American Minute with Bill Federer
America's Experiment in Self-Government
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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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How did
America's experiment in self-government
begin?
At a time when most of the world was ruled by kings, Americans held
its first popularly elected legislative assembly.
Jamestown
was initially a "company colony," run by the
1606 Virginia Company Charter
, which had by-laws and an appointed governor.
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The unforeseen crises, famines, diseases, Indian attacks, labor shortages and struggles to establish a cash crop necessitated the calling of the
first meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses,
July 30, 1619.
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A
burgess
was a citizen elected to represent a "borough" (town or neighborhood).
There were eleven
Jamestown
boroughs which elected twenty-two representatives.
They met in the church choir loft.
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Master John Pory
was appointed as the
assembly's Speaker.
He wrote "A Report of the Manner of Proceeding in the General Assembly Convented at James City," July 30, 1619:
"But forasmuch as men's affairs do little prosper where
God's service
is neglected, all the
Burgesses
took their places in the Quire (choir) till
a prayer
was said by Mr. Bucke, the Minister, that it would please
God
to
guide and sanctify all our proceedings to his own glory and the good of this Plantation
...
The Speaker ... delivered in brief to the whole assembly the occasions of their meeting.
Which done he read unto them the commission for establishing the Council of Estate and the general Assembly, wherein their duties were described to the life ...
And forasmuch as our intent is to establish one equal and uniform kind of government over all
Virginia
&c."
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The
House of Burgesses
set the price of tobacco at three shillings per pound, and passed prohibitions against gambling, drunkenness, idleness, and made it
mandatory to observe the Sabbath.
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The freezing winters, epidemics, and the
Indian attack of March 22, 1622,
where some
400 colonists were massacred,
led to the
Virginia Company's Charter
being revoked.
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In 1624,
Virginia
went from being a
"company colony"
to a
"crown colony"
ruled directly by the king through his
royal appointed governor.
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As the
king
did not pay his salary, the
royal appointed governor
instructed the
House of Burgesses
to provide his funding, and allowed them to otherwise function largely on their own.
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England
went through a
Civil War,
1642-1651, and
King Charles I was beheaded.
During this time the
House of Burgesses
took an
increased role in running the Colony.
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In 1660,
King Charles II
was brought back from exile and restored to the throne of his father.
Soon,
Virginia's liberties were restricted,
leading to
Nathaniel Bacon's rebellion
in 1674.
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Virginia's House of Burgesses
served as
a legislative model for other colonies.
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In
Massachusetts,
Puritan delegates controlled the legislature,
insisting that
only Puritans be allowed to vote.
Various pastors thought that
voting should be extended to anyone who was a Christian.
These pastors led their congregations to leave and found other communities in
New England.
It was in these
New England communities
that
pastors
had the freedom to apply
biblical principles to voting.
- Rev. Roger Williams founded Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636;
- Rev. John Wheelwright founded Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1638;
- Rev. John Lothropp founded Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1639;
- Rev. Thomas Hooker founded Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636.
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Rev. Thomas Hooker
gave a sermon at the colony's capitol city of
Hartford
on May 31, 1638, where he championed
universal Christian suffrage (voting),
stating:
"The foundation of authority is laid firstly in
the free consent of the people."
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This was revolutionary, as
most of the world
at the time was
ruled by kings, emperors, czars and chieftains.
New England
was the beginning of a
polarity change
in the
flow of power
-- instead of government being run
top-down,
it became
bottom-up.
Instead of powerful
political leaders forcing their will
on the people, it was the
people's will being carried out by their elected representatives.
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Rev. Thomas Hooker's
sermon notes became known as the
"Fundamental Orders of Connecticut,"
1639, which was used as the
foundation of Connecticut's government
until 1818.
According to historian John Fiske, the F
undamental Orders,
inspired by
Hooker's sermon,
comprised
the first written constitution in history.
It became a blueprint for other
New England colonies
and eventually the
Declaration of Independence,
which states,
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
and
U.S. Constitution,
which states,
“We the People
... in order to form a more perfect union ... and
secure
the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
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Hartford's Traveller's Square has a bronze statue of Connecticut's first settlers and a plaque which reads:
"In June of 1635, about one hundred members of
Thomas Hooker's congregation
arrived safely in this vicinity with one hundred and sixty cattle. They followed old Indian trails from Massachusetts Bay Colony to the Connecticut River to build a community.
Here
they established the form of government upon which the present Constitution of the United States is modeled."
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A plaque in
England
describes
Rev. Thomas Hooker
as "Founder of the State of Connecticut, 1636,
'Father of American Democracy.'"
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Another
English
plaque placed by the Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council reads:
"Thomas Hooker
... Reputed
Father of 'American Democracy.'"
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Rev. Thomas Hooker's
statue holding a
Bible
stands at the Old State House in Hartford, Connecticut.
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The base of the statue reads:
"Leading his people through the wilderness,
he founded Hartford
in June of 1636. On this site
he preached the sermon
which inspired
The Fundamental Orders.
It was the
first written constitution that created a government."
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President Calvin Coolidge
stated July 5, 1926:
"The principles of our declaration
had been under discussion in the Colonies for nearly two generations ....
In the assertion of the
Rev. Thomas Hooker of Connecticut
as early as 1638, when he said in
a sermon
before the General Court that:
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'The
foundation of authority
is laid in the
free consent of the people ...
The choice of public magistrates belongs unto
the people
by
God's own allowance.'
This doctrine found wide acceptance among the nonconformist clergy who later made up
the Congregational Church
..."
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Coolidge
continued:
"The great apostle of this movement was the
Rev. John Wise,
of Massachusetts ... writing in 1710 ...
'Democracy is Christ's government in church and state.'
Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the
theory of inalienable rights
clearly asserted by
Wise
at the opening of the eighteenth century, just as we have the principle of the
consent of the governed
stated by
Hooker
as early as 1638 ..."
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Coolidge
added:
"The principles ... which went into the
Declaration of Independence
... are found in the texts, the
sermons,
and the writings
of the early colonial clergy
who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live.
They preached equality
because they believed in the
fatherhood of God
and the
brotherhood of man.
They justified
freedom
by the text that we are
all created in the divine image,
all partakers of the divine spirit ...
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...
Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors,
where
no one possessed any right to rule over him,
he must inevitably
choose his own rulers through a system of self-government
...
In those days
such doctrines would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country
...
In order that they might have
freedom to express these thoughts
and opportunity to put them into action,
whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the colonies."
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In New England,
instead of "separation of church & state,"
it was
churches and pastors
who
CREATED the State!
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Coolidge
concluded his address:
"But even in that we come back to the theory of
John Wise that 'Democracy is Christ's government ...'
The
ultimate sanction of law
rests on the
righteous authority of the Almighty
....
Ours is a
government of the people.
It represents
their will.
Its officers sometimes go astray, but that is not a reason for criticizing the principles of our institutions.
The real
heart of the American Government
depends upon the
heart of the people.
It is from that source that we must look for
all genuine reform
...
It was in the contemplation of these truths that the fathers made their
Declaration
and adopted their
Constitution."
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By the time of Constitution, Americans had over
150 years of gradually learning self-government.
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Signer of the Constitution
James Wilson
wrote in his
Lectures on Law,
1790-91):
"EVERY CITIZEN forms a part of the SOVEREIGN POWER: he possesses a vote."
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President Grover Cleveland
stated, July 13, 1887:
"The SOVEREIGNTY OF 60 MILLIONS OF FREE PEOPLE, is ... the working out ... of the divine right of man to govern himself and a manifestation of God's plan concerning the human race."
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Colonial America's period of
Bible-based training in self-government
is one of the reasons why the American Revolution
did not result in simply "a regime change,"
which unfortunately was the case with
most other revolutions.
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President Millard Fillmore
commented on December 6, 1852, comparing the American Revolution with France's numerous revolutions:
"Our own free institutions
were not the offspring of our Revolution. They
existed before.
They were planted in the f
ree charters of self-government
under which the
English colonies
grew up, and our Revolution only freed us from the dominion of a foreign power whose government was at variance with those institutions.
But
European nations have had no such training for self-government,
and every effort to establish it by
bloody revolutions
has been, and must without that preparation continue to be,
a failure."
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WHO GETS TO VOTE?
In colonial Virginia,
landowners
were the
first to vote,
as they had to determine who would give money to support the royal governor.
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Voting
gradually extended to include
those owning
a certain amount of
personal property.
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After the Revolution,
States began to allow
those without land or personal property to vote,
provided they
paid taxes,
though many States continued
religious and literacy tests.
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In 1870,
Republicans
pushed through the
15th Amendment
to let
former slaves vote.
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In 1920, the 19th Amendment let women vote.
President Nixon
stated March 24, 1970:
"In other areas, too, there were long struggles to eliminate discrimination ...
Property and even religious qualifications for voting persisted well into the 19th century
-- and not until
1920 were women
finally guaranteed the
right to vote."
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In 1924,
American Indians
could vote in Federal Elections.
In 1961, the 23rd Amendment let
District of Columbia residents
vote in Federal Elections.
In 1964, the 24th Amendment let vote those who could
not pay a poll tax.
In 1965, the
Voting Rights Act
removed
literacy tests.
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On JUNE 22, 1970, President Nixon extended the
Voting Rights Act
to let
18-year-olds vote.
The Supreme Court, in
Oregon v Mitchell,
limited this right so the
26th Amendment
was passed in 1971 to confirm it.
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President Nixon
stated August 24, 1972:
"For the first time in the 195 year history of this country,
men and women 18 to 21 years of age
will have the chance to vote."
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WHO ATTEMPTS TO MANIPULATE VOTES?
As the voting public grew in size, so did
efforts to manipulate their votes.
This practice dates back to
Philip II of Macedon,
the father of Alexander the Great, who took
gold
from the mines around the Greek city of Philippi to
bribe citizens of Athens to betray their city,
a tactic which became known as
"the fifth column."
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These paid betrayers and bribed politicians would gather around themselves what Lenin called "useful idiots" who actually believed their propaganda.
In 1936, during the
Spanish Civil War,
the Nationalist General Emilio Mola marched toward Madrid with four columns of soldiers, having supporters inside the city as a
"fifth column"
to
undermine the Republican government from within.
While in Madrid,
Ernest Hemingway
wrote a play which he included in his 1938 book titled
The Fifth Column.
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Winston Churchill
stated in Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946:
"Communist parties
or
fifth columns
constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization."
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Franklin Roosevelt
stated May 16, 1940:
"We have seen the treacherous use of the
'fifth column'
by which persons supposed to be peaceful visitors were actually a part of an enemy unit of occupation."
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In 1963, a list of
"fifth column"
communist goals was read into the Congressional Record by
Rep. Albert S. Herlong, Jr.,
of Florida (Vol 109, 88th Congress, 1st Session, Appendix, pp. A34-A35), which included:
"Discredit the Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned ... Discredit Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the 'common man' ...
Control schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda ... Get control of teachers’ associations. Put party line in textbooks ... Control student newspapers ...
Infiltrate the press ... editorial writing, policy-making positions ... Control key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures ... Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV ...
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history ... Support socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture ...
Infiltrate and control of more unions. Infiltrate and gain control of big business ... Promote the UN ... Free trade, loans and aid to all nations regardless of communist affiliation ... Do away with loyalty oaths ...
Capture one or both of the political parties
... Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party."
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Franklin Roosevelt
described the
"fifth column"
tactics, December 29, 1940:
"Their secret emissaries ... seek to
stir up ... dissension
to
cause internal strife.
They try to
turn capital against labor,
and vice versa. They try to
reawaken
long slumbering
racial and religious enmities
which should have no place in this country ...
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... These
trouble-breeders
have but one purpose. It is to
divide our people
into hostile groups and to
destroy our unity
and
shatter our will to defend ourselves.
There are also
American citizens,
many of them
in high places,
who, unwittingly in most cases, are
aiding and abetting the work of these agents.
I do not charge these American citizens with being foreign agents. But I do charge them with
doing exactly the kind of work that the dictators want
done in the United States."
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Tactics to influence the vote include:
- vote buying;
- race-baiting;
- organized riots;
- fear mongering;
- October surprises;
- suppress voter turnout;
- biased media coverage;
- entitlement dependency;
- confusing ballot language;
- registering illegal immigrants to vote;
- instigating government "investigations."
- unions and globalist corporate influences;
- politically motivated IRS audits of opponents;
- increase uneducated "low information" voters;
- "psychological projection," candidates blaming opponents for what they are guilty of.
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President William Henry Harrison
stated March 4, 1841:
"As long as the understanding of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a people depend on their constant attention to its preservation."
Media and education are the major influences upon the "affections," "passions and prejudices" of the people.
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In America:
- The COUNTRY is controlled by LAWS;
- LAWS are controlled by POLITICIANS;
- POLITICIANS are controlled by VOTERS;
- VOTERS are controlled by PUBLIC OPINION;
- PUBLIC OPINION is controlled by MEDIA & EDUCATION;
- So whoever controls MEDIA & EDUCATION controls the COUNTRY! Communist Party."
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WHAT ABOUT VOTER FRAUD?
As American society experiences a lessening of moral restraints, there has been a corresponding increase in methods of voter fraud:
- stuffing ballot boxes,
- tampering with voting machines,
- insecure absentee voting
- same day voting,
- foreign ownership of voting machine companies.
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Joseph Stalin
stated:
"It doesn't matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes."
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Although
illegal immigrants
cannot legally vote, they are still
counted in the census
which determined the
congressional districts,
the
number of congressmen each state gets,
and the
number of electoral votes each state gets.
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So, for example, if a liberal state such as California, lets in more illegal immigrants, the state's population increases and the state will get more Congressmen, thus increasing a liberal influence in the U.S. Congress.
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If there was not an
electoral college,
the
cities with the largest populations
would determine
elections.
These cities, coincidentally, have
notorious reputations
for
voter fraud
and
corrupt political machines.
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DUTY OF PEOPLE TO VOTE RESPONSIBLY
Republican President Abraham Lincoln
commented in his Second Inaugural Address regarding the
southern Democrat policy of owning slaves:
"It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces."
Likewise, the question could be asked today, if a political party can justify killing innocent babies and selling their body parts, is there any immoral activity that party could not justify?
Noah Webster
wrote in "Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education," New Haven, 1823:
"When a
citizen
gives his
suffrage (vote)
to a man of known
immorality,
he abuses his trust;
he sacrifices
not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, and he betrays
the interest of his country."
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America's founders set up a
democratically-elected Constitutional Republic.
The Pledge of Allegiance is "to the Flag and to the
Republic
for which it stands."
A
"Republic"
is where
the people are king,
ruling through their servants, called representatives.
The word
"citizen"
is Greek and means
"co-ruler"
or
"co-king."
When someone dishonors the flag, they are saying is "I don't want to be king anymore."
When someone does
not vote,
they are saying they want others to determine their fate.
Ironically, organizations such as the ACLU are
undemocratic
in that they sue to
overturn laws passed
by the
majority will of the people,
and instead want
the will of a minority enforced,
which is the definition of a
tyranny.
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In 1832,
Noah Webster
wrote in his
History of the United States:
"When you become entitled to exercise the right of
voting
for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that
God commands you to choose for rulers 'just men who will rule in the fear of God.'
The preservation of a republican government
depends on the faithful discharge of this duty."
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He continued:
"If the
citizens
neglect their duty and place
unprincipled men
in office, the
government
will soon be
corrupted;
laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the
selfish or local purposes;
corrupt or incompetent men
will be appointed to execute the laws; the
public revenues will be squandered
on unworthy men; and
the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded.
If a
republican government
fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the
citizens neglect the divine commands,
and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."
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Schedule Bill Federer for interviews & speaking presentations: 314-502-8924
[email protected]
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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