Jefferson was vehemently opposed to any further payments. Instead, he proposed to Congress the formation of a coalition of allied nations who together could force the Islamic states into peace. A disinterested Congress decided to pay the ransom.

       In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Great Britain to ask by what right his nation attacked American ships and enslaved American citizens, and why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.

       The two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that Islam “was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran that all nations who would not acknowledge their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

       Despite this stunning admission of premeditated violence on non-Muslim nations, as well as the objections of many notable American leaders, including George Washington, who warned that caving in was both wrong and would only further embolden the enemy, for the following fifteen years, the American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to over 20 percent of the United States government annual revenues in 1800.

       Jefferson was disgusted. Shortly after his being sworn in as the third President of the United States in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli sent him a note demanding the immediate payment of $225,000 plus $25,000 a year for every year forthcoming.

                                                    That changed everything.

       Jefferson let the Pasha know, in no uncertain terms, what he could do with his demand. The Pasha responded by cutting down the flagpole at the American consulate and declared war on the United States. Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers immediately followed suit.

       Jefferson, until now, had been against America raising a naval force for anything beyond coastal defense, but, having watched his nation be cowed by Islamic thuggery for long enough decided that it was finally time to meet force with force.

       He dispatched a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean and taught the Muslim nations of the Barbary Coast a lesson he hoped they would never forget. Congress authorized Jefferson to empower U.S. ships to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli and to “cause to be done all other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war would justify”.

       When Algiers and Tunis, who were both accustomed to American cowardice and acquiescence saw the newly independent United States had both the will and the right to strike back, they quickly abandoned their allegiance to Tripoli.

       The war with Tripoli lasted for four more years and raged up again in 1815. The bravery of the U.S. Marine Corps in these wars led to the line “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Hymn, and they would forever be known as “leathernecks” for the leather collars of their uniforms, designed to prevent their heads from being cut off by the Muslim scimitars when boarding enemy ships.

       Islam, and what its Barbary followers justified doing in the name of their prophet and their god disturbed Jefferson quite deeply. America had a tradition of religious tolerance. In fact, Jefferson, himself, had co-authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, but fundamentalist Islam was like no other religion the world had ever seen.

       It is not a true religion, it is a political system based

on male supremacy, whose so-called holy book not only condoned but mandated violence against unbelievers. This was unacceptable to Jefferson. His greatest fear was that someday this Islam would return and pose an even greater threat to the United States.

       This should concern every American. That Muslims have brought about women-only classes and swimming times in America at taxpayer-funded universities and public pools; that Christians, Jews, and Hindus have been banned from serving on juries where Muslim defendants are being judged; Piggy banks and Porky Pig tissue dispensers have been banned from workplaces because they offend Islamist sensibilities; ice cream has been discontinued at certain Burger King locations because the picture on the wrapper looks similar to the Arabic script for Allah; public schools are pulling pork from their menus; on and on and on and on…

       It’s death by a thousand cuts, or inch-by-inch as some refer to it, and most Americans have no idea that this battle is being waged every day across America. By not fighting back, by allowing groups to obfuscate what is really happening, and not insisting that the Islamists adapt to our culture, the United States is cutting its own throat with a politically correct knife and helping to further the Islamists’ agenda.

       Sadly, it appears that today America’s leaders would rather be politically correct than admit reality.

The Next Election Could Get Dangerous

By

        M. Richard Maxson 

      With each passing day, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the two biggest blemishes recently on America as a great and free nation are the stolen presidential election of 2020, and the subsequent incarceration of those patriots who exercised their guaranteed First Amendment right to free speech to contest it. The release of more video and cell phone tapes from January 6 by new House Speaker Mike Johnson shows further evidence of a setup by the Feds and that their so-called insurrection was staged. It was staged to force certification of the vote and to stop ANY conversation of illegitimacy. 

      All of the J6 Committee interview tapes are suddenly missing giving further credence that there WAS a conspiracy, by the Democrat party aligned with Deep state officials, to stop the President from contesting the obviously fraudulent election. Now that we have the tapes proving January 6th was not the violent insurrection we were told it was, let me enlighten you on what ACTUALLY happened that day.  

     Flashback to January 4th, 2021. Pence promised that he was going to “hear the objections and evidence”, in reference to the massive irregularities and voter fraud in the 2020 election. House leader, Nancy Pelosi, knew that a halt in the proceedings would lead to an investigation. And an investigation would lead to those questions being covered, albeit reluctantly, by the entire mainstream media. What actually transpired over the three additional days of counting in the 2020 Election would be exposed. And the narrative of the most secure election in American history would crumble in front of the                                              eyes of everybody in this country and across the globe.

       Pence never got to hear those electors air their objections or evidence. The January 6^th event at the Capitol was the means Pence used to justify NOT giving electors their day in Congress. Pence claimed the acts by Trump and his supporters were so heinous, that he was just going to certify the election the next day.  

      Well, now that we have the January 6^th tapes of the capitol, it is clear this event was facilitated and coordinated by elements within our own government, and the evidence of this was intentionally withheld from the American People in order to continue perpetuating this massive lie.  

      The fact that all of the J6 Committee interview tapes are suddenly missing* giving further credence that there WAS a conspiracy, by the Democrat party aligned with Deep state officials, to stop the President from contesting the obviously fraudulent election. The election tampering advanced the Left’s directive of “fundamental transformation” of the country, which included imprisonment without bail or trial of those with whom the tyrannical administration disagreed. You witnessed an insurrection on January 6th 2021, but it wasn’t by Trump supporters. It was by establishment politicians, elements within the intelligence community, and State-controlled MSM outlets, who coordinated to generate, escalate, and exaggerate the situation in order to avoid electors airing their objections, in order to certify a stolen election. You witnessed treason and war waged on the American People. You witnessed a second coup in the United States. The first being the murder of JFK. 

       That’s what happened on January 6th. Our nation was stolen from us by corrupt elements within our own government. And all the hatred, discrimination, censorship, and vitriol towards Trump supporters, ALL of it was based on a lie. They created a web of lies leaving innocent people to rot in jail for standing up for America.

 

*All J6 Witness Video Depositions Have Mysteriously Vanished 

The Alien and Sedition Acts

By

       Zeno Potas*

• Whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."                                                -Thomas Jefferson

      Today in history, on Nov. 10. 1798, the Kentucky legislature took a bold stand against federal overreach with the passage of resolutions penned by Thomas Jefferson.

      It’s one thing to claim the Constitution limits the federal government to its specific list of powers. It’s another thing to hold the federal government to that list. So, what do we do when the federal government oversteps its constitutional limits? Opponents of the clearly unconstitutional Alien and Sedition Acts had to grapple with this question way back in 1798.

       During the summer of that year, Congress passed, and President John Adams signed into law, four acts together known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. With winds of war blowing across the Atlantic, the Federalist Party majority wrote the laws to prevent “seditious” acts from weakening the U.S. government. Federalists utilized fear of the French to stir up support for these draconian laws, expanding federal power, concentrating authority in the executive branch and severely restricting freedom of speech.

       Two of the Alien Acts gave the president the power to declare foreign U.S. residents an enemy, lock them up and deport them. These acts vested judicial authority in the executive branch and obliterated due process. The Sedition Act essentially outlawed criticizing the federal government – a clear violation of the First Amendment.

Recognizing the grave danger these acts posed to the basic constitutional structure, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted resolutions that were passed by the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures on Nov. 10 and Dec. 21, 1798, respectively. The “Principles of ’98” formalized the principles of nullification as the rightful remedy when the federal government oversteps its authority.

      The Alien and Sedition Acts outraged many Kentuckians. Several counties in the Commonwealth adopted resolutions condemning the acts, including Fayette, Clark, Bourbon, Madison and Woodford.

      A Madison County Kentucky militia regiment issued an ominous resolution of its own, stating, “The Alien and Sedition Bills are an infringement of the Constitution and of natural rights, and that we cannot approve or submit to them.” Several thousand people gathered at an outdoor meeting protesting the acts in Lexington on August 13. The push to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts was not simply the act of opportunistic politicians. It rose out of the passionate demands of the citizenry in Kentucky, as well as Virginia.

       Jefferson penned the original draft of the Kentucky Resolutions within a month of Congress passing the Sedition Act.

“That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”

After outlining each constitutional violation and overreach of federal power, Jefferson called for action – nullify now!

“Therefore this commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated, and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men on earth: that in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the general government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus non fœderis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits: that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.” [Emphasis added]

       Jefferson sent former Virginia ratifying convention delegate Wilson Cary Nicholas a draft of the resolution, likely hoping the state legislator could get them introduced in Virginia. In October 1798, Wilson indicated that state representative John Breckinridge was willing to introduce the resolutions in Kentucky. Breckinridge suffered from tuberculosis and made a recuperative trip to Sweet Springs, Va. late in August of that year. Nicholas likely gave the Kentucky lawmaker a copy of Jefferson’s draft during that trip.

       On Nov. 7, 1798, Gov. James Garrard addressed the Kentucky state legislature, noting the vehement opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts. He said Kentucky was, “if not in a state of insurrection, yet utterly disaffected to the federal government.” And noted that the state “being deeply interested in the conduct of the national government, must have a right to applaud or to censure that government, when applause or censure becomes its due,” urging the legislature to reaffirm its support of the U.S. Constitution while “entering your protest against all unconstitutional laws and impolitic proceedings.”

       That same day, Breckinridge announced to the House he intended to submit resolutions addressing Garrard’s message. The following day, the Fayette County lawmaker followed through, introducing an amended version of Jefferson’s draft.

       Most notably, Breckinridge omitted the word nullification from the final version considered by the Kentucky legislature, seeking to moderate the tone of the resolution. Removal of the nullification reference apparently didn’t bother Jefferson, and in fact, did little to change the fundamental thrust of the resolution. By declaring the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional, null and void, the Kentucky legislature voted on a nullification resolution, even with the actual word omitted.

       The resolution passed the House on Nov. 10 with only three dissenting votes. The Senate unanimously concurred three days later, and Gov. Garrard signed the resolution on Nov. 16.

       The resolutions didn’t end the Alien and Sedition Acts, but they laid a philosophical foundation to resist them through further state action.

       The following day, Jefferson sent a draft of his resolution to James Madison, writing:

      “I inclose you a copy of the draught of the Kentuckey resolves. I think we should distinctly affirm all the important principles they contain, so as to hold to that ground in future, and leave the matter in such a train as that we may not be committed absolutely to push the matter to extremities, & yet may be free to push as far as events will render prudent.” [Emphasis added]

       Kentucky followed up with a second resolution affirming its position in 1799, notably including the word “nullification,” omitted in the final version of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 passed by the state legislature.

“The several states who formed that instrument (the Constitution), being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and, That a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.”

       Jefferson’s principles have endured for over 220 years despite relentless attacks and demagoguery. Americans have appealed to the ideas brilliantly articulated in the Kentucky Resolutions to protect free speech, to promote economic justice, to stop military conscription and to protect the rights of blacks during the fugitive slave era.

       Jefferson’s words leave no doubt – nullification was the rightful remedy, and it remains so today.

* Via: Tenth Amendment Center

Another Prominent Journalist Walks Away from the Democrat Party

by

       M. Richard Maxson

      Journalist Bari Weiss, a Jewish liberal who was hired to supposedly broaden their views 

after they miscalculated the election of 2016. She was told that centrist and conservative 

views would now be part of the publication. They lied. She was constantly berated for her

 opinions from colleagues who deemed many of her ideas “wrongthink.” 

      She stated that her forays into this supposed “wrongthink” have made her the subject of 

constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. “They have called me a Nazi 

and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m ‘writing about the 

Jews again,” she said. In 2020. she quit the New York Times over its far left radical 

agenda and it’s anti-Antisemitism.

        This week, she posted a her walkaway statement about the Democrat party. Another

 former left-of-center in media personality has the revaluation of truth and reality. 
 

Her statement: 

     “As a Democrat who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center but 

probably leaning increasingly right, I am left yet again with an appreciation, despite 

the messenger, of the message of the Trump administration because what those guys 

did was pretty incredible in hindsight”

      “So much of the work that happened in that [Trump] administration turns out to have

 been right. And that’s what is so frustrating for me. The work on the border wall?

 We didn't like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right. 

Issuing long-term debt to refinance when rates were at zero? We didn’t like the messenger,

so we killed the message. A structural peace in the Middle East? We didn't like the 

messenger, so we killed the message.”

      “When are we gonna stop shooting ourselves in the foot? And when are we going to 

actually see and take the time to look past who is saying things and actually listen to

 them word for word?”

    “If it's clear that the last two weeks have been a wake-up call, the next question is: 

                                                                   Why?”

      “Part of the answer is the sheer depravity of Hamas’s terrorism. That depravity 

has made the justification and celebration of their acts by those who police pronouns

 that much starker. The contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends 

years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side 

it is on after the beheading of babies, aren't exactly difficult to spot”

      “To put it another way: when Black Lives Matter organizations are lionizing 

Islamist terrorists by posting a paraglider logo, you'd be a fool not to reassess things.”

      “The events of the last week have shattered the illusion that wokeness is about 

protecting victims and standing up for persecuted minorities. This ideology is and has

 always been about the one thing many of us have told you it is about for years: power.
  
      “And after the last two weeks, there can be no doubt about how these people 

will use any power they seize: they will seek to destroy, in any way they can, those 

who disagree.”

                                                               

Declaration of Colonial Rights

by

        M. Richard Maxson

 

      Today in history on October 20, 1774, my birthday, the First Continental Congress adopted the Continental Association. This agreement put teeth into the Declaration of Colonial Rights the Congress adopted a week earlier by formalizing a coordinated economic embargo on British goods.

       The Association was the third significant step taken by the Continental Congress in response to the “Coercive Acts,” and represented one of the first formal shows of unity among the colonies. Today, it’s considered by many historians to be one of the four major founding documents, along with the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution for the United States.

       The Coercive Acts were a series of laws passed by Parliament in early 1774 to punish the colonies — particularly Massachusetts — after the Boston Tea Party. These acts included the Boston Port Act closing the Boston Port, the Massachusetts Government act stripping virtually all authority from the colonial government, the Administration of Justice Act stripping authority from local courts and authorizing trials to be held in Great Britain instead of Massachusetts, and the Quartering Act allowing British troops to take over private buildings.

       Local Committees of Correspondence kicked off resistance by passing resolutions opposing the Coercive Acts. The best-known was the Suffolk Resolves, adopted on Sept. 9 by delegates at the  Suffolk County (Massachusetts) Convention of the Committees of Correspondence. This local protest against the “Coercive Acts” called for non-cooperation with British authorities and for direct action to oppose what it condemned as illegitimate and unconstitutional acts by Parliament.

      In one of its first actions, the First Continental Congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves on Sept. 17 as a show of solidarity with the people of Boston. This laid the groundwork for the Continental Congress’ own Declaration and Resolves just one month later.

      The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress laid out colonial objections to the Coercive Acts, listed their grievances, and outlined a list of colonial rights. The document set the stage for further colonial action resisting the British by expressing the colonists’ resolve “to enter into a non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement or association.”

       The Continental Association put the boycott resolution into effect, establishing a formal agreement between the 12 colonies represented in the Congress. (Georgia did not send delegates.)

       Richard Henry Lee of Virginia suggested the document, which was based on the Virginia Association adopted in 1769 in response to the Townshend Acts.

       The Virginians agreed that they would “not at any Time hereafter, directly or indirectly import, or cause to be imported, any Manner of Goods, Merchandize, or Manufactures, which are, or shall hereafter be taxed by Act of Parliament, for the Purpose of raising a Revenue in America.”

       The Continental Association started with an affirmation of loyalty to the king, but quickly pivoted to reasserting the colonies’ grievances previously stated in the Resolves, declaring that the “unhappy Situation of our Affairs is occasioned by a ruinous System of Colony Administration, adopted by the British Ministry about the Year 1763.”

       The document went on to establish a series of economic sanctions against the British, including an immediate ban on the importation of British tea. Beginning on December 1, the colonies agreed to stop importing or consuming any goods from Great Britain, Ireland, or the British West Indies.

“We will not import into British America, from Great Britain or Ireland, any Goods, Wares, or Merchandise whatsoever, or from any other Place, any such Goods, Wares, or Merchandise, as shall have been exported from Great Britain or Ireland; nor will we, after that Day, import any East India Tea from any Part of the World, nor any Molosses, Syrups, Paneles, Coffee, or Pimenta, from the British Plantations, or from Dominica, nor Wines from Madeira, or the Western Islands, nor foreign Indigo.”

       The Association also threatened an export ban if Parliament didn’t repeal the Coercive Acts by Sept. 10, 1775.

       The agreement included a commitment by the colonists to not raise prices.

“That all Manufactures of [this country be sold at reason]able Prices, so that no undue Advantage [be taken of a future scarcity of] Goods.”

       The adoption of the Continental Association was a significant step in colonial resistance to Parliament. It demonstrated the colonies’ willingness and ability to work together in a coordinated way.

       It also drew a concrete line in the sand letting the British know that the colonies were not just going to protest – they were willing to take concrete actions to resist unconstitutional and tyrannical actions.