The desolation that Jefferson referenced, is a recognition of a prevailing
annihilation that natural man has towards a state of rule. The STATE is government
administered by coercion. Inborn rights are intrinsic within ones nature.
Independence of Englishmen from England, was a reluctant alternative for many colonists.
When the revolution was won, the war for the entente began. The Federalist Papers
are viewed by most Americans as constitutive arguments to justify a new constitution. The
erroneous case that the Articles of Confederation failed, is a study in the road to
surrender.
Few truly understand the nature of the 1776 Revolution. Concealed from
memory is that Jefferson did not attend the convention nor was he a contributor to the U.S
Constitution, primarily drafted and guided to ratification (whos legality is still
suspect) by James Madison. In private writings to Jefferson, Madison tips his
hand and admits a shortcoming to the new constitution - Congress was not given a
negative (veto) over state laws.
From James Madison
Explains the Constitution to Thomas Jefferson, we get the rational of Madison.
It was generally agreed that the objects of the Union could not be
secured by any system founded on the principle of a confederation of Sovereign States. A
voluntary observance of the federal law by all the members could never be hoped for. A
compulsive one could evidently never be reduced to practice, and if it could, involved
equal calamities to the innocent and guilty, the necessity of a military force, both
obnoxious and dangerous, and, in general, a scene resembling much more a civil war than
the administration of a regular Government.
Hence was embraced the alternative of a Government which, instead of
operating on the States, should operate without their intervention on the individuals
composing them; and hence the change in the principle and proportion of representation.
This ground-work being laid, the great objects which presented
themselves were:
1. To unite a proper energy in the Executive, and a proper stability in
the Legislative departments, with the essential characters of Republican Government.
2. To draw a line of demarkation which would give to the General
Government every power requisite for general purposes, and leave to the States every power
which might be most beneficially administered by them.
3. To provide for the different interests of different parts of the
Union.
4. To adjust the clashing pretensions of the large and small States.
Each of these objects was pregnant with difficulties. The whole of them together formed a
task more difficult than can be well conceived by those who were not concerned in the
execution of it. Adding to these considerations the natural diversity of human opinions on
all new and complicated subjects, it is impossible to consider the degree of concord which
ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle.
Devastation of Sovereign States was a stated goal in the formation of
this new union. The Bill of Rights, especially the ninth and ten amendments, were mere
window dressing to sooth the normal and healthy suspicions of sane citizens. Tyranny is
the standard rule for rulers, and constitutional provisions intended to consolidate
control, is not a formula for independence.
Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain
rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively,
or to the people.
Jeffersons sympathy for the French Revolution marked a shape
contrast with the Alexander Hamilton faction of the Federalists. The wisdom within a non
interventionist foreign policy of a John Adams, in the tradition of George Washington, did
not fit the despotic vision of Hamilton. The irony is that during a Jefferson
administration a naval flotilla was sent to subdue Barbary pirates and the Louisiana
Territory was acquired. Such examples fostered a strong centralized government. However,
Jefferson did slash Army and Navy expenditures, cut the federal budget, eliminated the tax
on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national debt by a third. When
Hamilton bargained with Jefferson for the trade-off that allowed for the central
government to assume the revolutionary war debt, the fate of the independent States was
ceded on the slippery slope of federal seduction.
The liberty of each individual is diminished proportionately with every
increase in the range, scope and power of government. The promise of the American
Revolution was the ability to limit government, so it could be controlled. Today there is
a disconnect from that reality. Rational society knew that repression was the inevitable
result from the concentration of civic functions under the auspices of expanding
government. The men at Concord Bridge, understood this fact of nature. Now, that insight
is lost to most and represents basic evidence for the mastery of the U.S. Constitution as
a delusional substitute for genuine individual liberty.
The property of the citizen has become a claim of the federal
government. The Sovereign States that Madison resented, have become feudal fiefdoms of an
imperial empire. The happiness which is one of those certain unalienable Rights,
has been lost and replaced with a personal isolation in search of individual dignity and
social justice. The masses have been transformed into Hamiltonian Federalists, as the
principles of Jefferson are ignored, forgotten and betrayed.
Jeffersons passion for a restrained central government was a core
principle foreseen as a primary reason for separation from England. His concept of an
independent and self reliant society was abandoned with the rush to regiment a flawed
national identity. The pivotal question is why bondage is accepted with such ease, and so
few are willing to be true to the revolution and risk - Our lives, our
fortunes, our sacred honor. Heed well, the tradition and sagacity of the
Man from Monticello. "As revolutionary instruments (when nothing but
revolution will cure the evils of the State) [secret societies] are necessary and
indispensable, and the right to use them is inalienable by the people." --Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1803. FE 8:256
Where are you when circumstance demands that a new revolution is justified to
save the purpose of the original nation?SARTRE is the pen name of a reformed, former political
operative. This pundit's formal instruction in History, Philosophy and Political Science
served as training for activism, on the staff of several politicians and in many
campaigns. He is the content liaison for Ether Zone.
SARTRE can be reached at: BATR@sartre.info