Let me say up front that I know this will be unpopular. But I can't help the uneasiness that I feel toward law enforcement lately...and I have some good reasons. Gone are the days of Officer Friendly, the neighborhood cop who knows everyone and is looking out for the community's best interest. It seems that lately, police officers end up terrorizing those they are supposed to be serving and protecting. Clearly, not all police are acting this way, but it sure seems the police state is ramping up.
Read more at PJ Media
(Hat tip: KimR)
Read More......
Showing posts with label Civil Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil Rights. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Jeff Merkley introduces sweeping LGBT rights bill that makes big changes to Civil Rights Act
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, who led the fight in the last Senate for a ban on job discrimination against gays, has said for months that he's shifting to a more expansive approach. --On Thursday, Merkley and his allies introduced their new bill, and it is indeed far more sweeping than anything the Oregon Democrat has proposed on gay rights in the past.
Read more at the Oregonian
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......
Read more at the Oregonian
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Obama Decries ‘Bogus’ Voter Fraud Complaints
President Obama labeled complaints about voter fraud “bogus” and accused Republicans of cynically trying to prevent Americans from accessing the polls in a fiery speech Friday at a civil rights forum hosted by Al Sharpton. ✧ Obama argued that attempts in some states to impose new voter identification restrictions were actually efforts by Republicans to make “it harder, not easier to vote.” And the president said that while voter fraud should be prevented, it rarely occurred.
Read more at Minutemen News Read More......
Read more at Minutemen News Read More......
Friday, August 9, 2013
Republicans passed the first Civil Rights Act ever, in 1866
Grand Old Partisan, 8/9/2013, by Michael Zak - On this day one hundred and forty-seven years ago, the Republican-controlled 39th Congress enacted the 1866 Civil Rights Act. Nearly unanimously, Republican Representatives and Senators voted to override a veto by the Democrat president, Andrew Johnson. This was the first time Congress overrode a presidential veto of a significant bill. ✧
Senator Lyman Trumbull (R-IL) wrote the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which conferred U.S. citizenship on former slaves and other African-Americans. The law granted African-Americans "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens." Republicans thereby accorded African-Americans the right to own property, engage in business, sign contracts and file lawsuits. ✧
Also, the 1866 Civil Rights Act contradicted the notorious Dred Scott decision, in which the seven Democrat Justices on the Supreme Court decreed that black people did not have constitutional rights. To prevent Democrats from someday repealing the Act, Republicans later enshrined its provisions as Article I of the 14th Amendment. ✧
Sadly, Democrats defied the 1866 Civil Rights Act and other Republican reforms. Democrat oppression of African-Americans would not be overcome until the 1960's civil rights movement.
Michael Zak is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party and blogs as the Grand Old Partisan, celebrating the heritage of the Republican Party. Read More......
Michael Zak is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party and blogs as the Grand Old Partisan, celebrating the heritage of the Republican Party. Read More......
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Louisiana State Senator's "Why I Am a Republican" video generating buzz
KSLA TV, June 18, 2013 - Opelousas Senator Elbert Guillory made headlines when he switched from the Democratic Party to Republican in late May as he accepted the "Frederick Douglass" award from the @Large Conference, a group dedicated to recruiting black conservatives. Douglass was a 19th-century abolitionist and a hero to black Americans. ✧ On Sunday, he released a video explaining the move and urging others to join him in "abandoning the government plantation and the party of disappointment."
Read More......
Read More......
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Contentions: Senate Republicans Turn Against SOPA/PIPA
Commentary Magazine/Contentions, 1/18/2012 by Alana Goodman - Today’s [Wednesday's] Internet blackout protesting the SOPA/PIPA bills – which would allow the federal government to shut down accused copyright violators online without due process – is already making an impact. Legislators who support the bills are being barraged with angry phone calls, and this morning Sen. Marco Rubio withdrew his co-sponsorship of the PIPA legislation...
[...]
This comes after six Republican senators sent a letter to Sen. Harry Reid distancing themselves from the bill and asking him to postpone the vote:
[...]
This comes after six Republican senators sent a letter to Sen. Harry Reid distancing themselves from the bill and asking him to postpone the vote:
- “We have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation, including breaches in cybersecurity, damaging the integrity of the Internet, costly and burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights,” said Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in the letter.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Constitution for all Conservatives
Speech given at the Liberty Summit on June 6, 2009 by Craig Myers
Our view of the Constitution determines the success of our constitutional republic. Increasing attacks on the U.S. Constitution and our many state constitutions, remind us of what we are trying to conserve. Our republic was initiated by, "We the people", as the preamble declares, and it is "We" who must protect it. As the Declaration of Independence states, ...governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." This is why our grassroots campaign for government accountability is mobilizing.
Three points:
Point 1: Can we view the Constitution as an à la carte menu of options?
a. Liberals consider it a "living document" subject to revision.
b. Can inalienable rights be subject to such interpretation?
The focus of the Constitution is to provide the greatest possible liberty for all Americans.
Our founding fathers assumed that rights such as liberty are accompanied with duties and conditions. The Constitution is a contract between Americans and their government describing the rights and privileges of each.
Every political relationship expresses the value system or worldview of the citizens. The foundation of our value system has always been our moral and religious convictions. Among these is the conviction that our rights were given by our Creator, not by men, and are therefore inalienable.
The Declaration states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..."
The United States had the first Constitutional Republic in the history of the world. Its foundation was biblical, and its citizens were predominantly Christians. Our republic has largely succeeded, while hundreds of attempts to imitate our system have failed. As our founding fathers repeatedly said,it is not the system of government alone, but also the morality and religion of its citizens that are critical to the success of a constitutional republic.
Liberal elites treat our Constitution as evolving set of values and ideas, merely governing man's relationship with man, and not subject to any higher authority than himself. Wherever this secularization has succeeded, the result has been the same. The Greek, Roman, and all modern utopian ideas of secular state power result in a state run by elites which extend their power and restrict individual liberty. This is the experience of socialist and communist republics.
When our liberal leaders and activist judges treat our Constitution as a living document, the inevitable result is the dismantling of our inalienable rights. The populist excuse for this is that newly discovered rights are being created for special interest groups. However, as George Washington and other founders warned, this always comes at the expense of the general welfare and the principle of equal justice.
The preamble of our Constitution states: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." As we have seen in recent decades, the secular worldview has diminished rather than enhanced every one of the goals established in the preamble. Undermining, rather than promoting the general welfare of all American citizens is a prime example.
Viewing the Constitution as an à la carte menu of options, is like tearing it in half. Ignoring the moral and biblical foundation only leads to its destruction. We cannot preserve the intended benefits of it while violating its foundational principles. That is why this is the strategy of the liberal elites.
Point 2: Why is it important for social and fiscal conservatives to understand, respect, and cooperate with each other?
A. Without such cooperation, can we succeed in elections aimed at conserving our constitutional freedoms?
In Oregon, to succeed with a ballot measure or elect a candidate to statewide office requires a million votes. Neither the social nor fiscal conservatives have such support if they do not act together.
Even though these groups may disagree on a number of issues, they must recognize that the only way to preserve our cherished economic freedoms is through a strong alliance.
Despite their differences, the principles expressed in the preamble to our Constitution must take precedence over all else. Though fiscal conservatives may agree only 70% of the time with social conservatives, the preservation of those freedoms that we all hold dear truly hang upon this coalition. (See the Disclaimer Page on the CO website)
Point 3: A social conservative perspective on the Constitution.
As historically understood, the Constitution is a coherent reflection of biblical teaching on the nature of man, and his relationships with God and his fellow man. (See below) The constitutions of all 50 U.S. states, either in the preamble or body, explicitly recognize or express gratitude to the Almighty God described in scripture.
The US Constitution presumes self-government by its citizens, which requires self-control. This in turn demands general adherence to the eternal laws of liberty and rules of conduct found in the 10 Commandments. The Declaration of Independence expressed it as, "..appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions..."
The Constitution and our other founding documents were written and signed by 250 remarkable men, 95% of whom were devout Christians from various Orthodox denominations. Their writings address the issues faced by every generation including today's. They frequently stated that the morality of America's people would determine the success of our constitutional republic. (See below)
Ultimately, it is not the government that protects the Constitution for the sake of the people. It is the job of the people to protect the Constitution from decay through their moral values, civic virtue, and participation. The nature and quality of our relationships with our fellow citizens results from our relationship with God and our accountability to him.
The notion of government accountability itself stems from our own accountability to God. Our Constitutional freedoms will naturally decay, as we neglect our relationship with the author of those freedoms. This is expressed in the Declaration of Independence as, "...a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence."
Conclusion:
For conservatives to work successfully together, we must understand our differences and recognize that our similarities are far greater. If we ignore the basis of our constitution, it is tempting to try to cherry pick which of our foundational principles to support based on their popularity. This pretends that some moral issues are merely matters of personal preference and have no broader political or eternal importance.
Yet we are now hurtling toward European style socialism because we as a nation have forgotten that it is "In God we trust" not man and man's wisdom. Our view of the Constitution and its biblical foundation is determining the success of our republic.
Alabama 1901, Preamble. We the people of the State of Alabama, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.
Alaska 1956, Preamble. We, the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land.
Arizona 1911, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution...
Arkansas 1874, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government...
California 1879, Preamble. We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom...
Colorado 1876, Preamble. We, the people of Colorado, with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe...
Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy.
Delaware 1897, Preamble. Through Divine Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences...
Florida 1885, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Florida, grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, establish this Constitution...
Georgia 1777, Preamble.
We, the people of Georgia, relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution...
Hawaii 1959, Preamble. We , the people of Hawaii , Grateful for Divine Guidance ... Establish this Constitution.
Idaho 1889, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Idaho, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings.
Illinois 1870, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.
Indiana 1851, Preamble. We, the People of the State of Indiana, grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to choose our form of government.
Iowa 1857, Preamble. We, the People of the St ate of Iowa, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings, establish this Constitution.
Kansas 1859, Preamble. We, the people of Kansas, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges establish this Constitution.
Kentucky 1891, Preamble. We, the people of the Commonwealth are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties...
Louisiana 1921, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Louisiana, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy.
Maine 1820, Preamble. We the People of Maine acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity .. And imploring His aid and direction.
Maryland 1776, Preamble. We, the people of the state of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty...
Massachusetts 1780, Preamble. We...the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe In the course of His Providence, an opportunity and devoutly imploring His direction...
Michigan 1908, Preamble
We, the people of the State of Michigan, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, establish this Constitution.
Minnesota, 1857, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings:
Mississippi 1890, Preamble. We, the people of Mississippi in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His blessing on our work.
Missouri 1845, Preamble. We, the people of Missouri , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His goodness . Establish this Constitution...
Montana 1889, Preamble. We, the people of Montana, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty establish this Constitution ...
Nebraska 1875, Preamble. We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom . Establish this Constitution.
Nevada 1864, Preamble. We the people of the State of Nevada, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, establish this Constitution...
New Hampshire 1792, Part I. Art. I. Sec. V. Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.
New Jersey 1844, Preamble. We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.
New Mexico 1911, Preamble. We, the People of New Mexico, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty...
New York 1846, Preamble. We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings.
North Carolina 1868, Preamble. We the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those...
North Dakota 1889, Preamble. We , the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, do ordain...
Ohio 1852, Preamble. We the people of the state of Ohio , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and to promote our common.
Oklahoma 1907, Preamble. Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty, establish this...
Oregon 1857, Bill of Rights, Article I Section 2 All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences...
Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble. We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance...
Rhode Island 1842, Preamble. We the People of the State of Rhode Island grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing...
South Carolina, 1778, Preamble. We, the people of he State of South Carolina grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish this Constitution.
South Dakota 1889, Preamble. We, the people of South Dakota , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties ...
Tennessee 1796, Art.XI.III. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience...
Texas 1845, Preamble. We the People of the Republic of Texas , acknowledging, with gratitude, the grace and beneficence of God.
Utah 1896, Preamble. Grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty, we establish this Constitution.
Vermont 1777, Preamble. Whereas all government ought to enable the individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights, and other blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed on man...
Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI... Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other...
Washington 1889, Preamble. We the People of the State of Washington, grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution...
West Virginia 1872, Preamble. Since through Divine Providence we enjoy the blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, we, the people of West Virginia reaffirm our faith in and constant reliance upon God ...
Wisconsin 1848, Preamble. We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility...
Wyoming 1890, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Wyoming , grateful to God for our civil, political, and religious liberties, establish this Constitution...
William Penn
"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants."
The following are a few Declarations of Founding Fathers and Early Statesmen.....This list is by no means exhaustive; many other Founders could be included, and even with those who appear below, many additional quotes could be included.
John Adams
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; JUDGE; DIPLOMAT; ONE OF TWO SIGNERS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company: I mean hell.
Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. . . . What a Eutopia - what a Paradise would this region be!
Samuel Adams
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; "FATHER OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world . . . that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the scepter of Him who is the Prince of Peace.
Elias Boudinot
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; SIGNED THE PEACE TREATY TO END THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION; FIRST ATTORNEY ADMITTED TO THE U. S. SUPREME COURT BAR; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; DIRECTOR OF THE U. S. MINT
Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned... [L]et us earnestly call and beseech Him, for Christ's sake, to preside in our councils. . . . We can only depend on the all powerful influence of the Spirit of God, Whose Divine aid and assistance it becomes us as a Christian people most devoutly to implore. Therefore I move that some minister of the Gospel be requested to attend this Congress every morning . . . in order to open the meeting with prayer.
Congress, 1854
The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Congress, U. S. House Judiciary Committee, 1854
In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity... That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.
John Dickinson
SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA; GOVERNOR OF DELAWARE; GENERAL IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
[Governments] could not give the rights essential to happiness... We claim them from a higher source: from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth.
Benjamin Franklin
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION; DIPLOMAT; PRINTER; SCIENTIST; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and His religion as He left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.
Alexander Hamilton
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Hamilton's untimely death halted the formation of a religious society he had proposed. He suggested that it be named the Christian Constitutional Society, and listed two goals for its formation: first, the support of the Christian religion; and second, the support of the Constitution of the United States. This organization was to have numerous clubs throughout each state which would meet regularly and work to elect to office those who reflected the goals of the Christian Constitutional Society.
John Hancock
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement.
Patrick Henry
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; LEGISLATOR; "THE VOICE OF LIBERTY"; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
Righteousness alone can exalt America as a nation. Whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.
The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.
John Jay
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; DIPLOMAT; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; ORIGINAL CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U. S. SUPREME COURT; GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
Thomas Jefferson
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; DIPLOMAT; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA; SECRETARY OF STATE; THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.
God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift from God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
James Madison
SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; SECRETARY OF STATE; FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
Benjamin Rush
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; SURGEON GENERAL OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; "FATHER OF AMERICAN MEDICINE"; TREASURER OF THE U. S. MINT; "FATHER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION"
I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as satisfied that it is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament.
[T]he only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.
George Washington
JUDGE; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY; PRESIDENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; "FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY"
You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.
While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.
Daniel Webster
U. S. SENATOR; SECRETARY OF STATE; "DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION"
[T]he Christian religion - its general principles - must ever be regarded among us as the foundation of civil society.
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
[T]o the free and universal reading of the Bible... men [are] much indebted for right views of civil liberty.
William Pitt - the Younger
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.
Imagine what a blessing it would be if our legislature or Congress truly respected our constitutions. If a majority of such leaders were in office, we would be enjoying a new birth of freedom in this country! Therefore, let all freedom loving prople be charitable, united, and harmonious in our dealings with each other and promote those expressions of conservative values which we share. Remember that these ideas did not originate with any of us and that we are merely sons and daughters of liberty, fighting for their preservation so that our country and our posterity may receive the blessings our forefathers intended.
Sincerely,
Craig Myers
Concerned Oregonians Read More......
Our view of the Constitution determines the success of our constitutional republic. Increasing attacks on the U.S. Constitution and our many state constitutions, remind us of what we are trying to conserve. Our republic was initiated by, "We the people", as the preamble declares, and it is "We" who must protect it. As the Declaration of Independence states, ...governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." This is why our grassroots campaign for government accountability is mobilizing.
Three points:
- Can we view the Constitution as an à la carte menu of options?
- Why is it important for social and fiscal conservatives to understand, respect, and cooperate with each other?
- A social conservative perspective on the Constitution
Point 1: Can we view the Constitution as an à la carte menu of options?
a. Liberals consider it a "living document" subject to revision.
b. Can inalienable rights be subject to such interpretation?
The focus of the Constitution is to provide the greatest possible liberty for all Americans.
Our founding fathers assumed that rights such as liberty are accompanied with duties and conditions. The Constitution is a contract between Americans and their government describing the rights and privileges of each.
Every political relationship expresses the value system or worldview of the citizens. The foundation of our value system has always been our moral and religious convictions. Among these is the conviction that our rights were given by our Creator, not by men, and are therefore inalienable.
The Declaration states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..."
The United States had the first Constitutional Republic in the history of the world. Its foundation was biblical, and its citizens were predominantly Christians. Our republic has largely succeeded, while hundreds of attempts to imitate our system have failed. As our founding fathers repeatedly said,it is not the system of government alone, but also the morality and religion of its citizens that are critical to the success of a constitutional republic.
Liberal elites treat our Constitution as evolving set of values and ideas, merely governing man's relationship with man, and not subject to any higher authority than himself. Wherever this secularization has succeeded, the result has been the same. The Greek, Roman, and all modern utopian ideas of secular state power result in a state run by elites which extend their power and restrict individual liberty. This is the experience of socialist and communist republics.
When our liberal leaders and activist judges treat our Constitution as a living document, the inevitable result is the dismantling of our inalienable rights. The populist excuse for this is that newly discovered rights are being created for special interest groups. However, as George Washington and other founders warned, this always comes at the expense of the general welfare and the principle of equal justice.
The preamble of our Constitution states: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." As we have seen in recent decades, the secular worldview has diminished rather than enhanced every one of the goals established in the preamble. Undermining, rather than promoting the general welfare of all American citizens is a prime example.
Viewing the Constitution as an à la carte menu of options, is like tearing it in half. Ignoring the moral and biblical foundation only leads to its destruction. We cannot preserve the intended benefits of it while violating its foundational principles. That is why this is the strategy of the liberal elites.
Point 2: Why is it important for social and fiscal conservatives to understand, respect, and cooperate with each other?
A. Without such cooperation, can we succeed in elections aimed at conserving our constitutional freedoms?
In Oregon, to succeed with a ballot measure or elect a candidate to statewide office requires a million votes. Neither the social nor fiscal conservatives have such support if they do not act together.
Even though these groups may disagree on a number of issues, they must recognize that the only way to preserve our cherished economic freedoms is through a strong alliance.
Despite their differences, the principles expressed in the preamble to our Constitution must take precedence over all else. Though fiscal conservatives may agree only 70% of the time with social conservatives, the preservation of those freedoms that we all hold dear truly hang upon this coalition. (See the Disclaimer Page on the CO website)
Point 3: A social conservative perspective on the Constitution.
As historically understood, the Constitution is a coherent reflection of biblical teaching on the nature of man, and his relationships with God and his fellow man. (See below) The constitutions of all 50 U.S. states, either in the preamble or body, explicitly recognize or express gratitude to the Almighty God described in scripture.
The US Constitution presumes self-government by its citizens, which requires self-control. This in turn demands general adherence to the eternal laws of liberty and rules of conduct found in the 10 Commandments. The Declaration of Independence expressed it as, "..appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions..."
The Constitution and our other founding documents were written and signed by 250 remarkable men, 95% of whom were devout Christians from various Orthodox denominations. Their writings address the issues faced by every generation including today's. They frequently stated that the morality of America's people would determine the success of our constitutional republic. (See below)
Ultimately, it is not the government that protects the Constitution for the sake of the people. It is the job of the people to protect the Constitution from decay through their moral values, civic virtue, and participation. The nature and quality of our relationships with our fellow citizens results from our relationship with God and our accountability to him.
The notion of government accountability itself stems from our own accountability to God. Our Constitutional freedoms will naturally decay, as we neglect our relationship with the author of those freedoms. This is expressed in the Declaration of Independence as, "...a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence."
Conclusion:
For conservatives to work successfully together, we must understand our differences and recognize that our similarities are far greater. If we ignore the basis of our constitution, it is tempting to try to cherry pick which of our foundational principles to support based on their popularity. This pretends that some moral issues are merely matters of personal preference and have no broader political or eternal importance.
Yet we are now hurtling toward European style socialism because we as a nation have forgotten that it is "In God we trust" not man and man's wisdom. Our view of the Constitution and its biblical foundation is determining the success of our republic.
All 50 U.S. state preambles
& Quotes from Founding Fathers
& Quotes from Founding Fathers
Alabama 1901, Preamble. We the people of the State of Alabama, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.
Alaska 1956, Preamble. We, the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land.
Arizona 1911, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution...
Arkansas 1874, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government...
California 1879, Preamble. We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom...
Colorado 1876, Preamble. We, the people of Colorado, with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe...
Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy.
Delaware 1897, Preamble. Through Divine Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences...
Florida 1885, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Florida, grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, establish this Constitution...
Georgia 1777, Preamble.
We, the people of Georgia, relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution...
Hawaii 1959, Preamble. We , the people of Hawaii , Grateful for Divine Guidance ... Establish this Constitution.
Idaho 1889, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Idaho, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings.
Illinois 1870, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.
Indiana 1851, Preamble. We, the People of the State of Indiana, grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to choose our form of government.
Iowa 1857, Preamble. We, the People of the St ate of Iowa, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings, establish this Constitution.
Kansas 1859, Preamble. We, the people of Kansas, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges establish this Constitution.
Kentucky 1891, Preamble. We, the people of the Commonwealth are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties...
Louisiana 1921, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Louisiana, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy.
Maine 1820, Preamble. We the People of Maine acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity .. And imploring His aid and direction.
Maryland 1776, Preamble. We, the people of the state of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty...
Massachusetts 1780, Preamble. We...the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe In the course of His Providence, an opportunity and devoutly imploring His direction...
Michigan 1908, Preamble
We, the people of the State of Michigan, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, establish this Constitution.
Minnesota, 1857, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings:
Mississippi 1890, Preamble. We, the people of Mississippi in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His blessing on our work.
Missouri 1845, Preamble. We, the people of Missouri , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His goodness . Establish this Constitution...
Montana 1889, Preamble. We, the people of Montana, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty establish this Constitution ...
Nebraska 1875, Preamble. We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom . Establish this Constitution.
Nevada 1864, Preamble. We the people of the State of Nevada, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, establish this Constitution...
New Hampshire 1792, Part I. Art. I. Sec. V. Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.
New Jersey 1844, Preamble. We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.
New Mexico 1911, Preamble. We, the People of New Mexico, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty...
New York 1846, Preamble. We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings.
North Carolina 1868, Preamble. We the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those...
North Dakota 1889, Preamble. We , the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, do ordain...
Ohio 1852, Preamble. We the people of the state of Ohio , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and to promote our common.
Oklahoma 1907, Preamble. Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty, establish this...
Oregon 1857, Bill of Rights, Article I Section 2 All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences...
Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble. We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance...
Rhode Island 1842, Preamble. We the People of the State of Rhode Island grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing...
South Carolina, 1778, Preamble. We, the people of he State of South Carolina grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish this Constitution.
South Dakota 1889, Preamble. We, the people of South Dakota , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties ...
Tennessee 1796, Art.XI.III. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience...
Texas 1845, Preamble. We the People of the Republic of Texas , acknowledging, with gratitude, the grace and beneficence of God.
Utah 1896, Preamble. Grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty, we establish this Constitution.
Vermont 1777, Preamble. Whereas all government ought to enable the individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights, and other blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed on man...
Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI... Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other...
Washington 1889, Preamble. We the People of the State of Washington, grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution...
West Virginia 1872, Preamble. Since through Divine Providence we enjoy the blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, we, the people of West Virginia reaffirm our faith in and constant reliance upon God ...
Wisconsin 1848, Preamble. We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility...
Wyoming 1890, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Wyoming , grateful to God for our civil, political, and religious liberties, establish this Constitution...
William Penn
"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants."
The following are a few Declarations of Founding Fathers and Early Statesmen.....This list is by no means exhaustive; many other Founders could be included, and even with those who appear below, many additional quotes could be included.
John Adams
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; JUDGE; DIPLOMAT; ONE OF TWO SIGNERS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company: I mean hell.
Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. . . . What a Eutopia - what a Paradise would this region be!
Samuel Adams
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; "FATHER OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world . . . that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the scepter of Him who is the Prince of Peace.
Elias Boudinot
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; SIGNED THE PEACE TREATY TO END THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION; FIRST ATTORNEY ADMITTED TO THE U. S. SUPREME COURT BAR; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; DIRECTOR OF THE U. S. MINT
Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned... [L]et us earnestly call and beseech Him, for Christ's sake, to preside in our councils. . . . We can only depend on the all powerful influence of the Spirit of God, Whose Divine aid and assistance it becomes us as a Christian people most devoutly to implore. Therefore I move that some minister of the Gospel be requested to attend this Congress every morning . . . in order to open the meeting with prayer.
Congress, 1854
The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Congress, U. S. House Judiciary Committee, 1854
In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity... That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.
John Dickinson
SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA; GOVERNOR OF DELAWARE; GENERAL IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
[Governments] could not give the rights essential to happiness... We claim them from a higher source: from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth.
Benjamin Franklin
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION; DIPLOMAT; PRINTER; SCIENTIST; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and His religion as He left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.
Alexander Hamilton
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Hamilton's untimely death halted the formation of a religious society he had proposed. He suggested that it be named the Christian Constitutional Society, and listed two goals for its formation: first, the support of the Christian religion; and second, the support of the Constitution of the United States. This organization was to have numerous clubs throughout each state which would meet regularly and work to elect to office those who reflected the goals of the Christian Constitutional Society.
John Hancock
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement.
Patrick Henry
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; LEGISLATOR; "THE VOICE OF LIBERTY"; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
Righteousness alone can exalt America as a nation. Whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.
The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.
John Jay
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; DIPLOMAT; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; ORIGINAL CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U. S. SUPREME COURT; GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
Thomas Jefferson
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; DIPLOMAT; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA; SECRETARY OF STATE; THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.
God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift from God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
James Madison
SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; SECRETARY OF STATE; FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
Benjamin Rush
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; SURGEON GENERAL OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; "FATHER OF AMERICAN MEDICINE"; TREASURER OF THE U. S. MINT; "FATHER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION"
I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as satisfied that it is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament.
[T]he only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.
George Washington
JUDGE; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY; PRESIDENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; "FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY"
You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.
While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.
Daniel Webster
U. S. SENATOR; SECRETARY OF STATE; "DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION"
[T]he Christian religion - its general principles - must ever be regarded among us as the foundation of civil society.
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
[T]o the free and universal reading of the Bible... men [are] much indebted for right views of civil liberty.
William Pitt - the Younger
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.
Imagine what a blessing it would be if our legislature or Congress truly respected our constitutions. If a majority of such leaders were in office, we would be enjoying a new birth of freedom in this country! Therefore, let all freedom loving prople be charitable, united, and harmonious in our dealings with each other and promote those expressions of conservative values which we share. Remember that these ideas did not originate with any of us and that we are merely sons and daughters of liberty, fighting for their preservation so that our country and our posterity may receive the blessings our forefathers intended.
Sincerely,
Craig Myers
Concerned Oregonians Read More......
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Money Quote
"A billion here and a billion there. Pretty soon we're talking about real money." --Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL), 1896-1969Senator Dirksen was instrumental in writing and passing the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Open Housing Act of 1968. Read More......
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Republicans passed the first-ever Civil Rights Act
Grand Old Partisan Blog, April 8, 2008 - Michael Zak wrote,
On this day [April 8th] in 1866, the Republican-majority 39th Congress overrode a veto by the Democrat president, Andrew Johnson, to enact the 1866 Civil Rights Act. Every Democrat in Congress voted against it.Read More......
The purpose of the 1866 Civil Rights Act was to defend African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors in the post-Civil War South. There, Democrats had enacted black codes to impose near-slavery on African-Americans who had just been emancipated by the Republican Party's 13th Amendment.
Senator Lyman Trumbull (R-IL) wrote the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which conferred U.S. citizenship on former slaves and other African-Americans. The law granted African-Americans "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens." Republicans thereby accorded African-Americans the right to own property, engage in business, sign contracts and file lawsuits.
This was the first time Congress overrode a veto of a significant bill. Also, the 1866 Civil Rights Act contradicted the notorious Dred Scott decision, in which the seven Democrat Justices on the Supreme Court decreed that black people did not have constitutional rights. To prevent Democrats from someday repealing the Act, Republicans later enshrined its provisions as Article I of the 14th Amendment.
Sadly, Democrats defied the 1866 Civil Rights Act and other Republican reforms. Democrat oppression of African-Americans would not be overcome until the 1960's civil rights movement.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
A MUST READ for all Republicans!
"Race and Republicans," a 1999 article by Alvin S. Felzenberg, describes how the stellar history of the Republican Party has been lost over time through factual omissions by liberal historians. If you haven't yet read Back to Basics for the Republican Party by Michael Zak, this article might whet your appetite. Let's not be confused about our history! Clearly understanding history is the key to moving forward and Republicans have been muddling for decades in regard to civil rights issues based on distorted perceptions.
Race and Republicans From William Lloyd Garrison to Trent Lott.
By Alvin S. Felzenberg
First published in the June 7, 1999 issue of The Weekly Standard
Posted at Weekly Standard, December 17, 2002
Race and Republicans From William Lloyd Garrison to Trent Lott.
By Alvin S. Felzenberg
First published in the June 7, 1999 issue of The Weekly Standard
Posted at Weekly Standard, December 17, 2002
IN 1984, in Biloxi, Mississippi, deep in the heart of the old Confederacy, the future Senate majority leader Trent Lott declared that "the spirit of Jefferson Davis" now lives in the Republican party.Read More......
It's a mystery quite how the party of Abraham Lincoln, born in the moral outrage of the great northern abolitionists, could become in the minds of some of its most visible modern leaders the party of Davis. To some, Davis's legacy may seem one of support for states' rights. To others, however, he remains a Southern slaveholder, Democrat, and president of a Confederacy born in rebellion and secession.
Or perhaps it's not such a mystery. From their 1854 beginning, the Republicans were the party that fought slavery, imposed Reconstruction, and opposed segregation, while the Democrats were the party of Jim Crow, race baiting, and Dixiecrats. But for many years, "progressive" historians have been telling a story of America's "steady march to liberalism," in which all good comes from Democrats and all evil from Republicans. And not only have Democrats learned this false lesson and claimed an undeserved reputation on race, but even Republicans have absorbed their enemies' lesson--until at last they find themselves claiming Jefferson Davis as one of their own. In order to construct their progressive story, these left-leaning historians--Henry Steele Commanager, Allen Nevins, Claude G. Bowers, and the Arthur Schlesingers--were forced to pass over innumerable Democratic sins: Andrew Jackson's treatment of native Americans, southern populists' racial demonizing, Woodrow Wilson's segregationism, William Jennings Bryan's support of the Ku Klan, and Franklin Roosevelt's indifference to anti-lynching legislation.
Simultaneously, they were compelled to ignore the efforts the conservative "stand patters" made to improve race relations. New York boss Roscoe Conkling escorted Mississippi's Hiram Revels, the first black senator, down the aisle to his swearing in when no one else would--but his courage has found few admirers among reform-minded historians. In the 1880s, as a young congressman, Henry Cabot Lodge introduced a voting rights bill--but he's known to history primarily as Woodrow Wilson's antagonist in international relations. "Uncle Joe" Cannon, the tyrannical speaker of the House in the early 1900s, backed every civil rights measure introduced during his long tenure--but he's more famous for liking tariffs and trusts.
Presidents Grant, Harrison, Harding, and Coolidge tried to outlaw lynching, protect voting rights, and increase tolerance--but all receive "failing" or "below average" grades from historians who disapprove of their economic policies. Textbooks record that Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock to enforce the Supreme Court's 1954 anti-segregation decision in Brown--but always with the caveat that he did so "reluctantly and late." They make less mention of his peaceful desegregation of the nation's capital or his success in passing the first civil rights bill in almost a century despite Democratic efforts to weaken it.
SO COMPLETE has been the victory of this view of American history that even Republicans turn away from their past: No serious candidate invokes the names of Grant, Harding, Cannon, or Coolidge. Yet African-American activist Frederick Douglass stood up for Grant in his day. His political descendants did the same for other Republicans. If progressive historians had been less willing to relegate race to secondary importance in explaining the past, or if Republicans had proved less apt pupils, the GOP could cite with telling effect a long train of heroes in the fight against racism--beginning with William Lloyd Garrison.
In his marvelous new study "All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery," Henry Mayer has rescued this nineteenth-century abolitionist from common distortions. Historians have typically depicted Garrison as marginal at best and a firebrand fanatic at worst, typical of the abolitionist troublemakers who made more difficult the work of practical politicians like Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Stephen Douglas.
But Garrison, in fact, is one of the rare examples of a presumed extremist who proves more practical than the temporizers. All he needed to make his vision a reality was a complete shift in prevailing public opinion--and Garrison did more to bring that shift about than any other figure of his time. Mayer believes Garrison's greatness was his ability to understand that by eschewing both compromise and conventional politics, he could--through logical analysis, agitation, confrontation, and grassroots organizing--move public opinion his way.
Born in 1805, the descendant of indentured servants, Garrison derived his profound religious faith from his mother and his passion for abolition from an early Quaker mentor, Benjamin Lundy. After trying his hand at shoe-making and carpentry, he was apprenticed to a printer at age thirteen--quickly rising to become a professional printer, writer, and newspaper publisher.
But it was in 1829, at age twenty-four, that he first came to broad public notice, delivering a stirring address at Boston's Park Street Church in which he dedicated his life to the fight against slavery. His peroration was reprinted on the masthead of all his future papers: "I am in earnest--I will not equivocate--I will not excuse--I will not retreat a single inch--AND I WILL BE HEARD." In 1831, he launched his newspaper, the Liberator, and showed an early capacity to enrage. In 1835, an angry mob would certainly have lynched him had not two burly Irishmen come to his rescue.
But the key to grasping his importance is recognizing how quickly Garrison moved from the fringes of public opinion to the center--or rather, how quickly he moved public opinion, for Garrison never wavered. When, at the July 4, 1854, picnic in Framingham, Massachusetts, Garrison burned a copy of the Constitution, calling it "a covenant with death," few northerners still thought him extreme. Eleven years later, he journeyed to Charleston, South Carolina, as President Lincoln's official representative to observe Union troops retake Fort Sumter.
Garrison knew how to turn events to his advantage. He mockingly asked why--if they thought slavery a moral good--southerners passed laws fining free Negroes who subscribed to the Liberator. And as he tormented his opponents, Garrison pressed to make "immediacy" the dominant faction within the abolition movement. He saw parallels between members of the American Colonization Society (who sought to deport freed slaves to Africa) and Jacksonians (who were forcing Cherokees from the Georgia frontier). Both, he said, were trying to deny the universal and biblical promise of the Declaration of Independence to non-whites.
Having succeeded in making "immediacy" the primary objective of most abolitionists, Garrison worked to make it the primary northern response to the secessionist threats issuing from the South. If southerners would leave a Union that resisted the spread of slavery, he and his followers would withdraw from one that compromised with slavery's defenders. Lacking the legal power to abolish slavery outright, northerners could stop sustaining it by themselves breaking away from a flawed covenant.
IN "All on Fire," Mayer attributes Garrison's stand to the antinomian, "perfectionist" theology of Charles Grandison Finney (founder of Oberlin College) and the Unitarian "breakawayer," Theodore Parker. Garrison beseeched churchgoers to leave congregations that did not denounce slavery. He also urged his followers not to participate in a political system that delayed immediate change.
But Garrison railed loudest against politicians who proposed compromise. He reserved his greatest scorn for Henry Clay, precisely because he considered the Great Compromiser the "tallest and most majestic figure in the nation": "If men of high standing and extensive influence . . . shrink from the battle, by whom shall the victory be won?" He denounced Clay's efforts to hold the Union together through mutual concessions as "moral cowardice."
When Garrison began his work, "cotton Whigs" ran much of Massachusetts. Politicians were beholden to mill owners who turned southern cotton into textiles. Their leader, Daniel Webster, saw preservation of the Union as the means of maintaining ties between northern industrialists and southern planters. But over time, this faction lost influence to the "conscience Whigs," who favored abolition. Together with disaffected Democrats, they laid the foundation for a new northern consensus.
THE "ANTI-POLITICAL" GARRISON was quick to sense this transformation. And so was a shrewd politician from the Illinois prairie. When Lincoln's law partner and political advance man, William H. Herndon, paid a call on Garrison, he expected to find a cantankerous, whining scourge but found himself taken with the fanatic's warmth and wit. (Garrison's friends were already calling him the "happy warrior," from Wordsworth's poem. When vigilantes offered $ 1,500 for the apprehension of anyone distributing the Liberator, he protested that his followers were "worth more.")
Herndon was also surprised at the political acumen of this professed political dropout. They agreed to collaborate, but only along separate tracks. While keeping his distance from all politicians, Garrison took note that Lincoln, although no pure abolitionist, spoke of slavery as a "moral" issue: Douglas had feigned indifference to slavery's spread, and Lincoln had denounced it as an "evil."
While he criticized Lincoln as president for his slowness on slavery, Garrison sensed that the war provided the legal means to destroy the practice. When Lincoln finally issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the uncompromising Garrison did not dismiss it as a "fraud" because it exempted territory the Union controlled. He noted instead that it freed the slaves of rebels, offered blacks military protection, and admitted them into the army. Garrison always accepted what he got and pressed on for what he wanted. Through the remainder of the war, he made the case for immediate emancipation of the million slaves still in the border states.
Whatever Lincoln's hesitations, his willingness to engage black troops, nullify fugitive slave laws, and add the Thirteenth Amendment won him Garrison's open support. Lincoln acknowledged the Union's debt to Garrison when he wrote, "The logic and moral power of Garrison and the antislavery people of the country and the army, have done it all." Of Lincoln, Garrison said, "No man ever did so large a business on so small a capital in the service of freedom and humanity." In 1864, for the first time since he burst on the public stage, Garrison issued a political endorsement, editorializing for Lincoln. He remained an active Republican until his death in 1879.
BUT GARRISON found "immediacy" harder to argue in debates over Reconstruction after the war. As Mayer notes in "All on Fire," these issues did not carry the same "theological burden" as abolition, and they required yet another change in opinion from an exhausted public. Even after slavery had ended, three northern states still denied the vote to freed blacks, and 93 percent of blacks in the North were still disenfranchised.
The Republicans Garrison had joined would spend much of their future debating how to appeal to those they had set free. Mayer describes the problem the party faced at the end of the Civil War:
This question became one of whether to broaden the party's base with black voters in the South, and risk losing its most conservative and racist voters in the North, or to take a partial victory as a promissory note and expand the party's strength on the basis of other issues.Until the end of Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, the Republicans tried the first approach. Reaching out to southern blacks was a key component of the Reconstruction plans of Senator Charles Sumner, Representative Thaddeus Stevens, and other "Radical Republicans." It was central in their battle with President Andrew Johnson. With one eye fixed on continued GOP majorities and another on improving the condition of blacks, the Radicals gave southern states a choice: Either grant the franchise to their former slaves or have their congressional delegations reduced.
THE "RECONSTRUCTED STATES" responded by restricting the rights of emancipated slaves. Terrorist bands intimidated those who attempted to vote. Former Confederate politicians and officers were elected to Congress. (The Radicals refused to seat them.) After Johnson vetoed civil rights laws and refused to enforce the rights of blacks, Congress imposed its own reconstruction plan by legislation, constitutional amendment, and, ultimately, impeachment.
Radicals and their black supporters in the South expected the stalemate between Congress and the president to end with Ulysses S. Grant's election in 1868. Grant had allowed two hundred thousand liberated slaves into Union combat forces (part of his strategy to win the war by "attrition") and had sided with the Radicals in their rift with Johnson.
Once in office, Grant repeatedly sent troops to southern polling places to assure African Americans the right to vote. He relentlessly pursued the fledgling Ku Klux Klan and denounced color prejudice as "senseless." He invoked market-based justifications for his attempt to acquire the Dominican Republic, arguing that blacks might use their ability to sell their labor at higher wages there as leverage to persuade southern employers to pay them higher wages.
But Grant nonetheless failed, primarily because it was impossible for him to achieve both sectional reconciliation and equal justice for blacks. Grant described how his efforts on behalf of former slaves in the South eroded his base of support elsewhere:
The whole public are tired out with these annual, autumnal outbreaks in the South, and there is so much unwholesome lying done by the press and people in regard to the cause and extent of these breaches of the peace that the great majority were ready now to condemn any interference on the part of the Government.
The 1876 election of "His Fraudulency," Rutherford B. Hayes, brought to an end Republican efforts to protect blacks. Though he lost the popular vote, Hayes became president when electors in three southern states shifted their votes in exchange for his promise to withdraw all remaining federal troops from the South.
FOR THE NEXT EIGHTY YEARS, Republicans turned to Mayer's "other issues": sound money, tariffs, economic development, civil service, trust busting, and taxes. Some of these may have slowed the economic advance of former slaves. Civil service reform, for instance--a favorite cause among progressive historians--ended the patronage Republicans had used to help blacks. Through his political alliance with Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt appointed blacks to federal posts over local objections.
But having acquiesced in the disenfranchisement of their southern black supporters, Republicans sought to make their party competitive in the region by attracting whites. It didn't work--and Frederick Douglass explained why:
If anything, the South became, with every concession made by the Republicans, . . . more Democratic. There never was yet, and there never will be, an instance of permanent success where a party abandons its righteous principles to win favor of the opposing party.For their part, the Democrats, from Andrew Johnson's presidency to Lyndon Johnson's, sought to reassemble the Jacksonian coalition of northern machines and southern segregationists. In 1924, Franklin Roosevelt advised Democrats to raise only issues of importance to the entire nation--which meant that they should stay away from the question of integration. Truman did desegregate the armed forces, and Kennedy enforced court orders to integrate southern state universities. Yet all three looked upon civil rights advocates primarily as interests to be managed rather than integral parts of their electoral coalitions.
Buoyed by a changed public opinion, produced by Garrison's spiritual heirs who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson brought an end to Jim Crow and made voting rights a reality for millions of African Americans. His deeds, plus his Republican opponent Barry Goldwater's opposition to the 1964 civil rights bill, hastened a realignment of the two parties with African Americans voting for the Democrats and southern whites for the Republicans. Where Nixon had still carried 32 percent of the African-American vote in 1960, Goldwater's share dropped to 6 percent, and no GOP presidential standard bearer has fared much better since: Nixon, 1968: 12 percent; Nixon, 1972: 13 percent; Ford, 1976: 15 percent; Reagan, 1980: 10 percent; Reagan, 1984: 13 percent; Bush, 1988: 18 percent; Bush, 1992: 11 percent; Dole, 1996: 12 percent.
SEVERAL MYTHS arose after the 1964 election that cloud impressions minorities have of the Republicans' past--and form the image many Republicans hold of themselves.
One myth is that Goldwater's anti-civil rights vote was rooted in racism. More a libertarian than anything else, Goldwater opposed sections of the bill that denied private businesses the right to deny service to any person for any reason. In his home state of Arizona, Goldwater was known as an advocate of integration. His commitment to "voluntary association" blinded him to the reality that where Rosa Parks could sit on a bus was prescribed by state law.
Another myth is that Goldwater represented his entire party's position on civil rights. Twenty-seven of the thirty-one other Republican senators supported the bill. Twenty-one Democrats voted against it, among them Sam Ervin (star of the Watergate hearings), J. William Fulbright (an early Vietnam war skeptic), Robert Byrd (the "constitutional authority" of the Clinton impeachment), and Albert Gore (father of the vice president). Such "right wing Neanderthals" as Karl Mundt, Carl Curtis, and Roman Hruska voted for it. The most eloquent speech came from Republican minority leader Everett Dirksen, quoting Victor Hugo: "Nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come."
THE STORY was similar in the House. Understandably, liberal historians and activists have downplayed the role of Republicans in breaking Democratic filibusters and securing final passage. Less understandable is what sustains collective amnesia among Republicans. When he ascended in 1994, the first Republican speaker of the House in over forty years, Newt Gingrich said:
No Republican here should kid themselves about it. The greatest leaders in fighting for an integrated America in the twentieth century were in the Democratic party. The fact is, it was the liberal wing of the Democratic party that ended segregation.
None of Gingrich's consistent efforts on behalf of the nation's capital, its public schools, scholarships for poor children, and Habitat for Humanity could change those impressions. Other Republican officials, apologizing for their party's having been on the "wrong side" of the issue when it wasn't, have fared no better. And some Republican conservatives have even tried to claim the mantle of George Wallace, a man who was neither a Republican nor a conservative. In a 1968 straw poll, even the "country-club" Republican Nelson Rockefeller out-polled Wallace among conservatives, 43 percent to 23 percent. (Given a choice only between two big-spending liberals, they chose the one who did not apply racial tests--proving conservatives of the time were neither racist nor stupid.)
BY FAILING to come to terms with its true history on race, the modern Republican party remains saddled with the worst of all worlds and bereft of a policy. On some occasions, Republicans have acted as though they accepted Democratic caricatures of themselves as "uncaring bigots." And as if to prove they are not, they let stand programs they believe both wrong and unsuccessful, like bilingual education, affirmative action, and racial set asides.
The rest of the time, with the exception of welfare reform and flirtations with "negative income taxes," "enterprise zones," and "school choice," Republicans offer few alternatives to Democratic programs. Republicans show signs of disappointment and even hurt at their opponents' failure to credit them at least for their altruism. But when will such truly Republican notions as community renewal legislation, school choice, and authorization for faith-based entities to compete for public funds--all the profoundly conservative plans that offer real hope to the African-American community--ever receive from GOP leadership the same priority as tax cuts, Social Security, and missile defense?
Much as they insist on their commitment to "inclusion," the Republicans will never recruit minority voters back to what was their natural home until the party stops believing the "progressive" view that has denied the long history of Democratic vices and Republican virtues on black-white relations. Only then can the party return to its original ideas of equality of opportunity and equality before the law. Only then can the party cease to oscillate between behaving as a shamed clone of the Democrats on issues of race, and simply ignoring blacks as a Democratic interest group.
An accurate rendering of our history can teach modern Republicans a lesson in practical politics, and it can teach them a lesson as well in moral leadership. Sometimes the two do come together--and William Lloyd Garrison remains the best person to remind us of that.
Alvin S. Felzenberg writes and lectures about the American presidency.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Fifty years ago, Republicans overcame Democrat racism at Little Rock
Grand Old Partisan (Blog), September 24, 2007, by Michael Zak,On this day in 1957, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas.Read More......
In September of that year, a few days after passage of the Republican Party's 1957 Civil Rights Act, Orval Faubus, the Democrat Governor of Arkansas, ordered the state National Guard to prevent the court-ordered segregation of a Little Rock public school. At first, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower tried to negotiate with Faubus, but after several fruitless weeks the President lost patience with his Democrat foe. Eisenhower had not been afraid to take on the Nazis, and he certainly was not going to be fazed by Faubus or any other Democrat challenging the Constitution.On the advice of his Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, Eisenhower placed the Governor's soldiers under federal government control and ordered the 101st Airborne to Arkansas. Senators Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy publicly criticized the President for enforcing a federal court order. Many Democrats actually compared the President's act to the Soviet invasion of Hungary the year before.Today is the fiftieth anniversary of this great Republican achievement to protect African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors.Your contacts may appreciate this link to the story here on Grand Old Partisan, each day celebrating 153 years of Republican heroes and heroics. The article is adapted from Back to Basics for the Republican Party.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Celebrating the GOP's first state convention
Grand Old Partisan, July 6, 2007 by Michael Zak
JACKSON, MICHIGAN - In 1854, the Democrats in control of Congress were moving toward passage of their Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing slavery to expand into the western territories. The Democrat President at the time, Franklin Pierce, said he would sign the bill into law. The Democratic Party had chosen to promote slavery.Read More......Amid the intense reaction, a grassroots movement sprang up to oppose the extension of slavery. These town meetings and demonstrations coalesced into the Republican Party.
On July 6, 1854, the Republican Party held its first state convention. It took place in Jackson, Michigan. So many people attended - over 10,000 - that the meeting had to be held outdoors, Under the Oaks.
Just four months later, one of the founders of the Michigan Republican Party, anti-slavery activist Kinsley Bingham, was elected our nation's first Republican state governor. And, another of the original Michigan Republicans, Zachariah Chandler, became one of the first Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Senator Chandler, a former mayor of Detroit and a leader of the Underground Railroad, went on to serve as Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
See Grand Old Partisan for more useful information about the heritage of the Grand Old Party. Each day, the Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates 153 years of Republican heroes and heroics.
Monday, June 4, 2007
1860: Sumner's "The Barbarism of Slavery"
Grand Old Partisan Blog, June 4, 2007 – Michael Zak wrote,
*Congressman Brooks (D-SC) was Sumner’s attacker. See the Wikipedia entry for Preston Brooks. See also Sen. Charles Sumner and full text of Barbarism of Slavery. Mr. Zak is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party Read More......
On this day in 1860, Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) delivered his classic address The Barbarism of Slavery. Sumner had just returned from four years in France recovering from a brutal *attack by a Democrat congressman. No one in Congress had previously dared openly criticize slavery and slave-holders. His denunciation of the Democratic Party's pro-slavery policies was eloquent and devastating: Read a powerful excerpt from Sen. Sumner’s speech at Michael Zak’s Grand Old Partisan Blog.
*Congressman Brooks (D-SC) was Sumner’s attacker. See the Wikipedia entry for Preston Brooks. See also Sen. Charles Sumner and full text of Barbarism of Slavery. Mr. Zak is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party Read More......
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Civil Rights Champs & Chumps
Grand Old Partisan, May 6, 2007 - Michael Zak wrote,
On this day in 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the 1960 Civil Rights Act, which strengthened provisions of the Republican Party's 1957 Civil Rights Act. The 1960 legislation was written by Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL). Prior to its passage, 18 Democrat Senators filibustered against the bill for 125 hours, the longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history.Read More......
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