A Brief History of Our Constitutional Republic
By William J. Dell – 24 September 2009
CHAPTER 1 – BORN OF NEGLECT
More than two centuries ago in the year of our Lord 1776, fifty-six men met in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and signed the Declaration of Independence. In reality though the true movement for an independent United States of America began not then, but in the religious persecutions of Europe. It was the Pilgrims, the Lutherans, the Moravians, the Huguenots and others beginning in the 1600s who left the lands of their nativity to find religious freedom that began the American story and our movement toward independence.
Because the “new” world was separated by an ocean, the colonists set up governments to their liking based on tenets of their various faiths. The mother lands had little control because of distance and the time to transit the Atlantic. The seeds of independence did not germinate however until England desired to impose her will on the colonists, after a 150 years of neglect, to retire their debt from the war with France.
In Page Smith’s A New Age Now Begins (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976), pp 191, 192, a portion of the debate held in the House of Commons concerning America’s independent spirit is recorded (Emphasis added):
While the House of Commons was in general apathetic, only a few opponents of the measure spoke against it. Charles Townshend, as an officer of the government, had asked: “And now, will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence until they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burdens which we lie under?”
Colonel Isaac Barré was a veteran of the French and Indian War who had fought under General Wolfe and had been with him at the time of his death on the plains of Abraham. He carried a disfiguring wound in his cheek that gave him, his enemies said, “a savage glare.” Barré was a fearless and effective spokesman for the colonial cause and a b te noire to George III. He immediately rose to challenge Townshend’s description of the Colonies:
“They planted by our care?” he said scornfully. “No, your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country – where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships of which human nature is liable, and among others to the cruelty of a savage foe… And yet actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends.
“They nourished by your indulgence? “They grew by your neglect of em: As soon as you began to care about em, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over em, in one department and another, who were perhaps the deputies of deputies to some member of this House – sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon em; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them….
“They protected by your arms? They have nobly taken up arms in your defense, have exerted a valor amidst their constant and laborious industry for the defense of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood. Its interior parts have yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And believe me, remember I this day told you so, that same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still – But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart.
From this we can see that the colonies were a low priority to England because of the press of European issues. It was not until they had to pay for the war with France that they remembered that there were Englishmen in the Colonies. Englishmen who were a source of revenue.
CHAPTER 2 – SEEDS OF BIRTH
Because of a series of unbearable taxes; Sugar Act of 1764, Stamp Act of 1765, Declaratory Act of 1766, Townshend Act of 1767, Revenue Act of 1767, Tea Act of 1773 and Intolerable Acts of 1774, the Second Continental Congress meeting after Lexington and Concord and the siege of Boston set forth the following:
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776, The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America, When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
The Colonists then fought our FIRST CIVIL WAR, the War of Independence from England, to establish this nation from 1775-1783. However, it still took until 1787 and the failure of the Articles of Confederation, to complete the framework of our Constitutional Republic known as the Constitution of the United States of America. It then took another two years for the affirmative ratification process by the original thirteen colonies to be completed. This is a period of 13 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To further bind the Federal Government from intruding and stepping on the independence of the governed, “We the People“ adopted the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments, which went into effect December 15, 1791.
CHAPTER 3 – A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC DEFINED
In 1787 at the close of the Constitutional Convention, a lady asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?” He is quoted as saying, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
From Webster we get the following definitions:
Constitutional – being in accordance with or authorized by the constitution of a state or society; regulated by or ruling according to a constitution; of or relating to a constitution.
Republic – a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.
Our Bill of Rights, Amendment 10 is entitled “Powers of the States and People.” This amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791. The amendment states: “The powers NOT DELEGATED to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” [Emphasis Added] From this the writer concludes that as Benjamin Franklin stated we have been given a Constitutional Republic by our Founding Fathers as supported by Webster’s definitions above.
In our Constitutional Republic the supreme power resides with We the People ,the voters; and, this power does NOT transfer to our elected legislators by reason of their election. They are hired [elected] by We the People to represent our views and NOT their Party’s view or the view of lobbyists or special interest groups who may help to get them elected. [Sidebar: This is why this writer believes that ONLY individual voters should be allowed to make political donations to candidates. By this I mean that Unions, lobbies, other special interest groups, and corporations should be PROHIBITED from making ANY political donations whatsoever.]
John Adams, our second President, said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” (Emphasis added)
Thomas Jefferson, our third President, said, “It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights… Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power… Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” (Emphasis added)
This writer echoes the words of John Wayne in The Alamo: “Republic – I like the sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling. Republic is one of those words that makes you tight in the throat. The same tightness a man gets when his baby takes his first steps, or his first baby shaves, or makes his first sounds like a man. Some words can give you a feeling that makes your heart warm. Republic is one of those words.”
If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, can a nation rise or survive without His divine approval and assistance? Is it possible for an individual or a nation to get ahead by leaving God behind?
The lesson is clear for all who can hear. God is our Ruler. He set up our nation in His own way and time. He appointed for its rulers the humble men of the street; the artisans, the farmers and the builders. Under the influence of His Holy Spirit, as long as they would listen, they worked together and built a mighty nation. The people were sovereign. They ruled well and with a mighty hand for 126 years as a Constitutional Republic. Their elected representatives recognized that the Federal Government only had power as We the People granted it to them within the framework of our 1787 Constitution, with its checks and balances, and Bill of Rights. So what happened in 1913 that altered the design of our Constitutional Republic and put us on the road to a run away Federal Government? We will investigate this in the next chapter – Seeds of Destruction.
CHAPTER 4 – SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION
During our first126 year period as a nation from 1787 to 1913, there was only one serious challenge to our Constitutional Republic. The issues where secession and slavery. The Constitution had provided in Section 9: “The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importations, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.” [Congress prohibited all further importation of slaves by law effective January 1, 1808.] The South however sought to maintain a balance of slave and free states. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was principle to this effort.
In the end freedom and independence would again be tested. We fought our SECOND CIVIL WAR, the war between the States, to preserve this nation from 1862-1865. This was a fight so that “government of the people, by the people and for the people” might not perish from the earth; and, that freedom might be the legacy of ALL Americans. And our Government continued to be bound by “the chains of the Constitution.”
But then it happened! “We the People“ got careless and in 1913 during the administration of Woodrow Wilson, our 28th President (D 1913-1921), the “Seeds of Destruction” were sown as Amendment 16 allowing for a Federal Income Tax, rather than taxing the several States; and Amendment 17 allowing for the popular election of Senators, rather than their election by the State Legislatures were allowed to be adopted. The effect of this federalism was to break two strong links in the “chains of the Constitution” which had bound the Federal Government and preserved the independence of “We the People“ and the power of the States as guaranteed by the 10th Amendment.
The ability of the Federal Government to DIRECTLY tax its citizens has allowed them to “plunder the property” of We the People without restraint by the States. This has allowed for ever increasing deficit spending which now has reached to Trillions of Dollars; and, continual efforts by some in the Federal Government to “redistribute wealth.”
Popular election of Senators has destroyed the separate States constitutionally given equal representation in the Republic. Since the Senators are no longer hired by the States Legislatures to represent the States, they are not beholden to them. They, like the Members of the House, are now beholden to We the People , who elected them. This amendment destroyed little Rhode Island’s ability to have an equal voice with larger more populated states; such as, New York. This principle of equality of the States, regardless of size or population, was one of the most contentiously fought and debated issues in the formulation of our Constitution and the establishment of our Republic.
These two Amendments opened the door that has allowed our Nation to move from a Constitutional Republic to a Democracy; and, now have opened the floodgates that moves us from a Democracy toward a Welfare Socialist State.
It was during this period, in 1916, that a Presbyterian Minister, William J. H. Boetcker, published his oft quoted Ten Cannots, which are usually attributed to Abraham Lincoln:
1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
4. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
5. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
6. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
7. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
9. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
10. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
These maxims should have called a government and a people to retrospection but they did not. The “Seeds of Destruction” sown in 1913 continued to be carefully tended by those who sought power. It was not until 1929, 16 years later, that they broke forth as seedlings during the national economic crisis of the Stock Market collapse and we as a nation were plunged into the Great Depression. Under the guise of this “national emergency,” the Federal Government began its usurpation of power from “We the People.”
CHAPTER 5 – FROM A REPUBLIC TOWARD A WELFARE SOCIALIST STATE
How well Frederic Bastiat observed The Doctrine of the Democrats which he published in “The Law” in 1848:
The strange phenomenon of our times – one which will probably astound our descendants – is the doctrine based on this triple hypothesis: the total inertness of mankind, the omnipotence of the law, and the infallibility of the legislator. These three ideas form the sacred symbol of those who proclaim themselves totally democratic.
The advocates of this doctrine also profess to be social. So far as they are democratic, they place unlimited faith in mankind. But so far as they are social, they regard mankind as little better than mud. Let us examine this contrast in greater detail.What is the attitude of the democrat when political rights are under discussion? How does he regard the people when a legislator is to be chosen? Ah, then it is claimed that the people have an instinctive wisdom; they are gifted with the finest perception; their will is always right; the general will cannot err; voting cannot be too universal.When it is time to vote, apparently the voter is not to be asked for any guarantee of his wisdom. His will and capacity to choose wisely are taken for granted. Can the people be mistaken? Are we not living in an age of enlightenment? What! Are the people always to be kept on leashes? Have they not won their rights by great effort and sacrifice? Have they not given ample proof of their intelligence and wisdom? Are they not adults? Are they not capable of judging for themselves? Is there a class or a man who would be so bold as to set himself above the people, and judge and act for them? No, no, the people are and should be free. They desire to manage their own affairs, and they shall do so.But when the legislator is finally elected – ah! then indeed does the tone of his speech undergo a radical change. The people are returned to passiveness, inertness, and unconsciousness; the legislator enters into omnipotence. Now it is for him to initiate, to direct, to propel, and to organize. Mankind has only to submit; the hour of despotism has struck. We now observe this fatal idea: The people who, during the election, were so wise, so moral, and so perfect, now have no tendencies whatever; or if they have, they are tendencies that lead downward into degradation …
During this time in our history, the policies and programs of The New Deal were brought about by Franklin D. Roosevelt, our 32nd President (D 1933-1945). The Democrats would have you believe that these policies brought us out of the Depression. It must be remembered; however, that more than these policies and programs the Second World War brought us out of the Depression as the nation’s private sector mobilized to build products for the prosecution of the war.
These were followed by the policies and programs of The Fair Deal as articulated by Harry S. Truman, our 33rd President (D 1945-1953). A major accomplishment of the Left during the Truman Presidency was the expansion of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government by adding the Department of Health and Human Service [April 11, 1953], a cabinet level post.
Ten years later the policies and programs of The Great Society became the hallmark of Lydon B. Johnson, our 36th President (D 1963-1969). A major accomplishment of the Left during the Johnson Presidency was the expansion of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government by adding the Department of Housing and Urban Development [September 9, 1965], a cabinet level post.
The next expansion of the Executive Branch occurred during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter (D 1977-1981) when the Department of Education [September 27, 1978] was added as a cabinet post. This too was a move toward Socialism, because if you can control what is being taught, you can control the the next generation.
During the Presidency of Bill Clinton (D 1993-2001), the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, undertook to revamp the nation’s healthcare system. This became known as – HillaryCare. This leap toward Socialism was thwarted by We the People and the proposed legislation failed to get out of the Congress.
Now we have the Presidency of Barack Obama and the 111th Congress where the Democratic Party controls both the House and a filibuster proof Senate. These are bent on ramming down the throat of We the People ObamaCare with very few of our elected Representatives and Senators even reading the proposed legislation.
From Webster we get the following definitions:
Oligarchy – a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.
Socialism – a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between Capitalism and Communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done. [Redistribution of Wealth]
So even today 161 years after Bastiat wrote “The Law,” this Doctrine of the Democrats continues! There is within the Democratic Party a plurality on the left who consistently behave and act like an Oligarchy. They are avowed socialists who have as their undeclared purpose to change our God given Constitutional Republic into a Welfare Socialist State. As Bastiat said now it is for them, the Democratic Oligarchy, “to initiate, to direct, to propel, and to organize.” Why? Because they are legislators; they are omnipotent; they are the enlightened; they are the font of ALL wisdom; ONLY THEY KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR We the People AND OUR NATION. They, the Democratic Oligarchy, have NO REGARD for their employers, We the People, and our wishes. Their, the Democratic Oligarchy’s, only desire and concern is to retain power unto themselves and execute their diabolical desires to enslave our nation. A plan they have been patiently unfolding since 1913 a period of 96 years.
If We the People are to thwart them in their efforts, we must be eternally vigilant. For, they are a patient lot, as has been shown, willing to inch toward their goal as long as their goal is achieved. They usually use evolutionary rather than revolutionary means toward their ends often being content to take 10, 15 or 20 years to achieve a single facet of their overall plan. Like the story of the camel’s nose, they say to us, “The sandstorm is bad can I come into the tent? When, We the People, say no. They say, well at least let me put my nose into the tent so I can breathe better.” Then before We the People, realize it, they, the Democratic Oligarchy, have ensnared us with their diabolical chains and led us carefully further down the path to their hell of Socialism destroying our God given inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, Property, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Those in the Congress who support the Democratic Oligarchy in their efforts to destroy our Constitutional Republic and move us to a Welfare Socialist State violate their oath of office “to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Is this NOT Treason? But then as John Harington said in 1731, “Treason doth never prosper, what the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.”
We the People, the sleeping giant, have been awakened. Enter the “Tea Party” movement to reclaim our Constitutional Republic and our God given rights to Life, Liberty and Property. In the words of Captain Marko Ramius, skipper of the fictional Red October, “A little [political] revolution now and then is a good thing. Don’t you think?”
I pray that we NEVER need a THIRD CIVIL WAR to preserve our Constitutional Republic and the God given principles upon which it was established. I here paraphrase and echo the words of Patrick Henry: “We the People,” Three Hundred Million strong, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have elections; and, “We the People” should not retire from the conquest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard in the Congress! The struggle is inevitable – and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
