The Banner of Fascist Majoritarianism
Fake libertarian and conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck is well known for his love of the term "we the people." He, and his fascist Tea Party supporters, throw about this term as if it was their version of Mein Kampf. This all encompassing phrase begins the United States Constitution and is probably the best known, and most misused, maxim in American history. In the name of "we the people" What these uninformed Beck-ites do not understand is that the phrase "we the people" is NOT one any conservative or limited government movement should hold up as their motto. The history of the term "we the people" is scary and was opposed by one of the biggest freedom fighters in American history.
Patrick Henry: The Hero of Anti-Federalism and the Leading Voice against "We the People"
Patrick Henry: The Hero of Anti-Federalism and the Leading Voice against "We the People"
The average college educated American may be able to tell you a little something ab0ut Patrick Henry. In most American History 103 classes the well meaning professor will generally tell the class that on March 23, 1775, Henry declared at St. John's Church before the Virginia Convention, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me give me liberty or give me death!" This speech is one of the most well known in history, but the context of the speech is not as well known. Henry, despite attempts by historians to say otherwise, was a radical who truly wanted a separation from government. In 1763, while arguing the Parson's Cause in Hanover County, Mr. Henry declared quite boldly that a king who would veto a just and necessary law voted on and passed by a locally elected representative body was not a father to his people but "a tyrant who forfeits the allegiance of his subjects." Henry then went on to state that "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third..." Obviously Patrick did not trust any form of central government tyranny and that is what led him to attack the statement "we the people."
"What right had they to say 'We the people,' instead We, the States?" Patrick Henry demanded at the Virginia Ratification Committee in June 1788. The "they" were the elites that wrote a Constitution against the will of the states. The Annapolis Convention of 1786 declared that a convention should be held to revise the Articles of Confederation, not replace them with an entirely new document. Patrick Henry could see through the scheme of the Constitution and declared that he, "Smelled a rat" when the document went up for ratification. The fact that Delaware, the home of ultra-conservative federalist John Dickinson, was the first state to ratify the new Constitution further worried Henry.
The Virginian saw the statement "we the people" as a slave compact where the people were directly contracted to the federal government, and not to their own state. "The fate of America may depend on [this statement of "we the people"]," declared Henry, "Have they said 'we the states'? If they had, this would be a confederation. It is otherwise most clearly a consolidated government." Henry saw "we the people" as a big government plan to centralize all the states through a contract between the citizen and the federal government. The sovereign confederation of independent states was thus being overridden by a new monstrous federal government in the name of "we the people."
Additionally, Henry declared that the people could not have created the new Constitution because, "The people have no right to enter into leagues, alliances or confederations...States and foreign powers are the only proper agents for this kind of government." "We the people" was not only disingenuous, it was also illegal and wrong. Henry argued that the term "we the states" was far superior because it put forth the ideal that the Constitution was a contract between states, and not men, and thus the contract could be severed by the states if their rights were threatened by a tyrannical federal government. Henry insisted that "we the people" was nothing more than a big government scheme to rob the states of their sovereign powers in the name of the people. He was a prophet.
Daniel Webster: Big government hack and fan of the phrase, "We the People"
"What right had they to say 'We the people,' instead We, the States?" Patrick Henry demanded at the Virginia Ratification Committee in June 1788. The "they" were the elites that wrote a Constitution against the will of the states. The Annapolis Convention of 1786 declared that a convention should be held to revise the Articles of Confederation, not replace them with an entirely new document. Patrick Henry could see through the scheme of the Constitution and declared that he, "Smelled a rat" when the document went up for ratification. The fact that Delaware, the home of ultra-conservative federalist John Dickinson, was the first state to ratify the new Constitution further worried Henry.
The Virginian saw the statement "we the people" as a slave compact where the people were directly contracted to the federal government, and not to their own state. "The fate of America may depend on [this statement of "we the people"]," declared Henry, "Have they said 'we the states'? If they had, this would be a confederation. It is otherwise most clearly a consolidated government." Henry saw "we the people" as a big government plan to centralize all the states through a contract between the citizen and the federal government. The sovereign confederation of independent states was thus being overridden by a new monstrous federal government in the name of "we the people."
Additionally, Henry declared that the people could not have created the new Constitution because, "The people have no right to enter into leagues, alliances or confederations...States and foreign powers are the only proper agents for this kind of government." "We the people" was not only disingenuous, it was also illegal and wrong. Henry argued that the term "we the states" was far superior because it put forth the ideal that the Constitution was a contract between states, and not men, and thus the contract could be severed by the states if their rights were threatened by a tyrannical federal government. Henry insisted that "we the people" was nothing more than a big government scheme to rob the states of their sovereign powers in the name of the people. He was a prophet.
Daniel Webster: Big government hack and fan of the phrase, "We the People"
Since 1789, the term "we the people" has been used to justify more evils, waste and government fat then any other term. It is what gave birth to the dangerous "General Welfare" clause of the United States Constitution and his held up by big fat Republican and Democratic politicians in justification for their waste. The "will of we the people" is the majoritarian phrase which politicians have held up for generations as the reason they war and waste.
Of all the people who have most used and abused the term "we the people" Daniel Webster (Whig of Massachusetts) stands out as the most effective of procuring waste from it. Webster was a lover of big government. A student of the authoritarian economic theories of Alexander Hamilton, Webster and his cohort Henry Clay (Whig of Kentucky) envisioned a nation united by a wasteful and winding collection of roads, canals and other "internal improvements: The National System. Webster declared that this system was in accordance with "we the people" and for this reason state sovereignty could be ignored by the federal government and roads (like the corruptly built Cumberland Pass) could be forced into states. Webster argued in 1830 that the National System was in the interest of the general welfare of the people of the United States, and thus it had to be approved of by the Congress. In his January 1830 letter, The Second Reply to President Pro Tempore of the Senate Robert Hayne, Webster openly tells the South Carolinian that, "A national debt is a national blessing" and openly declared that the states had no power to decide their own destiny. The United States government was: "The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."
As you can see, Webster used the phrase "we the people" to rob the states of sovereign power. The people, Webster argued, were what made the federal government and that is why the federal government was able to trample on the rights of states. Webster knew that it wasn't the people, the common farmer and shop keeper, who was making laws and decisions, but it was a handy argument to use to justify the Northern elite's war on the states.
Daniel Webster's last words are probably the most chilling last words ever uttered: "I still live." He was right.
Abraham Lincoln: Murderer of over 610,000 Americans, destroyer of private property, butcher of Native Americans and lover of the term "We the People."
Of all the people who have most used and abused the term "we the people" Daniel Webster (Whig of Massachusetts) stands out as the most effective of procuring waste from it. Webster was a lover of big government. A student of the authoritarian economic theories of Alexander Hamilton, Webster and his cohort Henry Clay (Whig of Kentucky) envisioned a nation united by a wasteful and winding collection of roads, canals and other "internal improvements: The National System. Webster declared that this system was in accordance with "we the people" and for this reason state sovereignty could be ignored by the federal government and roads (like the corruptly built Cumberland Pass) could be forced into states. Webster argued in 1830 that the National System was in the interest of the general welfare of the people of the United States, and thus it had to be approved of by the Congress. In his January 1830 letter, The Second Reply to President Pro Tempore of the Senate Robert Hayne, Webster openly tells the South Carolinian that, "A national debt is a national blessing" and openly declared that the states had no power to decide their own destiny. The United States government was: "The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."
As you can see, Webster used the phrase "we the people" to rob the states of sovereign power. The people, Webster argued, were what made the federal government and that is why the federal government was able to trample on the rights of states. Webster knew that it wasn't the people, the common farmer and shop keeper, who was making laws and decisions, but it was a handy argument to use to justify the Northern elite's war on the states.
Daniel Webster's last words are probably the most chilling last words ever uttered: "I still live." He was right.
Abraham Lincoln: Murderer of over 610,000 Americans, destroyer of private property, butcher of Native Americans and lover of the term "We the People."
Look in the Constitution and see if you can find the term, "Indissoluble Union" or "Perpetual Union." Did you find it? No? Good, you are looking at the the correct United States Constitution. The fact of the matter was that the United States was meant to be a collection of states that had signed a temporary contract (the Constitution) that could be ended at any time a sovereign state felt that their rights had been violated. This is referred to as "secession" and it is not a dirty word. Secession was one of the most precious rights the Founding Fathers struggled for. James Madison, a big federalist no less, argued that an amendment allowing for the suppression of a secessionist movement was against the principles of the American Revolution and stated, "The use of force against a State, would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment." Madison argued that the the federal government could not war on a seceding state because secession was legal.
If this is so, why did Old Abe Lincoln come out of the Wideness and tear old Dixie down in the 1860s? "We the people" is the reason an illegal war raped the women (slave and free), land, wealth and prestige of the South from 1861 to 1865 and destroyed the meaning of the UNited States Constitution forever. Abraham Lincoln was a student of the oratory of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. In fact, he kept portraits of both men in the living room of his home and his law office in Springfield, Illinois.
Webster was known for his quote, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" It was from this statement, said during the famed Hayne-Webster Debate of 1830, that Lincoln produced his argument that secession was contrary to the view of "we the people." Lincoln argued that secession was against the ideal of "majority rule." This was based on the ideal of a national consolidated "we the people" state that the framers of the Constitution envisioned. The humorous thing is that an independent state centered confederacy most likely would have represented the majority will more because the people would have had more say in their local state or community then in the entire federal government. In a consolidated "we the people" state, 51% of the people win and 49% of them lose.
Lincoln obviously did not care about majority rule, he saw "we the people" as a phrase he could use to justify an unjust war against a confederacy of states. In Lincoln's greatly over-hyped Gettysburg Address, Lincoln pulls a Webster and declares that his illegal war for Northern railroads was being waged in the name of, "That government of the people, by the people and for the people." "We the people" justified the burning of Hampton, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia. "We the people" justified the torture of Southerns at Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois. "We the people" were tied to a federal government that waged a total war against fellow Americans who simply wished to live up to the ideals of Patrick Henry. Humorist H.L. Mencken put it best:
If this is so, why did Old Abe Lincoln come out of the Wideness and tear old Dixie down in the 1860s? "We the people" is the reason an illegal war raped the women (slave and free), land, wealth and prestige of the South from 1861 to 1865 and destroyed the meaning of the UNited States Constitution forever. Abraham Lincoln was a student of the oratory of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. In fact, he kept portraits of both men in the living room of his home and his law office in Springfield, Illinois.
Webster was known for his quote, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" It was from this statement, said during the famed Hayne-Webster Debate of 1830, that Lincoln produced his argument that secession was contrary to the view of "we the people." Lincoln argued that secession was against the ideal of "majority rule." This was based on the ideal of a national consolidated "we the people" state that the framers of the Constitution envisioned. The humorous thing is that an independent state centered confederacy most likely would have represented the majority will more because the people would have had more say in their local state or community then in the entire federal government. In a consolidated "we the people" state, 51% of the people win and 49% of them lose.
Lincoln obviously did not care about majority rule, he saw "we the people" as a phrase he could use to justify an unjust war against a confederacy of states. In Lincoln's greatly over-hyped Gettysburg Address, Lincoln pulls a Webster and declares that his illegal war for Northern railroads was being waged in the name of, "That government of the people, by the people and for the people." "We the people" justified the burning of Hampton, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia. "We the people" justified the torture of Southerns at Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois. "We the people" were tied to a federal government that waged a total war against fellow Americans who simply wished to live up to the ideals of Patrick Henry. Humorist H.L. Mencken put it best:
Abraham Lincoln, like Daniel Webster before him, used the statement "we the people" to justify the War of Northern Aggression. Had the Preamble to the Constitution read, "We the independent States in order to form a more perfect Union" Lincoln could never have waged his war constitutionally.
"We the people" burn Atlanta in September 1864
The Tea Party Movement is correct to pick up "We the People" as it's motto. The history of this insidious statement fits the Tea Party Movement to a tee. The Tea Party Movement is ran by Glenn Beck, a big government man who masquerades as a libertarian and play acts as a student of history. Beck and and his Tea Party drones are for the illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, support massive federal welfare for corporations and ConAgra and are card carrying members of the Republican Party. They fit Lincoln like his disturbing stove pipe hat. "We the people" is an evil term used by evil men to turn the United States into the bloated, centralized corporatism it is today.
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