The 200-Year Duel (The Hamiltons and the Burrs are still at it)

The Weekly Standard ^ | December 13, 2004 | Matthew Continetti

[society-by-contract]

If Patrick Henry's arguments against the Constitution centered on any one idea, it was the idea that the new constitution lacked a Bill of Rights.

I enjoyed reading the webpage you linked to. Oh to have heard Henry orate! I love reading these documents from the revolution and if I weren't at work, I'd read it aloud myself. The header indicates that it is an excerpt and not the whole speech, so it is difficult to tell, from the excerpt, if the Commander in Chief provision was indeed his primary objection. I read decentralization/federalism into much of the speech. The mace Patrick Henry speaks of is still in the Virginia House of Delegates and still quite impressive.

I grant that the president is not a king, but is increasingly Imperial. I also appreciate civilian control over the military. Every officer's promotion (excepting brevet or battel field promotions)is granted by an act of congress.

The ultimate lesson, for me, is that words on parchment cannot restrain the state, thus making limited government a maiden aunt's dream.

[Ditto]

The ultimate lesson, for me, is that words on parchment cannot restrain the state, thus making limited government a maiden aunt's dream.

You are correct that words themselves mean little. But I'd argue that those particular words have done a pretty damn good job or stifling would-be tyrants and the incidents where the "state" has loosened the intended restraints are "mostly" the fault of "We The People" in ignoring the document and have "mostly" been temporal and reversed when the "crisis" has passed.

You can't blame the "Damn Federalists" for our malfeasance. IMHO, they produced the finest work of man ever created and did it under extraordinarily difficult, some would say impossible, circumstances. It is simply amazing.

Hamilton et. al. deserve our praise, not our damnation.

[x]

Aaron Burr got a big boost by being the grandson of the famous New England preacher Jonathan Edwards, and now here's a Richard Burr succeeding a John Edwards. Burr's parents died when he was very young (Both Aaron Burr Sr. and Jonathan Edwards were briefly President of what became Princeton University, the father-in-law following his son-in-law). Orphanhood is no excuse for Burr's character and behavior, though.

People attack Hamilton for being "big government." There's reason enough for it, but one thing to consider is that if Hamilton and Washington hadn't favored a stronger government than the Antifederalists wanted the country might not have survived the internal dissentions and foreign manipulations of its early years. If we judge the country against some vision of limitless freedom we'll naturally feel that the country has fallen short of its potential, but if we look at how other new nations around the world fared, we might conclude that we were quite successful, thanks at least in part to Washington and Hamilton.