Posted on 02/25/2012 3:35:29 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica
"If you want to understand the real Declaration, do not repeat the preface." - Woodrow Wilson
There is so much in that little line. The obvious question is regarding the preface - what's in the preface of the Declaration of Independence that scared Wilson so much? In short, fundamental truths. Timeless, tested, proven to work fundamentals. Our reliance on our creator, and not upon government, for our rights.
In 1911, Woodrow Wilson gave his now infamous speech regarding the Declaration to - of all places, I love this - the Jefferson Club. "An Address to the Jefferson Club of Los Angeles" is the full title of this speech. What's really telling about how much disdain he had for the Founders is the line that precedes the one I opened this up with: (You can read the majority of this speech here)
Now, the business of every true Jeffersonian is to translate the terms of those abstract portions of the Declaration of Independence into the language and the problems of his own day. If you want to understand the real Declaration, do not repeat the preface.
See what I mean? Just with one single sentence, we get a much fuller view of Wilson's contempt for the Founders. Especially when he says 'translate the terms of those abstract portions of the Declaration'. But what's so abstract that needs translation? The natural law portions. Something that progressives have always been consistent about,(and I have a full blog devoted to proving this, in their own words) is the need for bigger and bigger government. But how can you grow government if the foundation is built on the rejection of tyranny? You don't repeat the preface. Just skip it.
And it's not like Wilson only said this once. September 1907, in "The Author and Signers of the Declaration", Wilson wrote the following:
So far as the Declaration of Independence was a theoretical document, that is its theory. Do we still hold it? Does the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence still live in our principles of action, in the things we do, in the purposes we applaud, in the measures we approve? It is not a question of piety. We are not bound to adhere to the doctrines held by the signers of the Declaration of Independence; we are as free as they were to make and unmake governments. We are not here to worship men or a document. But neither are we here to indulge in a mere rhetorical and uncritical eulogy. Every Fourth of July should be a time for examining our standards, our purposes, for determining afresh what principles, what forms of power we think most likely to effect our safety and happiness. That and that alone is the obligation the Declaration lays upon us.
He might as well have said his name was Philip Dru when he wrote this.(though, the book wouldn't have been released at that time) Notice how he throws out that fallacy about worshipping men or a document? That's the stereotypical progressive arrogance, and beyond that - that's ridicule. That might as well have come out of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, even though that wasn't written yet either.(Page 128, rule # 5)
So even though the constitution is the law of the land, they don't have to uphold it. And they don't. When progressives get into office, the ends justifies the means, anything goes, and they're free to "Fundamentally Transform The United States of America". Wilson even says so himself - the Declaration only holds them up to one single obligation. All the rest of that stuff about tyranny? Throw it out the window, it's just some dusty old document anyways, it's just a living document anyways. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Woodrow Wilson also directly rejected the rule-of-law theory, you can read about it here.
Yep. So did Teddy Roosevelt.
Its amazing that we managed to save ourselves from progressives in the past. We’ve hit some serious low points and haven’t hit bottom yet I fear.
Modern day democrat dogma to a tee.
Wilson is dead and the people of the USA voted him in. How did that happen?
How do we get back to our founders and avoid Wilsons and Obamas?
He also hated Jews and blacks, so what else is new?
I doubt the man was familiar with the great works of literature and classics that Thomas Jefferson knew so well.
He probably never read the Federalist papers either.
I suppose that he (and Obama) actually despise the FIRM principle that the Founders so strongly held in common: that sovereignty was to emanate from outside of government for this new nation....in the people!
Actually, we need to begin with fasting and prayer, call our nation to repentance, keep praying and educate the people.
If people are too ignorant to understand the great thing they have, they will be inclined to be VERY careless with it....even to the point of losing it.
And then came the 20th century. Within a few decades, Planck would trigger the shredding of classical physics, and Lemaitre and Hubble would discard the static universe. And new theories of government would be met with a deluge of slaughter. Could Wilson, in his smug assurance, ever have imagined Flanders Fields, the Gulag, Treblinka, Bataan, The Cultural Revolution, or the Killing Fields?
As despicable as Wilson and his coterie were, far worse are his intellectual descendants a century later, who have learned nothing.
Woody and TR still thought they had to override or change the Constitution, since they assumed it meant what it said.
Progressives hadn’t figured out yet that the Constitution was really a “living document” that meant whatever progressive judges said it meant.
Their open opposition was thus more respectful of constitutional principles than the modern ignoring of them.
“But what’s so abstract that needs translation? The natural law portions.”
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It needs NO translation. ALL of the Founders were familiar with the writings of Cicero regarding the natural law... and Aristotle’s Hierarchy of Goods (which was a structure they used in the writing of the Constitution).
They were also VERY cognizant of the fact that we needed God to succeed and endure.
I never saw that history of President Woodrow Wilson.
Here is what have seen in his history:
“Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924),{died 10 years before I was born] became the 28th President of The United States, after having served as the Governor of New Jersey. He was an educator, author, and the President of Princeton University. In his Inaugural Address, March 4,1913, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
“God’s own presense, where justice and mercy
are reconciled and the Judge and the Brother
are one....God helping me, I will not fail....”
Not to defend Woodrow Wilson, but I suspect that Wilson, unlike the author of the blog article, was aware that Th. Jefferson promoted the radical idea that every 19 years, each generation should have its own revolution and recreate government their own way. He was particularly concerned that new generations should not be bound by the political choices of those who came before.
“The earth always belongs to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. ...Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right.” (Th. Jefferson to James Madison, September 6, 1789).
Madison was tactful, but having experienced the struggle to create the Constitution first hand, no doubt wondered if Jefferson had eaten too much French cooking.
Your #12 is an insightful and accurate comment.
But. perhaps Woody and TR who apparently felt constrained were only “respectful of constitutional principles” because they had not yet developed the models and the “work-arounds” that confront us today. (As you know, TR was <1917 and Wilson’s statement was in 1913)
There is room to argue, certainly in the case of Wilson, that their intent may have been only slightly less threatening than that of the current actors.
Just another Seditious Rat like Obama.
You can't. These kind of men are inevitable. Which is why the US government was set up the way it was. Three different types of legislators voted in three different ways.
And have you seen how long it was suppose to take a bill to become a law? It was designed to be clumsy, inefficient and slow with lots of gridlock. That was to keep people like Wilson and Obama in check.
But now the president has become more and more powerful and the safeguards are being tossed. Bill won't pass in it's revised form? We'll just "deem it passed". Can't get a budget with all the new spending passed? Just vote for a "continuing resolution". Can't get a vote on a new law? Just have one of your departments add it as a regulation. Or just do an executive order.
We have tossed the speed bumps and are merrily on our way to tyranny.
The really sad part is that means that we can no longer undo what they have done in a constitutional manner. They can block stuff long enough that they are back in power before the mess is cleaned up.
Did we......or have we? Almost one hundred years under the monetary and corrupt fiscal control of a central bank, I’d say we are screwed.
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