We, the People...
FORMATIVE DOCUMENTS
OF AMERICA'S DEMOCRACY
by ADOLPH CASO
Copyright 2011 Adolph Caso,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by Branden Books
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ISBN-13: 978-0-8283-2287-4
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Dedicated to the memory of:
CESARE BECCARIA,
who established the legal freedom and worthiness of men and women: "If a [state] be an association of families, there will be 20,000 men, and 80,000 slaves; if of men, there will be 100,000 citizens, and not one slave."
and to the memory of
my Parents.
FOREWORD
Although the words, We, the People suggest that the Constitution applies equally to all Americans, the attainment of that equality has fallen short for most people. And, despite many legislative attempts towards that end, the goal has remained elusive.
We, the People explores the potential meaning behind those words. This book, therefore, should serve as a stimulus to a better understanding of those words, and, through actions consonant to that meaning, we might work towards making America's Democracy attainable by the largest number possible.
In conjunction with the treatise On Crimes and Punishments, in form, content and execution, the documents herewith best represent America's democracy; for, they have guaranteed the people their sovereign rights to elect their named representatives, to hold them responsible and accountable for their actions while in office, and to limit, by various non-violent means, their stay in a single office or position.
These documents have allowed the American people to achieve, in governing themselves, standards of high democratic levels un-matched by any other people or nation. This attainment must be credited to those authors who, propelled by their various forms of idealism, were able to reduce their ideas into structured forms that are at the same time comprehensible and easy to execute.
The secret of this success cannot be ascribed to one single reason or cause. Yet, having emphasized, on a regular basis, the naming of individuals–be they signers of those documents, or those executing the laws–this naming of identified individuals rather than that of entities, supersedes all other considerations.
It is not the Republican or Democratic Party that executes the laws, but a named president elected by the people; it is not the Republican, Democratic, or Socialist Party that legislates, but named senators and representatives elected by the same people; likewise, it is a named judge (elected or appointed) that adjudicates. This practice, which runs the gamut of our democratic system, is the same at the local level as it is at the federal; it should also be applicable to other entities emanating from those documents.
A corporation can assume life only if it remains within the realm of the Constitution; if, for instance, it goes counter to the principle espoused in "We the People...", the corporation which discriminates could not exist. Nor should it exist if the delegation of responsibility is reverted to the corporation and not to named identifiable individuals.
Thus, the onus falls on the President, and not on the presidency, and likewise on down to the lowest political, civic, or commercial entity whose right to exist emanates from or through the Constitution.
The Founding Fathers were loathe to give special privileges to groups of people or to given entities; furthermore, as had happened in Europe and elsewhere in the world, they feared the rise of tyrannies by individuals who, for all kinds of reasons, had held and continued to hold the people in their strangleholds. Because of this fear–more intense than anything else, they sought to curb the power of those in "office" by various means, the most important being the checks and balances in the Constitution. They made sure not to create branches of government that might reduce in any significant way the various local autonomies; they refused to give the clergy special privileges as enjoyed in Europe; for basically the same reason, they also refused to recognize nobles or the nobility; and, by not establishing certain bureaus or departments such as that of education, they sought to deny those in office the possibility of using bureaus or departments as propaganda arms in order to prolong or extend their personal power beyond recognized established limits. In his anti-Hamiltonian editorial, Philip Freneau may have satirically said it best:
To be brief, let the whole be such a mystery that a few only can understand it; and let all possible opportunities and information fall in the way of these few, to clinch their advantages over the many." (American Issues, p. 136)
In observing the success and longevity of our Democracy, one has to give credit to those authors; for, they cautiously and intelligently made sensible and pragmatic applications of their political principles. Their feats, as a result, remain unparalleled in the world.
Whether the goals of America's Democracy as expounded by the phrase, "We, the people..." have been achieved to the fullest possible extent, is another story. Certainly they were not achieved with the ratification of the Constitution, neither with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, nor with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, nor with so much Civil Rights legislation. Yet, the Founding Fathers, knowing their own limitations, have projected their idealism through various documents, leaving to their progenitors to fulfill the nation's idealism through proper deeds of their own. Achieving the ultimate goal, however, as espoused by "We the people..." has unfortunately remained elusive, and the "dream" of Dr. King remains a dream.
This may be due to special interest groups out to fulfill their restrictive programs without regard to the Constitution's supreme mandate; or, it may be the result of mis-application and mis-interpretation of our documents by well-meaning individuals in the public and private sectors. Blame, however, can extend to all other citizens who, for whatever reason, have not scrutinized for themselves our democracy's most important and easy-to-read documents. Blame can also be placed on entities as the National Standards for United States History: Exploring the American Experience. The group behind National Standards de-emphasizes the most cogent formative documents in the American experience by not mentioning the positive ones; yet, the same group emphasizes the more controversial aspects such as the ill-reputed Ku Klux Klan and Senator Joseph McCarthy, to name just a few, by over-citing them as though these individuals or entities are basic to the American experience.
This anthology makes possible the return to our origin–to the real and authentic documents that make America's Democracy what it is. They need our continuous reflection–here for us to re-consider and even to enjoy–and to do it without having to put up with the pains felt by the Founding Fathers when they came up with them. By reading these documents, we may discover the real meaning behind the words, "We, the People..." and begin fulfilling, in practical terms, the inherent mandate prescribed therein: the attainment of the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
Although different documents and works were suggested, from the Code of Hammurabi up to the Marshall Plan, except for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with its Bill of Rights, and except for one or two individuals who confused the Articles of Confederation with the so-called Federalist papers, no one mentioned the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Causes or the Emancipation Proclamation. No one, except for a few