1787 to 2016
by Dr. Thomas E. Davis, Col., USA (Ret.), ©2016
(Apr. 29, 2016) — “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote…that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” — Samuel Adams
A Short History of We the People
When the word spread that the British had been defeated at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781, the emotions of the colonists were mixed. From our very beginnings on this last habitable continent on Planet Earth, our forefathers had considered themselves to be loyal subjects of England and the British King.
Now, they were the Loyalist victors of a war of rebellion against an obnoxious sovereign. The rebellion was against unjust practices, burdensome taxes and acts not in keeping with the godly lives of the Americans inhabiting North America. They had come thousands of miles, across a mighty ocean to practice their religions as they thought proper and free of any interference.
A small percentage of these seekers, Tories, remained loyal to the Crown. The remainder, now loyal to the thirteen newly-won colonies, were in need of a system of government to replace the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, which were drawn up by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, but not suited to their newly-won freedoms.
Ultimately, the Thirteen Colonies sent 55 delegates to a Constitutional Convention seated in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, without central air conditioning. From May 25 to September 17, 1787, 116 days in sweltering hot rooms, the delegates presented, debated and in general session completed the most brilliant Document of Governance known to humanity. Their “Issue,” in its beautifully-penned hand, consisted of a very carefully-chosen 4,543 words, designed and constructed as the Document of Governance by a Tri-partite governing body composed of a bicameral Legislature, a Chief Executive, and a Judiciary. Governing was to be conducted in the Federalist fashion (a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units, e.g., the several states). Read more about the Federalist Party at this link: http://www.history.com/topics/federalist-party
Even though Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were purportedly adamantly opposed to political parties, they formed a party, the Republican-Democratic Party, to oppose the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury and one of the authors of the Federalist Papers written to encourage ratification of the Constitution.
Jefferson was consistent in his opposition to political parties, once noting, “I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts.” — Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792.
Moreover, as regards to Limits to Party Loyalty, Jefferson stated, “I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” — Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789.
President John Kennedy stated, “At a dinner honoring American Nobel Prize winners, April 29, 1962: ‘I think that this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that had ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.’”
Party politics were soon injected into the affairs of the new republic and decried by the Founding Fathers. George Washington had this to say: “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But, this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”
John Adams, our second president, also warned against the pitfalls of political parties, stating, “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” Ibid
George Washington had only eight years of formal education but a great learning experience from his on-the-job training. As president, he took no salary and actually supplemented the federal budget out of his personal funds. He refused to run for a third term, noting that eight years was more than enough. That set the precedent that was followed until the egotistical Franklin Roosevelt ran for and won, not only a third term but a fourth as well. Aides and friends concocted all sorts of ruses to cover the fact that Roosevelt was seriously ill even in 1940. Still, he broke the precedent set by George Washington not to seek reelection after two full terms. This writer remembers well the remark by Roosevelt, here paraphrased, “It is dangerous to change horses in mid- stream when the world is at war.”
Our first six presidents were more than capable; all were exceptional. The seventh president, Andrew Jackson, though a war hero at the battle of New Orleans, was a bully, a brute, a racist, slave owner, arrogant, and mean. He was also a Democratic Party hero and leader of the “spoils” system developed under his leadership and authority.
Plato, the esteemed philosopher of Ancient Greece, had this to say about democracy: “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”
Just a couple of illustrative actions by Jackson put him near the bottom of the barrel as “The Worst U. S. President.” The first instance involved a young boy, a volunteer who was on guard duty and purportedly was insubordinate to one of Jackson’s officers. The following day Jackson ordered a court to be convened. Following testimony, Jackson ordered the young boy to be shot.
Jackson’s most detestable and criminal action during his tenure as the Seventh President was the forcible removal of Native Americans: Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Seminoles from their ancestral homelands to lands west of the Mississippi. His illogical and mean reasoning was “Indians are not fit to live among civilized White people. “Over 4000, American Indians died on the appropriately named “Trail of Tears” There were more than a handful of incompetent leaders and others lacking in character during the 172 years between the Jackson and Obama administrations. Still America strove for and thrived and acquired the approbation of the rest of the civilized world for her adherence to godly principles and her charitable republican form of government.
This American Exceptionalism has been praised, commented upon and noted in many quotations beginning as far back as the 17th century. ”America is the only nation in the world that is founded on creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.”
Facts are just that; facts: America has from her earliest beginnings gone to the aid of peoples in dire straits the world over. However, in our worst of times, very few nations have offered assistance, namely Russia, the United Arab Emirates and yes, even Cuba during Hurricane Katrina. Their offer was turned down by our not-too-classy government.
With our growth and ascendancy in the eyes of the world, we have also become, at the highest levels, too arrogant. While at average citizens’ level we have allowed ourselves to become not only banal, humdrum and commonplace, but also profane, irreligious and downright vulgar. As a nation of former good and decent Jews and Christians, we have allowed a perverse entertainment industry with its overpaid performers and their adherents to lead us into temptation and downright godless beliefs and behavior. Gratuitous sex, gross humor, homosexuality, tolerance for filth, irresponsible parenthood, absentee fathers, drastic decline in marriage before parenthood, abortions by the millions, Obama’s refusal to enfoce DOMA and other laws of the land, his endorsement of Gay Pride and the abandonment of our National Day of Prayer, his outright refusal to disclose his real identity and allegiances, his outrageous use of Communist ornamentation on the National Christmas Tree…The foregoing are but a mere sampling of his and his administration’s bad behavior.
Obama’s list of High Crimes and Misdemeanors is equally extensive, yet the Congress and the federal bureaucracy act as though all is well; not to worry. Nonsense! Hardly a day goes by that one of our northern neighbors doesn’t quip about our downslide to decadence, our reversal from exceptionalism to excrement.
Specifically, our so-called oversight body, the absentee 114th Congress, as well as its predecessors, is dysfunctional, derelict, absent and feckless. They, of all members of the so-called government, were and are sworn to Protect and Defend, not their place at the slop trough, but THE CONSTITUTION! Obama and Holder SHOULD have been impeached for “Operation Fast and Furious” with its consequent murders and first act of treason. Are the Mexican Drug Cartels NOT enemies of the United States?
The Benghazi fiasco should have brought an immediate IMPEACHMENT of Obama, Clinton, Jarrett, Abedin, Susan Rice, Martin Dempsey and Leon Panetta at the absolute minimum. The Charge: again, it is TREASON and Dereliction of Duty plus crass and detestable disregard for human life of four Americans. There is more.
During the latter part of 2012 and early 2013, Obama, Clinton, Kerry, Jarrett and Abedin transferred 20 F-16 Fighter Jets, 200 Abrams Tanks and One Million American Dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood, a blatant Act of TREASON. This old man expects at least one faux president to HANG BY THE NECK FOR HIS CRIMES!