The United States has come a long way
since its early beginnings. Depending on which of the founding
fathers one reveres, the purpose of its founding changes. Were the
colonies a haven of religious freedom and choice, or a experiment of
Christian Puritanism? Was the Constitution crafted as a living
document, or was it intended to have an unchanging intent, and if so
what was this intent?(a singular person's interpretation or the
intent of every member who designed it?)
That
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson shaped the initial
conversation about the purpose of the Republic is one of the few
certain facts. Hamilton, a self made man who longed for power and
prestige, believed a culture that encouraged production and
innovation was necessary for the United States of America to survive
on the world stage. He supported the city, the banker, and the
producer of goods. The republics most similar to his ideal were the
mercantile republics of the Renaissance. His
idea's contrasted sharply with Jefferson's and they fought bitterly
until Hamilton's death. Yet while Hamilton's Republic has some basis
in history, Jefferson's source of a Republic is drawn from the
classical period, when the idea first came into being.
Both Plato and Aristotle wrote on the
formation and structure of the republic, and though perhaps they
could not have imagined a republic of such magnitude as the United
States they both agreed in two key areas. First, the republic should
be designed to produce and be administrated by virtuous citizens.
Secondly, the purpose of a republic was for the enhancement of the
public good. This was the society Thomas Jefferson envisioned as
one of the founding fathers. While Hamilton wanted to create a
system based on production and those with industry, Jefferson
supported the agrarian farmer, whether wealthy in the heartland of
Virginia, or struggling on the frontier. A farm for every family was
his hope, so they could be free and independent. He recognized
Hamilton's plan would not allow for everyone citizen to be free.
No man is free who looks to another for
his daily bread. No man is free who lives upon wages handed out by
someone above him. The lesser partner is bound to the higher and
while he is free to vote as he wishes he has not equal liberty. He
is chained by his employment and the requirements placed upon him by
the employer, and often for wages which can not be lived upon. In
Jefferson's ideal United States every family would be able to sustain
itself. Even as late as 1810 the realities of the republic supported
his ideal. When the states produced foodstuffs, they consumed 80 –
90 percent internally. Agricultural families regularly produced 75
percent of all their requirements. They did not need cash to sustain
their enterprise. Yet Hamilton's strident support of a national bank
and other methods of integrating the United States into the world
economy was already weakening the agrarian society by the time of
Jefferson's election in 1801.
Jefferson's attempted to undo the
damage of the Bank of the United States by declaring the creation of
a national bank unconstitutional, but Chief Justice John Marshall
protected the banking system. He read into the Constitution and
found implied powers that were not enumerated. In doing so he
overruled the 10th Amendment, which says any power not
delegated to the federal government is held by the states. The
Constitution did not provide the United States the right to institute
a bank, and therefore the right should have been left to the states,
but Marshall handed it to the federal government. When he did this
he dealt a serious blow to Jefferson's plans.
With the integration of the United
States economy both nationally and internationally, farmers needed
cash because they owed money. Before, most farmers were in debt, but
because their was no paper money these debts were ignored. Most
citizens valued the stability of the community too much to risk
destabilizing it. When debts did need to be repaid citizens used the
bartering system, accepting goods in place of cash. In this
atmosphere farmers had been free to grow what they found useful. But
in the new system farmers were forced to plant cash crops to sell to
pay off their debt. Then they needed to buy goods, because they
could no longer produce enough to sustain themselves. Even with this
change in production many farmers were bankrupted by the mercantile
elite who saw only profit. Hamilton's merchant republic killed the
agrarian republic. Productive citizens triumphed over virtuous
independent farmers.
Were there problems with Jefferson's
vision? Of course there was. Slavery was a horrendous practice
Jefferson and many southern plantation owners practiced. But for the
backwoods farmer in either western Massachusetts or the Louisiana
frontier they were acting out Jefferson's hope without this ethical
blight. The population increase caused by the agrarian lifestyle led
to a hunger for more land, which developed into war with Native
Americans. Yet neither of these problems were the death knell for
the agricultural republic. Both of these problems continued unabated
while the nation accepted commercialism instead of self reliance.
And the United States will never know if these difficulties could
have been solved by the Jeffersonian republic for the leaders of the
time did not try, and now it is too late.
But the great experiment took its
concept from the idea that man should be able to sustain himself, and
in doing so be free.
And because a combination of Federal
Government and elite society of the United States have deprived the
people of this crucial tenant in their search of wealth and power,
And because their wealth rests upon the
production of their fellow citizens,
And because their wealth also rests
upon the acceptance of the majority of the people (even though the
bottom half owns about 2% of the wealth),
The Government and Elite Society of the
United States owes that every person of the United States should be
provided a reasonable occupation.
A reasonable occupation is employment
that provides a wage upon which a family can be raised, and is not
overly dangerous or overly strenuous. Not slave labor.
In the short term, an education program
that directly correlates to reasonable employment is an acceptable
substitute, but during this training economic stability must be
ensured.
A reasonable occupation is not when a
person does no work and is paid. Unless the Government can not find
reasonable work, in which case it has failed in its duties.
For having failed to provide an
occupation it has been unsuccessful in its duties to provide for the
enhancement of the public good by failing to provide virtuous
education for its citizens. These citizens being born into society,
like a child into the care of its parents, are dependent upon it.
And as the duty of the parent is to provide for the child, so the
citizens of the Nation are dependent on it. Those who lead the
Nation represent her and must act in a way to requite their mistake
of having deprived the general citizenry of their independence and
self-sufficiency.
Though the manner in which these
Jeffersonian ends are achieved by Hamiltonian means, those who have
not the chance of overcoming the injustices into which they are born,
deserve to receive their full worth which has been recognized in one
degree or another by all the great presidents; Lincoln, Theodore and
Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and more. All of whom have
utilized the powers of their office to aid those who have not the
power to aid themselves.
And if the next President continues
this work, then in doing so the United States will be more free, more
united, and more like the ideal republic the classical world
envisioned.
Sources:
The History of the United States 2nd
Edition – The Great Courses Series
The Republic/Crito – Plato
Politics – Aristotle
Second Treatise of Civil Government –
John Locke
The Letters of Thomas Jefferson
Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
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