Teasippers Look Backwards

Dear editor:

At the recent meeting of the Tea Party Convention we kept hearing about the need to “take back our country” and to return to the intentions and interpretations of our Founding Fathers who wrote our nation’s Constitution. They want us to live by a strict adherence to this document based upon how it was set down in 1789 and have no “activist” judges who will change any of the original meaning. These are not new thoughts. But they are so easy to say and so impractical and unknowledgeable.

Our historic Constitution has served as a light and guide to nations throughout history and is a document all Americans should be proud of. However it, like any work of man, is imperfect changed throughout the years, improved upon and is a living growing freedom that our Founders would be proud of today. But going back to the intentions and origins of the original can only come from those who have not studied and understood it, even though they try to espouse knowledge. Sometimes I question if they have even read it, and I mean thoroughly. Would you have us go back to the following conditions laid out in the original Founding Fathers version passed in 1789?

Article One, Section 2: “Numbers (representation) shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons (white,) including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons (black slaves.”) (Changed by the Fourteenth Amendment, July 9, 1868) The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years and a fugitive slave clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. Should we go back to the original intentions of the founders? Washington, Jefferson and Madison all owned slaves during their presidencies.

State Assemblies appointed U.S. Senators and Congress in turn elected the President and Vice President. There were no direct elections by the people. Would anyone want to give up that right?

Article One, Section 8: “The Congress shall have Power to declare War,….and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” Congress has not declared war since WWII. So I guess we should get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. tomorrow.

Article Two, Section 1: “Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: ‘I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Nowhere are the words “So help me God” used. In fact the word God can not be found in the Constitution—not once.

In 1776 Abigail Adams urged her husband, John, that he and the other framers of our founding documents should “Remember the ladies.” Our second president responded, “Depend on it. We know better than to repeal our masculine systems,” and women were left out of the Constitution. The 14th Amendment, passed in 1868, guaranteed all “persons” the right to “equal protection under the law.” However, the second section of the amendment used the words “male citizens,” in describing who would be counted in determining how many representatives each state gets in Congress. This was a natural outlook for men of that time. A woman’s right to vote was not granted until August 18, 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Notwithstanding the commonly held perception of them as the idealist leaders of a massive popular revolution, the 56 signatories to the Declaration of Independence were members of an elite group taking advantage of an extraordinary political opportunity. The Founding Fathers were, without exception, wealthy men of property who, under normal circumstances, would not have espoused radical ideas. When the Founders wrote the Nation’s Constitution, they specified that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States (Article 6, Section 3.) Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention religion, except in exclusionary terms. The words “Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, and God” are never mentioned in the Constitution—not even once. This is because many of our Founders were Deists and students of the European Enlightenment. The attitude of the age was one of enlightened reason, tolerance and free thought, not religiosity. The 1796 treaty with Tripoli states that the United States was “in no sense founded on the Christian religion.” This was not an idle statement, they believed it and meant it. This treaty was written under the presidency of George Washington and signed under the presidency of John Adams.

Many of our nation’s problems and dangers today have been self inflicted over a period of many years by both political parties and any number of presidents. In an effort to do what is “right” we have caused hardship and innumerable problems for our citizens and future citizens. But, looking backwards to our beginnings for solutions, instead of learning from our mistakes and planning forward for the future, is not the answer. The Tea Sippers and their denizens by suggesting actions and laws over 220 years old would do more harm to this country than one could imagine. Times have changed.