Is the Federal Government a Sovereign or a Corporation?

QUESTION:  Is it true that the Federal Government is nothing more than a corporation? I have read that the “organic act of 1871” replaced our government with a corporation. I have to believe that with your knowledge of history you are aware of this. Does that mean all laws passed since that time are nothing more than corporate rules? Could elections that bypass the corporation actually be held? Granted that anyone running for office would be a marked person. Please share what are your thoughts? You are my hero Marty.

BH

ANSWER: No, The federal government is not a corporation. It is not even the “sovereign” for that is declared in the Constitution that “we the people” are sovereign over and above that of government. As such, the government only has the authority to have those specific powers that have been delegated to it through the Constitution. As the Supreme Court stated in LEGAL TENDER CASES, 110 U.S. 421 (1884) (also refered to as Julliard v Greenman);

But be that as it may, there is no such thing as a power of inherent sovereignty in the government of the United States. It is a government of delegated powers, supreme within its prescribed sphere, but powerless outside of it. In this country, sovereignty resides in the people, and congress can exercise no power which they have not, by their constitution, entrusted to it; all else is withheld.

These people take one kernel of truth and then extrapolate that twisting it into giant conspiracy theory which means nothing at the end of the day but gibberish. The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 was an Act of Congress that repealed the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and established a new territorial government for the whole District of Columbia. Organic Act of 1871, revoked the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and combined them with Washington County to create a unified territorial government for the entire District of Columbia. This had nothing to do with the federal government, only the municipality of Washington DC and the territory, since it was not a state.

Municipal governments are generally corporations. A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. A municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state. They are NOT a sovereign government as is a state or the federal government.

Corporations date back to Roman law. Historically, such corporate charters allowed groups of people to act as one and the operation would survive an individual person’s death. Charters historically protected directors and stockholders from liability for debts and harms caused by their corporations. American legislators explicitly rejected this corporate shield. The penalty for abuse or misuse of the charter was not a plea bargain and a fine, but dissolution of the corporation.

In 1819 the U.S. Supreme Court tried to strip states of this sovereign right of creating charters (corporations) by overruling a lower court’s decision that allowed New Hampshire to revoke a charter granted to Dartmouth College by King George III. The Court claimed that since the charter contained no revocation clause, it could not be withdrawn even thought there had been a revolution and the King was replaced. The Supreme Court’s attack on state sovereignty became a major issue. Laws were then written and new state constitutional amendments were enacted all to circumvent the (Dartmouth College v Woodward) ruling. Over several decades thereafter beginning in 1844, nineteen states amended their constitutions to make corporate charters subject to alteration or revocation by their legislatures who created them. Finally, in 1855 the Supreme Court reversed itself in Dodge v. Woolsey where it then reaffirmed state’s powers over “artificial bodies” we call corporations.

These conspiracy theories are really made up by people who are clueless about the rule of law and throw together assumptions to reach outrageous predetermined conclusions.