After hearing a caller to the Neal Boortz show refer to 
the Federalist Papers, I decided to read them. 
The Federalist Papers were published in various newspapers
as 'op-eds' in support of the new US Constitution 
(our current Constitution). 
The Articles of Confederation did not allow for the 
sweeping changes, the Constitutional Convention which 
wrote our Constitution was in fact, illegal. 
The adoption of the US Constitution was a bloodless 
overthrow of the then current government. 

Excerts from Federalist #15, show how the current 
situation, 
an incompetetent BO in the White House, 
an economy going downhill, 
states declaring their independence, 
and a non-existent foreign policy; 
are very similar to the impotent central government 
under the Articles of Confederation. 

Do we need a new constitution 
or a return to the limited federal 
government envisioned by our founders?  

FEDERALIST No. 15

HAMILTON

… 
It must in truth be acknowledged that, however these may 
differ in other respects, they in general appear to 
harmonize in this sentiment, at least, that there are 
material imperfections in our national system, and that 
something is necessary to be done to rescue us from 
impending anarchy. The facts that support this opinion are
no longer objects of speculation. They have forced
themselves upon the sensibility of the people at large, 
and have at length extorted from those, whose mistaken 
policy has had the principal share in precipitating the 
extremity at which we are arrived, a reluctant confession 
of the reality of those defects in the scheme of our 
federal government, which have been long pointed out and 
regretted by the intelligent friends of the Union.
We may indeed with propriety be said to 
have reached almost the last stage of 
national humiliation. There is scarcely 
anything that can wound the pride or 
degrade the character of an independent 
nation which we do not experience. 
... 
Is public credit an indispensable resource in time of 
public danger?
 We seem to have abandoned its cause as desperate and 
irretrievable.
 Is commerce of importance to national wealth? 
Ours is at the lowest point of declension. 
Is respectability in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard 
against foreign encroachments? The imbecility of our 
government even forbids them to treat with us.
 Our ambassadors abroad are the mere pageants of mimic 
sovereignty.
 Is a violent and unnatural decrease in the value of land 
a symptom of national distress? The price of improved land 
in most parts of the country is much lower than can be 
accounted for by the quantity of waste land at market, 
and can only be fully explained by that want of private 
and public confidence, which are so alarmingly prevalent 
among all ranks, and which have a direct tendency to 
depreciate property of every kind. 
Is private credit the friend and patron of industry? 
That most useful kind which relates to borrowing and 
lending is reduced within the narrowest limits, and 
this still more from an opinion of insecurity than from 
the scarcity of money.   
...
This is the melancholy situation to which we have been 
brought by those very maxims and councils which would now 
deter us from adopting the proposed Constitution; and 
which, not content with having conducted us to the brink 
of a precipice, seem resolved to plunge us into the abyss 
that awaits us below. 
Here, my countrymen, impelled by every 
motive that ought to influence an 
enlightened people, let us make a firm 
stand for our safety, our tranquillity, 
our dignity, our reputation. 
Let us at last break the fatal charm  
which has too long seduced us from the 
paths of felicity and prosperity.
...
 Why should we consent to bear more than 
our proper share of the common burden? 

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