Today's Politicos vs The Words and Deeds of The Founders

Willard Sterne Randall's new biography, Ethan Allen: His Life and Times, is fascinating not only for the connections that the author brings forward, the background information on the effect of various religious movements, the insights into the Revolution itself, but most of all for telling the story of a most interesting American icon.

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Amy Lutz of the blog, The Young Federalist, guest posts at WWTFT. Ignorance might be bliss in the short run, but enables tyranny in the long term. If we are ever to stop the ever over-reaching authority of the federal government from expanding exponentially, we must first look at ourselves. Americans must wield the power of knowledge and use it to prevent intellectual servitude.

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In this, the season of our discontent, we are reminded of why we should be thankful. At the top of the list is that we live in America. Whether our progenitors arrived on the Mayflower or were among one of the later waves of immigrants, we should be grateful just to be here.

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While Britannica's two book set on Western Ethics and Thinkers provides a great deal more than high school students are likely to learn in college, the authors attempt to do double duty, first to provide surveys of the history of Western ethics and thinkers and second to satisfy prevailing trends in education.

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The Founders viewed Liberty and Freedom as two very different concepts. In their view, Freedom is something that man can grant to his fellow man, but Liberty is derived from a higher authority. Every human is endowed with natural rights and the free exercise of those rights is called liberty. On the other hand, a person released from slavery or indentured servitude obtains his freedom from the person or persons releasing them from bondage.

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The Founders believed that the Constitution was a legally binding agreement between Americans and their government. Here are some quotes contrasting the views of some of the document's framers with that of some politicos of more recent times.

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The country was deeply divided about the prudence of declaring war on Britain in 1812. Alexander Contee Hanson published some articles in his newspaper, The Federal Republican, that were severely critical of President Madison and sharply questioned the wisdom of declaring war on the world's most powerful nation.

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A 1990 FCC mandated program to provide discounted or free telephone service to income-eligible consumers was expanded a few years ago to include cell phones. This is yet another entitlement program which redefines the word "necessity" on the taxpayer's dime.

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The Enlightenment concepts of first principles and natural rights were important to the Founders. They served as the basis for the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and many other founding documents.

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While all three volumes of Britannica's Separation of Powers series do a credible job of explaining the evolution of each branch of government, the treatment of individual jurists, legislators, and executives is not always even handed. Many of the discussions display a subtle, but discernible lack of objectivity.

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