Posted on 11/19/2009 3:18:27 PM PST by Jacquerie
Prominent among the problems of postrevolutionary America were the deficiencies of its fundamental charter, the Articles of Confederation.
Beyond these difficulties inherent in the situation loomed a further range of problems attributable to, or at least exacerbated by, the government of the Confederation. There seemed to be no prospect of coping with the war debts that were overwhelming both nation and states; the British could not be compelled to honor their agreement under the Treaty of Paris to vacate the western forts; the western settlers increasingly felt they owed little to a government that could guarantee the security neither of their person nor of their trade routes. Ultimately a new government, formed on different principles than those of the Articles of Confederation, would come to cope with these problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at press-pubs.uchicago.edu ...
Patriots ping!
That remains to be seen. Get back to me in 6 or 7 years.
Is there another governing document you prefer?
I wouldn’t get defensive. I tend to share San Jocinto’s initial reaction. Our constitution has been so basterdized and trampled in the past and doubly so in the past 8 months, it is hard to debate what we should have done to begin with. Had we stuck to the very core principles of the constitution this country would be far better.
No offense.
That said, the original federation would not have lasted and the world would be very much different today. It would be a lot worse. But then, we wouldn’t know the difference.
I wouldn’t get defensive. I tend to share San Jocinto’s initial reaction. Our constitution has been so basterdized and trampled in the past and doubly so in the past 8 months, it is hard to debate what we should have done to begin with. Had we stuck to the very core principles of the constitution this country would be far better.
No offense.
That said, the original federation would not have lasted and the world would be very much different today. It would be a lot worse. But then, we wouldn’t know the difference.
There was the French & Indian War, Revolutionary War and uprisings and various problems with the peace. We're talking 25 years or so of social upheaval.
As foreign observers openly predicted the fall of the US or perhaps reabsorption back to England, our framers got together to correct the situation.
The result was the Constitution. The most perfect document created to arrange the relationship of man to state. It took the Natural Law philosophy of our Founders and unlike the Articles it put it that philosophy into practice.
It is not the fault of the Framers nor Constitution itself that it survived pretty well intact until 1933. No piece of parchment can protect our liberties. It is up to we the people and we have done a poor job of it.
“It is not the fault of the Framers nor Constitution itself that it survived pretty well intact until 1933. No piece of parchment can protect our liberties. It is up to we the people and we have done a poor job of it.”
Amen.
I prefer a governing document which recognizes God given rights which the government has no power to regulate to the point of eradication.
It seems our current governing document allows for the confiscation of all wealth and all property with no regard to due process; allows the proscription of free speech critical of incumbent office holders at election time; authorizes heavy regulation and restriction on gun ownership, and perhaps affords no right to own any arms at all outside the confines of a government run 'militia'. Currently, the average working citizen is required to turn over as much as 7 1/2 months worth of his earnings for every 12 months worked; the right to vote is often rendered as meaningless in that it is swamped by rampant fraud and thuggery; every business which employs more than 25 persons is subject to TENS OF THOUSANDS of pages of governmental regulations controlling every aspect of operation (and the smallest businesses fair little better).
Citizens are servants of the State and are being made dependent on it for the basic necessities of survival. The top 1% of taxpayers pay more income tax than the bottom 95%. Economic, social, and electoral arrangements are either in place or are being put into place to ensure that only politicians can be elected to office who are committted to keep the hand-outs coming.
In the 1820's and 1830's there was robust debate about the propriety of government, especially at the federal level, of getting involved in "charity". That debate is over and there is no longer any discussion of it. The Constitution has been so eroded over time as to be unrecognizable to the Founders, but NOTHING has yet happened which compares to the current threat. Socialized medicine, cap and trade, converting illegal immigrants to 15 million new voters only represent the beginning. The Democrats are expanding the number of judges so as to accomodate well over 100 new Obama appointments.
The "freedoms" under the Constitution largely mean the right to abortion, the right to gay marriage, the right to free education and health care for illegals, the right to affirmative action for selected minorities, the right to unionize every privately owned business, the right to "free" food, housing and cell phones for those who prefer not to work, and religious freedom for those who wish to advocate on behalf of foreign terrorists, whereas quoting from the Bible may be prosecuted as a Hate Crime (and absolutely no praying in the schools, of course-- except when Muslims are accorded a special room for just that purpose).
The Constitution is not exactly a "success story" after about 220 years in limiting governmental power of the individual citizen, is it? It is more of a sword in the hand of a powerful government than it is a shield against the government. And we have only been governed by a cadre of actual bona fide committed radical Marxists for less than 11 months.
So, like I said, get back to me in 6 or 7 years.
See my post #7.
>Our constitution has been so basterdized and trampled in the past and doubly so in the past 8 months, it is hard to debate what we should have done to begin with.
One thing that really gets me about the bastardization/trampling is the complete disregard for the simple sentence: “No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.”
Note that this prohibition against either laws targeting a single person (or group) or retroactive laws is written in the passive voice, it has no constraints to either the level nor the branch of government. And yet we see such laws fairly common now (esp taxation).
Back to the Articles of Confederation.
Recall that they were so awful that the states convened to repair them only a few years after ratification.
There were numerous times when not enough states were present to constitute a quorum in Congress. The thirteen little states squabbled among themselves like the republics of ancient Greece or Italy.
One example is when MA,RI and NH imposed restraints on English trade in the hope of exacting concessions from Parliament. CT not only opened her ports to unrestricted trade with England but went so far as to lay duties on imports from MA.
This happened despite the fact that the Articles of Confederation conferred the power to regulate trade to Congress. The US was dissolving. Without the Constitution there would be no US.
It survived "pretty well intact" only until "Teddy" Roosevelt struck the first Marxist blows and then the 16th and 17th....
It has been a slippery slide downhill ever since...We are merely witnessing the unstoppable (by elective means) endgame...
"Delivered at the Request of THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, in the City of New York, on Tuesday, the 30th of April, 1839; Being the Fiftieth Anniversary of the INAUGURATION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON as PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, on Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789."
In that address, Adams traced the history of the ideas of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, including a complete discussion of the reasons why the Confederation failed, as well as why the 1787 Constitution fulfilled the principles of liberty encapsulated in the Declaration of Independence. No better history exists of the ideas underlying our Constitution than this one.
This "Jubilee" address should have been included in every history book, inasmuch as John Q. Adams was 9 years old when his father's impassioned words helped to motivate the Declaration of Independence, and an accomplished young man eleven years later when the Constitution was written. He served in many posts, including Secretary of State, President, and Congressman until his death. See
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