Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

the ability for those branches of government to carry out their responsibilities stated within this Constitution, the United States of America, at that time, and the citizens thereof shall be returned to the rule of Great Britain and governed under her command.
    The bottom of the page was dated September 17, 1787, and was signed by some very famous men, guys like Hamilton, Madison, Franklin, and Washington.
    Danny lowered the document back down to the open folder and carefully took his fingers off the edge of the plastic sheet protecting it.
    “This is fake, right?” he asked.
    “I’m afraid not,” Simon Shilling responded. “It’s the eighth article of the United States Constitution.”
    The hairs on the back of Danny’s neck stiffened. He leaned over and examined the document again. The aged paper, lambskin or whatever the words had been written on, looked to be over two hundred years old. “But it’s by itself. It’s not with the rest of the Constitution. In any copy of the Constitution I’ve ever seen, I’ve never seen this article.”
    The president responded. “Read the letter, Sergeant. You’ll see why it was kept by itself.”
    Danny turned over the eighth article. His eyes fell to the bottom of a second plastic sheet that contained a letter signed by those same famous signatures.
    He scrolled back up to the top of the letter and began reading it.
    Friends and Countrymen,
    Several years have passed since our victory over those Englishmen who tried in vain to suffocate our liberty. We stand together as a nation that has suffered greatly but has won a war without equal. However great the injustices that our English foes hath brought to our shores, the cruelties by which other nations may bring to the United States should we be again defenceless merits an unusual clause to our Constitution. Article VIII carries the provision within it to deliver our nation to the bosom of Britain if, in fact, the United States cannot sustain itself as a nation until such a time that it can. King George may have all but forced us to drink from the bitter cup of slavery, but we are assured that Parliament values the pursuit against savagery – a savagery that may overwhelm America during her gravest hour. The Kingdom of Great Britain has flown its colors over every continent. It can protect America from our most tenacious of foes. But rest assured dear countrymen that if this darkest of days ever comes, a time will follow that will allow us to again sever ties from mother England – by simple decree or by bloody revolution.
    The powers contained within the executive branch allows the president to restrain this article of the Constitution until the time it is warranted to be made public.
    We the members of the Philadelphia Convention agree by a majority vote to ratify Article VIII of the United States Constitution on this day seventeen of September, seventeen hundred and eighty seven.
    Danny opened his mouth to speak but had no words.
    “I had the same reaction when I first saw it, Sergeant,” the president said.
    “Our expert thinks that Article Eight was created in secret by the Founding Fathers because, above all else, they had a sense of enlightenment about them,” Simon Shilling explained. “The last thing they wanted to see was their new nation fall into the hands of unrefined savages.”
    President Butcher interjected. “The English were bastards in the eyes of the Founding Fathers. But at least they were genteel bastards who would ensure the continued enlightenment of America until the colonists could again rise up against them.”
    “But how could they keep something like this secret?” The question blurted from Sydney’s mouth. She had been deadly silent, studying the documents ever since Danny had opened the folder.
    The president eyed his chief of staff to field her question. “Our expert believes that Article Eight passed from president to president until it reached Abraham Lincoln. Contrary to popular belief that Lincoln was a melancholy fellow, he was actually a spirited leader who despised Great Britain. Once Article Eight was presented to him, he saw it as a treasonous paper. As his secretary of state, William Seward was privy to all discussion and actions that pertained to international relations, treaties, and alignments. Our expert’s theory is that Lincoln ordered Seward to destroy all evidence of Article Eight, which he did because there is no mention of it anywhere in history.