I enjoyed this book; wanted to pass it along.
Posted on 12/08/2009 9:35:50 AM PST by Loud Mime
This paper is an enjoyable read, especially its fourth paragraph that describes some of the new lands that made up the new nation.
Jay defines some elements that promised a great nation:
With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people -- a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.
We cannot even have an official language of the federal government.
I am of the opinion that if this nation seeks any concert in society, having English as the official language of the federal government is a necessity.
This convention, composed of men who possessed the confidence of the people, and many of whom had become highly distinguished by their patriotism, virtue and wisdom, in times which tried the minds and hearts of men, undertook the arduous task. In the mild season of peace, with minds unoccupied by other subjects, they passed many months in cool, uninterrupted, and daily consultation; and finally, without having been awed by power, or influenced by any passions except love for their country, they presented and recommended to the people the plan produced by their joint and very unanimous councils.
I recommend reading this entire essay, which follows:
To the People of the State of New York:
WHEN the people of America reflect that they are now called upon to decide a question, which, in its consequences, must prove one of the most important that ever engaged their attention, the propriety of their taking a very comprehensive, as well as a very serious, view of it, will be evident.
Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers. It is well worthy of consideration therefore, whether it would conduce more to the interest of the people of America that they should, to all general purposes, be one nation, under one federal government, or that they should divide themselves into separate confederacies, and give to the head of each the same kind of powers which they are advised to place in one national government.
It has until lately been a received and uncontradicted opinion that the prosperity of the people of America depended on their continuing firmly united, and the wishes, prayers, and efforts of our best and wisest citizens have been constantly directed to that object. But politicians now appear, who insist that this opinion is erroneous, and that instead of looking for safety and happiness in union, we ought to seek it in a division of the States into distinct confederacies or sovereignties. However extraordinary this new doctrine may appear, it nevertheless has its advocates; and certain characters who were much opposed to it formerly, are at present of the number. Whatever may be the arguments or inducements which have wrought this change in the sentiments and declarations of these gentlemen, it certainly would not be wise in the people at large to adopt these new political tenets without being fully convinced that they are founded in truth and sound policy.
It has often given me pleasure to observe that independent America was not composed of detached and distant territories, but that one connected, fertile, widespreading country was the portion of our western sons of liberty. Providence has in a particular manner blessed it with a variety of soils and productions, and watered it with innumerable streams, for the delight and accommodation of its inhabitants. A succession of navigable waters forms a kind of chain round its borders, as if to bind it together; while the most noble rivers in the world, running at convenient distances, present them with highways for the easy communication of friendly aids, and the mutual transportation and exchange of their various commodities.
With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people -- a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.
This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.
Similar sentiments have hitherto prevailed among all orders and denominations of men among us. To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection. As a nation we have made peace and war; as a nation we have vanquished our common enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances, and made treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with foreign states.
A strong sense of the value and blessings of union induced the people, at a very early period, to institute a federal government to preserve and perpetuate it. They formed it almost as soon as they had a political existence; nay, at a time when their habitations were in flames, when many of their citizens were bleeding, and when the progress of hostility and desolation left little room for those calm and mature inquiries and reflections which must ever precede the formation of a wise and well-balanced government for a free people. It is not to be wondered at, that a government instituted in times so inauspicious, should on experiment be found greatly deficient and inadequate to the purpose it was intended to answer.
This intelligent people perceived and regretted these defects. Still continuing no less attached to union than enamored of liberty, they observed the danger which immediately threatened the former and more remotely the latter; and being pursuaded that ample security for both could only be found in a national government more wisely framed, they as with one voice, convened the late convention at Philadelphia, to take that important subject under consideration.
This convention, composed of men who possessed the confidence of the people, and many of whom had become highly distinguished by their patriotism, virtue and wisdom, in times which tried the minds and hearts of men, undertook the arduous task. In the mild season of peace, with minds unoccupied by other subjects, they passed many months in cool, uninterrupted, and daily consultation; and finally, without having been awed by power, or influenced by any passions except love for their country, they presented and recommended to the people the plan produced by their joint and very unanimous councils.
Admit, for so is the fact, that this plan is only recommended, not imposed, yet let it be remembered that it is neither recommended to blind approbation, nor to blind reprobation; but to that sedate and candid consideration which the magnitude and importance of the subject demand, and which it certainly ought to receive. But this (as was remarked in the foregoing number of this paper) is more to be wished than expected, that it may be so considered and examined. Experience on a former occasion teaches us not to be too sanguine in such hopes. It is not yet forgotten that well-grounded apprehensions of imminent danger induced the people of America to form the memorable Congress of 1774. That body recommended certain measures to their constituents, and the event proved their wisdom; yet it is fresh in our memories how soon the press began to teem with pamphlets and weekly papers against those very measures. Not only many of the officers of government, who obeyed the dictates of personal interest, but others, from a mistaken estimate of consequences, or the undue influence of former attachments, or whose ambition aimed at objects which did not correspond with the public good, were indefatigable in their efforts to pursuade the people to reject the advice of that patriotic Congress. Many, indeed, were deceived and deluded, but the great majority of the people reasoned and decided judiciously; and happy they are in reflecting that they did so.
They considered that the Congress was composed of many wise and experienced men. That, being convened from different parts of the country, they brought with them and communicated to each other a variety of useful information. That, in the course of the time they passed together in inquiring into and discussing the true interests of their country, they must have acquired very accurate knowledge on that head. That they were individually interested in the public liberty and prosperity, and therefore that it was not less their inclination than their duty to recommend only such measures as, after the most mature deliberation, they really thought prudent and advisable.
These and similar considerations then induced the people to rely greatly on the judgment and integrity of the Congress; and they took their advice, notwithstanding the various arts and endeavors used to deter them from it. But if the people at large had reason to confide in the men of that Congress, few of whom had been fully tried or generally known, still greater reason have they now to respect the judgment and advice of the convention, for it is well known that some of the most distinguished members of that Congress, who have been since tried and justly approved for patriotism and abilities, and who have grown old in acquiring political information, were also members of this convention, and carried into it their accumulated knowledge and experience.
It is worthy of remark that not only the first, but every succeeding Congress, as well as the late convention, have invariably joined with the people in thinking that the prosperity of America depended on its Union. To preserve and perpetuate it was the great object of the people in forming that convention, and it is also the great object of the plan which the convention has advised them to adopt. With what propriety, therefore, or for what good purposes, are attempts at this particular period made by some men to depreciate the importance of the Union? Or why is it suggested that three or four confederacies would be better than one? I am persuaded in my own mind that the people have always thought right on this subject, and that their universal and uniform attachment to the cause of the Union rests on great and weighty reasons, which I shall endeavor to develop and explain in some ensuing papers. They who promote the idea of substituting a number of distinct confederacies in the room of the plan of the convention, seem clearly to foresee that the rejection of it would put the continuance of the Union in the utmost jeopardy. That certainly would be the case, and I sincerely wish that it may be as clearly foreseen by every good citizen, that whenever the dissolution of the Union arrives, America will have reason to exclaim, in the words of the poet: "FAREWELL! A LONG FAREWELL TO ALL MY GREATNESS."
PUBLIUS
Please let me know if you would like on the list for this series.
B U M P
” This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.”
And unfortunately, that is exactly what we’ve come to....”split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.”
It all made sense back then. But those were a hardy, God-fearing people. It still makes sense, but the founders never could have dreamed of the level of corruption we now face, and the fact that most in DC are lawyers, who have subverted, and otherwise twisted the meaning and letter of the law.
“This convention, composed of men who possessed the confidence of the people, and many of whom had become highly distinguished by their patriotism, virtue and wisdom,”
Patriotism = strike 1
Virtue = strike 2
Wisdom = strike 3
we are out........
“Patriotism = strike 1
Virtue = strike 2
Wisdom = strike 3
we are out........”
:<(
I wish I could disagree...
How well does John Jay thread the needle here! As it appears to me, the confederacies of which he speaks are those that recognize that all men are possess of individual rights as opposed to those that carry forward the notion that certain men, i.e. "Englishmen," may possess more freedom than others - the same notion that starved to death millions of my Irish countrymen, while the English feasted on Irish grown crops and livestock accross the Irish sea. Thus, to avoid alienating the "Englishmen,", he glosses over the issue by referring to the rights of "citizens." From there, Jay recognizes that, notwistandin an impulse to gravitate into confederacies, we have certain interests that we as a nation banded together to protect. And in so doing, he imprints the reader with the shape of the powers that the federal government ultimately came to be reposed with - common defense and treaties.
Furthermore, the A succession of navigable waters forms a kind of chain round its borders, as if to bind it together language foreshadows and imprints the reader with the notion that a national authority should be empowered to "regulate commerce between the states."
How well does John Jay thread the needle here! As it appears to me, the confederacies of which he speaks are those that recognize that all men are possess of individual rights as opposed to those that carry forward the notion that certain men, i.e. "Englishmen," may possess more freedom than others - the same notion that starved to death millions of my Irish countrymen, while the English feasted on Irish grown crops and livestock accross the Irish sea. Thus, to avoid alienating the "Englishmen,", he glosses over the issue by referring to the rights of "citizens." From there, Jay recognizes that, notwistandin an impulse to gravitate into confederacies, we have certain interests that we as a nation banded together to protect. And in so doing, he imprints the reader with the shape of the powers that the federal government ultimately came to be reposed with - common defense and treaties.
Furthermore, the A succession of navigable waters forms a kind of chain round its borders, as if to bind it together language foreshadows and imprints the reader with the notion that a national authority should be empowered to "regulate commerce between the states."
Indeed.
The founders understood that unity is strength, and diversity weakness. The PC-pushers have twisted this self-evident truth into an Orwellian lie, with which they’ve duped a significant part of the West.
In thinking about the founder’s fear of confederacies, we must consider that they were concerned with future civil wars between such confederacies. We fought one over slavery. Imagine another over state’s powers?
bttt
The storm clouds over slavery were in the air over slavery even when John Jay wrote Federalist 2. The founders were careful enough to limit federal powers enough that the war would not start for 75 years.
In 1785 Jay and a few close friends, mostly slave owners, founded the New York State Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves (see Minutes of the Manumission Society of New York, v.1, 1785). The Society entered lawsuits on behalf of slaves and organized boycotts. Jay also advocated subsidizing black education. “I consider education to be the soul of the republic,” he wrote to Benjamin Rush in 1785. “I wish to see all unjust and all unnecessary discriminations everywhere abolished, and that the time may soon come when all our inhabitants of every colour and denomination shall be free and equal partakers of our political liberty” (see John Jay to Dr. Benjamin Rush, 3/24/1785, Jay ID #9450). In 1787, he helped found New York’s African Free School, which by December 1788 had fifty-six students and which he continued to support financially (see John Jay to John Murray, Jr., 10/18/1805, Jay ID #9603). By the time the Manumission Society surrendered management to New York City in 1834, the school had educated well over 1,000 students.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/jay/JaySlavery.html
There is only one way back to our precious Constitutional Republic and that way is through Gold Almighty and His laws as described in the Holy Bible.
I consider indoctrination to be the soul of tyranny
Thanks for the informative and wonderful comments!
I enjoyed this book; wanted to pass it along.
That is indeed an EXCELLENT book and should be on the reading list of every patriot IMHO!
Nathan Smith
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