On the Priorities of the Citizenery

"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self- preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means." - Thomas Jefferson to John Colvin, 1810

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"Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley

Recently, I read a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was especially interesting to me due to the fact that my dad, Norman Sprague, had been at Iwo Jima when the battle began. He had also fought on Bougainville and the Solomon Islands as a marine during the World War II conflict in the Pacific Theater. The novel takes you back in time and unpacks the episodes of this past conflict in a vivid way. For me, it was one of those hard to put down books.

My dad was not one of the flag raisers but he was there observing from a nearby field and his position as a member of the 3rd marine division, that day. As you may recall, James Bradley's father was John Bradley who was a Navy Corpsman with the 5th marine division who was also on Iwo Jima. Another division of marines was also there that day. They were the 4th marine division.

All together, 7,000 marines went ashore that day at Iwo Jima. They went onshore not realizing that 22,000 Japanese soldiers awaited them. The defending soldiers had the island heavily fortified and were nearly invisible since they had built tunnels underground as well as protective bunkers. The marines were very vulnerable landing on that island beach. The marines were taking on nearly impossible odds that day. If they had known how well prepared the Japanese were, they may have been less likely to rush into their launch boats.

There were heavy casualties that first day. The marines were allowed to land on the beach before a shot was fired, in order to cause them the most damage by their adversaries. It had been an ambush in many ways but the marines knew there were at least some defenses there. When the battle began, the marines were like sitting ducks. The bullets and mortars were delivered from many different hidden places around the island and from the mountain in front of them. Many died and didn't have much of a chance to defend themselves.

Heroes must have been made that day as marines against all odds, stormed the mountain in front of them. After over a month of fierce fighting, they took over the island of Iwo Jima. My dad was one lucky guy to come home from there and so was John Bradley. Dad was more of a hero than I had realized growing up. He seemed to push it out of his memory for most of his life. It had been a nightmare of unimaginable horror and he didn't wish to remember.

So you see, I felt a personal attachment and reflective sense in reading this novel but I'm sure you would enjoy the historical aspect of it and how it was told by this fine author. I have since read his novel "Flyboys" which is also very well written.

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The Legacy of President Franklin D. Pierce

Franklin D. Pierce, a Democrat, lawyer, General, State Legislator, Congressman, United State Senator, fourteenth President of the United States and proud son of New Hampshire, served his country actively from 1829 to 1857. President Pierce was a traditional Democrat who believed in a small Federal Government when it came to domestic affairs. Like Jefferson before him, Pierce was an expansionist who promoted the purchase of the territory now known as southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Pierce had and egalitarian mindset which was a reflection of the popular sentiment of his time. He was elected during a period of relative calm in the nation and endeavored to maintain the status quo by allowing slavery to continue in the south. However, the underlying turbulence surrounding slavery between the northern and southern states, together with the renewal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the Missouri Compromise (which balanced the number of free and slave states as they entered the union) drew him into a political firestorm from which he was never able to recover.

Despite Pierce’s lack of historical recognition, it is in large measure due to his efforts that the States of Arizona and New Mexico became proud members of our union. Forty-two years later, these same two states provided most of the soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War. Whereas John McCain, Linda Ronstadt, Barry Goldwater, and Frank Luke Jr., can all boast of having come from Arizona, New Mexico brought us Senator Peter Domenici, animator William Hanna, hotel mogul Conrad Hilton, and Demi Moore, amongst others.

Slavery, however, as in Pierce's time, still exists in the world today. Although the issue of the legality of slavery has been well settled, the reality is that we have yet to conquer this abhorrent practice, both nationally and globally.

As far as President Pierce’s egalitarian tendencies, today’s Democrats tend more to strive for equality of income through redistribution, than for equality of opportunity.

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Do You Love The U.S.A?

Get to know it history, its people and the founding principals that have made it great. You will love it even more: http://www.pippoproducts.com

Liberty and the USA

"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the undoing of those human rights to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." -- John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961

On Governments Evils

"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in the abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing." -- Andrew Jackson, from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

"Old Hickory" - A Model of Presidential Toughness

By George Ahearn

I must say that Jon Meacham's book on our 7th President, Andrew Jackson, "American Lion" (Random House) was a mixed bag. While it failed to give an informative perspective on the history of this era, it was an excellent look at the intimates, associates, and enemies of Jackson throughout his Presidency. This was made possible by the acquisition of papers and letters in recent years from descendants of the people involved during this period.

Jackson was a powerful and transformational figure. He held a position with the public that was similar to our first military hero, George Washington; however, Jackson was a political populist. Many of our most notable Presidents used him as a model because he defined the role of his office, relative to Congress, in a way never before demonstrated by his predecessors. Previously, the focal point was the Capital and the White House was just an arm of the Congress. Jackson changed this and it never has been the same again.

The hero of the battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, "Old Hickory" had many political enemies, particularly from abolitionists in the North and many states rights "nullifiers" in the deep South, particularly in South Carolina. Although this was some 30 years prior to the Civil War, the seeds were sown during this period. Jackson's rather inconsistent view of equal rights is hard to rationalize based on his insensitive treatment of the American Indian and his cavalier attitude towards slavery. It is a vivid illustration of how the cultural mores of the day could dictate evil behavior in well meaning and principled individuals.

Jackson was orphaned at a very early age and lost his brother as a young adult. He never had children and his wife died during the period between his election to the Presidency and his inauguration. This is amazing when you think of the pressures on him at the time. His niece, her husband, and their children became his family and they supported his social responsibilities during his Administration. His rise above these setbacks is a testimony to his perseverance and toughness and his strong spiritual make-up.

His arch enemies in the Senate were strong and elegant speakers, like John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, giants in their own right. Some of the rhetoric in the speeches and documents revealed in this book would make the partisanship and personal attacks of today seem like child's play. In fact, the Senate's censure of Jackson for his unilateral decision to effectively destroy the Bank of the United States and move all deposits to State Banks, was unprecedented at the time and illustrated a new more powerful role for the executive branch. This was later expunged in a hotly contested Senate vote late in his second term in a magnanimous gesture of farewell.

Jackson left many problems behind and was followed by some mediocre Presidents, particularly his groomed successor, Martin Van Buren. However, his strong leadership abilities, communication skills, and military exploits made him very popular with the people which really riled his adversaries. He certainly deserves a place as one of our most colorful and near-great presidents.

George P. Ahearn blogs about Economic Conservatism and social and political issues at http://conservativesideas.blogspot.com

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Dear Colonel Carrington

"The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." - Thomas Jefferson, From Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Do you know what the Republican Party stands for?

From Lincoln to Bush the party has always tried to free the oppressed. So what went wrong? Get answers at http://historyofrepublicanparty.blogspot.com/

A Review of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution"

By Nick Adama

The book that is the subject of this review is The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution, by Kevin Gutzman and published this year in 2007. As with all of the books in the "Politically Incorrect Guide to.." series, the subject matter is the lesser-known side of a popular topic: in this case, the United States Constitution. Gutzman provides an historical and topical examination of the original intent of the Constitution and how the views of the founders have been distorted over time by the three branches of government. However, the judicial branch is clearly held most responsible for the changes, additions, and convolutions to constitutional law.

In fact, if any book suffers from the lack of a subtitle, this is it. A few come to mind off-hand as potential nominees, such as "How the Supreme Court Ruined Everything," or "The Founders' Losing Battle with the Judgeocracy." After reading the book, it is clear that the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court over time have eroded the states' rights that Jefferson held so dear and accomplished the consolidation of power in the hands of the federal government.

Of course, Gutzman is not positing a vast conspiracy of any sort that designed to take away the liberty of state and local governments to decide their own social laws on contracts and place this power in the hands of the national government. The court, though, from its inception realized that it was designed to be the least powerful branch of the government and various chief justices decided to alter that power balance as much as possible.

After some preliminary battles between the Court and the original intent of the Constitution, Gutzman sees the "imperial judiciary" beginning in earnest with the fourth Chief Justice, John Marshall. Gutzman states that Marshall's chief legacy was the writing of "the defeated Federalist Party's constitutional views into American constitutional law." Despite the fact that the people of the United States at the time voted into office politicians who advocated states' rights and limited power of the federal government, Marshall was the main advocate of using the Court to strengthen the central government and apply the same laws throughout the Union, even overriding state laws.

Marshall's position was at odds with the beliefs of Thomas Jefferson, who saw the growing power of the Supreme Court as a threat to the constitution. Jefferson believed that laws were the social agreements that people agreed to be governed by and judges were to apply the meaning of these agreements as clearly as possible. In contrast, Marshall and various other judges believed in a "natural law" underlying all laws and that the role of a judge was to examine laws in relation to these universal statutes. This, of course, replaced the role of the people in deciding their laws with an aristocratic Philosopher Counsel that would determine the rules that all people should live by.

Most of the book focuses on various Supreme Court decisions on a range of social issues that were being debated at the time. From Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus to slavery and the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment, to the flip-flopping done on the issue of segregation, Gutzman illustrates that the Court has rarely acted in the interest of the people or the states, and instead consolidated power with the federal government. Although some states threatened secession at various points in time, Lincoln eventually stated that secession was an impossibility and the Civil War was fought to prevent the southern states from dissolving the Union.

The book moves through historical decisions one after another, hitting on the irrationality and vagueness of the antitrust laws, the Court's battle against Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal legislation and FDR's decision to replace the judges with his own partisan appointees who would follow his policies. It is in the discussions of religion's role in the government that is the most interesting, however.

Originally, the Constitution was intended to prevent the federal government from institutionalizing a state religion for the entire Union. State religions, however, could have their own religion, and often did. It was not until the twentieth century that Justice Black put up the wall of "separation between church and state," and denied state or local government's the right to deal with religion as they wished. This took the power of deciding on the role of religion in a community out of the community itself and installed it firmly with the Supreme Court. The First Amendment, originally intended to limit the power of the federal government, was extended to state and local governments, as well, reversing the intent of the Founders. Gutzman remarks that Christianity was the main target of the Court's decisions, stating that "any religion is okay, so long as it is not Christianity."

As well as the victory against religion, the Supreme Court also took on issues of morality, criminal law, and discrimination, as well as the ever-popular-to-discuss Roe v. Wade abortion decision. The decisions rendered by the court served to further transfer the rights of states to govern as they will and place it in the hands of the federal government or the Supreme Court itself. Gutzman sees these decisions as a complete inversion of the original intent of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution itself: "The Court has overturned the right of the people of the states to govern themselves, overturned the Tenth Amendment, and thus overturned the Constitution -- and called it the "rule of law." In fact, this may be Gutzman's main argument and an adequate summary of the entire work (although too long to be a subtitle).

The book hits on another of additional topics, as well, including the teaching of constitutional law in school, which examines various cases but does not discuss the original intent of the writers of the laws the Supreme Court has decided upon. This leaves law students with a firm understanding of the decisions rendered upon various laws and their applications over time, but no idea if these applications were intended for the subject laws in the first place. Thus, one mistake is piled on top of another, until the original mistake is buried under years of precedent.

Gutzman's work is an interesting and useful guide to the US Constitution, its original intent, history and its application (and perversion) over time. While the book could easily be quite a bit longer and the issues discussed in more detail, it is quite ideal as an introduction to the history of arguably the most important document to the history of the United States and possibly the best agreement ever made between a government and its people.

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Book Link: The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides)