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Alison Wilcox
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Descriptosaurus Grammar Companion Ages 9 to 12: A
Language Toolkit and Support for Creative Writing 1st Edition Alison Wilcox
Descriptosaurus Grammar Companion Ages 9 to 12 is a flexible grammar toolkit based on current research about effective strategies for teaching grammar tools and sentence construction (investigation, imitation, combining and expansion). It includes guidelines, exercises, scaffolds and models, and by showing a clear progression route to the acquisition and consolidation of increasingly more complex grammar tools it provides teachers and students with a road map that makes learning about sentence construction and revision visible.
This book is a collection of connected resources that can be used as and when required and it provides an easily accessible differentiation resource for each student based on their current stage of development, not the age-related targets and expectations. It enables the learning process for grammar tools to be recursive rather than linear: to be regularly revisited in short bursts to consolidate students’ knowledge and usage, or to correct any misconceptions or problem areas without impeding any writing activities already planned. Chapters focus on four main points:
Investigation Imitation
Combining Expansion
This Grammar Companion supports the main Descriptosaurus book and scaffolds students in their journey through the world of language. This essential resource will strengthen their language muscles and build confidence with sentence manipulation when revising their own texts, thus freeing their minds to think about the important issues of writing: content, audience and purpose, and organisation and structure.
Alison Wilcox has extensive teaching experience in schools in England and Scotland. Colleagues describe her methods as “innovative and inspirational to even the most reluctant of writers”.
Descriptosaurus Grammar Companion Ages 9 to 12
A Language Toolkit and Support for Creative Writing
The right of Alison Wilcox to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The name ‘Descriptosaurus’ is a registered trademark by the author Registered under No. 2453231 in April 2017
The mark has been registered in respect of Class 16
Printed matter; printed educational reference book In the name of Alison Stevenson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademarknotice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
BritishLibrary Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-66285-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-66283-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-66286-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781032662862
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“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”
― William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
27 Sentence expansion: A writer’s lens: ‘Show not tell’
28 ‘Show not tell’ warm-up exercises
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the students I have had the pleasure to work with over the years who have patiently and enthusiastically explored with me the many strategies for learning about sentence construction and revising a text. It has given me immense pleasure to watch those students transform into competent, confident and creative writers.
Introduction
AIM
The aim of the Descriptosaurus Grammar Companion Ages 9 to 12 is to provide a resource that supports and improves the teaching of two of the fundamental building blocks of good writing, the ability to:
1. write clear, precise and complete sentences
2. revise a first draft for syntactic accuracy and fluency.
Mastering these elements of writing are vital in enabling students to:
demonstrate their talent and knowledge in all subjects reach their full potential both in education and their future career prospects.
The goal of writing instruction should be to help students to cope with the onerous cognitive demands imposed by writing. E. W. Nold (1981) suggests that one way in which young and developing writers can exercise better control over the composing process is by making various elements of the process automatic. Building a bank of vocabulary, phrases and clauses; understanding the function, construction, position and punctuation of grammar tools; and practising and experimenting with sentence construction and revision will build confidence and automaticity with sentence construction and manipulation. This will greatly reduce the onerous cognitive
demands of writing and leave more processing space available for consideration of purpose, content and text cohesion.
A FLEXIBLE GRAMMAR TOOLKIT
The Descriptosaurus Grammar Companion Ages 9 to 12 is a flexible grammar toolkit based on current research about the effective strategies for writing instruction (investigation, imitation, combining and expansion). It includes guidelines, scaffolds and models, and by showing a clear progression route to the acquisition and consolidation of increasingly more complex grammar tools it provides teachers and students with a road map that makes learning about sentence construction and revision visible. The handbook helps students to identify where they are at, what knowledge and skills they need to acquire and what they are aiming to achieve. It is designed to support student writers according to their current stage of development rather than to age-related targets and expectations. The handbook is a resource that can be used not only to teach a new grammar tool but to return to a tool previously studied, allowing either a group or an individual student to consolidate their knowledge and usage or to correct any misconceptions. It is an easily accessible resource for students, enabling them to practise expressing ideas using different grammar tools without the additional cognitive demands of having to develop their own content. The focus is purely on using the content provided to construct and experiment with different grammar tools and sentence structures.
Currently, the teaching of grammar tools and sentence constructions is too often a modular, linear process based on agerelated writing targets and the grammar strands of individual national or state curricula; however, to be effective, consistent revision of the ‘grammar tools’ available is vital. Whilst a student might be taught about relative (adjective clauses) at the age of ten, this does not guarantee that they have a secure understanding of how and when to use them, their function and position, and how they are punctuated. Extensive research supports scheduling a time
delay between learning sessions, as this forces students to work harder to retrieve the information, process or strategy. This helps to consolidate it into their long-term memory, leading to automaticity and mastery of the skill or strategy – in this case sentence construction.
As well as introducing the phrases and clauses required for each age group and key stage, it is important to see each of the grammar tools as building blocks that are added gradually to the foundations and base structure. These building blocks improve the effectiveness of the original design, resulting in a unique and elaborate design. Starting initially with a one-storey basic construction, with knowledge and experience new layers and designs are added until students can construct their own ‘grand edifices’; these are always built on solid foundations, with each layer being reinforced and any gaps cemented. Adding more complex designs without first developing structural knowledge will result in half-remembered rules and techniques; a confused design will cause the construction to become a tangle of different rules that are ineffectually applied. It will also prohibit the acquisition of an essential component of developing writing skills – automaticity in sentence construction, ultimately leading to structures that do not achieve their purpose, are overly complicated and confusing, and do not satisfy the needs of the audience (or external examiner). Before adding extensions and new designs, it is therefore essential to revisit and assess the solidity of the foundations. Writing progression and the acquisition of grammar tools should be tackled as a recursive rather than linear process, one which considers students’ experience, knowledge and understanding, and makes connections to the grammar tools that have already been learned and mastered.
The design of this handbook enables the learning process for grammar tools to be recursive rather than linear. It allows for grammar tools to be regularly revisited in short bursts without impeding the writing activities already planned. This approach allows problem areas to be addressed that have become evident from assessing a group or individual’s writing progress.
EFFECTIVE METHODS
There is overwhelming evidence that teaching traditional grammar by labelling, identifying and parsing sentences in isolated grammar exercises does not transfer to students’ own writing. However, extensive evidence suggests that there are three effective contexualised methods which facilitate students’ understanding and application of grammar in terms of sentence construction, modification and revision, and which do transfer to their own writing.
1. Sentence imitation.
2. Sentence combining.
3. Sentence expansion.
Although each method should be modelled and practised separately, the processes are complementary. They should be used together to consolidate knowledge of the ‘grammar tools’ available as well as developing automaticity in sentence construction, experimentation, evaluation and the revision of a text.
Based on the work of Don and Jenny Killgallon (see the Bibliography for further details), several scaffolds can be used to explore the function, construction, position and punctuation of grammar (modification) tools in a sentence: chunking modelling matching unscrambling combining imitating creating.
Learning to construct sentences is based on the same concept as learning to comprehend what we have read: phrase by phrase not word by word. We divide a sentence into meaningful ‘chunks’, which allows us to read more effectively to understand, or to write more concisely and clearly to make a point. Phrases and clauses are the building blocks of language, the craft (grammar) tools of writing, and we naturally divide sentences into these meaningful chunks.
The grammar tools (word, phrases and clauses) demonstrated in this book include:
expanded noun phrases prepositional phrases adverb clauses relative (adjective) clauses opening and delayed adjectives opening and delayed adverbs participial phrases.
When modelling and exploring a new tool or revisiting one already studied, an effective approach for struggling or inexperienced writers is to pare back the model to a kernel (base) sentence and isolate the grammar tool. You can then examine, discuss, explore and experiment with:
the function and effect (cohesion, clarity, precision and emphasis) of using that particular phrase, clause or technique, comparing it with other variations the construction of the phrase or clause how the grammar tool is embedded or added to the kernel sentence, including punctuation where the grammar tool can be positioned in a sentence: beginning, middle (between the subject and verb) or end, and how the position impacts on the flow, emphasis and clarity of the sentence.
It is also important to:
make explicit any links with similar grammar tools, for example, coordinating conjunctions and semi-colons, expanded noun phrases, relative clauses and participial phrases experiment with changing word order, for example, using delayed adjectives to improve a long list of adjectives preceding the noun, and how this changes the emphasis and creates a different rhythm.
Once students have developed their knowledge of the various phrases and clauses at their disposal and gained confidence with using and experimenting with these sentence parts, work on sentence variety, manipulation and length, as well as combining and connecting ideas and images becomes more effective. This is a useful technique to imitate sentence constructions and to elicit the main points when paraphrasing a text.
Chapters 3 and 23 include a detailed breakdown of the grammar tools, which:
1. defines and illustrates the construction of subject and predicate phrases and subordinate clauses, and demonstrates what each adds to a writer’s toolkit
2. demonstrates progression and variation by taking a simple kernel sentence
what ‘grammar tools’ are available what they add to a sentence how to use them in their own writing.
STUDENTS NEED TO:
have excellent models link writing to reading.
To widen their repertoire of phrases and clauses, students should collect models by professional authors found in class texts (fiction or non-fiction) or from their personal reading. These models will illustrate different constructions that create a variety of rhythms and emphasis.
REVISING A TEXT
Effective teaching of writing includes working on sentence construction and manipulation during the revision stage of the writing process, in order to explore and experiment with different constructions.
Researching and writing Descriptosaurus Personal Writing: The Writing Process in Action (2022) highlighted the lack of attention by students to the revision process, who were instead committed to a one-draft method with varying degrees of ‘proofreading’. And even when time was allocated for revising a text, the amendments made were surface-level changes, focusing on word choice, spelling, punctuation and capitalisation. There was a failure to appreciate that it is at the revision stage of the process that sentence construction work proves to be the most effective: expanding sentences, combining them, reformulating them; changing constructions for rhythm, effect and emphasis in the context of the whole passage. There was a lack of understanding that experienced writers work from a first draft, and then during the revision stage rearrange the structure of the content, develop description and detail, and craft powerful, interesting and vivid sentences. Well-structured, developed, descriptive writing and original sentences rarely emerge
from a pen or keyboard without extensive work and a willingness to experiment, add, delete or substitute in the revision stage of the writing process. But to be able to do this effectively, students need to know what grammar tools (writing craft tools) are available and to have practised using them.
SENTENCE COMBINING
Research by Saddler and Graham (2005) provided evidence that the ability to construct grammatically correct and syntactically mature sentences and to revise a text improved after learning and practising sentence combining in a peer-assisted arrangement. Many studies have agreed on the positive effects of sentence combining practice to enhance syntactic fluency and improve the quality of students’ writing.
The goal of sentence combining practice is to improve students’ fluency in sentence construction and their proficiency in moving sentence parts around when revising their texts. This is achieved by providing structured practice in manipulating and rewriting basic and kernel sentences into more syntactically mature and varied forms.
This system can be taught and practised alongside a writing process approach and can be easily tailored to meet the needs and skill levels of individual students. Exercises can be introduced at any time and can be developed from class texts or Descriptosaurus. Using students’ own writing is also beneficial as it engages them at their level of understanding and makes their progress visible. This shows them where they currently are, where they are aiming and the steps they need to take to improve. For example, this approach would help students who are currently:
writing in short, choppy sentences creating sentences that are connected by a series of ‘ands’ comma splicing developing many of their sentences in the same way writing a series of long, complex and confusing sentences.
These exercises can be done orally or in writing as an independent consolidation or a revision activity. However, whichever method is used, it is important to provide opportunities for discussion as this is vital to developing students’ knowledge, understanding and confidence with language. Acquiring the ‘technical’ knowledge of how to construct, position and punctuate a grammar tool is only a small part of ensuring its accurate and effective use in students’ own writing. It is important to use these exercises to discuss what a grammar tool adds to a sentence in terms of detail, clarity and cohesion, rhythm and emphasis, which will hopefully lead to students spotting similar techniques in their own reading and imitating them in their writing.
The exercises in this book are designed to provide a template that can be easily adapted for models selected from a class or student’s text.
Whilst grammar tools have been examined in isolation in this section, authors often use a range of grammar tools in a sentence to achieve a certain effect, impact or rhythm. It is always exciting and useful to examine how an author has created a particular effect in their writing by ordering words, phrases and clauses in new and creative ways. With a working knowledge of the grammar tools, this makes this process more accessible to students.
GUIDELINES, EXERCISES AND MODELS (FICTION AND NON-FICTION)
Apart from using the language toolkit provided in Descriptosaurus (Fourth Edition) to create the models and exercises for descriptive writing, this book also includes guidelines, exercises, resources and models to support using the same techniques to learn about nonfiction topics, such as the Great Fire of London. This process is also useful for
revising subject content providing a revision outline for a topic crafting a paragraph.
Using authentic class texts (fiction or non-fiction) is invaluable to learning about sentence construction, so Chapter 20 provides guidelines on how to construct a sentence combining exercise from a class text.
A sample sentence de-combining exercise is also included in Chapter 25 as this is a useful tool for teachers to be able to use in the context of students’ own writing to de-combine overly complex and confused sentences into a series of base (kernel) sentences, before then working on recombining them for greater clarity and precision.
EXPERIMENTING WITH DIFFERENT GRAMMAR TOOLS
It is important to make explicit any links between grammar tools to enable students to experiment with the use of a variety of phrases and clauses. They can also discuss which grammar tool is the most effective in the context of their text in terms of clarity, precision, emphasis and cohesion.
EXAMPLE 1: MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH OTHER GRAMMAR TOOLS
Introducing the semi-colon
Demystify the semi-colon by making connections with what students already know and understand.
Demonstrate how a semi-colon can be used instead of a coordinating conjunction.
Demonstrate how a comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.
Students experiment with the semi-colon using their own writing.
Find sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions. Substitute coordinating conjunctions with a semi-colon.
Discuss which is more effective in the context of the text and why.
Example:
1. Two simple sentences
The crunching had stopped. The cave fell silent.
2. Join using a coordinating conjunction
The crunching had stopped, and the cave fell silent.
3. Semi-colon
The crunching had stopped; the cave fell silent. The cave fell silent; the crunching had stopped.
4. Comma splice
The crunching had stopped, the cave fell silent. (Examining the run-on sentences is useful when investigating semi-colons as it gives students another tool to use when editing their work.)
Other grammar tools
1. Subordinating conjunction
When the crunching had stopped, the cave fell silent.
2. Colon
The crunching had stopped: silence.
EXAMPLE 2: EXPERIMENTING WITH THE POSITION OF A GRAMMAR TOOL
Experiment with positioning the participial phrases at the opening, middle and end of a sentence and discuss which option is preferred and why.
1a. ^ , James stepped up onto the stage.
1b He clutched his hands together to stop them shaking. (-ING) clutched ˃ clutch ˃ clutching
i. Clutching his hands together to stop them shaking, James stepped up onto the stage.
ii. James, clutching his hands together to stop them shaking, stepped up onto the stage.
iii. James stepped up onto the stage, clutching his hands together to stop them shaking.
Other grammar tools
1. A coordinating conjunction
James clutched his hands together to stop them shaking and stepped up onto the stage.
2. A relative (adjective) clause
James, who was clutching his hands together to stop them shaking, stepped up onto the stage.
3. An adverb clause
As he stepped up onto the stage, James clutched his hands together to stop them shaking.
James clutched his hands together to stop them shaking as he stepped up onto the stage.
Compare which grammar tool is more effective in the context of each sentence and discuss why (clarity, cohesion, rhythm, emphasis).
CONCLUSION
An extensive vocabulary is a necessary starting point, but it is by paying attention to language as modelled in the fourth edition of Descriptosaurus or class texts, by identifying an author’s craft and using the Descriptosaurus Grammar Companion Ages 9–12 to learn how to use words, to combine them, and to rearrange them for effect that turns an apprentice writer into a master. Chunking sentences into meaningful parts, imitating those parts, expanding sentences according to models and combining kernel sentences are all complementary processes. When used in tandem they can consolidate students’ understanding of different sentence types and arrangements and how they are constructed. They provide contextualised methods for students to practise and experiment with imitating model sentences and paragraphs. Students can then use that knowledge to develop automaticity in sentence writing when
composing their own texts, and to gain independence in experimenting and evaluating different constructions and amendments in the revision stage of the writing process.
The goal must be to ensure that students understand that grammar is a tool to help communicate meaning clearly, precisely and effectively and to improve writing; to ensure that the focus is on the codes and structures of written language; to encourage students to take risks; to understand that errors are welcomed as a learning opportunity; and to try out and evaluate new sentence patterns to enable them to make informed choices in their own writing. Building knowledge of grammar tools and automaticity in sentence construction increases confidence with language, and, with practice and motivation, creates flair and individuality.
This language toolkit is a resource that supports students on their journey towards automaticity in sentence construction. It does so by training their ‘automatic pilot’, strengthening their language muscles and building confidence with sentence manipulation when revising their own texts, thus freeing their minds to think about the important issues of writing: content, audience and purpose, organisation and structure.
Mastering the craft of writing is a long and difficult journey and, at times, students can feel like they are navigating their way through a strange and noisy landscape without a clearly labelled map. The fourth edition of Descriptosaurus and its Grammar Companion aim to provide student writers with the vocabulary, tools, scaffolds and models to help them discover routes through the world of language. Students are provided with a visual map to help them develop their vocabulary and automaticity in sentence construction, as well as to have a variety of options in their writing toolkit. The resources also provide ideas, models and activities to enable teachers to construct maps and routes appropriate to the needs of their students.
Part 1 Investigations
1 Chunkingintomeaningful sentenceparts
DOI: 10.4324/9781032662862-2
When we read a sentence, we automatically break it down into chunks of meaning. Reading aloud and dividing the model sentences into chunks (as they would naturally do when reading) helps students to become aware that authors compose their sentences one ‘chunk’ (meaningful sentence part) at a time. This knowledge is important for students as they learn to imitate model sentences and to use them in their own writing.
Reading the sentence aloud taps into students’ linguistic experience gained through speaking and reading, and they begin to automatically ‘chunk’ the sentence parts meaningfully and grammatically. At this stage, do not insist on chunking according to grammatical divisions or identifying the terms for those sentence parts. This knowledge is built up in the context of these exercises by discussing:
why students have divided up the sentence in the way they have what information each sentence part tells the reader.
1. The massive waves crashed mercilessly onto the side of the boat.
i. The massive/ waves crashed/ mercilessly onto/ the side of the boat.
ii. The massive waves/ crashed/mercilessly/ onto the side of the boat.
The massive waves
What does this tell us? Crashed What does this tell us? Relentlessly What does this tell us? onto the side of the boat What does this tell us?
a. What is the subject of the sentence? the massive waves
b. What did they do? crashed
c. How did they do it? relentlessly
d. Where did they crash? onto the side of the boat
Reading aloud each of the sentences that have already been chunked will help students to ‘hear’ the chunks that have not been divided into meaningful sentence parts.
FOR EXAMPLE
1. The massive/ waves crashed/ mercilessly onto/ the side of the boat.
i. Discussing why this sentence has not been divided into meaningful chunks will elicit, for example, that the massive is incomplete. It
does not tell the reader what was massive and therefore is not a meaningful sentence part.
As with development in reading comprehension (where students progress from reading a sentence word by word to being able to group words together in chunks of meaning which gradually increase in size), when students gain more experience and knowledge of writing conventions, and more automaticity with sentence construction, they also develop the ability to hold larger chunks of meaning in their working memory as they chunk or construct sentences.
EXERCISE 1
INSTRUCTIONS
1. In pairs, take turns to read each of the sentences aloud.
2. Decide which of the sentences is divided into meaningful chunks.
EXAMPLE
The monstrous wave reared up menacingly over the top of the boat.
i. The monstrous/ wave reared up/ menacingly over/ the top of the boat.
ii. The monstrous wave/ reared up/ menacingly/ over the top of the boat. √
1. Astrange, swirling mistshroudedthe oldhouse.
i. A strange/ swirling mist shrouded/ the old house. ii. A strange swirling mist/ shrouded the old house.
2. The horror ofwhatshe hadjustseen hit her like a hammer blow in the chest.
i. The horror/ of what she had just seen/ hit her like a hammer blow/ in the chest.
ii. The horror/ of what she/ had just seen/ hit her like a hammer/ blow in the chest.
3. The billowing curtains flutteredtowards the lightand brushedagainst her face like rippling silk.
i. The billowing curtains/ fluttered towards the/ light and brushed against her/ face like rippling silk.
ii. The billowing curtains/ fluttered towards the light/ and/ brushed against her face/ like rippling silk.
4. The breeze whichhissedthroughthegap in the door soundedlike whisperedthreats.
i. The breeze which/ hissed through the gap/ in the door sounded/ like whispered threats.
ii. The breeze/ which hissed through the gap in the door/ sounded like whispered threats.
5. In the middle ofthe nightshe was woken by apiercing spine-chilling scream.
i. In the middle of the night/ she was woken/ by a piercing spine-chilling scream.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Citizen or subject?
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Citizen or subject?
Author: Francis X. Hennessy
Release date: November 11, 2023 [eBook #72099]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1923
Credits: Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITIZEN OR SUBJECT? ***
CITIZEN OR SUBJECT?
BY
FRANCIS X. HENNESSY OF THE NEW YORK BAR
“... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 F A
By E. P. Dutton & Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Quotations from the Constitution of the United States are from the “Literal Print,” Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1920.
The abbreviation “Ell. Deb.” refers to Elliot’s Debates, 2nd Edition, 5 vols., J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1866.
The “Federalist” is quoted from the Lodge Edition, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1894.
Wherever italics or capitals are used in a quotation and not directly stated to be those of the original author, they are the italics and capitals of the present writer.
Where the present writer interpolates his own words in a quotation, they are included in square brackets.
PREFACE
Many Americans are interested in the Eighteenth Amendment. Millions are interested in the American citizen.
It seems not to be known that the existence of one flatly denies the existence of the other This is not theory It is plain statement of a very simple fact. If there is an American citizen, the Amendment never entered the Constitution. On the contrary, if the Amendment is in the Constitution, there never has been an America or an American citizen.
Throughout this book the nation of free men is called “America.” This is done to distinguish the nation from the federation of states already existing and known as the United States, when the whole American people created the nation and continued the federation as a subordinate part of one system of government. The federation of states was proposed in 1777 and had complete existence in 1781. The nation of men was created in 1788.
On January 14, 1922, there was opened at Williamsburg, Virginia, the Marshall-Wythe School of Government and Citizenship. Judge Alton B. Parker, former Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals and a former candidate for President, delivered the opening address on “American Constitutional Government.” His eloquent address has since been made a public document and printed in the Congressional Record. In it, he warned us of the danger to America from those who do not understand our form of government and are coming here to destroy it.
“As people of this class have been coming to us in large numbers from nearly every quarter of the globe, we must take up the task of so educating all classes of our vast population, as that they shall fully understand the importance of maintaining, in its integrity, our constitutional plan of government. They should be taught in the first instance, why it was that the people, in the formative period of our
government, were bound to have, and did at last secure, a government which the people could control despite their legislatures, whether representing the states or the federal government.”
The existence of the Eighteenth Amendment is based on the sheer assumption that we have not a government of that kind. By all who have discussed the Amendment, whether for or against it, one false assumption has been made. From that false assumption of all, the advocates of the Amendment have drawn their conclusion. On the conclusion is based the existence of the Amendment. The conclusion itself is the direct negation of the simplest and most important fact in America. Moreover, the conclusion itself means that the Americans, twelve years after they “did at last secure” the kind of government they “were bound to have” and of which Judge Parker spoke, voluntarily created a “government” of the opposite kind and made themselves its absolute “subjects.”
And the conclusion is correct, if the premise, which is the false assumption of all, be true.
Of course, the assumption is absolutely untrue. But no one has seen its simple and patent untruth. Wherefore, the first step in our education is for us to acquire knowledge of the plain fact that it is untrue. Because our leaders do not know the fact, we must go to other teachers.
By the common false assumption, the early Americans—who “did at last secure” the kind of government they “were bound to have”— are now charged with having committed the most monumental blunder in all history, a blunder which destroyed their entire achievement.
Rest assured! They did not commit that blunder. They themselves make that clear herein. In so doing, they teach us what, with Judge Parker, we agree that we all must know, if America and the American citizen are to remain. They are the best teachers in the world. They know what they teach because they did it. They do not weary or perplex us with theories or principles. Their teaching is the telling of simple facts. Best of all, they tell us in their own simple words, while
they are talking to one another and engaged in the very accomplishment of the facts they teach.
It is a mere incident of their teaching that they settle the plain fact that the supposed Eighteenth Amendment is not in the Constitution.
It is our own candid belief that very few Americans will be found to prefer the existence of the Amendment to the existence of America itself. The early Americans make amazingly clear that there is no America and no American citizen if the Amendment is in the Constitution.
The nation of men, which we call America, and the subordinate federation of states, which we call the United States, are bound together in one dual system. They have a common name, “The United States of America.” They have a common Constitution, with national Articles for the men and federal Articles for the states. They have a common government, national for the men and federal for the states.
This is exactly the America of which Judge Parker spoke. We want to keep it. The early Americans, who made it, will enable us to keep it, if we listen to their teaching of the simple facts which they accomplished. Such a result would be some credit to the supposed Eighteenth Amendment. Even those most opposed to it would be compelled to acknowledge that its brief imaginary existence awoke us all to our first real concept of what America, the nation of free men, really is.
F X. H
342 Madison Avenue, New York City. March 17th, 1923.
CONTENTS
I. S B C
Page 1
The American must know what a citizen is—Otherwise he will not remain a citizen—If the American citizen exists, there is no Eighteenth Amendment—Americans of 1776 knew distinction between “citizen” and “subject”—While legally “subjects,” they had governed themselves as “citizens”—Attempt to govern them as “subjects” causes Revolution—Declare American concept, no government interference with human liberty unless “citizens” grant government power—Make thirteen nations, each composed of citizens—Its “citizens,” in “conventions,” constitute each government by grant of power to interfere with human liberty—“Democracy” and “Republic” distinguished—Revolution to make American concept American law.
II. T S G F
U S
Page 17
Revolution continues—Thirteen nations form league or federation of states—Members of federation act through respective attorneys-in-fact, state legislatures—Legislatures constitute federal government and grant its federal powers to govern states—Distinction between legislatures’ power to make federal Articles and citizens’ power to make national Articles under which men are governed—Citizens’ power exercised in 1776 and legislatures’ power in 1781—Revolution won, establishing American concept as American law.
III. A F N
S N
Page 25
Federation of states unsatisfactory—General government, with only federal power to govern states, not able to secure what whole American people want—They learn need of general
government with some enumerated national powers to govern men.
IV. T B N
Page 29
Philadelphia Convention assembles ostensibly to draft and propose purely federal Articles—It drafts and proposes a “Constitution” with both national and federal powers—First Article is the constitution of American national government because it grants all the enumerated powers to interfere with human liberty of American citizens—Fifth and Seventh Articles relate to the grant of national power, though neither grant it— Other four Articles neither grant nor relate to grant of national power—Fifth prescribes constitutional mode for its future grant by American citizens in “conventions”—Also prescribes constitutional mode for future grant of federal power by state legislatures—Philadelphia knows and decides that legislatures can never grant national power and Articles are sent to “conventions” of “citizens,” as in 1776—Whole American people become a nation—American citizen first exists on June 21, 1788, when American citizens make their only grant of national powers—States and their citizens and constitutions and governments are made subordinate to citizens of America— These facts entirely forgotten in 1917.
V. T C G
Page 55
Education of personal experience, from 1775 to 1790, accurately taught science of government to average American— It taught him that citizens only can grant government power to interfere with human liberty, though legislatures can grant federal power to govern states—Modern leaders lack that practical education and the accurate knowledge it taught the early American—Modern average American has sensed something curious about making of Eighteenth Amendment— That he may understand what he senses and know why there is no such Amendment, must briefly consider the Constitution.
VI. T C G C Page 64
In conventions, whole American people themselves make
Constitution—“Felt and acknowledged by all” that legislatures could never make First Article because it constitutes government of men—From early American, modern American learns that grant of power to govern men is the constitution of the government of men—Because First Article grants of that kind are enumerated, American government known as government of enumerated powers—Primal security to human freedom that citizens, not legislatures, grant all power of that kind—Because this primal security known to early Americans, their “conventions” insist that Constitution (Tenth Amendment) declare that every power of that kind not granted by American citizens remains with American citizens—Our own leaders have not known this security or understood that all ungranted powers of that kind were reserved by American citizens to themselves.
VII. P G ?—
C L ?
Page 80
American nation a society of men like any other society of men —Herein called America to distinguish it from federation of united states which can make and are governed by federal parts of Constitution—Like any society of men, America created by its original human members in their “conventions”—Their knowledge of that fact becomes our knowledge—Supreme Court knows and states it—Citizen of America distinct from state citizen, though the same human being—Distinction vitally important, as Supreme Court explains—Only citizens of America can grant new power to interfere with their own human freedom —All original American citizens know this—Many explain it to us, Daniel Webster vehemently and clearly.
VIII. P A
“C , N L ”
Page 95
Philadelphia knowledge and decision that legislatures of states, members of the federation, cannot make Articles which create government power to interfere with freedom of men, members of the nation—The decision, based on knowledge of basic American law, is embodied in Seventh Article and proposing Resolution at Philadelphia in 1787—Human members of nation
described as “conventions” in Seventh Article—Story of Seventh Article at Philadelphia—Madison asks searching question of any American who thinks possible any other decision than the Philadelphia decision—Now educated with the early Americans, we give the same answer as that of Philadelphia, while our leaders have given the opposite answer.
IX. T F A N O “C ”
Page 110
Philadelphia story of Fifth Article—Relates to future grants of national power by American citizens but makes no grant— Meaning to “conventions” must be meaning now—Madison writes it at Philadelphia, and he and many others from Philadelphia are in “conventions” who made it—Its Philadelphia story from May 29 to September 10, 1787, one week before end of Convention.
X. A L R
Page 115
Fifth Article in last Philadelphia week—Philadelphia, previously concentrated on its own First Article, has so far forgotten that future Articles will probably be federal, which legislatures can make—Wherefore, legislatures not yet mentioned in tentative Fifth Article—Madison and Hamilton recall probability that all future Articles will be federal and suggest a Fifth Article which mentions “legislatures” as well as “conventions”—Full record of September 10, 1787, day of that Madison suggestion—Added mention no support for modern error that Fifth Article a “grant”— Moderns ignore that one supposed grantee is supposed grantor and that “grant” would make Americans “subjects”—In language of Fifth Article, Philadelphia finds no suggestion of modern error and the Article, with its added mention of legislatures, is passed without discussion—Having no suggestion of a “grant,” it is known at Philadelphia to be constitutional mode of future exercise of the two existing but different abilities of “legislatures” and “conventions”—Madison, Wilson and Marshall on this fact— Full Philadelphia story of September 15, when Fifth Article finally considered—Defeat of Gerry’s motion to strike out “by
conventions in three-fourths thereof”—Modern error of thinking and acting as if that motion had been carried.
XI. C C G
M
Page 141
“Conventions” of Seventh Article, making Constitution, know same “conventions” of Fifth Article to be themselves, the American citizens—Americans, in “conventions,” with American concept that government exists solely to secure individual and his freedom, read and make Fifth Article—Madison hits hard modern concept of Bolshevist Russian and Eighteenth Amendment American that human beings are made for kings or legislatures or political entities—Conventions hear Madison explain Fifth Article as prescribing procedure in which “conventions” can again assemble constitutionally to exercise their power and in which “legislatures” may act constitutionally in making future federal Articles—Recognize its constitutional mode as exact Revolutionary mode just followed by Madison and others at Philadelphia and that future Congress should do exactly what Philadelphia did and no more—Recognize Fifth Article settles how each “convention” vote shall count as one vote of American citizens and how many “convention” votes shall be necessary and sufficient to make a future Article which “conventions” of American citizens alone can make—Recognize words “in three-fourths thereof” after word “conventions” most important words in Fifth Article and a great security to individual liberty—Average American now sees why Eighteenth Amendment Tories seek escape from that security by asserting Constitution created supreme will independent of American citizens, i.e., will of state legislatures.
XII. T A N “C ”
Page 171
From 1775 to 1789, all Americans aim to secure individual welfare—With this one aim, “conventions” continue to read Fifth Article and recognize statements of Fifth and Seventh, as to “conventions,” identical in nature—Recognize both ordain WHEN convention-made Articles, granting power to interfere with individual freedom, shall validly constitute government of
American citizens—Recognize “conventions” of Seventh and Fifth as whole American people of Preamble—Recall ability of legislatures to make federal Articles and know mention of “conventions” and “legislatures” grants no power to either— State “legislatures” lesser reservee and “conventions” of American citizens most important reservee in Tenth Amendment —“Conventions” recognize two exceptions in Fifth Article, not as exceptions from power granted therein, but as intentional refusal to provide a constitutional mode in which existing ability may be exercised to do what is mentioned in two exceptions —“Conventions” finish reading Fifth Article and, from its clear language, know it is not a grant of power but a constitutional mode for the exercise of either of two existing powers, one limited and the other unlimited.
XIII. C K “C ” “ P ”
Page 180
Americans, in their “conventions,” explain and support and oppose the proposed Articles—Whether for or against the Articles, their invariable and clear statements confirm the “convention” knowledge that the Fifth is not a grant of power either to themselves, “conventions,” or to the state “legislatures”—Conventions check Fifth Article mention of “legislatures” and “conventions” with statement that proposed constitution is “one federal and national constitution”—Henry insists that proposed Articles make the state legislatures weak, enervated and defenseless—“Abolish the state legislatures at once”—Wilson admits that the Articles take power from the state legislatures and give them no new power—“The diminution is necessary to the safety and prosperity of the people”—Madison explains the importance of his words, “in three-fourths thereof,” after the word “conventions,” as requiring more than a mere majority of American citizens for new interference with individual liberty—Hamilton states his own conviction that amendments will be to the federal and not the national part of the Constitution and emphasizes the legal necessity that grants of national power must come from the people and not the legislatures
—“Conventions” reluctant to give even the enumerated national powers of the First Article and insist on the Tenth Amendment declaration that all other power of that kind is reserved by themselves to themselves—“In their hands it remains secure. They can delegate it in such proportions, to such bodies, at such times, and under such limitations, as they think proper”—In 1907, the Supreme Court states, what the “conventions” knew, that all powers not granted in the First Article are reserved to the “conventions” of American citizens “and can be exercised only by them or on further grant from them”—The “conventions,” having secured the liberty of American citizens from all government interference except under the First Article grants, end their great work.
XIV. S A R H F
Page 212
Hamilton’s conviction, that all Amendments would be of the federal kind which legislatures can make, verified by the seventeen amendments prior to 1917—As Supreme Court has repeatedly held, the first ten Amendments merely declared what was already in Constitution—A relevant and important declaration in the Tenth is that the entire Constitution gives no power of any kind to state legislatures—Amazing modern Tory concept that these ten Amendments are an American Magna Charta or compact between a master government and its “subjects”—Madison and Supreme Court on the “impious doctrine” that Americans are “subjects”—Eleventh and Twelfth Amendments have naught to do with individual freedom— Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth neither exercise nor create government power to interfere with human liberty—On the contrary, their purpose and effect are to make human liberty universal—Sixteenth removes a federal limitation, in favor of the states, from a power the “conventions” gave to Congress— Seventeenth relates only to the election of Senators—When 1917 opens, Congress has no power to interfere with individual liberty of American citizens which Congress did not have in 1790 —When 1917 opens, no legislatures, since July 4, 1776, have
dared to interfere with the individual liberty of the American citizens outside the First Article grants or have dared to attempt to create a new power so to interfere—When 1917 opens, we have not become “subjects” but still are citizens of America.
XV. T E T A R
Page 231
When 1917 begins, relation of American citizen to all governments in America and relations of governments to one another just the same as in 1790—American government can interfere with the American citizen on matters enumerated in the First Article—No other governments can interfere with him at all —The government of each state can interfere with its own citizens, except as the American Constitution forbids, on matters in which the citizens of each state give their own government power to interfere—No government, either American government or state government, can get any new power of that kind except directly from its own citizens—No government can get any power of that kind from other governments—New federal power of American government can be granted by members of federation, the states, acting through their respective attorneys-in-fact, the state legislatures—State legislatures are powerless to govern or to create power to govern American citizen—In these respects, supremacy of American citizens over all governments same in 1917 as in 1790 —1917 leaders did not know, what 1790 average American knew, that Revolution had ended forever Tory law that governments are master and Americans are “subjects.”
XVI. T T “E A ”
Page 239
December, 1917, closing month of America’s first year in World War for human liberty—American citizens have but one government, Congress, which can interfere with their human liberty in any matter—Congress knows it cannot interfere by making the command which is Section 1 of the Eighteenth Amendment—Amazing Resolution in Senate that legislative governments of state citizens be asked directly to interfere with human liberty of American citizen in matter not enumerated in First Article—Resolution asks some state governments to give
only American government a new enumerated power to interfere with freedom of American citizen, the first new power of that kind since June 21, 1788—Some leaders question “wisdom” of Resolution—No leader questions power of any governments (except Congress in the enumerated First Article matters) to interfere with freedom of American citizen—No leader questions power of any or all governments to give a new enumerated power of that kind to the only American government or to any government—No leader knows that, in 1917 as in 1787 and in 1790, only the “conventions” of American citizens can make the command or the grant of power—House of Representatives adds absurdity to absurdity—Adds to Resolution that state governments, while interfering with liberty of American citizen and granting only American government first new enumerated power so to interfere, should also give themselves (the granting governments) the very power they assume to exercise over American citizens—Webb, explaining to the House his proposed change in Section 2 of the Amendment, states this to be the meaning and purpose of the change—Article IV contrasted with absurd modern error, as to meaning of Article V—That modern error is sole basis of Tory concept that any or all governments could make Articles like First Article or supposed Eighteenth Amendment—Article IV guarantees to citizens of each state that their state government shall be republican, getting from them its every power to interfere with their individual freedom—Senate Resolution asks state governments, outside each state, to give each state government power to interfere with the freedom of its own citizens—Congress of 1917 acted on assumption that Article V meant to enable Congress to suggest any desired breach of the guarantee in the closing words of Article IV.
XVII. T T H
Page 254
Despite our education with Americans from 1775 to 1790, in 1917, when Americans are at war for human liberty, the only American government recognizes other governments (the state legislatures) as an omnipotent Parliament with all American citizens as “subjects”—Volstead Act is only statute in America,
interfering with individual liberty, which does not even pretend to be founded on direct grant of power from its citizens to the government which enacted it—Webb, in the House, states, “We thought it wise to give both the Congress and the several states” new power to command the American citizen on this matter not enumerated in the First Article—His tribute to the state governments, as master governments of American citizen, exactly the tribute paid by Lloyd George to the power of the Westminster Parliament over its “subjects”—Marshall, Hamilton, Madison, the Virginia Convention of 1788, the Supreme Court repeatedly and even in 1907, flatly deny the concept of Webb and the 1917 Congress—Concept of latter merely repeats mistake of government counsel on which Supreme Court dwelt with emphasis in 1907—Ignores most important factor in Tenth Amendment, “people” or “conventions”—From the early Americans, “Who but the people can delegate powers? What have the state governments to do with it?” and “How comes it, sir, that these state governments dictate to their superiors—to the majesty of the people?”—Webb reads to the House a Fifth Article in which “conventions” does not appear—Madison tells Webb and all of his Tory concept, “These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate authority resides in the people alone, and that it will not depend merely on the comparative ambition or address of the different governments, whether either, or which of them, will be able to enlarge its sphere of jurisdiction at the expense of the other”— Webb closes in the House with an eloquent appeal to every other follower of Mohammet.
XVIII. T T S Page 275
Calm and sound reasoning of Federalist, advocating the real Constitution, contrasted with irrelevant personal abuse by those supporting the imaginary new Constitution—Latter, because facts and law make their Tory concept absurd, revive “impious doctrine of Old World” that human beings were made for political entities and governments—Senator Sheppard and his eloquent claim that American citizens, like other machinery, must be kept
