Posted on 11/12/2018 6:22:16 PM PST by Captain Peter Blood
Of late I have been reading Ron Cernow's excellent biography of Alexander Hamilton.
I have just finished the period in Hamilton's life of his service as the first Secretary of the Treasury and he leaving to go back to private life.
He is visiting his friend George Washington Parke Curtis, President Washington's grandson, when he sees a small copy of the U.S. Constitution.
He then says this about the Constitution:
"So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt it will bind us no longer"
Something to think about and contemplate as we watch this country move more to the Left with each passing day.
Sadly I believe we are seeing the corruption he foresaw and I am not sure we can overcome it all.
So I leave all of you to comment.
“But when we become old and corrupt it will bind us no longer”
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Old, corrupt, depraved and divided.
Sadly I believe we are seeing the corruption he foresaw and I am not sure we can overcome it all.
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Our noble experiment is self government doesn’t seem to be working that well. It seems we are lacking the will to maintain our great gift.
Socialism ages the souls of men and nations prematurely. And not in a good way.
Yep, after several remarkable centuries this fascinating civilizational experiment is lurching to a close. “There’s a deal of ruin in a nation,” however, so it’ll be a while yet.
Outstanding book. Recommended reading.
Hamilton’s original suggestion of “born a citizen” was replaced with John Jay’s suggested “natural born citizen” to assure that there would be no foreign influence on the President and Commander-in-Chief.
Some who claim to believe in the Constitution and the rule of law think the children of foreign nationals are natural born citizens eligible to be President, even if born in foreign countries.
If even those who profess to revere the founders and their achievement embodied in the Constitution won’t uphold it because it says their guy is ineligible, how do we keep it?
Anwar Al-Awlaki’s kids, born in Yemen to one citizen parent, are as eligible to be President as Ted Cruz.
Socialism is a corrosive force, no doubt about it.
But perhaps an even more fundamental problem is when a large portion of a society refuses to respect or honor the outcome of elections and actively works to undermine and resist a duly elected administration. A divided house cannot stand.
Mark
It took just 3 more years for the USSC, in Calder v Bull, to remove the prohibition against States making ex-post facto laws. The Constitution began to be picked apart almost immediately.
A piece of paper, dependent on good people to follow it in good faith. That’s all it ever was. Less good people, the more it doesn’t get followed in good faith. I think we are pretty far down the slope.
Freegards
2 Timothy 3 King James Version (KJV)
3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Seems to be a fitting description of the last days of a once great nation.
We stopped being bound together because we allowed our masters to import hordes of the third world here, and we’re going to become a minority in our own country. Enjoy the the tribal wars that are coming.
Except in real time, the positions are reversed.
SHUT DOWN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Was his federalism experiment a disaster though? Look at the size of government and the size of those on the take? Is that what federalism brought the US? And he introduced central banking, AKA, control by banking interests, into the US.
I can understand Hamilton’s reasoning on some of these issues. If it had been left to Jefferson and Madison then we would have been primarily a Agrarian Country with no manufacturing or banking sectors. Hamilton realized we needed a Central government and a more realistic blueprint for a thriving, growing country not dependent solely on England or France.
My guess is that not even Hamilton would accept what we have become at this point. He didn’t believe in people not working and was not inclined to any kind of welfare system as we have now.
He certainly would not accept the Debt we have now. His original plan was to have a sinking fund to take care and pay down debt on a regular basis.
That is what we could use now, yet no one has even suggested that. I wonder why??????????????
Check out Federalists #60-66. Publius might change your mind.
Yes, and perhaps Hamilton was a balance to Jefferson and vice verse. Jefferson was too pro-France and Hamilton was too pro-Britain for my taste.
Good points. I guess there was no way Hamilton could equate strong government with big government way back in the late 1700s and early 1800s. I did not know he had a plan to pay down debt.
On various forums liberals are playing the role of economic conservatives. They blame Bush and now Trump for the debt, when I think we all know they are and would never be serious about tackling the deficit let alone the debt.
I am almost in the camp where we just give it up and hope GDP growth keeps revenue growth ahead of debt growth. The public doesn’t even seem serious or concerned anymore.
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