- Royce, Kenneth W. Hologram of Liberty. Ignacio,
CO: Javelin Press, 1997. ISBN 1-888766-03-4.
- The author, who also uses the nom de
plume “Boston T. Party”, provides a survey of the tawdry
machinations which accompanied the drafting and adoption of the
United States Constitution, making the case that the document was
deliberately designed to permit arbitrary expansion of federal
power, with cosmetic limitations of power to persuade the states
to ratify it. It is striking the extent to which not just vocal
anti-federalists like Patrick Henry, but also Thomas Jefferson,
anticipated precisely how the federal government would slip its
bonds—through judiciary power and the creation of debt, both of
which were promptly put into effect by John Marshall and Alexander
Hamilton, respectively. Writing on this topic seems to have, as an
occupational hazard, a tendency to rant. While Royce never ascends to
the coruscating rhetoric of Lysander Spooner's No
Treason, there is a great deal of bold type here, as
well as some rather curious conspiracy theories (which are, in all
fairness, presented for the reader's consideration, not endorsed by
the author). Oddly, although chapter 11 discusses the 27th amendment
(Congressional Pay Limitation)—proposed in 1789 as part of the
original Bill of Rights, but not ratified until 1992—it is missing
from the text of the Constitution in appendix C.
July 2004 