Along with 99.9% of my conservative friends and those out there participating in the Tea Party Movement, the time has come for me to focus my energies into teaching everyone who reads this blog about what Conservatism is really about. Where did Conservatism arise? Why does it exist? What did our Founding Fathers, the Framers, intend for the consolidation of the individual nation states into one United States of America?
To do this, I will focus on two easily-read books and will later move on to the papers of James Madison, one of my ancestral cousins.
The first of the two books is “The United States Constitution and Other American Documents”, 2009 edition. It is in its 3rd printing and is available for less than $7 through Barnes & Noble on sale right now.
As the introduction states, “America won its freedoms through revolution, but that was not enough to ensure them for posterity. Our founding fathers recognized the importance of articulating those freedoms in words that could be put in print to guide the policies of the fledgling nation and speak to generations of Americans to come.”
The second is a book called, “Dynamic Freedoms”, compiled and published by a FreeMason of the 33rd degree, Robert B. Watts, Director of Education of the Supreme Council of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, published in 1977. It’s first edition printing was 475,000 copies. I’m not certain where you’ll find it except possibly on Amazon as a used book; however, it should still be out there. I happened across my copy at a yard sale for $1.
As you can tell from the cover, it covers our country’s founding documents, the threat of communism in all its forms (Socialism is a mild form of communism as defined in Websters Dictionary). Those who prefer a Socialistic form of government are those who prefer that the government take care of them from cradle to grave. As you can imagine, those who recently passed healthcare legislation are of the same ilk since they are trying to do away with the ability of private healthcare insurers to make their own private company decisions, force you and I into purchasing a private product under penalty of law, and eventually force such businesses out of existence.
Our “shot across the bow” of England was the Declaration of Independence, declaring our separation from the ‘mother country’ which espoused subjugation rather than any form of freedoms for the people who settled here.
We think about George Washington as being our country’s first president and, when one looks at the fact that he was the first president under our Constitution, that would be correct; however, if one thinks about the Continental Congress, there were several presidents who preceeded Washington who were essentially Congressional presidents.
The Declaration of Independence was revolutionary in its nature. Never before in the history of mankind had any peoples established their independence from their monarchies. Never had any people separated themselves from the rule of those who governed them. And, more importantly, none had ever been successful in their attempts at physical overthrow of their monarchical governments.
The Declaration of Independence would have no force or effect, however, were it not for the forethought of the Framers to create the Constitution. The Constitution brought together the individual Colonies, then operating more or less as independent nation states, each with their own currency, governmental bodies, and laws. The Constitution brought cohesion to these nation states and, as such, provided for a common defense, a common currency, and common laws. It introduced the concept of a judiciary, executive, and law making group of bodies that could provide the necessary cohesion to make the states successful and, in fact, the new nation.
The colonies enacted the Articles of Confederation and through it a Congress of the Confederation of Colonies. This body was overseen by a president and such presidency preceeded what we think of today as the President of the United States. The Articles of Confederation were enacted in 1777, during the American Revolution. Each man who participated in the formation of this country knew that his actions placed him at risk of immediate death and, moreover, that his actions constituted treason against the Crown of England. Each could potentially be dragged back in irons to England to face death at the hands of the Crown’s lackies.
When the Articles of Confederation were created, each of the 13 colonies had a single vote to either engage in the confederation or preventing its enactment. The purpose of the Articles was to balance the power between the states and the Confederation (central governing body). They did not want the Continental Congress to have too much power whereby it could overrule a single state or all the states. Each of the 13 original colony states was to have sovereignty in its own jurisdiction and the Continental Congress was to provide for common defense, common currency, common judicial rules and laws, the ability to declare war, and to mediate inter-state disputes.
The Revolutionary War did not conclude until 1783. The framers understood that there were problems that existed in the Articles of Confederation and, as such, the Continental Congress gathered. In 1786, a Continental Congress had gathered with the purpose of creating the Constitution and governing documents, but it was not successful. There may simply have been too much infighting to achieve the necessary goals. However, they met again in 1787, the Second Constitutional Convention, with 55 delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies. Taking more than four months, they achieved the basic architecture of what is now our country’s form of government.
A simple democracy was not planned for because of the fact that there would be an inequity amongst the several states simply due to population. A state with more inhabitants would be able to tell smaller states what to do and this could not be permitted. So, each state was given two representatives in what was to become the upper house (Senate) and the lower house (the House of Congress) was to be based on the distribution of inhabitants of each state.
They came up with seven articles to balance the powers of the federal government. After enacting this document, they determined that certain amendments needed to be created to ensure the rights of the people to prevent the federal government from usurping the powers of the individuals and the states in which they resided. This became what we call today, the Bill of Rights. It was not a method of giving the federal government authority, but rather protecting the common person from the abuse of power and authority of the federal governement.
Even today the Constitutional Amendments are to be a protection for the people to prevent the federal government from overtaking our lives. Yet, as we’ve seen all too frequently in the past several years, the federal government has elected to run roughshod over the lives of its citizenry.
We shall explore, article by article, including each amendment, the true role of the government in our lives and what we, as simple citizens, can do to put the federal government back into its correct and limited role and to take the people off the socialist teat. For without putting the federal government back into its proper place, we shall, as a people, allow its unlimited usurpation of power.
In addition, we will take a good hard look at the current legislative “reforms” that our Congress has enacted and compare them with the intent of the Framers. Appropriate documentary substantiation shall be used for these comparisons and simple mathematics, caculating the actual cost of such enacted legislation will be given for examples.
Eventually, I will review the contents of the red pouches of James Madison, the Federalist Papers. James Madison, one of my ancestral cousins, along with George Washington, were reluctant heroes of our country and their heroic conduct under wrongs of persecution will be fully explored here on these pages.
As a Constitutional Conservative, I am a Federalist. I am a Republican. I am my ancestors’ descendant.
politicalchick1
