Friday, February 27, 2015

A Sympathy for Disunion

Via SHNV

 John Taylor

Two years later, in May of 1794, with the country recognizing Washington’s leadership would soon be gone and Jefferson in the midst of forming a political party compatible with Democratic Republican principles, Senators Rufus King of New York and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut approached John Taylor of Virginia. Possibly because Taylor had refused to sign onto the Constitution and was now resigning his seat in the Senate, King and Ellsworth asked if he would help broker a split of the young Republic along sectional grounds.

Their reasons were clearly stated: North and South would never agree on the direction of the central government and “… a dissolution of the union by mutual consent, was preferable to a certainty of the same thing, in a less desirable mode”. Taylor declined and sent a letter to Madison of the inner turmoil in the northern Senators.

--Open Letter, Disunion Sentiment in Congress, dated May 1794

(What a crying shame this wasn't acted upon.)

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A Sympathy for Disunion

“This, Mr. President, is not a government founded upon compact; it is founded upon the power of the people. They express in their name and their authority, “We the People do ordain and establish,” etc, from their ratification alone it is to take its constitutional authenticity; without that it is no more than tabula rasa.

“I know very well all the commonplace rant of State sovereignties, and that government is founded in original compact. If that position was examined, it will be found not to accede very well with the true principle of free government.” James Wilson, 11 Dec 1787, Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention
“I am sure they were fully impressed with the necessity of forming a great consolidated government, instead of a confederation. That this is a consolidated government is demonstrably clear.”

--Patrick Henry, 4 June 1788, Virginia Ratifying Convention

A Yen for Independence 

3 comments:

  1. Thanks. And what a shame, indeed. Paul Weston in Britain trying for the same
    recourse:

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oops: https://dailyeuropa.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/paul-weston-at-newcastle-pegida-rally-28-february-2015/

    ReplyDelete