by Neal H. Ross
In his Inaugural Address to the American people, George Washington offered up a warning, of sorts, when he wrote, “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
If you think about it, our country, or our government to be specific, is a lot like a vehicle; a new car or pickup truck. If the owner of a new vehicle follows the instruction manual and has the recommended maintenance done on schedule, the vehicle will last quite a long time. If, however, you ignore the manufacturers recommendations the life of the vehicle will be reduced dramatically.
If you do not care for your new vehicle there will come a time when the repairs needed to keep it running will become too burdensome and you will be left with the choice of one of three options; first, to keep it and expect that it will continually cost a lot to keep it running; two, scrap it and get a new vehicle; or three, scrap it and go without a vehicle.
Our Founding Fathers, as the creators of our system of government, provided an instruction manual for the government they created. If we want it to run good, and serve the purposes for which it was created, for any length of time then we must follow the instruction manual, (i.e. The Constitution), closely.
We have not done so; in fact most Americans have never picked up a copy of the instruction manual for their system of government and don’t know the first thing about how it was established or the powers given it. So we are now at a point where that government runs like crap and we are left with the same choices a vehicle owner is who has not kept up with the recommended maintenance; live under an increasingly oppressive government; scrap this government and replace it with one that will better protect our liberty; or scrap it and live without any form of federal government.
What I would like to do is to give a brief overview of the history of our country. I will provide certain specific events, along with the date; then provide a few comments of my own to help explain the significance of these events. This way, maybe you can see the slow slide towards tyranny and oppression this country has taken.
1620 – The first of many waves of Colonists arrive in the New World on the Mayflower and establish the Plymouth Colony. There first act as a new colony is to write the Mayflower Compact.
Although the first settlers to Plymouth were subjects under their sovereign, the King of England, they came here for one purpose and one purpose only; religious freedom. They felt they had been unduly persecuted in England, and the Netherlands so they obtained a land patent from the London Virginia Company and moved far enough away from England where they would be free to worship as the pleased. The Mayflower Compact was a declaration of their intent as a Colony and, in part, states, “IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia…”
1764 – England begins levying taxes on the Colonists to offset the cost of defending them during the recent French and Indian War. These taxes and other Acts escalated as the Colonists, first petitioned the King to repeal them then later openly resisted them. This back and forth confrontation eventually led to British soldiers, under the command of General Thomas Gage, marching upon the towns of Lexington and Concord to confiscate the arms of the Colonists and arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
Up to this point in our history we were, for all intents and purposes, Englishmen. We may have lived on, what would later become U.S. soil, but we were still governed by England and subject to the laws enacted by that government. However, we were not represented in that government and this was a major point of annoyance for the Colonists. They felt that their rights were being unjustly restricted without their say in what laws were passed which they were obligated to obey.
The final straw came when General Gage ordered 700 British Regulars, under the command of Lt. Colonel Francis Smith, to the towns of Lexington and Concord to confiscate the arms of the troublemakers in Boston and arrest the ringleaders of British opposition, Adams and Hancock.
It was during this period of our history that many a patriotic voice was heard suggesting we become our own free and independent nation. Patrick Henry’s Give me liberty or give me death speech is among those that stirred the hearts and minds and fueled the desire for independence. Yet the Colonists still held hopes for a peaceful resolution to these conflicts; sending out an Olive Branch Petition to the King to restore things to ‘the way they were.’ When the King rejected their petition the Colonists knew they had but two choices; live under a tyrant, or seek their independence.
1776 – Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence and it is voted upon and agreed to in Congress.
After John Adams convinced the Second Continental Congress that Thomas Jefferson was the obvious choice of writing a declaration of the reasons why the Colonies sought independence, I don’t believe they ready for the finished document Jefferson produced. Not only did it declare the reasons why the Colonists sought independence, it was a universal statement regarding the origin of our rights and the reasons for which governments are established. It must have been a tremendous burden for Jefferson, knowing that he was writing a document with such momentous implications for the future of his country.
The Declaration of Independence declares three, very important, truths upon which rest any system of government established by man. First, all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with rights. Secondly, that government derives its power from the people. Thirdly, that whenever any system of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established it is, not only the right, but the duty of people to alter or abolish it.
In a time when monarchs still ruled many parts of the world these were very radical ideas. Yet Jefferson took much of his inspiration from men like Locke, Bacon and Newton whose writings had deeply affected his thoughts on politics and government. Although edited by the committee which had commissioned him to draft a declaration, the basic framework remains the work of Thomas Jefferson and upon the principles contained within it rests everything which followed.
1776-1783 – The War for Independence begins and, although uncertain at times, victory is achieved. The Treaty of Paris, (1783), is signed and America becomes a nation of free and independent States.
George Washington was the obvious choice to lead any army which would be raised to fight for this fledgling nation’s independence. Yet in his writings he often bemoaned the pathetic state of the army he led, or the lack of provisions needed to wage a war, the outcome of which was of such great importance.
Yet whether it was by Providence, or plain blind luck, we did achieve victory, and with it independence. After Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown the King was left with no option other than to admit defeat and grant the Colonies their independence. When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 it declared the Colonies to be free and independent states. This is exactly what the Declaration of Independence itself declares what they ought to be.
We may have been the United States, but first and foremost we were free and independent States. Think of it this way, Europe may be a single continent but it is still comprised of nation’s like France, England, Germany and Italy. In that we were similar to Europe in that we had the independent sovereign nations of Massachusetts Bay, Virginia, New York, and the eleven other free and independent states. These states were free to govern themselves as they saw fit without any external influence by any centralized government.
It was during this struggle for independence that the Articles of Confederation were written and eventually ratified. These Articles of Confederation did not establish a strong centralized government; rather they set up a loose confederacy of independent states who would work together for certain things of benefit to them as a loose union of States.
For any measure to be implemented it must be supported by all 13 States before it could go into effect. Although many argued that this limited the power of any form of central government, it maximized the power of the various State governments who were directly elected by the people they represent. The liberty of the people of each State was best assured when those elected to represent them were directly affected by the laws they themselves enacted.
1787-1789 – Constitutional Convention convened; a Constitution is written, and later ratified by the required number of States to go into effect.
There were those who felt that the Congress established by the Articles of Confederation was too weak, too ineffective to manage the affairs of a nation such as ours. After failing at Annapolis, James Madison finally succeeded in convening a convention to amend and strengthen the Articles of Confederation. However, Madison never intended to limit himself to amending the Articles of Confederation; he had another plan, to scrap them altogether and create a much stronger system of government from scratch.
From the outset Madison’s grand scheme met resistance. Rhode Island refused to even send delegates to the convention and Patrick Henry stated that he smelt a rat in Philadelphia regarding the proceedings. Then there were those who refused to sign the finished document; Edmund Randolph, Elbridge Gerry and George Mason all had concerns over the finished documents ability to preserve the rights of both the people and the States.
Once the finished document was submitted to the State Legislatures, another war broke out; this time a war of words. There were those who felt that we should reject the document in its entirety because it would eventually lead to a loss of freedom for both the States and the people. Then there were those who felt that with a few modifications it could produce a fine system of governance. And then there were those who pushed for it to be adopted without any changes.
Eventually a compromise was agreed upon; the government created by the Constitution, upon being put into effect, would propose amendments protecting certain rights if the States would just agree to accept the Constitution as is for the time being.
Had it not been for those who fought so valiantly against accepting the Constitution without amendments, we would never have a Bill of Rights, and our government, with its track record of trampling upon the rights protected by those first ten amendments to the Constitution, might now be far more oppressive than it already is.
1861-1865 – War Between the States and the loss of States Rights.
Regardless of what people today believe to be the underlying cause of the Civil War, the fact of the matter is that the war was fought because a portion of the nation believed that the government they lived under had become oppressive and they sought to exercise the same right which led our Founders to sever the ties which bound them to England.
The government, and one Abraham Lincoln, believed that the Union which bound the States together was perpetual and unbreakable. When the Southern States began seceding Abraham Lincoln called for an army of 75,000 men to invade the South and force them into adhering to the Union. That is the only reason our country went to war. The South may have left because the North was interfering with the institution of slavery, or it may have left because of tariffs; in either case those are only the causes which led the South to secede. The cause of the WAR itself was because Abraham Lincoln decided that the States did not have the right to withdraw from the Union.
When the North won the Civil War it was a fatal blow to State sovereignty which our country has never recovered from. Since then all that the South fought for has been revised and erased from our consciousness; with lies replacing the truth regarding the Second War for Independence.
Not only has the truth been obliterated regarding the Civil War, the entire history of our country and the principles upon which it was founded have been revised and altered to produce entire generations of people who don’t know the first thing about the history of their country or its system of government.
Today we have people who vote strictly along party lines without realizing that both parties are guilty of overstepping the limits imposed upon government by the Constitution while infringing upon their most basic of human rights. When a constitutional candidate like a Ron Paul runs for office, an overwhelming majority of the people derides him or declares him to be unelectable and resort to their default setting of voting for the Republican puppet or the Democrat puppet.
Today we have candidates and political appointees who make blatantly idiotic or unconstitutional statements, and it goes in one ear and out the other of a vast majority of the people; never registering that there is something wrong with what they are saying.
Take for instance something Judge Richard Posner, of the 7th Circuit Court said earlier this week, “I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation.
Eighteenth-century guys, however smart, could not foresee the culture, technology, etc., of the 21st century. … Which means that the original Constitution, the Bill of Rights … do not speak to today.”
Does this judge not realize that the very position he holds as a Circuit Court Judge exists ONLY because of the Constitution he feels is a waste of time studying?
Does this judge realize that the ONLY reason government exists is because of this Constitution he feels is a waste of time studying?
It’s like the first Back to the Future movie where Marty McFly goes back in time and alters the Space Time Continuum causing his entire family to bes erased from that photo. If one were to go back in time and prevent the Constitution from being written, or ratified, we would NOT HAVE a government in Washington DC and Judge Posner would NOT BE a Circuit Court Judge.
And since this judge believes the studying of the Constitution to be a waste of time, what law does the esteemed judge intend to uphold in his courtroom; HIS version of the law? That strikes of tyranny, or at least, anarchy.
Judge Posner believes that in these modern times our Constitution is simply not applicable. Yet it establishes the very framework for our system of government, and without it those who sit in the seats of power would have no authority whatsoever to tell me what I can and cannot do. So is the judge saying that since the Constitution no longer applies that any laws the government passes also no longer apply.
Hey, I’m perfectly happy if that’s what he’s saying. No more taxes, no more restrictions on the type guns I can buy, no more telling what food I can and cannot eat, or what drugs I cannot take. I can live with that…very happily I might add.
When the Constitution was proposed to the States for their approval or rejection, they were told in no uncertain terms that they must accept it en toto, (in its entire form without modification). If Judge Posner believes our Constitution to be outdated then reject it in the same manner, en toto; thereby abolishing that tyrannical beast of a government that is in Washington D.C.
But if that is NOT what Judge Posner is saying, then I suggest he read something George Washington said in his Farewell Address to the American people, “If in the opinion of the People, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”
I think America has gone beyond the point of no return, there is no fixing the damage we’ve done to this country and to our liberty. All I hope to do is show how from the moment the first settlers at Plymouth stepped foot on American soil until the time our Constitution was ratified; liberty was their primary concern. Now it’s the furthest things from their mind.
I have lived in an interesting, (if you can call it that), time in American history. I was born when there was still a good deal of patriotism and love of liberty amongst the general public. I have grown up, watching that love of liberty slowly die as the people become accustomed to increasingly restrictive laws and almost daily violations of their rights.
To my fellow Americans I’d like to leave a final thought, taken from a speech delivered by Patrick Henry almost 230 years ago, “Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man, may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed old fashioned: If so, I am contented to be so: I say, the time has been when every pore of my heart beat for American liberty, and which, I believe, had a counterpart in the breast of every true American.”
When John Adams spoke to the Continental Congress, voicing his support for the Declaration of Independence, he stated, “If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready…. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country.”
However, Adams also wrote the following to his wife that same year, and his sentiments are even more applicable today than they were back in 1775, “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.”
But that’s okay, go back to your barbecues and your shopping for July 4th discounts, all will be well…you need not concern yourself with all this doom and gloom…all will be well.
Source: http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal/?p=2560