By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
December 9, 2004
In the past three weeks I’ve been doing a lot of research on the 1790s to finalize my second book of 2004 “The Threat of Anarchy Leads to the Constitution.” I’ve been struck with how similar the problems George W. Bush faces in his second term to those Washington faced in HIS second term. Many of the Founding Fathers were Washington’s presidential advisors - John Adams was vice-president, Thomas Jefferson, his Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton, his Secretary of Treasury, James Madison, US Congress 1790-1797 and Governeur Morris, Minister to France.
All of them, except Jefferson, had helped write the U.S. Constitution but argued often about what it said. George Washington faced many of the same issues in his second term in office that now confront George. W. Bush in his second term. The 1793-97 was an eventful period. From the day of the Electoral College election of George Washington on December 5, 1792, to his inauguration on March 4, 1793 things went from bad to worse. America’s most powerful friend in Europe, King Louis XVI of France, who loaned the patriots money, provided weapons and even sent his powerful navy to block the British Navy at Yorktown, giving the colonists a final victory, was beheaded like a common criminal in the name of “liberty.”
Not surprisingly, the beheading of the King of France, and in a matter of months, the beheading of the Queen of France created quite a bit of concern in Europe and America. Marie Antoinette was daughter of the King and Queen of Austria, sister of the Queen of Naples and brother of Leopold II who headed the Austrian Empire at the time. Just think of the media coverage and the outrage that the beheading of a couple of American contractors in Iraq has caused and then consider what was happening in France.
At the time, there were 23 million people in France, about the population of Texas, Bush’s home state, today. During Washington’s second term, 17,000 of them were beheaded on the guillotine, mostly by a radical political club called the Jacobins. By executing the king and queen, promptly declaring war on Britain and trashing the new, liberal constitution the king had signed, the Jacobins inaugurated their Reign of Terror which was based on an official policy of atheism.
Today the nation of Iraq is similar in size to that of France in the 1790s – 25 million people. According to the latest figures complied by the US government, Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons in the 5 years between 1983-1988 resulted in approximately 30,000 deaths and executions of at least 10,000, perhaps 100,000 more at various prisons, most notably Abu Ghraib. In 2001, Hussein had 130 women beheaded at Abu Ghraib.
In both cases, France in the 1790s and Iraq in 2003 Americans could be found criticizing their president for his response to terror. Washington, after listening to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson urge support for the French rebels and his Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton urging neutrality, he appears to have most agreed with the views of his Minister to France, Gouverneur Morris, who wrote:
“Since I have been in this country, I have seen the worship of many idols, and but little of the true God. I have seen many of those idols broken, and some of them beaten to dust. I have seen the late constitution, in one short year, admired as a stupuendous monument of human wisdom, and ridiculed as an egregious production of folly and vice. “I wish much, very much, the happiness of this inconstant people. I love them. I feel grateful for their efforts in our cause, and I consider the establishment of a good constitution here as the principal means, under Divine Providence, of extending the blessings of freedom to the many millions of my fellow-men, who groan in bondage on the continent of Europe. But I do not greatly indulge the flattering illusions of hope, because I do not yet perceive that reformation of morals, without which, liberty is but an empty sound.”
As we see in the 21st century, terrorism, whether used in the name of liberty or in the name of Allah, can be a very effective tool for tyrants – which fortunately Washington was wise enough to figure out.
By 1798, in spite of President John Adams’ extension of Washington’s neutrality policy, American’s first foreign military action took place. France’s minister, Talleyrand attempted to extort $250,000 in gifts and $6 million in loans before agreeing to even meet with an American delegation. The delegation’s leader, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, as signer of the Constitution, responded with “No; no; not a sixpence.” Congress then commissioned 1,000 privateers to capture or repel French vessels, established the Department of the Navy, levied $2 million in taxes, and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which, like the Patriot Act of 2003, were designed to stop Americans from supporting terrorists.
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison at the time, as anti-Federalists, were bitter enemies of the policies of Washington and Adams. They believed both were assuming unconstitutional executive powers without approval of Congress. However, it wasn’t long after Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1800 that, without congressional approval, he issued two of the most far-reaching and dictatorial executive decisions ever to come from an American president: He ordered the US Navy to sail across the Atlantic and stop the Barbary pirates from seizing American ships and enslaving American sailors and he bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon for $15 million. Congress had authorized $2 million. It would later become 5 states of the Union.
Washington believed freedom depended on 4 policies of government - A strong, well armed, supplied and trained military; Unity among the people, without factional, ethnic or religious hostility; A strong and free economy and a virtuous and moral people.
Many pundits, after the 2004 election, complained about or praised the idea that the American people had made their choice of president based on values. As Gouverneur Morris and George Washington knew, and as the French Revolution proved, people without morals cannot maintain liberty.
We might do well to remember that as we debate changes in government policies in the next few years. We now have in place many government programs and court decisions which have encouraged immorality i.e. children born outside wedlock, sodomy, idleness, dishonesty and selfishness. That kind of government focus needs to be changed, if we are to preserve liberty.
To Comment: Mary Mostert