To view this on the COS website, click here knowledge-is-liberty

Knowledge safeguards liberty

With your help, we will get it done and continue to act as the guardians of liberty.

In a letter written to a correspondent in Kentucky, James Madison referenced Thomas Jefferson’s efforts to give to the republic “a Magnificent Institute for the advancement & diffusion of Knowledge, which is the only Guardian of true liberty…”

Madison was referring, of course, to the University of Virginia. But his assertion still holds true: the dissemination of knowledge is liberty’s safeguard against a federal government that goes beyond its bounds.

As we continue our work in the states to compel Congress to call a limited-purpose Article V convention, it is important to remember that we are also educating and disseminating knowledge.

That knowledge is a vital counter to those who aim to confuse, distort, or outright lie about what we are attempting to accomplish.

Earlier this week, an online journal in Ohio published an article that trucked out all the old canards about the Convention of States movement: we want to call a Constitutional Convention to destroy the Bill of Rights; we want to lay siege to the entire Constitution and replace it with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025; we want to hand the president more and more power; we want to “rewrite America.”

While it’s easy to scoff at and dismiss such ridiculousness, you might be unpleasantly surprised to learn just how many state legislators lap up this line of argument uncritically.

So while we continue to make great strides in legislatures across the country, we must never cease educating our fellow citizens and the legislators who need their votes to stay in office about the true nature and function of an Article V convention.

After all, a single legislator in a single chamber can make all the difference between passing our COS resolution or being made to start all over again in the next legislative session.

It is up to all of us associated with the COS movement to educate our fellow citizens in and out of government that an Article V convention does not establish or even advance a call for a Constitutional Convention. An Article V convention is a limited-purpose conversation among the states for debating, proposing, and potentially advancing amendments to the Constitution for the states to consider.

Utilizing the Constitution to save the Constitution and the framework of government that it created is under no circumstances reckless or risky. It is our duty. It is also our duty to bring this message to citizens and legislators far and wide.

Because of your commitment to this cause and your dedication and study, you can educate your neighbors and friends about how an Article V convention really works, and how it can go far to reaffirm and solidify the Constitution – not destroy it.

You have the ability to establish positive connections with your state representatives to educate and persuade them to do the work that the Founders had in mind for them – not only in the form of the Article V application, but through initiatives such as 34|Ready and F3 legislation that lays the groundwork for convention, and empowers the citizenry by reestablishing the principles of federalism.

It takes time and patience to properly educate an individual and a nation. But that is what we are doing. With your help, we will get it done and continue to act as the guardians of liberty.

#

PETITION_WIDGET{petition_tag:;coalition_id:;anedot_url:}

#

Page Metadata
Login Required to view?	No
Created:	2025-05-21 16:40 GMT
Updated:	2025-05-30 07:00 GMT
Published:	2025-05-23 13:23 GMT
Converted:	2025-11-11 12:05 GMT
Change Author:	Matt May
Credit Author: