I feel we are exposed to a flood of editorial comment nowdays. Sometimes we are fed a revised and re-cooked history. I personally find a comfort in returning, now and then, to reality. There is inspiration in reading the best thoughts of some of the best men.
Here are a collection of writings, their thoughts - in their words. I plan to add to this collection over time. Your suggestions are welcome.
We take our freedoms for granted in the United States. We have some idea we are blessed and this great country will simply continue its bountiful existence no matter how we conduct our affairs. Of course, it is not true that we can defeat the realities of human affairs, nor that we have invented a perpetual motion engine in the form of a nation.
Power is the grand leveler of politics. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our Founding Fathers understood the corrupting influence of power and created a robust, yet delicately balanced, form of government.
Power was distributed:
Events have proven the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. The three branches of government have been locked in a power stuggle, like mad dogs, for 200 years. The struggle between state power and federal power has never ceased. These power struggles are inherent and will never be resolved. It seems to be the nature of man, or at least political man, to seek power. These great founders built a machine that could go on running and governing in the midst of continuous power struggles.
George Washington was not the greatest thinker of his age. He was wise and he had the benefit of counsel from giants. He was determined to leave the office of the Presidency after his first term. He started writing an address to the citizens marking his departure and outlining his vision and advice. He eventually was convinced to serve a second term and he set aside his address.
In his last years as President, he took up his writing project again. The address went through several drafts. Hamilton provided writing assistance and Madison was consulted. The address was not actually delivered as a speech, but was printed in news papers.
Thomas Jefferson helped provide the philosophical underpinnings for the formation of the United States as we know it today. He drafted the Constitution and participated in most of the debates that shaped our country. The principal addressing the relationship between religion and government was included in the Bill of Rights.
Jefferson's thoughts were probably best expressed in Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in the State of Virginia. At that time Virginia had a state religion.
We all know the events surrounding Abraham Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg. There are 5 known versions of the address Lincoln gave. This is a link to the "Hay Draft."
World War II, in my view, ushered in a modern era worldwide. Japan rose from ashes as an economic giant. Russia and China became the ideological and political seats of Communism. The United State and Europe allied against Russia and her satellites in a polarized world.
The US emerged as the single superpower of the world, although it took thirty years for this to become clearly recognized and over forty years for Russia to collapse. Russia was, at best, never more than a third world nation with a huge land army, a space program and nuclear weapons. However, it benefitted many US institutions to overstate Russian might for decades.
Some might call it luck, but the Forefathers had great insight into the danger of military involvement in the national political process. In designing the US government, they were careful to place the military under civilian control. We need only look around the globe to see the political disasters caused by military intervention in civilian governmental processes. Von Clauswitz, after the Nepoleanic wars, outlined the modern utility of military power and war. He also framed the use of military power into the dual concepts of strategy and policy. Policy being reserved to the national leadership and relating to all national interests. Strategy being reserved to the military in the conduct of war. (The conduct of the war in Viet Nam clouded much of this separation of responsibility.)
Perhaps our national test of the separation of civilian and military affairs came when Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur. Truman was not an extremely popular president and MacArthur was a national hero. MacArthur dabbled in international politics - national policy. Truman attempted to bring MacArthur to heel and, when that effort failed, he fired MacArthur.
There was a lot of sentiment for MacArthur to return and challenge Truman politically. MacArthur, wisely perhaps, declined and our institution of civilian control of the military was affirmed once more.
MacArthur did make an inspiring speech at the Military Academy.
President Eisenhower framed the cold war issues in his farewell address to the nation.