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American Minute with Bill Federer
"A Republic, If You Can Keep It!"
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"Done ... the SEVENTEENTH DAY of SEPTEMBER,
in the year of our LORD
one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven."
This is the last line of the
U.S. Constitution.
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Signer of the
Constitution
James McHenry noted in his diary
(American Historical Review,
1906), that after
Ben Franklin
left the
Constitutional Convention,
he was asked by
Mrs. Elizabeth Powel
of Philadelphia:
"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
Franklin replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."
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Webster's 1828 Dictionary
defined "REPUBLIC":
"exercise of the SOVEREIGN POWER is lodged in representatives elected by THE PEOPLE."
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To help explain, DEMOCRACY has come to have two definitions: one is the
general concept
of people ruling themselves; the other is an actual
system of government.
As an actual
system of government,
a DEMOCRACY is where THE PEOPLE are KING
ruling directly,
whereas a REPUBLIC is where THE PEOPLE are KING,
ruling through their representatives.
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As an actual
system of government,
a DEMOCRACY only successfully worked on a
small basis,
like a
Greek city-state,
where
every citizen
went to the marketplace
everyday
to discuss politics.
"Politics"
is from the Greek word
"polis"
which means
"the business of the city."
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"Citizen"
is also contrasted with
"subject."
Kings have
"subjects"
who are
subjected
to their will.
"Citizen"
is a Greek word which means
co-ruler, co-sovereign, co-king.
Citizens participate in ruling themselves.
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Democracy,
as a
system of government,
is
limited in size,
as once a city grows so large that
citizens cannot come to the market everyday,
control is transferred to
those who carry news of what is being discussed,
which can be slanted one way or another.
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Republics
can
grow larger,
as
citizens
spend their time taking care of their families and farms, and
representatives go in their place
to the market everyday to discuss politics.
A
"constitutional republic"
is where the representatives are limited by a set of rules approved by the citizens.
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Theodore Roosevelt
stated October 24, 1903:
"In no other place and at no other time has
the experiment
of
government of the people, by the people, for the people,
been
tried
on
so vast a scale
as here in our own country."
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Americans
pledge allegiance
to the Flag "and to the
REPUBLIC for which it stands."
Citizens
are basically pledging allegiance to
being in charge of themselves,
exercising their authority through representatives they pick.
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When someone
protests the flag,
what they are saying is,
"I no longer want to be king ... I protest this system where the people rule themselves."
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In the Roman Republic, "representatives" were
hereditary positions.
The American Republic is a hybrid, where
representatives
are
democratically elected.
Yale President Ezra Stiles
stated in 1788:
"Most states of all ages ... have been founded in rapacity, usurpation and injustice ...
.. .All the forms of CIVIL POLITY (government systems) have been tried by mankind, EXCEPT ONE: and that seems to have been reserved in Providence to be realized in
America."
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John Jay,
the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, stated September 8, 1777:
"The Americans are the
first people
whom
Heaven has favored
with an opportunity of deliberating upon, and
choosing the forms of government under which they should live.
All other constitutions have derived their existence from violence or accidental circumstances."
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Ronald Reagan
stated in 1961:
"In this country
of ours took place the
greatest revolution that has ever taken place in the world's history.
Every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for another."
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Declaration signer
James Wilson,
who also signed the
Constitution
and was
appointed to the Supreme Court
by George Washington, remarked at Pennsylvania's ratifying convention, November 26, 1787:
"Governments, in general, have been the result of force, of fraud, and accident.
After a period of 6,000 years has elapsed since the creation,
the United States
exhibit to the world the
first instance ... of a nation ... assembling voluntarily ...
and deciding calmly concerning that
system of government
under which they would wish that they and their posterity should live."
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John Adams
wrote in his notes on
Canon & Feudal Law,
1765:
"I always consider
the settlement of America
with reverence ... as the opening of a grand scene and design in
Providence
for the illumination of the ignorant, and the
emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."
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In 1802,
Daniel Webster
stated in a Fourth of July Oration:
"The history of the world is before us ...
The civil, the social, the
Christian virtues are requisite
to render us worthy the continuation of that
government which is the freest on earth."
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After the
U.S. Constitution
was written, it needed to be
ratified
by
nine states
in order to go into effect.
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Eight states had ratified it, and
New Hampshire was in line to be the ninth,
but disagreements caused it to stall.
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New Hampshire
reconvened its
ratifying convention
in June of 1788.
Harvard President Rev. Samuel Langdon
gave an address which was instrumental in convincing the delegates to
ratify the Constitution.
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The Portsmouth Daily Evening Times,
January 1, 1891, acknowledged
Rev. Samuel Langdon's
influence:
"... by his voice and example he contributed more perhaps, than any other man to the favorable action of that body."
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Langdon's
address was titled
"The REPUBLIC of the ISRAELITES an example to the AMERICAN STATES,"
June 5, 1788.
In it, he stated:
"Instead of
the twelve tribes of Israel,
we may substitute
the thirteen States of the American union,
and see this application plainly ...
That as God in the course of his kind providence hath given you
an excellent Constitution of government,
founded on the most rational, equitable, and liberal principles, by which all that liberty is secured ...
and you are impowered to make
righteous laws
for promoting public order and good morals;
and as he has moreover given you by his Son Jesus Christ...a complete revelation of his will ...
it will be your wisdom ... to ... adhere faithfully to the doctrines and commands of the gospel, and
practice every public and private virtue."
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Langdon
continued:
"The Israelites
may be considered as a pattern to the world in all ages ...
Government ...
on
republican principles,
required laws; without which it must have degenerated immediately into ... absolute monarchy ...
How unexampled was this quick progress of the
Israelites,
from
abject slavery,
ignorance, and almost total want of order,
to a national establishment
perfected in all its parts
far beyond all other kingdoms
and tates!
From a mere mob, to a well regulated nation,
under a government and laws far superior to what any other nation could boast! ..."
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Langdon
concluded:
"It was a long time after the
law of Moses
was given before the rest of the world knew any thing of government by law ...
It was six hundred years after
Moses
before ...
Grecian republics
received a very imperfect ... code of laws from Lycurgus.
It was about five hundred years from the first founding of the celebrated
Roman empire
... before the first laws of that empire."
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After
Langdon's
address,
New Hampshire's delegates voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution,
thus putting it
into effect.
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Professors Donald S. Lutz and Charles S. Hyneman
published an article in
American Political Science Review,
1984, titled
"The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late 18th-Century American Political Thought."
They examined nearly 15,000 writings of the 55 writers of the
U.S. Constitution,
including newspaper articles, pamphlets, books and monographs, and discovered that
the Bible, especially the book of Deuteronomy, contributed 34 percent of all direct quotes made by the Founders.
When indirect Bible citations were included, the percentage rose even higher.
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Benjamin Franklin
wrote to the Editor of the
Federal Gazette,
April 8, 1788
(The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Farrand's Records,
Vol. 3, CXCV, pp. 296-297;
Documentary History of the Constitution,
IV, 567-571):
"I beg I may not be understood to infer, that our general
Convention
was
divinely inspired
when it form'd the
new federal Constitution ...
yet I must own I have so much
faith in the general government of the world by Providence,
that I can hardly conceive
a transaction of such momentous importance
to the welfare of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation,
should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenc'd, guided and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent Beneficent Ruler,
in whom all inferior spirits live & move and have their being."
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Alexander Hamilton
wrote of the Constitution in his
Letters of Caesar,
1787:
"Whether the
New Constitution,
if adopted, will prove adequate to such desirable ends, time, the mother of events, will show.
For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which, without
the finger of God,
never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."
(Paul L. Ford,
Essays on the Constitution of the United States,
Historical Printing Club, Brooklyn, 1892, pg 245).
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George Washington
opened the
Constitutional Convention,
stating:
"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the
hand of God."
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Harry S Truman
wrote in his
Memoirs-Volume Two: Years of Trial and Hope:
"The men who wrote the
Constitution
knew ... that tyrannical government had come about where the
powers of government
were united in the hands of one man.
The system they set up was designed to prevent a demagogue or 'a man on horseback' from taking over the
powers of government ...
The most important thought expressed in our
Constitution
is that the
power of government shall always remain limited,
through the
separation of powers."
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Ten days after his Inauguration,
President Washington
wrote to the United Baptist Churches of Virginia, May 10, 1789:
"If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the
Constitution
framed by the
Convention,
where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical Society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it."
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President Washington,
the same week Congress passed the Bill of Rights, declared, October 3, 1789:
"Whereas both Houses of
Congress
have by their joint Committee requested me
'to recommend ...
a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer t
o be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal
favors of Almighty God,
especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to
establish a form of governmen
t for their safety and happiness' ...
I do recommend ... the 26th day of November ... to be devoted by the People of these United States to the service of that
great and glorious Being,
who is the beneficent
Author of all the good
that was, that is, or that will be;
that we may then all unite in
rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks
... for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been
enabled to establish constitutions of government
for our safety and happiness,
and particularly
the national one now lately instituted,
for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed."
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Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson
wrote:
"America
is another name for
opportunity.
Our whole history appears like
a last effort of Divine Providence in behalf of the human race."
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G.K. Chersterton
wrote in "What is America"
(What I Saw In America,
1922)::
"America
is the only nation in the world that is founded on creed.
That creed is set forth ... in the Declaration of Independence ... that
all men are equal in their claim to justice,
that governments exist to give them that justice ...
The Declaration
... certainly does
condemn ... atheism,
since it clearly names
the Creator as the ultimate authority
from whom these equal rights are derived."
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Daniel Webster
stated:
"Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in six thousand years, cannot be expected to happen often ...
Hold on, my friends, to the
Constitution
of your country and the government established under it ...
Such a government, once destroyed,
would have a void to be filled, perhaps for centuries, with evolution and tumult,
riot and despotism."
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U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
stated in 1919:
"The United States is THE WORLD'S BEST HOPE ...
Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance ... for if we stumble & fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin."
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American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
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