Congress and Copies of the Constituiton

The visit I had with Congressman Ron Paul in his congressional office in DC was great. He is an absolute gentleman and such a pleasure to talk to.

The first time I visited, I got a Constitution printed by the Campaign for Liberty organization. These Constitutions were paid for by C4L, which gets funding exclusively from NON-TAX-DEDUCTABLE donations.

This time, the Constitutions were different. And Ron Paul told me why. Apparently, there was a Congressional rule that Congresspeople could only give out the Constitution that is provided by Congress. They are prohibited from handing out Constitutions from private organizations. This is so appalling and outrageous.

Immediately, I thought that it was a dangerous rule. Down the road, they might change something, either mistakenly or purposely. But it turns out that there is a quote on the first page which is misleading: "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." - Alexander Hamilton, 1775. Now, this quote sounds pretty good. I think I agree with it. But the idea that our Big Government associates the ideas in this quote with Alexander Hamilton is scary and dangerous. Hamilton was one of the biggest-government people at the drafting of the Constitution. At the drafting, he lost on some issues, such as the central bank.

Then, one of the quotes on the back from John Marshall UNBELIEVABLY reads "... a constitution, intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs." Even Alexander Hamilton disagreed with this! Hamilton assumed that only the delegated powers would be used.

I can't figure out what's worse - attributing a quote to Hamilton which didn't reflect Hamilton's actual views or writing a quote which supports unlimited government in the government-sanctioned copy of the government's limiting document.

(upon further investigation, I cannot confirm that Hamilton would have disagreed with Marshall's quote - I had been under the impression, as bad as Hamilton was, that he expressed his belief at the ConCon that only the expressly delegated powers would be used. Anyone know which Federalist paper might clarify this?)