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| Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia - 1787 |
I'm starting to set up for our 4th of July celebration. We're having three families over to swim and cook out and look forward to the happy laughter of all the children. We'll probably all go over to the fairgrounds later for the wonderful fireworks display that rivals any we've ever seen except for Reagan's inauguration.
Somehow I doubt that many families actually discuss the reason we celebrate. These days, you're more likely to see mobs of ignorant, woke millennials out tearing down the statues of the founding fathers than honoring them. And that's sad, because this country, that sees millions of illegals pouring in because of their desire for what America has to offer, was founded on godly principles. Unfortunately, they were primarily Protestant principles. Nevertheless, they got us off to a good start.
How many young people know what Benjamin Franklin said, when a woman asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention gave us in 1787? Franklin replied, "A republic if you can keep it." Yes, a constitutional republic. Those founders gathered in Philadelphia wanted a government ultimately controlled by the people. One author describing the events of the convention titled her book Miracle at Philadelphia.
The question today is can we keep our republic? Have we kept it? The erosion of our rights as we sink into a state of tyrannical oligarchy should alarm any thinking American. How many men in the street could name even three of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention? How many know the price many of those patriots paid for signing and promulgating our founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Few I'm afraid.
Today should be a bugle call to all parents to teach their children about the great men and women who suffered and died for this country, like Nathan Hale hanged as a spy with these words attributed to him: "My only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country." The heroes of our founding paid a high price for our liberty. Many lost everything and died impoverished. They were white and felt privileged to sacrifice all in order to build one nation under God.
Yes, some of them owned slaves which became a contentious argument at the convention. Some state delegates refused to ratify the Constitution if it eliminated slavery. Jefferson, himself a slaveholder, wanted the "peculiar institution" eliminated. As president in 1806 with the expiration of the slavery clause in the Constitution about to expire, Thomas Jefferson addressed these words to Congress:
“I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country have long been eager to proscribe.”
Does it seem odd that a slave owner was supporting the expiration of the slavery clause that prohibited Congress from taking action against slavery? All the armchair warmongers who condemn the south completely and sanctify the north ignore the history of the times judging by today's, might I say, hypocritical standards. Are we better than those southern slave owners? Don't we have our own slaves today, literally in some parts of the world!
Face the truth! We have slaves in this country for those with eyes to see. Women and children sold into the sex trafficking trade, prostitutes controlled by their pimps, addicts owned by the drug cartels.
Go to Monticello and read Jefferson's extensive documents about how he treated his slaves. Is that an argument for slavery? Of course not! But the immigrants working in the cattle yards and canning factories of the north lived and died slaves to immoral business owners. The muckrakers of the time, documented in fiction the horrendous living and working conditions for those families, worse in many cases than the what slaves in the south were experiencing.
Teach your children the real history of our country. Hillsdale College offers many free courses, certainly a gold mine for home schooling teenagers. Help them understand the truth about our founding and our history. And what better day to start than the 4th of July. Patriotism is a virtue. as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas. After God, he says, each of us is a "debtor chiefly to his parents and his country." Tomorrow we can pay on that debt to our country by honoring those who laid her foundations. We had a good start. What is our report card for keeping the republic established during that "miracle at Philadelphia?" Not great I'd say. But ignorance can be fixed. Let's all start by telling stories about our beginning.
The founding principles of our government are actually freemasonic at its core. Freedom of speech and religion, the left/right paradigm, for example.
ReplyDeleteI think that's an oversimplification, Debbie. It certainly played a role, but only a handful of the founders were active Masons from what I've read.
ReplyDeleteI listened to the two Hillsdale chapters on slavery and the founding. One thing they did not mention was that the Constitutional convention (as per Madison's notes, which were curiously embargoed for fifty years) explicitly discussed that internal slavebreeding would outpace the slavery imports that were to be banned in 1808, so they knew that slavery would persist past the import ban. In fact, slavery mushroomed to 4 million by the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteMuch more that pertains to the remarkable twins slavery and abortion at momanddadmatters.substack.com . Pray and write GOP leaders that the abolition-ready GOP platform does *not* get molested and that we abolish abortion by created equal's birthday in 2026!
I’m looking forward to reading Charles Coulombe’s “Puritan Empire” for a Catholic perspective on American history.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tumblarhouse.com/products/puritans-empire-charles-coulombe
The Constitution is the framework of our nation, its skeleton - the what.
ReplyDeleteThe Declaration of Independence, its soul - the who.
The Federalist Papers the purpose of our nation - the how.
I think I will commit to reading these for the first time this summer:
https://thefederalist.com/2024/07/04/the-federalist-papers-are-the-cure-to-americas-rampant-political-illiteracy/
"Condemn the South completely" - it fought for slavery. It losing the war was a very merciful punishment.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Founders... They didn't devise a good political system - in fact, it was destined to fall apart. This was because they were sold on a lie - that mere peasants can be depended to discern truth from lie and correctness from error when it comes to ruling a country. But peasants - no matter how much land they own or how much money they still make or how armed they are - are still peasants. They are untrained for rule; it must always be undertaken by a more specialized and educated class of people, hence why even democracies practice choosing specific representatives with political and other credentials. Knowledge of how to rule a country is beyond most people - which is why a democracy/republic cannot be a good (term limits ensure that no good ruler can actually stay in power long enough to undo bad laws and other such things. That's why America will never be fixed lawfully) and long-standing form of government. The best system was actually the Persian one - which correctly placed the power into the hands of a good shah. Even Plato wrote of philosopher kings - which was actually the concept most closely adhered to by the Persian empires.
I had to laugh when I read your comment, Anonymous. Who instigated the French Revolution? The intelligentsia. Who instigated the Russian Revolution? The intelligentsia. Give me peasant rule any day. They won't be advocating for killing babies and saying men can be men and women can be women. I agree that a holy monarchy like that under King Louis the IX of France is, perhaps, the best form of government, but then you risk getting a Henry VIII or a Napoleon. This brings to mind William Buckley's statement: “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory,” he said, “than by the Harvard University faculty.” He sure got that right!
ReplyDelete"Who instigated the French Revolution" - were nothing more than overzealous rabble, that had not taken off at all were they not supported en masse by uneducated peasants (who expected an "equal" utopia and were fooled by those pseudo-intellectuals). You think those pseudo-intellectuals were equals to actual good rulers of old, both in terms of actual intelligence and ability to rule? Do you think that they were actually trained to rule from birth? "They won't be advocating for killing babies" - but they do, because they were easily fooled into it. And what did it take? 50 years of cases and "precedents" pushed in courts in states with low church attendance? Funny, really - when Europe was under the rule of kings, nobody except freaks like Marquis de Sade even dared to voice such ignoble concepts. As soon as peasants were given the supposed power of voting, it all went downhill. Because the removal of a class of people specifically trained for ruling - and who thus gatekept ruling from bad actors and pseudo-intellectuals and merchants hungering for power they did not deserve - unleashed all the aforementioned bad actors. Peasants do not wield power - but those that convince them to vote for something clearly do. Merchants, pseudo-intellectuals, fame seekers... Rarely would they get to rule in ancient times.
DeleteBy the way, my criticisms of democracy are not new. The very first criticism of it (and the description of the concept, really) came from Herodotus's Histories, which accounted the debates of Darius and his friends when they dealt with the uprising of an usurper. Darius's criticism was that not only the people were stupid and incompetent, but the very nature of democracy ensured that some leader - a monarchical leader, to say - always arose above the people, even if it was supposedly by their mandate. Monarchy, according to Darius, was the eventual destiny of all regimes (even aristocracy/oligarchy was not safe - a body of eminent men would still be engaged in factionalism, intrigues and even war in the competition to be the best, until the inevitable sole ruler arose).
Mary Ann:
ReplyDeleteI was a Boy Scout in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s and Citizenship in the Nation merit badge was very helpful in history and government. I was also fortunate to have good history teachers in 8th and 9th grade. 8th grade was Columbus to the Civil War (including reconstruction) and 9th grade was 1877 to the present day. While I did get Citizenship in the Community merit badge, that was one of the hardest. I think you mentioned you were a Den Mother many years ago ( my mom was too for my younger brothers Cub Scout Den). Happy Independence Day!
No, I was never a den mother although my two boys were in scouts for awhile.
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