WL: >>Very reactionary political current reminiscent of the ideological bent of the pro slavery forces during the lead up to the Civil War in America. The slave oligarchy and the Southern elite claimed to stand on the side of the Constitution, and they did. That the Constitution legalized and protected slavery meant its defense supported slavery. No real difference today. These people are very angry and believe they can recast bourgeois private property in their favor. They are horribly mistaken. Perhaps, Texas needs to be given back to Mexico. <<
What does it mean to say one believes in the Constitution? That it creates a federal structure that controls a nation, and that structure can not be broken up or seceded from by any state? That the Constitution can not be amended (by amendment, by legal decisions)? The Constitution can and has been constitutionally amended, as allowed for by the constitution? Aren't the long-running issues: 1. What does the Constitution (having been amended quite a number of times since its first form) in its current state actually allow and provide for? 2. In what ways can the current Constitution be changed in order to improve the federal structure and its relationship with the states and with citizens? I grew up in 'Thaddeus Stevens country'. I even played near the forge he co-owend outside of Gettysburg (the Confederates destroyed it). He believed in the constitution enough to support the federal structure and then lead the movement to amend it. He was a federalist, a constitutionalist and a 'Congressionalist'--believing in the powers of Congress as provided for under the constitution. First, for TS, reconstruction was re-establishment of the USA in its sovereignty over all parts beyond martial law. So if teabaggers want to get back to the constitution, they might start with the beginning of the Civil War and work their way forward in time to the US of today. http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1851-1875/reconstruction/steven.htm >>Nobody, I believe, pretends that with their old constitutions and frames of >>government they can be permitted to claim their old rights under the >>Constitution. They have torn their constitutional States into atoms, and >>built on their foundations fabrics of a totally different character. Dead men >>cannot raise themselves. Dead States cannot restore their existence "as it >>was." Whose especial duty is it to do it? In whom does the Constitution place >>the power? Not in the judicial branch of Government, for it only adjudicates >>and does not prescribe laws. Not in the Executive, for he only executes and >>cannot make laws. Not in the Commander-in-Chief of the armies, for he can >>only hold them under military rule until the sovereign legislative power of >>the conqueror shall give them law. Unless the law of nations is a dead >>letter, the late war between two acknowledged belligerents severed their >>original compacts and broke all the ties that bound them together. The future >>condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. They >>must come in as new states or remain as conquered provinces. Congress . . . >>is the only power that can act in the matter. Congress alone can do it. . . . Congress must create States and declare when they are entitled to be represented. Then each House must judge whether the members presenting themselves from a recognized State possess the requisite qualifications of age, residence, and citizenship; and whether the election and returns are according to law. ... << >>They ought never to be recognized as capable of acting in the Union, or of >>being counted as valid States, until the Constitution shall have been so >>amended as to make it what its framers intended; and so as to secure >>perpetual ascendency to the party of the Union; and so as to render our >>republican Government firm and stable forever. The first of those amendments >>is to change the basis of representation among the States from Federal >>numbers to actual voters. . . . With the basis unchanged the 83 South ern >>members, with the Democrats that will in the best times be elected from the >>North, will always give a majority in Congress and in the Electoral college. >>. . . I need not depict the ruin that would follow. . . But this is not all that we ought to do before inveterate rebels are invited to participate in our legislation. We have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million slaves without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their pockets. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them from acquiring an education, understanding the common laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary business of life. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they can take care of themselves. If we do not furnish them with homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws; if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, we had better have left them in bondage. If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of history and of all future ages. << http://www.thaddeusstevens.info/Speech%20on%20Reconstruction%20January%203,%201867.html Though the President is Commander-in-Chief, Congress is his commander; and, God willing, he shall obey. He and his minions shall learn that this is not a Government of kings and satraps, but a Government of the people, and that Congress is the people. There is not one word in the Constitution that gives one particle of anything but judicial and executive power to any other department of government but Congress. The veto power is no exception; it is merely a power to compel a reconsideration. What can be plainer? "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States. Such shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. -- Constitution United States, Art.1, Sec.1." To reconstruct the nation, to admit new States, to guaranty republican governments to old States are all legislative acts. The President claims the right to exercise them. Congress denies it and asserts the right to belong to the legislative branch. They have determined to defend these rights against all usurpers. They have determined that while in their keeping the Constitution shall not be violated with impunity. This I take to be the great question between the President and Congress. He claims the right to reconstruct by his own power. Congress denies him all power in the matter, except those of advice, and has determined to maintain such denial. "My policy" asserts full power in the Executive. The policy of Congress forbids him to exercise any power therein. http://www.stevensandsmith.org/index.php/info/thaddeus_stevens/ Who was Thaddeus Stevens? (1792 - 1868) Throughout his life, Thaddeus Stevens was an innovator who had an unyielding commitment to freedom and equal opportunity for all. He is considered the father of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which ended slavery, extended equal protection to all citizens, and granted all male citizens the right to vote. Historians have recognized him as one of the most powerful parliamentarians ever to serve in Congress, and as a man who had more influence on his time than many presidents had on theirs. Stevens was an early advocate for the Emancipation Proclamation. Later, he served as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and hence played a crucial role in Congressional funding for the Civil War. Following the war’s end, he was chief architect of Reconstruction. Earlier in his career as a Pennsylvania legislator, Stevens had been key to salvaging legislation to provide for free public education in the Commonwealth – a model that other states quickly followed. His achievement is honored by a number of public schools that bear his name around the U.S. In addition, the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster, established by a bequest from Stevens’ will, stands as a living memorial to the principles he championed – equality and opportunity for all. A skilled orator, Stevens abhorred unequal treatment of anyone – African-Americans, Native Americans, Chinese immigrants, the disabled (he himself had a clubfoot), the poor and working classes, and children – and he lobbied ceaselessly to gain the rights he believed were theirs in a free society. He fervently believed that America should be a nation where individuals could rise to their potential unencumbered by race, class, or other constraints. While his views made him unpopular with some, he was revered by others. When he died in 1868, he was only the second national figure (Abraham Lincoln was the first) to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. His funeral drew U.S. government officials and foreign ambassadors along with common people and former slaves. Some 20,000 mourners turned out in Lancaster for his memorial service, and his constituents elected him posthumously to another term in Congress. He was buried in an interracial cemetery in Lancaster. The inscription he ordered for his tombstone bears witness to his lifelong quest for freedom and equality: I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, Not from any natural preference for solitude But, finding other Cemeteries limited as to Race By Charter Rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate In my death The Principles which I advocated Through a long life: EQUALITY OF MAN BEFORE HIS CREATOR _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
