APRIL 9, 1865

This is the date when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Regardless of where one comes down on the subject of the War Between the States, one fact is undeniable: Abraham Lincoln seriously dismantled the Jeffersonian model of federalism in America.

Lincoln ignored the concept of 'free & independent states' when he declared war on a nation that seceded from the Union.  The newly formed Confederate States of America had lawfully separated from the United States in accord with the Constitution of 1789. That mattered not to Lincoln, for he ordered an invasion and destruction of this new country under the guise of 'preserving the union.'   It was not Lincoln's job to preserve the union – that job belonged to the states.

Ever since Lincoln's presidency, virtually every battle that free men have fought for the principles of limited government, State sovereignty, personal liberty, etc., has stemmed directly from Lincoln's usurpation of power and subjugation and forced union of what used to be "Free and Independent States" (the Declaration of Independence). In fact, the philosophical battles being waged today regarding every encroachment upon liberty and State autonomy by our federal government have their roots in Lincoln's autocracy.

July 9, 1868

This is the date when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. This amendment codified into law what Lincoln had forced at bayonet point from 1861-1865. Until then, people were deemed citizens of their respective states. The Constitution nowhere referred to people as "U.S. citizens." It only recognized "the Citizens of each State." Notice also that citizenship was only recognized among the "several States," not among people living in non-State territories. Until the Fourteenth Amendment, people were "Citizens of each State." (Article. IV. Section. 2. Paragraph. 1.) The Fourteenth Amendment created a whole new class of persons: "citizens of the United States." This false notion of "one nation" overturned the Jeffersonian principle that America was a confederated republic, a voluntary union of states.