April 30th, The Lost Holiday

A little-remembered anniversary occurs this April 30 -- the 225th Anniversary of the U.S. Constitution being put into operation.

Many might remember that April 30, 1789 was the day that George Washington took the oath of office and gave his inaugural address. But lest we forget, this very act also marked the launching of the American Constitutional System.

Those living at the time knew what a landmark day it was and the details surrounding the events of the day show this depth of understanding. Through the process of time, neglect and the active rewriting of American history, these details have been buried to our detriment and shame.

For instance, at 9:00 A.M. on Inauguration Day, church bells throughout New York City [then the seat of the national government] rang out calling the citizens to pray for the new government. The papers of New York City stated it this way:

“[O]n the morning of the day on which our illustrious President will be invested with his office, the bells will ring at nine o’clock, when the people may go up to the house of God and in a solemn manner commit the new government, with its important train of consequences, to the holy protection and blessing of the Most high. An early hour is prudently fixed for this peculiar act of devotion and . . . is designed wholly for prayer.”

Around 12:30 P.M., Washington made his way to Federal Hall, near the present day New York Stock Exchange, where the Congress had already gathered. After some greetings and congratulations, Washington took the oath of office out on the balcony in view of tens of thousands of people who had gathered....

I would have stronger feelings about this topic but even the holidays that have not yet been bastardized by political correctness are not really observed in the original manner intended.

For example, Memorial Day is now seen as a big barbeque weekend. The official "kick-off" of the summer season. The vast majority of Americans do absolutely nothing to honor the war dead. To them, it's a three-day weekend. Ditto for Labor Day, which for most, is simply the other bookend to the "summer season".

In between, you have Independence Day, more commonly referred to generically as "4th of July" and again, very little actual observing of our Declaration of Independence going on here. It's another long weekend to cook on the backyard grill, go to the beaches and maybe take in some fireworks at night.

Need I go on? Flag Day has pretty much disappeared. Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday have been combined into a meaningless "President's Day" which has been co-opted by the automotive industry in order that they can push last year's model cars off their lots by holding blowout sales at their dealerships with balloons, popcorn and other such nonsense.

We do "observe" Martin Luther King's birthday - no signs of that morphing into a generic "Famous Black Dude Day" anytime soon. But seriously, does anybody not working for the government get that day off?

You know what, I give up. Why don't we just do this: Do away with all holidays and just designate a three-day weekend once a month so we can have our barbeques, our car sales, our day at the beach, and whatnot, without having to worry about what it is we are actually supposed to be observing.

Thank you for reminding us of this significant anniversary in our nation's history.

Forgetting its true significance was not always the case. For example, John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams, was invited by the New York Historical Society to deliver the "THE JUBILEE OF THE CONSTITUTION: A DISCOURSE," on April 30, 1839, honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Inauguration of George Washington.

Adams delivered that lengthy discourse, which should be read by all who love liberty, in which traced the history of the development of the ideas underlying and the actions leading to the establishment of the Constitution which structured the United States government.

His 50th-year summation seems to be a better source for understanding the kind of government the Founders formed than those of recent historians and politicians. He addresses the ideas of "democracy" and "republic" throughout, but here are some of his concluding remarks:

"Every change of a President of the United States, has exhibited some variety of policy from that of his predecessor. In more than one case, the change has extended to political and even to moral principle; but the policy of the country has been fashioned far more by the influences of public opinion, and the prevailing humors in the two Houses of Congress, than by the judgment, the will, or the principles of the President of the United States. The President himself is no more than a representative of public opinion at the time of his election; and as public opinion is subject to great and frequent fluctuations, he must accommodate his policy to them; or the people will speedily give him a successor; or either House of Congress will effectually control his power. It is thus, and in no other sense that the Constitution of the United States is democratic - for the government of our country, instead of a Democracy the most simple, is the most complicated government on the face of the globe. From the immense extent of our territory, the difference of manners, habits, opinions, and above all, the clashing interests of the North, South, East, and West, public opinion formed by the combination of numerous aggregates, becomes itself a problem of compound arithmetic, which nothing but the result of the popular elections can solve.

"It has been my purpose, Fellow-Citizens, in this discourse to show:-

"1. That this Union was formed by a spontaneous movement of the people of thirteen English Colonies; all subjects of the King of Great Britain - bound to him in allegiance, and to the British empire as their country. That the first object of this Union,was united resistance against oppression, and to obtain from the government of their country redress of their wrongs.

"2. That failing in this object, their petitions having been spurned, and the oppressions of which they complained, aggravated beyond endurance, their Delegates in Congress, in their name and by their authority, issued the Declaration of Independence - proclaiming them to the world as one people, absolving them from their ties and oaths of allegiance to their king and country - renouncing that country; declared the UNITED Colonies, Independent States, and announcing that this ONE PEOPLE of thirteen united independent states, by that act, assumed among the powers of the earth, that separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitled them.

"3. That in justification of themselves for this act of transcendent power, they proclaimed the principles upon which they held all lawful government upon earth to be founded - which principles were, the natural, unalienable, imprescriptible rights of man, specifying among them, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - that the institution of government is to secure to men in society the possession of those rights: that the institution, dissolution, and reinstitution of government, belong exclusively to THE PEOPLE under a moral responsibility to the Supreme Ruler of the universe; and that all the just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed.

"4. That under this proclamation of principles, the dissolution of allegiance to the British king, and the compatriot connection with the people of the British empire, were accomplished; and the one people of the United States of America, became one separate sovereign independent power, assuming an equal station among the nations of the earth.

"5. That this one people did not immediately institute a government for themselves. But instead of it, their delegates in Congress, by authority from their separate state legislatures, without voice or consultation of the people, instituted a mere confederacy.

"6. That this confederacy totally departed from the principles of the Declaration of independence, and substituted instead of the constituent power of the people, an assumed sovereignty of each separate state, as the source of all its authority.

"7. That as a primitive source of power, this separate state sovereignty,was not only a departure from the principles of the Declaration of Independence, but directly contrary to, and utterly incompatible with them.

"8. That the tree was made known by its fruits. That after five years wasted in its preparation, the confederation dragged out a miserable existence of eight years more, and expired like a candle in the socket, having brought the union itself to the verge of dissolution.

"9. That the Constitution of the United States was a return to the principles of the Declaration of independence, and the exclusive constituent power of the people. That it was the work of the ONE PEOPLE of the United States; and that those United States, though doubled in numbers, still constitute as a nation, but ONE PEOPLE.

"10. That this Constitution, making due allowance for the imperfections and errors incident to all human affairs, has under all the vicissitudes and changes of war and peace, been administered upon those same principles, during a career of fifty years.

"11. That its fruits have been, still making allowance for human imperfection, a more perfect union, established justice, domestic tranquility, provision for the common defence, promotion of the general welfare, and the enjoyment of the blessings of liberty by the constituent people, and their posterity to the present day.

"And now the future is all before us, and Providence our guide."

In an earlier paragraph, he had stated:
"But this institution was republican, and even democratic. And here not to be misunderstood, I mean by democratic, a government, the administration of which must always be rendered comfortable to that predominating public opinion . . . and by republican I mean a government reposing, not upon the virtues or the powers of any one man - not upon that honor, which Montesquieu lays down as the fundamental principle of monarchy - far less upon that fear which he pronounces the basis of despotism; but upon that virtue which he, a noble of aristocratic peerage, and the subject of an absolute monarch, boldly proclaims as a fundamental principle of republican government. The Constitution of the United States was republican and democratic - but the experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived; and it was obvious that if virtue - the virtue of the people, was the foundation of republican government, the stability and duration of the government must depend upon the stability and duration of the virtue by which it is sustained."

What better way to honor this date than to read John Quincy Adams's "Jubilee Address" and to circulate its web location to others who may wish to read a true history of America's founding by one whose father's impassioned part in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the subsequent Constitutional structuring of government were accomplished.

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