From the May 2001 Idaho Observer:

Help Save America--Don't Vote for Lawyers

By May, 2001, if you are not fully aware that your country, and therefore your own life and the lives of your friends, families and children, are in serious trouble, then you never will. If you are fully aware that your country and countrymen are in serious trouble, then you may be ready for effective activism. One of the biggest threats to our way of life is the dissolution of the separation of powers among our three branches of government. The following five pages of material are designed to provide you with the tools which will help remove lawyers, members of the judiciary, from the executive and legislative branches of government. With thanks to Robert Bertand and Mike Calhoun of Miami Lakes, Florida, who have, at tremendous personal sacrifice, designed the template of activism that can lead to the removal of lawyers from public office.

Why the original 13th Amendment is missing

According to the work of David Dodge and Tom Dunn, Constitutions for the United States of America that were published after 1811 and prior to 1864 contain a 13th Amendment that reads: “If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility to honor, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”

The 13th Amendment that has been in place since December 18, 1865, is the amendment that abolished slavery -- “...except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

Dodge and Dunn were later joined by Brian March and, after nearly a decade of research, were able to prove conclusively that Congress did, indeed, ratify the “Titles of Nobility Amendment.” It was ratified December 10, 1812. Nevada, admitted to the Union October 31, 1864 as the 36th state while Lincoln was president, was the first state admitted under the new 13th Amendment.

Nearly every attorney is a member of a Bar association. The Bar has its roots in the British Inner Temples (see page 13). Members of the bar who are justices of the peace and other inferior judicial officers such as lawyers are properly addressed as “esquires.” Black's Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, defines esquire: “In English law. A title of dignity next above gentleman and below knight. Also a title of office given to sheriffs, sergeants, and barristers at law, justices of the peace, and others.”

The original 13th Amendment was ratified to prevent persons with allegiances to foreign nations from holding public office. The 13th Amendment, the concept of which is found in the Federalist Papers (Federalist 47, January 30, 1788) was also ratified to support constitutional provisions that intended to separate the powers of government. James Madison, the author of the Constitution, wanted to design a form of government that had sufficient power to govern, but insufficient power to oppress. He felt that to accomplish this the Constitution must be specifically written to prevent any “single hands” group from accumulating all powers of government. “No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty than that.....the accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny,” wrote Madison.

It appears from the record that the leaders of this nation in its infancy were divided into two camps. One camp supported the Republican form of government that intended to preserve national sovereignty and the sovereignty of citizens. The other camp intended to betray the sovereignty of this nation and the individual, god-given sovereignty of her people to the authority of the international bankers.

The disappearance of the original 13th Amendment has allowed officers of the judiciary, lawyers, to hold public office -- a direct affront to the intentions of the Framers. By electing lawyers into the legislatures and executive offices of America, we have effectively dissolved the separation of powers. The Framers warned us of the dangers of lawyers being allowed to hold offices in legislative and executive branches of government. The Framers built provisions into our Republican form of government designed to prevent lawyers from holding offices in any branch except the judicial branch. Lawyers now comprise nearly half of the legislative and executive offices in America. The result has been the creation of a special society of Americans, lawyers and judges, who now make the laws, interpret the laws and enforce the laws.

Why do we elect lawyers?

When we are not paying them $150 an hour or hoping they will represent our best interests in court, we are telling lawyer jokes. Historically, prostitutes are held in higher professional esteem than lawyers for reasons we can understand but do not have to explain.

Why, then, do we masochistically elect them into public office where they are given license to steal the public trust?

There is only one explanation. Those who become successful at the lawyering craft have a tendency to have what it takes to succeed in politics: Nice teeth, good hair and, according to Plato (428-348 B.C.), souls that are “small and dangerous.”

In other words, we are more impressed by appearances than deeds when it comes to electing people to represent our interests in government; we would rather believe the rhetoric of a lawyer than act upon the wisdom of a statesman when considering a candidate for public office.

Jesus Christ, Shakespeare and Plato condemned lawyers. We make jokes about lawyers and then, against the better judgment of our Founding Fathers, we pay them to be our consciences in government.

The price of lawyers in the executive and legislative branches of government? Bob Bertrand of Constitutional Guardians believes he can prove that each lawyer in America is responsible for an average of $1 million per year in lost productivity. With a million lawyers in practice today, we can blame lawyers for $1 trillion per year in sociological damages.

Do not laugh at another lawyer joke until you vow to never vote another one into public office.