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1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress

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 The 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress is a joint resolution by the legislature of the state of Georgia approved by the Governor on March 8, 1957, urging the Congress of the United States to declare the 14th and 15th Amendments null and void for purported violations of the United States Constitution during the post-Civil War ratification process and Georgia's Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1953. The 14th Amendment was rejected by the State of Georgia and twelve other southern states, as well as some northern states. The 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress is the State of Georgia's second declaration on their non-ratification of the 14th Amendment, following their initial rejection of the 14th Amendment on Nov. 9, 1866, and the 15th Amendment.

Text

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS -- FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH AMENDMENTS TO U.S. CONSTITUTION BE DECLARED VOID

NO. 45 (Senate Resolution No. 39)


  A memorial to Congress of the United States of America urging them to enact such legislation as they may deem fit to declare that the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of the United States were never validly adopted and that they are null and void and of no effect.

  Whereas, the State of Georgia together with the ten other Southern States declared to have been lately in rebellion against the United States, following the termination of hostilities in 1865, met all the conditions laid down by the President of the United States, in exercise of his Constitutional powers to recognize the governments of states, domestic as well as foreign, for the resumption of practical relations with the government of the United States, as a State and States in proper Constitutional relation to the United States; and

  Whereas, when duly elected Senators and Representatives appeared in the Capitol of the United States to take their seats at the time for the opening of the 39th Congress, and again at the time for the openings of the 40th and the 41st Congresses, hostile majorities in both Houses refused to admit them to their seats in manifest violation of Articles I and V of the United States Constitution; and

  Whereas, the said Congresses, not being constituted of Senators and Representatives from each State as required by the Supreme Law of the Land, were not, in Constitutional contemplation, anything more than private assemblages unlawfully attempting to exercise the Legislative Power of the United States; and

  Whereas, the so-called 39th Congress , which proposed to the Legislatures of several States an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, known as the 14th Amendment, and the so-called 40th Congress, which proposed an amendment known as the 15th Amendment, were without lawful power to propose any amendment whatsoever to the Constitution; and

  Whereas, two-thirds of the Members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, as they should have been constituted, failed to vote for the submission of these amendments; and

  Whereas, all proceedings subsequently flowing from these invalid proposals, purporting to establish the so-called 14th and 15th Amendments as valid parts of the Constitution, were null and void and of no effect from the beginning; and

  Whereas, furthermore, when these invalid proposals were rejected by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia and twelve other Southern States, as well as of sundry Northern States, the so-called 39th and 40th Congresses, in flagrant disregard of the United States Constitution, by the use of military force, dissolved the duly recognized State Governments in Georgia and nine of the other Southern States and set up military occupation or puppet State governments, which compliantly ratified the invalid proposals, thereby making (at the point of the bayonet, ) a mockery of Section 4, Article IV of the Constitution, guaranteeing protection to “each of them against invasion”; and

  Whereas, further, the pretended ratification of the so-called 14th and 15th Amendments by Georgia and other States whose sovereign powers had been unlawfully seized by force of arms, against the peace and dignity of the people of those States, were necessary to give color to the claim of the so-called 40th and 41st Congresses that these so-called amendments had been ratified by three-fourths of the States; and

  Whereas, it is a well-established principle of law that the mere lapse of time does not confirm by common acquiescence an invalidly-enacted provision of law just as it does not repeal by general desuetude a provision validly enacted; and

  Whereas, the continued recognition of the 14th and 15th Amendments as valid parts of the Constitution of the United States is incompatible with the present day position of the United States as the World’s champion of Constitutional governments resting upon the consent of the people given through their lawful representatives;

  Now, therefore, be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia:

  The Congress of the United States is hereby memorialized and respectfully urged to declare that the exclusions of the of the Southern Senators and Representatives from the 39th, 40th and 41st Congresses were malignant acts of arbitrary power and rendered those Congresses invalidly constituted; that the forms of law with which those invalid Congresses attempted to clothe the submission of the 14th and 15th Amendments and to clothe the subsequent acts to compel unwilling States to ratify these invalidly proposed amendments, imparted no validity to these acts and amendments; and that the so-called 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States are null and void and of no effect.

  Be it further resolved that copies of this memorial be transmitted forthwith by the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate of the State of Georgia to the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the United States, the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress of the United States, and the Senators and Representatives in Congress from the State of Georgia.

  • Fair Use/GFDL-Compatible/Validated Copy

Foot Notes

  1. John Bouvier Law Dictionary: MEMORIAL. A petition or representation made by one or more individuals to a legislative or other body. When such instrument is addressed to a court, it is called a petition..
  2. Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1953
  3. IN THE SUPREME COURT FOR THE STATE OF UTAH - (Dyett v. Turner, 439 P2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403 ) - THE NON-RATIFICATION OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT - (Judge A.H. Ellett): "The authority to determine the validity of the votes cast in ratification of an Amendment are with the States and more specific, with the Convention of the States, as the U.S. Constitution at Article V declares that it shall be the power of the legislatures of the States to ratify proposed Amendments and to call for Constitutional Conventions. The people have declared within Article IX of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution for the United States that those powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the States."
  4. *President Johnson's veto recognizes Southern States Senators and Representatives as members of Congress.( House Journal, 80th Congress, 2nd Session. p. 563 etc.)

    *Secretary of State recognizes Southern States Senators and Representatives as members of Congress. 18 Stat. p. 774.)

    *Texas rejected the 14th Amendment on Oct. 27, 1866. (House Journal 1868, pp. 578-584 -- Senate Journal 1866, p. 471.)
    *Georgia rejected the 14th Amendment on Nov. 9, 1866. (House Journal 1866, p. 68 -- Senate Journal 1886, p. 72)
    *Florida rejected the 14th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1866. (House Journal 1866, p. 76 -- Senate Journal 1866, p. 8.)
    *Alabama rejected the 14th Amendment on Dec. 7, 1866. (House Journal l866, pp. 210-213 -- Senate Journal 1866, p. 183.)
    *North Carolina rejected the 14th Amendment on Dec. 14, 1866. (House Journal 1866-1867. p. 183 -- Senate Journal 1866-1867, p. 138.)
    *Arkansas rejected the 14th Amendment on Dec. 17, 1866. (House Journal 1866, pp. 288-291 -- Senate Journal 1866, p. 262.)
    *South Carolina rejected the 14th Amendment on Dec. 20, 1866. (House Journal 1866, p. 284 -- Senate Journal 1866, p. 230.)
    *Kentucky rejected the 14th Amendment on Jan. 8, 1867. (House Journal 1867, p. 60 -- Senate Journal 1867, p. 62.)
    *Virginia rejected the 14th Amendment on Jan. 9, 1867. (House Journal 1866-1867, p. 108 -- Senate Journal 1866-1867, p. 101.)
    *Delaware rejected the 14th Amendment on Feb. 7, 1867. (House Journal 1867, p. 223 -- Senate Journal 1867, p. 176.)
    *Maryland rejected the l4th amendment on Mar. 23, 1867. (House Journal 1867, p. 1141 -- Senate Journal 1867, p. 808.)
    *Ohio rejected the 14th amendment on Jan. 16, 1868. (House Journal 1868, pp. 44-50 -- Senate Journal 1868, pp. 33-38.)
    *New Jersey rejected the 14th Amendment on Mar. 24, 1868. (Minutes of the Assembly 1868, p. 743---Senate Journal 1868, p. 356.)

  5. Insurrection: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-2. Insurrection

    (  a) A person commits the offense of insurrection when he combines with others to overthrow or attempt to overthrow the representative and constitutional form of government of the state or any political subdivision thereof when the same is manifested by acts of violence.

  6. Subversive Organization: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-2
  7. Subversive Organization: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-4
  8. Article Five of the United States Constitution
  9. Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process necessary to amend the Constitution — amendments must then be ratified by three-fourths (3/4) of the states to take effect.
  10. Article Five of the United States Constitution
  11. Treason: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-1 - Treason

    (  a) (a) A person owing allegiance to the state commits the offense of treason when he knowingly levies war against the state, adheres to her enemies, or gives them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of the offense of treason except on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court. When the overt act of treason is committed outside this state, the person charged therewith may be tried in any county in this state.

  12. Treason: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-1 - Treason
  13. Article X of the Bill of Rights - "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 to the people."
  14. Treason: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-1 - Treason
  15. IN THE SUPREME COURT FOR THE STATE OF UTAH - (Dyett v. Turner, 439 P2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403 )
  16. O.C.G.A. § 16-11-4. Advocating overthrow of government:

      (a) As used in this Code section, the term:

        (1) "Organization" means any corporation, company, partnership, association, trust, foundation, fund, club, society, committee, political party, or any group of persons, whether or not incorporated, permanently or temporarily associated together for joint action or advancement of views on any subject.

       (2) "Subversive organization" means any organization which engages in or advocates, abets, advises, or teaches, or which has a purpose of engaging in or advocating, abetting, advising, or teaching activities intended to overthrow, to destroy, or to assist in the overthrow or destruction of the government of the state or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence.

      (b) A person commits the offense of advocating the overthrow of the government if he knowingly and willfully commits any of the following acts:

       (1) Advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the state or any political subdivision thereof by force or violence;

       (2) Prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, exhibits, or displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the state or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence;

       (3) Assists in the formation, participates in the management, or contributes to the support of any subversive organization, knowing the purpose thereof;

       (4) Becomes a member or continues to be a member of a subversive organization, knowing the purpose thereof;

       (5) Destroys any books, records, or files or secretes any funds in this state of a subversive organization, knowing the organization to be such; or

       (6) Conspires with one or more persons to commit any of the acts prohibited by this Code section.

  17. Treason: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-1 - Treason
  18. Secreting information: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-4
  19. Secreting information: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-4
  20. Subversion: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-4
  21. Fair use & GFDL-compatible - 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress is reproduced here under the fair use laws of the United States with GFDL-compatible permission by website owner.
  22. Validation of accurate copy of 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress

Validation Links

REVISION BY LeonaCatherine (talk) 05:47, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

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