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Synopsis
In the Preamble of our Constitution, our Founding Fathers stated one of its purposes as being to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity". Have you felt lately that the "Blessings of Liberty" are slipping away from "ourselves and our Posterity" This book was written as a primer to help the reader discover the "Seeds of Birth" of our Constitutional Republic. It briefly outlines how we became a Constitutional Republic and the elements of "Liberty" placed in our Constitution by our Founding Fathers. It then helps the reader discover the "Seeds of Destruction" that have and are conspiring to deny those "Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity". If you have a love for our Republic and would like to have a fundamental understanding of these topics, this is the book for you. As the reader becomes familiar with the basic knowledge within these pages, they will be able to recognize the perils that confront "We the People" as a nation. With this knowledge the reader will then be able to join in the effort to preserve the American Dream for succeeding generations. May God Bless and Save the United States of America!
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Our Constitutional Republic
Seeds of Birth - Seeds of DestructionBy William J. DellAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 William J. DellAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-1623-2
Contents
Foreword.................................................................................................xiiiAcknowledgment...........................................................................................xvIntroduction.............................................................................................xviiChapter 1 – Born of Neglect........................................................................1Chapter 2 – Tyranny Unleashed......................................................................11Chapter 3 – The Philosophical Underpinnings of the Founding Fathers................................23Chapter 4 – A Constitutional Republic Defined......................................................33Chapter 5 – Inside Our Constitution................................................................45Chapter 6 – Inside Our Bill of Rights..............................................................61Chapter 7 – The Other Amendments...................................................................71Chapter 8 – Constitutional Seeds of Destruction....................................................79Chapter 9 – Congressional Tyranny by Social-Justice and Excessive Debt.............................87Chapter 10 – Presidential Tyranny by Bloated Governance and Executive Orders.......................113Chapter 11 – Judicial Tyranny by Judicial Activism.................................................123Chapter 12 – The Political Spectrum of 20th Century Americans......................................133Chapter 13 – Four Threats to Our Constitutional Republic "The Perfect Storm".......................141Chapter 14 – A Patriot's Responsibility............................................................163Appendix A – Church of the Holy Trinity V United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892).....................171Appendix B – The Amendment Fix.....................................................................177Appendix C – Campaign Finance Reform...............................................................179Appendix D – Islamic Jihadists (Muslim Extremists) Attacks.........................................185Appendix E – Military Killed and Wounded Fighting Radical Islam....................................203Bibliography.............................................................................................205About the Author.........................................................................................207
Chapter One
BORN OF NEGLECT
More than two centuries ago in the year of our Lord 1776, fifty-six men met in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and signed the Declaration of Independence. In reality though the true movement for an independent United States of America began not then, but in the religious persecutions of Europe. It was the Pilgrims, the Puritans, the Lutherans, the Moravians, the Huguenots and others beginning in the 1600s who left the lands of their nativity to find religious freedom that began the American story and our movement toward independence.
The colonies in America were established mainly by England, France and Spain. Two nations, The Netherlands and Sweden also attempted to gain a foothold in the New World but their colonies were ultimately overtaken by the English. France's colonial aspirations generally lay beyond the Mississippi River and north into Canada. Their American colony was called Louisiana and consisted of the area of Louisiana and Mississippi today. France did however claim the entire area known as the Louisiana Purchase which they sold to the United States in 1803. Spain's colonial holdings consisted of most of the West Indies and Florida in the east, and the entire Southwest, which was explored and claimed from Mexico. After Mexico realized its independence in 1821, the entire Southwest previously claimed by Spain was claimed by Mexico. The French and Spanish colonists were mostly Roman Catholic. The Dutch came to the New York area. They chiefly belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, but had a policy of religious freedom. The Swedes came to the Delaware River Valley.
English Colonial America was generally divided into three areas along the eastern seaboard. The New England Colonies consisted of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island. These colonies were settled by the Pilgrims and Puritans for religious freedom. The Middle Colonies consisted of New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These colonies were settled for religious and economic reasons. The Southern Colonies consisted of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia. Generally speaking these colonies were settled for economic reasons. Two notable exceptions being Maryland settled as a haven for Catholics and Georgia for the Moravians.
A brief outline of the establishment of the English colonies and their religious persuasions follows by area.
New England Colonies:
Massachusetts: The Pilgrims arrived from England on 19 November 1620 after a crossing of two months and three days. These 103 souls explored the coast around Cape Cod before the settlers went ashore on Plymouth Rock on 26 December. The Pilgrims came to escape oppression and find freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their hearts. The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 21 November 1620, established Plymouth Colony and was America's first effort at a self-government. Half of the colony died during the first winter. In 1664 the Massachusetts Bay Company was granted a charter to establish a Royal Colony. Immigrants to the Bay Colony were Puritans seeking religious freedom. They established a Congregationalist theocratic government and absorbed the Pilgrims into the new Royal Colony.
New Hampshire: This colony, established in 1623, was originally an extension of the Bay colony, but was treated as a separate colony. It was established for economic reasons to provide for the fishing business. Captain John Mason sent two groups of Puritan settlers to start the colony. He named the colony for his home county of Hampshire in England. The founding document of New Hampshire was the Exeter Compact modeled after the Mayflower Compact. It became a Royal Colony in 1679 and was an expansion of Massachusetts' Congregationalist theocratic government.
Connecticut: Settled originally in 1634 as a Dutch settlement, Clergyman Thomas Hooker and his followers arrived from the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1636. They settled near present day Hartford as an expansion of the Bay colony. In 1662, John Winthrop, Jr. was granted a Royal Charter for the colony of Connecticut. This colony was settled for both economic and religious freedom.
Rhode Island: In June 1636, Roger Williams founded Providence as a democratically ruled colony with separation of church and state. He had been exiled from Salem, Massachusetts by the Puritans for not wanting to adhere to their strict requirements. He had a belief in separation of church and state. Anne Hutchinson was also expelled from Massachusetts Bay for supporting Williams. She settled Portsmouth. They became a Royal Colony in 1663. Rhode Island gave everyone the complete and absolute right of religious freedom.
Middle Colonies:
New York [New Netherlands]: In 1609 just two years after Jamestown was established in Virginia, the Dutch East India Company hired Henry Hudson, an Englishman, to find a northeast passage to India. He ultimately sailed up the Hudson River as far as present day Albany claiming the entire river valley for the Dutch.
In 1624 the Dutch West India Company established New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island with 30 families. Like their Virginia counterparts, the Dutch settlers did not take much of an interest in agriculture, and focused on the more lucrative fur trade along the Hudson River Valley. Their northern most reach was Albany [Fort Orange], further south was Kingston [Wiltwyck] and their largest colony New York City [New Amsterdam]. The first two Directors General of the colony, Peter Minuit, who purchased Manhattan, and Wouter van Twiller both experienced Indian trouble as they tried to manage the colony.
It wasn't until 1647 and the arrival of Director General Peter Stuyvesant that things would improve. Stuyvesant became a whirlwind of activity, issuing edicts, regulating taverns, clamping down on smuggling, and attempted to wield the authority of his office upon a population accustomed to a long line of largely ineffective Directors General. Under Stuyvesant's administration, the colony became quite profitable. The port town of New Amsterdam had a population of nine thousand by 1664 with only half of them Dutch. New Netherlands produced immense wealth for the Dutch, and other foreign nations began to envy the riches flowing out of the Hudson River Valley.
The Dutch lost New Netherlands to the English during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1664. King Charles of England granted his brother, James, Duke of York, vast American territories that included all of New Netherlands. The Duke of York immediately sailed for New Amsterdam. Director General Stuyvesant, with no means of protection, was forced to cede the colony to the English without even a struggle. In September of 1664, New York was born, effectively ending The Netherlands' direct involvement in North America. New York became a Proprietary Colony in 1685.
Delaware [New Sweden]: In 17th Century Europe, Sweden was a major power. By 1650 it nearly encircled the Baltic Sea. In 1637 the New Sweden Company was formed to exploit the fur and tobacco trade in the New World. Peter Minuit, the first Director General of New Netherlands, was tapped to lead the colony. His ships reached the Delaware River valley in March 1638. By 1655, the population of New Sweden had reached more than 600 souls and had spread up both sides of the Delaware River encompassing areas of present day Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Under the leadership of Governor Johan Printz (1643-1653) a series of forts was established to control the Delaware River against English and Dutch shipping. The Swedes and Finns lived in peace with their neighbors, the Dutch, and the Delaware Indians. Religion in the Delaware colony was Lutheran, Dutch Reform and Anglican.
In 1654 Governor Printz was succeeded by Johan Rising. Shortly after his arrival, he attempted to remove the Dutch from the colony. This infuriated Peter Stuyvesant, Director General of New Amsterdam. In the summer of 1655, the Dutch sent seven war ships and more than 300 soldiers down the Delaware River. The Swedes surrendered the colony to the Dutch ending Sweden's efforts to colonize the New World. The Dutch were to control Delaware until 1681 when William Penn received his Charter for Pennsylvania.
New Jersey: A conglomerate colony settled by the Swedes, Dutch and English, it was established as an expansion of New Netherlands by Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The purposes for the expansion were both economic and religious freedom. New Jersey became an English Royal Colony in 1702. Religion in the New Jersey colony was Lutheran, Dutch Reform and Quaker.
Pennsylvania: In 1681, William Penn was granted Pennsylvania as a Proprietary Colony for compensation owed to his late father, Admiral William Penn. He saw it as an opportunity for a haven of religious freedom for his fellow Quakers, members of the Society of Friends. When they arrived in the New World, they found the area already settled by the Swedes, Dutch and Englishmen along the Delaware. Two other groups, the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Scotch-Irish, were to come to colonial Pennsylvania. The breakdown of these 18th-Century immigrants to Pennsylvania was 60% Scotch-Irish and Scots, 33% Pennsylvania Dutch, with 7% other.
The Scotch-Irish came from Ulster, Ireland. The American western frontier (the western part of Pennsylvania) was settled during the 1700s by mostly Scotch-Irish and Scots. Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scotch-Irish, mostly Presbyterians, migrated to America in the 18th century. The Scotch-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
Pennsylvania Dutch is the name applied to the people and their descendants who immigrated to Pennsylvania in the late 1600's and the 1700's from the German Rhineland and Palatine. Some of these immigrants came from the German part of Switzerland, and others were French Huguenots. These settlers came to Pennsylvania to escape war and Roman Catholic religious persecution in the Rhineland and Palatine region of southwestern Germany those who came settled mainly in southeastern Pennsylvania. Palatines entering through Philadelphia, after 1727, were required to take an Oath of allegiance to the English Crown.
Most of the original Pennsylvania Dutch belonged to the Lutheran or German Reformed churches. They were called "the church people." Others belonged to various sects (religious groups) that grew out of pietism, a religious movement that opposed formal religious practices. These sects included the Amish and Mennonites. These two groups were noted for their plain dress and distrust of formal church practices. Today the Amish and Mennonites are called "the plain people," and live mainly in Lancaster County. Another early group, the Moravians, founded Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and worked to convert American Indians to Christianity.
The Pennsylvania Dutch valued their agricultural life and worked their fields industriously. The community often worked together to provide assistance to individuals in farm and social matters. These qualities helped the Pennsylvania Dutch prosper as farmers. Pennsylvania Dutch artisans became well known for their clocks, glassware, pewter ware, and pottery. They also invented the Conestoga wagon and the Pennsylvania rifle.
Southern Colonies:
Virginia: In May 1607, Captain John Smith established the first English settlement at Jamestown. By 30 July 1619, they had elected a House of Burgesses, the first representative assembly in the New World. Virginia, including Jamestown, became a Royal Colony in 1624. Virginia was settled for economic gain and had a state religion of the Church of England.
Maryland: In 1632, Lord Baltimore was granted a charter to establish a colony in the New World. He and his sons moved to the region of Maryland in 1634. Maryland was established to provide a haven for Roman Catholics in the New World and to exploit the tobacco grown there. Maryland became a Royal Colony in 1691 with an established religion of the Church of England. It however permitted freedom of religion of Christian sects.
Georgia: In 1732, King George II wanted to create a buffer between South Carolina and the Spanish colony of Florida. To accomplish this he granted a Proprietary Colony Charter to General James Edward Oglethorpe. Most of those who arrived in 1733 were seeking relief from debtors prison. The Moravians also attempted a settlement in Georgia (1735-1740), but with its failure they resettled in Pennsylvania on the estate of George Whitefield. With the exodus of the Moravians, Georgia became a Royal Colony in 1752 recognizing as their state religion the Church of England.
South Carolina: One hundred years before the English settled the region of South Carolina, the French had made an unsuccessful attempt. In 1663 the English established the Carolina Company. The first English settler arrived in 1670. The Carolinas were ruled as a single colony until 1712. The Carolina hill country was settled mostly by Scotch-Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania and Virginia. The low country, nearer the coast, was settled by French and English plantation owners. The French, mostly Huguenots, had come to the region looking for religious freedom. The English were looking for economic gain. In 1704 the Church of England was established as the state religion.
North Carolina: Born out of necessity because of distance between the two populated centers of the Carolina Colony, North Carolina was established by Royal Charter in 1729. It was first settled in 1653 by Virginian colonists and was initially separated from South Carolina in 1712. It was settled mainly for economic gain and to provide a buffer from the south for Virginia.
Moravian Bishop Augustus Spangenberg led a party to survey a 100,000 acre tract of land in North Carolina in 1752. This region became known as Wachau after an Austrian estate of Count Zinzendorf. The name, later anglicized to Wachovia, became the center of growth for the Moravian church in that region. Bethabara, Bethania and Salem (now Winston-Salem) were the first Moravian settlements in North Carolina.
Such were the immigrants and colonist of the New World. And because the New World was separated by an ocean, the colonists set up governments to their liking based on tenets of their various faiths. The mother lands had little control because of distance and the time to cross the Atlantic. These factors, distance and time, made the colonies a low priority because of the press of European issues, a low priority that led to outright neglect.
The seeds of independence did not germinate however until England, after 150 years of neglect, decided to impose her will on the colonists to retire her debt from the French and Indian War (1754-1763). It was not until they had to pay for the war with France, at a cost of 137 million Pounds with an annual interest of five million Pounds, that they remembered that there were Englishmen in the Colonies. Englishmen who were a source of revenue!
In Page Smith's A New Age Now Begins (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976, pp 191, 192), a portion of the debate held in the House of Commons concerning America's independent spirit is recorded (Emphasis added):
While the House of Commons was in general apathetic, only a few opponents of the measure spoke against it. Charles Townshend, as an officer of the government, had asked: "And now, will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence until they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burdens which we lie under?"
Colonel Isaac Barré was a veteran of the French and Indian War who had fought under General Wolfe and had been with him at the time of his death on the plains of Abraham. He carried a disfiguring wound in his cheek that gave him, his enemies said, "a savage glare." Barré was a fearless and effective spokesman for the colonial cause and a bête noire to George III. He immediately rose to challenge Townshend's description of the Colonies:
"They planted by our care?" he said scornfully. "No, your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country – where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships of which human nature is liable, and among others to the cruelty of a savage foe ... And yet actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends." (Continues...)
Excerpted from Our Constitutional Republicby William J. Dell Copyright © 2011 by William J. Dell. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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