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Letter: Forming central power was motive

The Columbian
Published: June 21, 2015, 12:00am

I agree with Darrell Anderson’s June 15 letter, “Constitution adjusts for today,” but he doesn’t go far enough replying to Robert Wassman’s June 10 letter, “Government bound by Constitution.” I think Wassman hasn’t a clue as to why the Constitution was written and adopted.

By 1788, under the Articles of Federation, America was a banana republic made up of 13 squabbling states unable to pay debts or obtain foreign capital and all trying to carry out their own trade policies. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison knew that the recent Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts was a sign of things to come unless a strong federal government was quickly adopted. They knew that the new Constitution had to “promote the general welfare” with the now famous commerce clause, which gives the Congress the power to collect taxes, pay off debts and maintain the national defense.

Today’s conservatives and Tea Party members sound like anti-federalists George Mason and Patrick Henry, who argued that the Constitution gave the central government too much power. Henry warned that Article I of the Constitution allowed the federal government to control and enlist state militias. This was not tolerable. State militias in the South were mainly used to control the slave population.

Madison responded with the Second Amendment, which allowed the Southern states to maintain control of their state militias. The Second Amendment does not allow private citizens to take up arms against an out-of-control federal government. It’s there to maintain a police state.

Tim Nickles

Vancouver

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