WhatFinger


Barack Obama owes his election, in large part, to one bright large and shining lie: Slavery was America's original sin."

What was the Glue?



Former Republican Speech writer Peggy Noonan has a column in yesterday's Wall Street Journal entitled "The Divider vs. the Thinker" -- "While Obama readies an ugly campaign, Paul Ryan gives a serious account of what ails America." Really? What choice does Obama have? That is what you do when you don't have any legitimate successes.
Without the sub-heading I would have absolutely no idea who or what Ms Noonan was talking about, until I was 2/3rds of the way through the piece. Although, I must admit that the title intrigued me and in it she asked an important question: "What was the glue?" (that binds us together?) She then proceeded to set up a "straw man" argument which demonstrated that she has no concept of the Founder's original view of the Republic and how it should operate: "Federalism" in other words.

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Simply put, the glue that bound us together was an individual satisfaction -- earned by simultaneously conquering a seemingly endless frontier and the greatest military force on the Planet. The Founders simply continued and expanded their form of government the way it had always been done on the new "clean sheet of paper" called America by compact (sacred contract). The Constitutional story of America actually began in England in 1215 with the Magana Carta. The Mayflower Compact was America's first government by mutual agreement. The final evolution of these contracts is the Constitution made possible a Declaration of War -- we refer to it as the Declaration of Independence -- form this evolved from an inadequate wartime plan of government: The Articles of Confederation which we seceded from, in1788 when the States ratified the Constitution. The very word "Federal" meant according America's first dictionary -- a contract or compact. The entire purpose of this arrangement was to make "Big Government" activism impossible by giving it as little power as was possible and by making it hugely cumbersome. It was to be just big enough to pay our debts, govern navigation and regulate (make regular not stifle) our external trade - by decentralizing and distributing power. The bulk of the power was to be retained by the Citizens through local governments and to their respective States. (Ninth & Tenth Amendments -- isn't that so?) The Federal Government was created as the agent of the States (plural) not the other way around. To illustrate this fact, pull out a Dollar Bill (if you still have one after almost 3 years of Obamanomics?) Turn it over. (Face down.) Focus on the back of the Great Seal of the United States -- The mottos: "Annuit coeptis": "Providence favors our undertakings" & "Novus Ordo Seclorum": "A New Order of the Ages" should be self explanatory when coupled with the strength of the Eagle whose eye is on an olive branch from the front side - Peace through Strength. Notice the unfinished Great Pyramid symbolizing strength, stability and duration -- MCDLXI representing the Declaration at its base -- thirteen appears twice -- the steps representing the original individual separate & sovereign states and a 13 star constellation above and all under the watchful eye of a Divine Being of your choice. There was one fundamental rule -- Each State was to mind its own business, except as it related to the business of the whole. My view is that the unfinished Great Pyramid (2560 B.C.) represents humanity's unfinished business with slavery. On August 22nd, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, New Englander, Roger Sherman pointed out what was then common knowledge:"it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed scheme of Government, he thought it best to leave the matter as we find it. He observed that the abolition of Slavery seemed to be going on in the U. S. & that the good sense of the several States would probably by degrees compleat it." -- In other words the General Government's responsibility on that issue ended at the water's edge under the Federal Navigation Act with the abolition of the Slave Trade -- the institution of Slavery was the responsibility of the individual States. But, why is it a four side pyramid? As opposed to the usual three (which would form a stable plane)? This is their visual representation of their design of the Federal (General) Government: Three sides each representing the three interdependent branches -- Legislative -- Judicial -- Executive -- the Fourth side is "We the People". All four sides must be in proper alignment before the general government could act. (Read: Federalist #10 & 51) Think of it as a "Rubik's" Pyramid. Government shall NOT legislate when it is misaligned: image The Federal Government may legislate when properly aligned. The true Genius of the Founders was that they knew what was then politically possible but at the same time, they gave us a S-L-O-W stable deliberative basis for our General Government, in order to actually THINK through solutions to large problems involving its few areas of responsibility. The Supreme Court and /or the States through Interposition were designed as final checks, to act in cases where a State or the General government called a triangle - red when it was actually yellow. Now, turn the pyramid upside down (point down). Could the Framers have meant this pyramid to resemble a funnel? As a metaphor for their concept of the political distillation process -- each potential national leader starting out locally as a democratically elected official, moving up to the State legislature, perhaps become the state's chief executive. Or, he/ (she) could take another later path to national government and the democratic process begins anew by election to the House -- evolving to the more deliberative republican Senate -- if successful - to an even more select few evolving into the job as the Union's Chief Executive. Ms. Noonan's observation: "the civil war fought to right a wrong the Founders didn't right." proves how woefully inadequately she understands the great gift of Federalism. This is the opposite of centralization and a radical undertaking at the time. It is "the shot heard ‘round the world." It wasn't the Founder's job Ms. Noonan. It was our individual responsibility and we have failed miserably. We were the first to recognize the injustice slavery and the only civilized nation to go to war over it. Why did we allow ourselves to be rushed and prodded into an unconstitutional civil war? We had our own versions of the successful British abolitionist "William Wilberforce(s)". What stopped the flood of manumissions during and after The Revolution? For the answers read "The First Emancipation" by Arthur Ziversmit. It describes in detail what Roger Sherman and others pointed out at the Convention. It also gives you the reason for Gradual Emancipation's failure which had nothing to do with the Founders. They were all dead by then. It is the great damage of that misunderstood war that we are still trying to overcome after all of these years. Ms. Noonan's question betrays our great failure. "What was the glue?" Better than Fifty percent of Americans obviously did not know. THAT is how & why we ended up with such an inexperienced Socialist as our disappointing first Black Commander in Chief.

The Big Lie

America may be on the verge of rehabilitating its mistake or the bond may be permanently broken. We will know shortly. Barack Obama owes his election, in large part, to one bright large and shining lie: "Slavery was America's original sin." Certainly, it was not because of anything that he personally accomplished. What is really too bad for Black Americans is that Obama, as the first Black President has, by his execution of the Office, turned out to be the embodiment of every racist cliche about Negroes and their work ethic. (If, I were a Black American this fact would enrage me, far more than anything than the "Klan" ever did to us.) Because, she misses a key word in the Declaration: "Prudence". Ms. Noon unwittingly or not, perpetuates this great lie which rests on the myth that America's Founding Fathers were (mostly) wealthy aristocratic Southern slaveholders who did not give a whit or a damn about their African property. Blah, Blah. This is the cliché that Modern Progressive/Liberals Marxist vampires have been dining out on since the 1830's. The acceptance of this lie has been at the expense of All future American generations. It is the stock & trade of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jacksons (Jr. & Sr.), Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Barack Obama, Dick Durban, Eric Holder and the rest of the modern Democrat Party. It is, also the myth that Johnny Cochran used to set O.J. Simpson free in his murder trial by a monolithic jury. "Slavery was America's original sin." is a patently ABSURD notion. (Remember the Great Egyptian pyramids still stand in testimony to humanity's original sin of slavery.) To further demonstrate the absurdity of this proposition, ask yourself a very simple question: What was the earliest possible date that America's Founding Fathers could legitimately seek an end to the enslavement of their fellow man? That precise date is known: July 4th, 1776; by the Declaration of Independence. What is more, their very first grievance against George III was a rebuke of the Crown's veto of Virginia's request to end the slave trade two years earlier [i]. "He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." This is a reference from The Association of the Virginia Convention, August 1-6, 1774; to the second paragraph: "2dly. We will neither ourselves import nor purchase any slave or slaves, imported by any person, after the first day of November next, either from Africa, the West Indies, or any other place." Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, Lafayette, St. George Tucker, Alexander Hamilton all subscribed to plans of gradual emancipation with compensation to the manumiters because they knew that there is a difference between "freedom" and "Liberty" which must be earned and learned. And, they simultaneously valued individual property rights. The Founders understood the inherent conflict in the key sentence of the Declaration: "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, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Notice that the right to Liberty and the Right to property are in the same sentence. That was their fundamental problem. The question was: How do we free the slaves and not incur a huge financial debt? Which, they also saw as slavery. This prompted the Thomas Jefferson to give the most comprehensive description of their dilemma: "But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other." - Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes, Monticello, 22 April 1820. The Founders understood better than we do now. They would be facing what we as a Nation are now: BANKRUPTCY - coupled with massive civil strife based on the failure of government to redistribute income. (Not it's designated job as we have hopefully now seen.) IF, we knew really what they knew - Paul Ryan wouldn't have to say a thing. In the 2012 Election we have real chance to right the mistake of the 2008 Election and to set the record right: Herman Cain, a successful self-made, self-feeder who happens to be a Black Conservative is uniquely positioned to correct this wrong. Herman Cain is currently leading the current crop of Republican Presidential hopefuls for one simple reason: He has actually been LEADING, as in not following. Mr. Cain is at a crossroads, however. I think that it is fair to say that the worst he can do, as of right now, is to take the Vice President's slot on the GOP Ticket. The question for him is: Does he sit on his lead and end up on the Ticket as an "also ran"? Or, does he continue to LEAD? I hope that Mr. Cain will continue the hard work of leadership already begun by the Founders and Great Black Conservatives such as Clarence Thomas, Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Walter Williams and countless other Americans of African descent who do the daily heavy lifting of individual personal responsibility and citizenship. All Americans deserve a much better Black President than the one they got the first time around.
[i] - Thomas Jefferson had also introduced an antislavery bill into the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769. P.S. -- George Washington purchased only one slave in his lifetime. He freed and pensioned him at his death. John Adams did not own any slaves but his cousin; Samuel Adams owned one which he received as a gift. Thomas Jefferson purchased 20 slaves during his life time, mostly to restore families and a few tradesmen -- carpenters, blacksmiths, etc. Jefferson inherited the bulk of his slaves through his wife and inherited some from his father. Jefferson quote: monticello.org James Madison -- inherited slaves -- freed two -- sold 16 to a relative (with the slave's permission) One of the slaves that Madison freed, "Paul Jennings was an enslaved man who served as Madison's body servant in both Washington, D.C., and at Montpelier. The 47-year old Jennings was sold in 1846 by Dolley Madison to cover debts. Daniel Webster subsequently purchased Jennings in 1847, and he made an agreement with Jennings for him to work off his debt at $8 a month until he was fully free. Jennings was a member of the free black population of Washington from 1847 until his death in 1870." It should be noted that Paul Jennings helped to support Dolley Madison in Washington, D.C. in her final years. James Monroe: "President James Monroe was no stranger to the institution of slavery. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758, Monroe grew up on his family's 500-acre tobacco plantation. When his father died in 1774, Monroe (as eldest surviving son) inherited the land and personal property, as well as "a Negro boy Ralph," according to Spence Monroe's will. Throughout his life, Monroe's relationships with slaves revealed a pattern of paternalistic racism. While he never acknowledged equal rights for the slave population, Monroe sought a gradual end to slavery and advocated re-settling freed slaves in the Carribean or in Africa. Monroe was also humane in the treatment of his own slaves. In repeated instances Monroe prevented slave families from being separated from one another; allowed certain slaves a degree of self-determination in work assignments; sought medical treatment for slaves who were ill; and demanded that his slaves have access to the basics of food, clothing, and shelter." http://www.ashlawnhighland.org/jm--slavery.htm John Jay continued to own slaves but formed the Manumission Society of New York. Ironically, the last U.S. President to have owned slaves was: U.S. Grant.


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Otis A. Glazebrook, IV -- Bio and Archives

Otis Allan Glazebrook IV of East Hampton died at his home on March 28. He was 65.


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