He pegged it to a T 180 years ago. Makes us look like fools.
Born in Warren County in 1757, North Carolina
legislator Nathaniel Macon believed deeply that liberty, valor,
patriotism, industry, economy and frugality were the greatest virtues of
a nation; that each generation’s moral power might leave behind it, “a
long train of glory for the illumination of posterity.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
"Documenting Cape Fear People, Places and History"
www.cfhi.net
Nathaniel Macon on Government Power:
“The Senate next took up the bill authorizing a subscription on behalf of the United States, of fifteen hundred shares of the capital stock of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. Upon which Mr. Macon said: “He rose with a heavy heart, to take his last farewell of an old friend that he had always admired and loved; he meant the Constitution of the United States.
On this occasion, he said, he had experienced a difficulty in expressing his feelings. Gentlemen say it is not necessary now to enter into the constitutional question in this measure. The first time he had ever known them to refuse to discuss the constitutional questions, involved by a proposition, was, when the act passed incorporating the present bank of thirty-five millions; from that time the Constitution had been asleep.
Every scheme that was proposed, was with the view of tying the people together….to make them one people from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains….by and by they would render this government as powerful and unlimited as the British government was. We go on deciding these things without looking at the Constitution; and I suppose we will, in a few years, do as was done in England – we shall appoint a committee to hunt for precedents.
My heart is full when I think of all this; and what is to become of us I cannot say. This government was intended to be a limited one; its great objects were war and peace, and now we are endeavoring to prove that these measures are necessary, both as war and peace measures.
Mr. Macon said he would beg leave to call the attention of the Senate to a celebrated report [by Thomas Jefferson], made in Virginia in 1799, for a true exposition of the constitutional powers of this government. If there was reason to be alarmed at the growing power of the general government, how much more has taken place since? Congress now stopped at nothing, which it deemed expedient, and the Constitution was construed to give power to any grand scheme. This change was brought about little by little….The end of them all would be in the vulgar tongue, taxation.
He had before expressed his belief that the public debt would never be paid off. They were following Great Britain, step by step, and the final result would be, they would cease to look to the debt itself, but think only of the interest. The history of the British government would prove that every war had increased the public debt and added to the burthens of the people; and what was the result in America?
His idea of internal improvement in this country was, to take from the people all unnecessary burdens. Let them have plenty of wholesome food and good clothing, and he doubted not they would continue to raise boys and girls who would become men and women. These were the sort of internal improvements he desired to see. It was vain to talk of any other internal improvements strengthening the country, when there was ninety millions of public debt, and above a hundred [millions] of private debt, owing.
When he was asked what measures he would adopt to make the people peaceable and submissive, he replied, “tax them heavily, and collect it rigidly; give them enough to do, and they would never plague the government.” This was the practice in Europe, and it had succeeded very well. As to the meaning of the Constitution, Mr. Macon said those who composed the convention that formed it, certainly must have known what they intended….but it seemed the people of the present day understood what the framers of the Constitution intended better than they did themselves.”
(Life of the Hon. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina: His Public Life, His Private Life, Edward R. Cotton, Lucas & Deaver, 1840, pp. 150-153)
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
"Documenting Cape Fear People, Places and History"
www.cfhi.net
Nathaniel Macon on Government Power:
“The Senate next took up the bill authorizing a subscription on behalf of the United States, of fifteen hundred shares of the capital stock of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. Upon which Mr. Macon said: “He rose with a heavy heart, to take his last farewell of an old friend that he had always admired and loved; he meant the Constitution of the United States.
On this occasion, he said, he had experienced a difficulty in expressing his feelings. Gentlemen say it is not necessary now to enter into the constitutional question in this measure. The first time he had ever known them to refuse to discuss the constitutional questions, involved by a proposition, was, when the act passed incorporating the present bank of thirty-five millions; from that time the Constitution had been asleep.
Every scheme that was proposed, was with the view of tying the people together….to make them one people from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains….by and by they would render this government as powerful and unlimited as the British government was. We go on deciding these things without looking at the Constitution; and I suppose we will, in a few years, do as was done in England – we shall appoint a committee to hunt for precedents.
My heart is full when I think of all this; and what is to become of us I cannot say. This government was intended to be a limited one; its great objects were war and peace, and now we are endeavoring to prove that these measures are necessary, both as war and peace measures.
Mr. Macon said he would beg leave to call the attention of the Senate to a celebrated report [by Thomas Jefferson], made in Virginia in 1799, for a true exposition of the constitutional powers of this government. If there was reason to be alarmed at the growing power of the general government, how much more has taken place since? Congress now stopped at nothing, which it deemed expedient, and the Constitution was construed to give power to any grand scheme. This change was brought about little by little….The end of them all would be in the vulgar tongue, taxation.
He had before expressed his belief that the public debt would never be paid off. They were following Great Britain, step by step, and the final result would be, they would cease to look to the debt itself, but think only of the interest. The history of the British government would prove that every war had increased the public debt and added to the burthens of the people; and what was the result in America?
His idea of internal improvement in this country was, to take from the people all unnecessary burdens. Let them have plenty of wholesome food and good clothing, and he doubted not they would continue to raise boys and girls who would become men and women. These were the sort of internal improvements he desired to see. It was vain to talk of any other internal improvements strengthening the country, when there was ninety millions of public debt, and above a hundred [millions] of private debt, owing.
When he was asked what measures he would adopt to make the people peaceable and submissive, he replied, “tax them heavily, and collect it rigidly; give them enough to do, and they would never plague the government.” This was the practice in Europe, and it had succeeded very well. As to the meaning of the Constitution, Mr. Macon said those who composed the convention that formed it, certainly must have known what they intended….but it seemed the people of the present day understood what the framers of the Constitution intended better than they did themselves.”
(Life of the Hon. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina: His Public Life, His Private Life, Edward R. Cotton, Lucas & Deaver, 1840, pp. 150-153)
".but it seemed the people of the present day understood what the framers of the Constitution intended better than they did themselves.”
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I read people yammering on in different posts that is what I think.
Just amazing isn't it?
Delete