That contract is the Constitution of the United States which evolved from the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence
Otis A. Glazebrook, IV , Bio and Archives--April 17, 2010
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"The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union."For the first time in human history [iii], groups (States) of people freely entered into a national agreement for governing themselves. This is the contract. Each States’ ratification is the last democratic event in their respective histories. Upon ratification the States automatically became part of a constitutional republic with certain limited powers. It is within those narrow, defined boundaries that the States agreed to stay. The Constitution means what the Framers intended it to mean (Unless properly amended as proscribed in Article V) on June 21st, 1788; when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it. That is the date the Constitution superseded the authority of the Articles of Confederation. As such the Constitution is not a “living, breathing” instrument of nothingness. The words mean what they meant on the closing date, as they do in any contract. The original contract with America became the law of the land on March 4, 1789. It is a perpetual contract freely entered into by our forefathers. America’s greatest Republican - Abraham Lincoln confirmed his view that the Constitution is in fact a contract:
“I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so to speak—but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?”More than 500,000 Americans gave their lives in the Civil War to preserve that proposition. What are you going to do save it? Every breach of this contract is our (Individual) responsibility. [a] - Liberty or Equality, pg 99 - Erik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (July 31, 1909 – May 26, 1999) [ii] – Contracts must meet five basic requirements to be valid:
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Otis Allan Glazebrook IV of East Hampton died at his home on March 28. He was 65.