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Louis Ludlow was a Washington
correspondent for a large
number of newspapers, and then served as a Democrat in the U.S. House of
Representatives for the Indianapolis, Indiana district for twenty years. He first introduced a constitutional amendment in 1935 (the Ludlow Amendment),
which required a national referendum to confirm a declaration of war passed by
Congress, except in the event of an invasion of the United States or its
territorial possessions. While Ludlow introduced the amendment several times
from 1935 to 1941, it failed to pass, in spite of strong support in national
opinion polls.
In January 1938, during the
buildup to the second world
war, passage of the resolution seemed assured, but President Franklin Roosevelt
sent a letter to the Speaker of the House arguing that a president would be
unable to conduct an effective foreign policy and other nations would violate
American rights if the Constitution was amended. By a vote of 209-188, the House
returned the resolution to committee.
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Text of Letter(1) |
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President Roosevelt to the Speaker of the House Of
Representatives (Bankhead) on the Ludlow Amendment, Washington, January
6, 1938.
My Dear Mr. Speaker:
In response to your request for an expression of my
views respecting the proposed resolution calling for a referendum vote
as
a prerequisite for a declaration of war, I must frankly state
that I consider that the proposed amendment would be impracticable in
its application and incompatible with our representative form of
government.
Our Government is conducted by the people through
representatives of their own choosing. It was with singular unanimity
that the founders of the Republic agreed upon such free and
representative form of government as the only practical means of
government by the people. Such an amendment to the Constitution as that
proposed would cripple any President in his conduct of our foreign
relations, and it would encourage other nations to believe that they
could violate American rights with impunity.
I fully realize that the sponsors of this proposal
sincerely believe that it would be helpful in keeping the United States
out of war. I am convinced it would have the opposite effect.
Yours very sincerely,
Franklin
D. Roosevelt |
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The text of the
original Ludlow amendment H. J. Res. 199, 75th Congress, 1st session was:
SEC. 1. Except in
the event of an invasion of the United States or its Territorial possessions and
attack upon its citizens residing therein, the authority of Congress to declare
war shall not become effective until confirmed by a majority of all votes cast
thereon in a Nation-wide referendum. Congress, when it deems a national crisis
to exist, may by concurrent resolution refer the question of war or peace to the
citizens of the States, the question to be voted on being, Shall the United
States declare war on _________? Congress may otherwise by law provide for the
enforcement of this section.
The
issue reappeared(2) during the Vietnam war in its
familiar form of a proposed constitutional amendment. John Rarick, (Democrat-Louisiana), Robert L. Leggett (Democrat-California), and Parren J. Mitchell
(Democrat-Maryland) introduced such a proposed amendment April 1, 1971. They
called it the People Power over War Amendment, and they used text based on the
earlier Ludlow Amendment:
SEC. 1. Except in the event of an attack or invasion the
authority of Congress to declare war shall not become effective until confirmed
by a majority of all votes cast thereon in a Nation-wide referendum.
SEC. 2. Whenever war is
declared the President shall
immediately conscript and take for use by the Government all the public and
private war properties, yards, factories, and supplies, together with employees
necessary for their operation, fixing the compensation for private properties
temporarily employed for the war period at a rate not in excess of 4 percent
based on tax values assessed in the year preceding the war.
Sources:
- U.S., Department of State, Publication 1983,
Peace and
War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931-1941 (Washington, D.C.: U.S.,
Government Printing Office, 1943, pp. 400-402.
- Congressional Record, 92nd Congress, 1st session, pp. 9052-53, 9065
(April 1, 1971).
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