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Show Page 14 The Ogden Valley news Volume XIV Issue XIX July 15, 2007 FATHERS cont. from page 1 But the important points had to do with what I learned at the University of Utah as the two key questions of Political Science. The first one is, “What is the nature of man?” What are we? And the second one is, “What is the nature of the state?” And your answer to the first question will determine your answer to the second. Without going into a lot of examples let me just give you one that is a contemporary to some of us in the room. If you were to ask Adolf Hitler what is the nature of man, Adolf Hitler would say, “Man is the creation of his ‘volk’ (people or race).” A man/woman comes out of the race to which he or she belongs; therefore, the volk, people, the nation, is more important than the individual. And there are some people that are better than others. And so what kind of state did he build? What was his view of the nature of man, what was his view of the state? The state exists to exalt the purity of the race, and since he thought that there was one group that polluted other races, because they had no homeland; therefore, they had no legitimate volk—the Jews—so he created a state that [tried to] systematically murder all the Jews. These are two very important questions, what is the nature of man; what is the nature of the state. And Thomas Jefferson said, the answer to the first question, speaking on behalf of the Continental Congress, “We hold these truths to be self evident”—we don’t debate them—“that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That was America’s answer to the fundamental question, “What is the nature of man?” Then, what is the nature of the state? Jefferson went on, “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” That’s the purpose of government—to secure these rights. Rights are given to all from God, and the purpose of government is to secure those rights. That’s a concept Adolf Hitler would never, ever have embraced given his view of the nature of man. And it was a concept that was revolutionary—truly revolutionary—and became the guiding concept of the new nation. Now, the new nation after it had won its freedom didn’t work. It tried to hold itself together in kind of the same way that it had been put together during the Revolutionary War under the Articles of Confederation and it didn’t work. To be very blunt about it; it just flat didn’t’ work. And recognizing that, the Continental Congress appointed a group of men to come together in Philadelphia and amend the Articles of Confederation. And as soon as they got behind closed doors where nobody was watching, they ignored their instructions and improperly, illegally, blatantly said, “Forget the Articles of Confederation. We will not amend them, we will write a whole new Constitution from scratch. And one of the delegates from Virginia, a young man named James Madison said, “I’ve got a draft.” And they started out, with Madison’s draft, to write the Constitution. And who presided over that Convention— George Washington. George Washington, the best known American throughout the entire country. He had the prestige that no one else had. Without his prestige, it would not have worked. What had George Washington done to establish that prestige? Well, he had commanded the Continental Army, he had won the Revolutionary War, and then he resigned his commission. He could have been king very easily. When King George in Britain found out that George Washington had resigned his commission and returned to private life, he said, “If he has done that, he is the greatest man in the world.” He voluntary gave up power. Alright, he’s called out of retirement. He presides over the Constitutional Convention giving it his prestige. And they argue back and forth. In the group was another famous American—more famous overseas than George Washington—the most famous American in the world. The man who had the highest prestige anywhere outside of this county; his name was Benjamin Franklin. George Washington won the war in America; Ben Franklin won the war in Europe. Without Benjamin Franklin convincing the French to finance a movement of independence, we would never, ever have been able to sustain the army. So think about that for just a minute. The French king is going to finance a war of independence. The French king was not interested in supporting independence. He was not interested in supporting the idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, and governments get their rights from the consent of the governed. He was an absolute monarch and the sales job that Benjamin did to get him to put up the money for our Revolution means that Franklin deserves the honors that he has received. There was another man in that Convention. They say that Madison was the father of the Constitution; well, Alexander Hamilton was the midwife! Alexander Hamilton served on Washington’s staff, he had Washington’s ear. Washington had enough confidence in Hamilton that Hamilton broached many of Washington’s orders and signed Washington’s name. And Hamilton had an understanding of the future and what it would take for this government to work that no one else at the Convention had. Now, when the delegation from New York discovered that they were writing a new Constitution instead of just amending the Articles of Confederation, they said, “We’re out of here. You guys are doing something you have no legal authority to do, and we’re going home. So all of the delegates from New York stood up and went home. And when you look at the Constitution today, you will see that there are [many] signatures for each one of the 13 states. And New York only has one signature, that of Alexander Hamilton who stayed behind and signed on behalf of New York without absolutely no authority whatsoever. The miracle of Philadelphia . . . . Well, there’s a lot more history, but I shall pass it over, but I will make this point . . . these men each had their own particular talents. Each one provided the piece that was necessary at that particular time, whether it was Adams, or Jefferson, or Washington, or Franklin, or Madison, or Hamilton. And one more that belongs there with them after the country was created, John Marshall, the first significant Chief Justice—he was the fourth Chief Justice in America—but he helped forge the country. With a few exceptions, at one time or another, they all hated each other. We don’t think about that, but they were human beings. Hamilton and Jefferson fought each other continuously. Adams resented Franklin. Jefferson cut up Washington behind his back for political purposes, and Marshall never forgave Jefferson because Marshall served on Washington’s staff and absolutely adored him. And when Jefferson became President and Marshall was the Chief Justice, Jefferson did not want to be sworn in by Chief Justice Marshall, and asked if there were somebody else who could swear him in. Adams, Jefferson . . . we think of them as the powers and the towers, if you will, presiding over the founding of this country. And some would say, looking at this last election, look how badly America has deteriorated. “At the beginning we voters got to choose between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and we’re stuck today with George W. Bush and John Kerry.” Well, let me tell you, George W. Bush and John Kerry staged a much more moderate and polite campaign than John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson staged, probably, the nastiest political campaign ever in our history with each man absolutely convinced that if the other won, the country was finished; the country could not survive the other person becoming President. Fortunately, they reconciled in their old age, and the sentimental and amazing fact is that they both died on the 4 of July in 1836. Adams’ last words were, “At least Jefferson survives,” and he was gone. Jefferson had died three or four hours before. But they reconciled, and carried on the great correspondence between the two of them and politely now went on. With some degree of courtesy they argued as to what kind of country it should be. And Jefferson laid out very clearly his view of what the Constitution really meant, and Adam laid out his view of what the Constitution really meant and they were very far apart. Now, they were politicians, and like politicians they had their passions, they had their disagreements, they went over the top sometimes in their arguments—they fought bitterly. But like politicians, when you come to a problem that you can’t solve, you kick it down the road for future politicians to deal with! And that’s exactly what they did with the one insoluble problem that they faced, which was slavery. And in his writings to Adams, Jefferson laid out the case that the South adopted when it came time to discuss the Civil War. All of the arguments for succession and slavery were rooted in the correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, and Adams laid out the case that Abraham Lincoln adopted in the north. We often don’t realize that. In fact, I remember very clearly the final question on my Political Science test. And it said, “Choose either the case for the South or the case for the North with respect to the legitimacy of their position going into the Civil War.” And I chose the southern case because it was easier to defend, and I wanted the grade. The northern case was the one I would embrace on its ultimate merits, but the legal case that Jefferson made was very strong in the Constitution. And so, while we’re here on the 4th of July to celebrate Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall—the founding fathers—I want to close by talking about Abraham Lincoln. They kicked it down the road for future politicians to have to deal with, and the future politician who had to deal with it was Abraham Lincoln. And, by coincidence, the pivotal battle that determines, ultimately, which way the Civil War was going to go was, at its height, coincidently, on the 2nd of July. That’s when Robert E. Lee led the army of Northern Virginia into a little railroad crossing town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg. The battle raged on the 2nd, the battle raged on the 3rd, and Lee, defeated, completed his withdrawal from Gettysburg on the 4th of July. Afterwards, there were so many men killed at Gettysburg, there was a tremendous cemetery created there to bury both the Confederate and the Union dead. The leading orator, Senator Edward Everett, was to go give the oration that went on for over an hour and a half, which was standard for those days. But they [also] invited the President to come and say a few words, and he did, indeed, say a few words. They were all stunned that he would give a speech that was so short. What did he say . . . what did he do at Gettysburg? This was a man charged with putting the Union back together. It had split apart over the twin issues that had dominated American politics for 60 years—slavery and secession. And he had stood on one side with Adams as his philosophical godfather and watched the Union fall apart, and then determined that he would put it back together again with blood and iron. But Abraham Lincoln understood that there was something stronger than blood and iron. America was founded on an idea, and Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg to restate that belief. Listen to what he had to say. You all know it; if you don’t, go home and memorize it. Eighty-seven years ago, although he used the terminology of the time, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation conceived in liberty”—Jefferson’s words—“and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”— Jefferson’s phrase. “Now,” he says, “we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” He put his finger right on the question of the Civil War—will a nation founded on that idea survive? And history says “no.” History says that democracies do not survive very long. And, particularly, a nation without an aristocracy—Adams was in favor of that. A nation without some kind of governing body and tradition that holds them together other than just the people. Could such a nation survive? And history said no, and Lincoln said, “Yes, we can.” What did he say? We look forward, he said, “. . . that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” People now talk about America. We are the FATHERS cont. on page 15 |