July 22, 2010 – Federalist Paper No. 62 – Janine Turner

Howdy from Texas! The day is finally here! Federalist Paper No. 62. The first Federalist Paper I ever heard quoted. The Federalist Paper that stimulated my 90 in 90 = 180 essay. This Federalist Paper that started it all.

I thank you for joining us today and I thank Professor Will Morrisey for his wonderful essay!

Federalist Paper No. 62 offers so many pearls of wisdom. James Madison was absolutely remarkable.

Here are some of the mind-boggling relevancies.

Dare anyone read these and state that the United States Constitution and Federalist Papers are not applicable to today?

Federalist Paper No. 62 states:

“In this spirit it may be remarked, that the equal vote allowed to each state, is at once a constitutional recognition of the portion of sovereignty remaining in the individual states, and an instrument for preserving that residuary sovereignty.”

This is how our founding fathers intended the checks and balances to be. This statement of James Madison is one of the reasons why everyone should read the Federalist Papers. It reveals the real intention of the structure of our government and empowers one with an understanding of the thesis for our government. By acquainting oneself with the facts, one becomes aware of how drastically our founding structure has changed.

Knowledge is power.

“No law of resolution can now be passed without the concurrence, first, of a majority of the people, and then of a majority of the states.”

Healthcare would never have passed, nor many of the unfunded Federal mandates if the sovereignty of the states had been maintained and represented in the Senate.

“Excess of law making seem to be the diseases to which our governments are most liable..”

Relevant.

“It is a misfortune incident to republican government, though in a less degree than to other governments, that those who administer it may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust,”

Relevant.

“In this point of view, a senate, as a second branch of the legislative assembly, distinct from, and dividing the power with, a first, must be in all cases a salutary check on the government. It doubles the security to the people, by requiring the concurrence of two distinct bodies in schemes of usurpation or perfidy, where the ambition or corruption of one would otherwise be sufficient.”

Relevantly revealing as to why we needed the Senate to be representatives of the state.

“A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.”

Relevant: we need representatives that are devoted to the people and best understand the ways of congress, laws and legislation.

“What indeed are all the repealing, explaining and amending laws, which fill and disgrace our voluminous codes, but so many monuments of deficient wisdom.”

Relevant: Vet our candidates. Do they know the United States Constitution? Do they have the adequate requisite humility, heart and knowledge sufficient for the job?

“One nation is to another what one individual is to another.”

Profound.

“The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action n; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?”

Really, really relevant. This is the quote that started it all for me.

“Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people.”

Relevant.

“The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking..”

Relevant.

“What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?”

Really Relevant.

“What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government?”

Relevant.

“But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people, towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes.”

Brilliant.

“No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.”

Sagacious.

Relevant. Relevant. All so very relevant.

Spread the word.

God Bless,

Janine Turner

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

 

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