History

Oct

2017

Some Founders Seldom Heard. Why?

by Michael Gaddy

Some Founders Seldom Heard. Why?

The vast majority of Americans have been taught by the Public Fool System, Leviathan’s historians and religious con-artists, that a group of devoutly religious men, the majority of whom were in total agreement on the tenets of government, got together in 1787 and came up with a constitution that was widely accepted and is exactly what our politicians, judges and law enforcement observe today as they go about their business.

We all have heard of James Madison who bears the title of “Father of the Constitution.” Strange indeed considering the plan of government Madison wrote and transmitted to George Washington in April of 1787 and was presented at the convention as the “Virginia Plan,” was overwhelmingly rejected at that convention. Perhaps Madison deserves the title because the proposal he wrote is almost exactly the form of government we live under today. A system of government where the central government is supreme over all and the States have been relegated to “mere corporations” with little to no say so in the conduct of the central government.

Founders Washington, Henry and Pendleton Travel to the First Congress

So, who were these virtually unknown founders and what did they have to say about what the constitution, if ratified, would lead to in our country? And more importantly were they correct in their predictions?

Portrait of George Bryan, President (Governor) of Pennsylvania in the 1770s

First, let us take a look at George Bryan of Pennsylvania. Is he a person that any high school graduate would be able to expound upon as a founder of our country? Would he/she even recognize the name? How many adults do you know who recognize this man? Considering he said the following might be why he is not popularly quoted.

“It is the opinion of the greatest writers, that a very extensive country cannot be governed on democratical principles, on any other plan, than a confederation of very small republics, possessing all the powers of internal government, but united in the management of their foreign and general concerns. It would not be difficult to prove, that anything short of despotism could not bind so great a country under one government; and whatever plan you might, at first setting out, establish, it would issue in a despotism.”

Please remember; the “extensive country” spoken of by George Bryan was only 13 States at the time of his statement. Now, who was correct, Bryan or Madison about what kind of government would issue from our Constitution? Who is more widely known?

Was George Bryan alone in his visionary outlook? Certainly not; he was joined by many more of our “founders” you have possibly never heard about.

John Dickinson of Delaware (1732-1808)

There was of course John Dickinson of Delaware. Dickinson had this to say on the subject.

“We cannot have a limited monarchy…our situation will not allow it—Repubs. [Republics] are for awhile industrious but finally destroy themselves—they were badly constituted—I dread a consolidation of the States.”

Considering the passive acceptance of signing statements, executive orders and the prosecution of unconstitutional wars, who could deny that we have a full blown monarchy—not just a limited one? Certainly our early Republic was “industrious” until Abraham Lincoln, operating under the powers of a Monarch, completely discarding the Constitution along the way, destroyed the principles of consent of the governed and definitely instituted a “consolidation of the States” with bullets, cannons and bayonets.

So, we have Bryan and Dickinson—were they alone in their predictions?

Theophilus Parsons; The Social Law Library, Boston, MA.

I’m sure almost everyone is familiar with Theophilus Parsons of Massachusetts. Certainly he is mentioned right along with the Nationalists Madison and Hamilton. Parsons stated:

“Any law…of the United States, for securing to Congress more than a concurrent right with each state is usurpation and void.”

~1788

Wow. Is there any wonder we don’t hear men like Theophilus quoted in political debates, or cited in a Supreme Court ruling?

The above were joined in their political beliefs by none other than Archibald Maclaine of North Carolina, who stated in his state’s ratification convention:

“If the gentleman will attend, he will see this is a government for confederated states; that, consequently, it can never intemeddle where no power is given.”

~1788

Hmmm—try telling this to the Director of the BLM or those who implemented Obamacare!

William Richardson Davie portrait attributed to Fauret de Saint-Memin

What about the words of the very well known and often quoted in today’s political landscape, William Richardson Davie, also of North Carolina?

“If there were any seeds in this Constitution which might, one day, produce a consolidation [of the States] it would, sir, with me, be an insuperable objection, I am so perfectly convinced that so extensive a country as this can never be managed by one consolidated government…if the state governments vanish, the general government must vanish also…the state governments can put a veto, at any time, on the general government, by ceasing to continue the executive power.”

~1788

Well, again, Abraham Lincoln certainly destroyed this concept. Ever wonder why the Republican Party refers to themselves as the “Party of Lincoln?” They sure as hell can’t claim to be that and claim to support our Constitution at the same time!

Rawlins Lowndes of South Carolina

Let’s move along to another well known authority on constitutional intent and what it would become in the future. You are right—-none other than the man mentioned by all candidates for public office and state and federal judges— Rawlins Lowndes of South Carolina, also in 1788:

“The Treaty of Peace [Treaty of Paris 1783] expressly agreed to acknowledge us as free, sovereign, and independent states, which privileges we lived at present in the exercise of. But this new constitution at once swept those privileges away, being sovereign over all; so that this state would dwindle into a mere skeleton of what it was; its legislative powers would be pared down to little more than those now vested in a corporation; and he would value the honor of a seat of the legislature no higher esteem than a seat in the city council.”

Could it be this country honors the wrong Lincoln? Perhaps we need a political party of Lincoln—founder James Lincoln of South Carolina—who said:

“What does this proposed Constitution do? It changes, totally changes, the form of your present government. What have you been contending for these ten years past? Liberty! What is Liberty? The power of governing yourselves. If you adopt this Constitution have you this power? No: you give it into the hands of a set of men who live one thousand miles distant from you. Let the people but once trust their liberties out of their own hands, and what would be the consequence? First, a haughty, imperious aristocracy; and ultimately a tyrannical monarchy.”

John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. Chancellor of New York In office 1801–1814

Then, of course, there is John Lansing of New York; who, along with Robert Yates, walked out of the Philadelphia Convention because they felt the convention was exceeding the powers that had been granted to them by the people of New York. Wow—what a display of integrity. Perhaps that is why neither one of these men is widely quoted today—either by court historians or the general public. Here is what Lansing had to say about the proposed constitution at the New York State Ratification Convention. Was he right?

“Sir, if you do not give the states the power to protect themselves, if you leave them no other check upon Congress than the power of appointing Senators, they will certainly be overcome.”

(Note: the not properly amended 17th Amendment took away that check too.)

Edmund Pendleton of Virginia would state during his state’s ratification debates, while agreeing with Patrick Henry, the following:

Edmund Pendleton 1872. 1st Chief Justice of Virginia. 1872 engraving by H.B. Hall.

“If this be such a government [consolidated] I will confess, with my worthy friend [Henry] that it is inadmissible over such a territory as this country. Let us consider whether it be such a government or not. I should understand a consolidated government to be that which would have the sole and exclusive power, legislative, executive and judicial without any limitation. Is this such a government? Or can it be changed to such a one? It only extends to the general purposes of the Union. It does not intermeddle with the local particular affairs of the state.”

What we have in our country today is what Edmund Randolph described in the above—a completely consolidated government that claims “sole and exclusive power, legislative, executive and judicial, without any limitation.” That is not the government that was promised to those who ratified the Constitution in 1787-88!

It is the government of Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, John Jay, Joseph Story, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W Bush, Barack Obama, the US Supreme Court, federal and state judges, the law enforcement community and everyone who is running for president from both political parties in 2016.

Could it be that is why the names in the above paragraph are recognized by almost everyone, but the names of Bryant, Dickinson, Lowndes, Davie, Parsons, Lansing, Pendleton and James Lincoln are virtually unknown today—especially among politicians, educators, judges and the population as a whole?

The powers of today’s government are stolen powers, taken from the States and the people, and have led to the current state of affairs in our country. We are beyond broke; presidents use unconstitutional powers of the monarch; congress has laid down like a scared puppy, wetting the floor at the feet of the military/industrial/banking complex; our children and grandchildren are taught the laws of the tyrant are sacrosanct; the culture that founded this country is ridiculed and demonized and our government has taken on the mantle of a religion to the masses.

This was not the form of government that was ratified by the founders most have never heard of. Believe me—the fact you don’t know who they are and what they said is no accident.

IN RIGHTFUL REBEL LIBERTY

Oct

2017

General Lee Speaks: Had it Figured Out

By Fred Reed

The man was perceptive. Amalgamation of the states under a central government has led to exactly the effects foreseen by General Lee.

“The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.”

~ General Lee

Lee at age 31 in 1838, as a Lieutenant of Engineers in the U.S. Army. By William Edward West (1788-1857) - Thomas, Emory M. Robert E. Lee: an album. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 1999 ISBN 0-393-04778-4, Public Domain

In, say, 1950, to an appreciable though imperfect extent America resembled a confederacy. Different regions of the America had little contact with each other, and almost no influence over one another. The federal government was small and remote. Interstates did not exist, nor of course the internet, nor even direct long-distance telephone dialing. West Virginia, Alabama, Massachusetts, New York City, Texas, and California had little in common, but little conflict arose since for practical purposes they were almost different countries. They chiefly governed themselves. The proportion of federal to state law was small.

It is important to note that regional differences were great. In 1964 in rural Virginia, the boys brought shotguns to school during deer season. Nobody shot anybody because it wasn’t in the culture. The culture was uniform, so no one was upset. It is when cultures are mixed, or one rules another, that antagonism comes. Such shotgun freedom would not have worked in New York City with its variegated and often mutually hostile ethnicities.

Regions differed importantly in degree of freedom, not just in the freedom of local populations to govern themselves but also in individual freedom. It made a large difference in the tenor of life. If in Texas, rural Virginia, or West Virginia you wanted to build an addition to your house, you did. You didn’t need licenses, permits, inspections, union-certified electricians. Speed limits? Largely ignored. Federal requirements for Coast Guard approved flotation devices on your canoe? What the hell kind of crazy idea was that?

Democracy works better the smaller the group practicing it. In a town, people can actually understand the questions of the day. They know what matters to them. Do we build a new school, or expand the existing one? Do we want our children to recite the pledge of allegiance, or don’t we? Reenact the Battle of Antietam? Sing Christmas carols in the town square? We can decide these things. Leave us alone.

States similarly knew what their people wanted and, within the limits of human frailty, governed accordingly.

Then came the vast empire, the phenomenal increase in the power and reach of the federal government, which really means the Northeast Corridor. The Supreme Court expanded and expanded and expanded the authority of Washington, New York’s store-front operation. The federals now decided what could be taught in the schools, what religious practices could be permitted, what standards employers could use in hiring, who they had to hire. The media coalesced into a small number of corporations, controlled from New Yorkbut with national reach. More recently we have added surveillance of everything by Washington’s intelligence agencies.

Tyranny at home, said General Lee . Just so. This could happen only with the consolidation of the states into one vast empire.

Tyranny comes easily when those seeking it need only corrupt a single Congress, appoint a single Supreme Court, or control the departments of one executive branch. In a confederation of largely self-governing states, those hungry to domineer would have to suborn fifty congresses. It could not be done. State governments are accessible to the governed. They can be ejected. They are much more likely to be sympathetic to the desires of their constituents since they are of the same culture.

Aggressive abroad, said General Lee. Is this not exactly what we see? At this moment Washington has the better part of a thousand military bases around the world, unnecessary except for the maintenance of empire. America exists in a state of constant war, bombing Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, recently having destroyed Iraq and Libya. Washington threatens Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China. Its military moves deeper into Africa. Washington sanctions Cuba, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, to no effect. It constantly tries to dominate other nations, for example adding to NATO.

None of these wars and little if any of the imperial aggression interests more than a tiny fraction of the country’s people. To whom can the war against Afghanistan matter? Libya? Few people have heard of Montenegro. Does its membership in NATO or lack of it affect Idaho?

In a confederacy, states would have to approve a war. Few would unless the United States itself were threatened. They might well refuse to pay for wars not in their benefit, or to allow their sons, daughters, and transgenders to be conscripted.

But with a central government, those benefiting from war can concentrate money and influence only on that government. For example, military industry, Israel, big oil, Wall Street. Wars might carry the votes of states with arms factories. Other states would decline.

In principle, the Constitution should have prevented the hijacking of the military that we now suffer. As we all should know, and some do, America cannot under the Constitution go to war without a declaration by Congress, the last one of which occurred in 1941. But a single central government can be corrupted more easily than fifty state governments. A few billionaires, well-funded lobbies, and the remoteness of Washington from the common consciousness make controlling the legislature as easy as buying a pair of shoes.

And thus, just as Marse Bob expected, the federals are out of control and make war without the least reference to the nation. If America attacks North Korea, or Russia, or China, we will read of it the day after. The central government, and only the central government, decides. A few days ago I read that the Pentagon contemplates sending thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan. This combines tyranny at home and aggression abroad. Who wants to send them? A few neocons in New York, the arms industry, a few generals, and several senators. It could not happen in a confederacy.

Will this, as General Lee predicted, prove “the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.”? Wait.

Source

Oct

2017

Thomas Jefferson Second Inaugural Address

March 4, 1805

Proceeding, fellow citizens, to that qualification which the constitution requires, before my entrance on the charge again conferred upon me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I entertain of this new proof of confidence from my fellow citizens at large, and the zeal with which it inspires me, so to conduct myself as may best satisfy their just expectations.

On taking this station on a former occasion, I declared the principles on which I believed it my duty to administer the affairs of our commonwealth. My conscience tells me that I have, on every occasion, acted up to that declaration, according to its obvious import, and to the understanding of every candid mind.

In the transaction of your foreign affairs, we have endeavored to cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially of those with which we have the most important relations. We have done them justice on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms. We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations, as with individuals, our interests soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties; and history bears witness to the fact, that a just nation is taken on its word, when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.

At home, fellow citizens, you best know whether we have done well or ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These covering our land with officers, and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively every article of produce and property. If among these taxes some minor ones fell which had not been inconvenient, it was because their amount would not have paid the officers who collected them, and because, if they had any merit, the state authorities might adopt them, instead of others less approved.

The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles, is paid cheerfully by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboards and frontiers only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask, what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States? These contributions enable us to support the current expenses of the government, to fulfil contracts with foreign nations, to extinguish the native right of soil within our limits, to extend those limits, and to apply such a surplus to our public debts, as places at a short day their final redemption, and that redemption once effected, the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just repartition among the states, and a corresponding amendment of the constitution, be applied, _in time of peace_, to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within each state. _In time of war_, if injustice, by ourselves or others, must sometimes produce war, increased as the same revenue will be increased by population and consumption, and aided by other resources reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the expenses of the year, without encroaching on the rights of future generations, by burdening them with the debts of the past. War will then be but a suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of peace, a return to the progress of improvement.

I have said, fellow citizens, that the income reserved had enabled us to extend our limits; but that extension may possibly pay for itself before we are called on, and in the meantime, may keep down the accruing interest; in all events, it will repay the advances we have made. I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some, from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association, the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children, than by strangers of another family? With which shall we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse?

In matters of religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the constitution independent of the powers of the general government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it; but have left them, as the constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state or church authorities acknowledged by the several religious societies.

The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on these shores; without power to divert, or habits to contend against, they have been overwhelmed by the current, or driven before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their place in existence, and to prepare them in time for that state of society, which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals. We have therefore liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry and household use; we have placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity; and they are covered with the aegis of the law against aggressors from among ourselves.

But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason, follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of circumstances, have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are combated by the habits of their bodies, prejudice of their minds, ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and crafty individuals among them, who feel themselves something in the present order of things, and fear to become nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did, must be done through all time; that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its counsel, in their physical, moral, or political condition, is perilous innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety, and knowledge full of danger; in short, my friends, among them is seen the action and counteraction of good sense and bigotry; they, too, have their anti-philosophers, who find an interest in keeping things in their present state, who dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the ascendency of habit over the duty of improving our reason, and obeying its mandates.

In giving these outlines, I do not mean, fellow citizens, to arrogate to myself the merit of the measures; that is due, in the first place, to the reflecting character of our citizens at large, who, by the weight of public opinion, influence and strengthen the public measures; it is due to the sound discretion with which they select from among themselves those to whom they confide the legislative duties; it is due to the zeal and wisdom of the characters thus selected, who lay the foundations of public happiness in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains for others; and it is due to the able and faithful auxiliaries, whose patriotism has associated with me in the executive functions.

During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been levelled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science, are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness, and to sap its safety; they might, indeed, have been corrected by the wholesome punishments reserved and provided by the laws of the several States against falsehood and defamation; but public duties more urgent press on the time of public servants, and the offenders have therefore been left to find their punishment in the public indignation.

Nor was it uninteresting to the world, that an experiment should be fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion, unaided by power, is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of truth -- whether a government, conducting itself in the true spirit of its constitution, with zeal and purity, and doing no act which it would be unwilling the whole world should witness, can be written down by falsehood and defamation. The experiment has been tried; you have witnessed the scene; our fellow citizens have looked on, cool and collected; they saw the latent source from which these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their public functionaries, and when the constitution called them to the decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honorable to those who had served them, and consolatory to the friend of man, who believes he may be intrusted with his own affairs.

No inference is here intended, that the laws, provided by the State against false and defamatory publications, should not be enforced; he who has time, renders a service to public morals and public tranquillity, in reforming these abuses by the salutary coercions of the law; but the experiment is noted, to prove that, since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint; the public judgment will correct false reasonings and opinions, on a full hearing of all parties; and no other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its supplement must be sought in the censorship of public opinion.

Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally, as auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to our country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not yet rallied to the same point, the disposition to do so is gaining strength; facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them; and our doubting brethren will at length see, that the mass of their fellow citizens, with whom they cannot yet resolve to act, as to principles and measures, think as they think, and desire what they desire; that our wish, as well as theirs, is, that the public efforts may be directed honestly to the public good, that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order preserved; equality of rights maintained, and that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry, or that of his fathers. When satisfied of these views, it is not in human nature that they should not approve and support them; in the meantime, let us cherish them with patient affection; let us do them justice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest; and we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own interests, will at length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country, and will complete their entire union of opinion, which gives to a nation the blessing of harmony, and the benefit of all its strength.

I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow citizens have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved. I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from the path of justice; but the weakness of human nature, and the limits of my own understanding, will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence I have heretofore experienced -- the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications, that he will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do, shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.