“I am strongly impressed with the necessity of having a firm national Government, but I am decidedly against giving it the power of direct taxation; because I think it endangers our liberties…I would consent to give the General Government every power contained in that plan (the Constitution), except that of taxation.”
James Monroe
The guiding star of the American founders was human nature.
They had a rather practical and realistic view of how humans behaved—not how
humans should behave, but how they do behave. They had dreams of
a new land of liberty and individual dignity and worth.
The human experience, especially where it concerned
governments, was never far from their minds. Their goal was to have a
government strong enough to protect liberty, yet not so strong as to be able to
snuff it out. That is why our Constitution was designed as it is with its
disjointed powers and duties.
Even with the Constitution’s design, men like Monroe saw
dangers. They insisted on a Bill of Rights and almost stopped the Constitution
from being ratified until they got it. They did win the promise of that list of
protections. The last enumerated right—powers reserved to the States and the
People was high on their list. They saw state governments as a shield between
themselves and the federal government.
The power of the states was broken in 1865. Once that
happened, it took just over a generation for the federal government to begin to
transform itself. In 1913, it became Monroe’s monster.
There are people today who will tell you that advances in
technology and science have resulted in us becoming better humans, “woke” to
truth, and without the need of protection from a government designed by men who
considered human nature a constant.
We have evolved, they tell us. We don’t need the protections
of the Constitution anymore; in fact, it is just in the way. We now have
government experts, men of science and learning, to formulate the best future
and stand ready to protect us and supply all our needs for free—if we will only
let them.
The last two years have seen great advances toward that
goal. There are just a few deplorable chumps in the way, clingers to guns and
that religion with a view of a human nature that, outside of divine
intervention, is immutable. They are patriots to a dead document and a danger
to the future with their attempts to infect the protected with ideas of
personal liberty they refuse to surrender.
Men like Monroe thought that citizens should
be able to keep and employ the fruits of their own labors as they wished. They
believed we should be free to see a need, enter into the business of supplying
that need, and thereby enrich themselves and others.
Men like our current President think you should be banned
from such freedoms unless you comply with their whims and fears. They are
dedicated to growing a government big enough to snuff out liberty while
maintaining that it is for “the good of all”.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
No comments:
Post a Comment