WEBVTT NOTE Why the Empire Must Die 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.440 The full title of my talk is actually The Empire Must Die If We Are to Reclaim Our Freedom 2 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:11.120 and Restore the Republic that was Envisioned by Our Founding Fathers. 3 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:20.640 Many who have studied the drastic decline of freedom in the 20th century trace the starting 4 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:28.000 point to the New Deal, a peacetime episode in American history. But my study of this phenomenon 5 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.400 1 has led me to a very different conclusion. I believe that the combination of three wars, 6 00:00:35.400 --> 00:00:42.520 all of which America won, that occurred previous to the New Deal, completely changed the direction 7 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:49.160 of America by 180 degrees away from the plan of our founders. First of these wars was the 8 00:00:49.160 --> 00:00:54.400 real crossroads for the American Republic, and this was the Civil War. The calamity was 9 00:00:54.400 --> 00:01:00.200 was recognized at the time by the great American writer Herman Melville. 10 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:05.440 He published his poetry entitled Battle Pieces immediately after the war, primarily to show 11 00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:10.820 that war should not be glorified, but also to look at the real cost of the victory by 12 00:01:10.820 --> 00:01:14.320 the North in this particular war. 13 00:01:14.320 --> 00:01:16.560 Melville was a Northern sympathizer. 14 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:20.440 Many of his friends and relatives fought as Union soldiers. 15 00:01:20.440 --> 00:01:25.920 But he recognized, however, that this victory would probably create the Leviathan state 16 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:29.320 and the mortal wounding of the ideas of the founders. 17 00:01:29.320 --> 00:01:34.920 In one of these poems entitled The Conflict of Convictions, he states, quote, 18 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:44.400 Power unannointed may come, dominion unsought by the free, but the founder's dream shall 19 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:45.400 flee. 20 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:52.120 I believe that the Civil War changed the direction of America by approximately 90 degrees, and 21 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:57.080 then a combination of the Spanish-American War and America's late entry into World War 22 00:01:57.080 --> 00:02:04.200 I took it the remaining 90 degrees to take us to a full 180-degree change of direction. 23 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:08.160 The Spanish-American War violated the Founder's idea that we should not go to war in foreign 24 00:02:08.160 --> 00:02:13.440 lands outside our own hemisphere, which would violate the implied corollary of our Monroe 25 00:02:13.440 --> 00:02:14.840 doctrine. 26 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:20.400 And finally, America's late entry into World War I in Europe brought us the completion 27 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:25.580 of the repudiation of the ideas of our founders and a centralized government and centralized 28 00:02:25.580 --> 00:02:28.720 governmental agencies in Washington. 29 00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:34.860 These World War I agencies were merely renewed during the New Deal and were not original 30 00:02:34.860 --> 00:02:35.860 with the New Deal. 31 00:02:35.860 --> 00:02:41.520 There are many, many agencies such as the War Industries Boy that was just simply revitalized 32 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:47.680 and put back into place during the New Deal that had been present and born in World War 33 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:54.160 I. In a new book entitled War and the Rise of the State, the author Bruce Porter makes 34 00:02:54.160 --> 00:02:59.040 a detailed analysis of the effect of war on Western civilization in general, but he also 35 00:02:59.040 --> 00:03:05.440 investigates the effect of American wars on our freedom, and he states this, quote, 36 00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:14.440 Throughout the history of the United States, war has been the primary impetus behind the growth and the development of the central state. 37 00:03:14.440 --> 00:03:23.440 It has been the lever by which presidents and other national officials have bolstered the power of the state in the face of tenacious popular resistance. 38 00:03:23.440 --> 00:03:31.440 It has been the wellspring of American nationalism and a spur to political and social change. 39 00:03:31.440 --> 00:03:46.440 Prior to the Civil War in 1833, Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous French observer of the American experiment with democracy, warned the new democratic nation about the disastrous effect of war on liberty. 40 00:03:46.440 --> 00:03:50.440 In his classic work, Democracy in America, he stated, 41 00:03:50.440 --> 00:04:03.440 quote, all those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish, end quote. 42 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:12.440 I think it is clear that the winners always write the history of the war and almost always this is done by what are called the court historians. 43 00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:16.920 They write the history in order to justify the actions of the politicians and the special 44 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:22.120 economic interests who have a vested interest in centralizing government power and causing the war. 45 00:04:22.760 --> 00:04:29.720 These court historians rarely give the real purpose or the ultimate cost of the war. They certainly 46 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:35.320 have not told the truth about how the American republic has been destroyed in the three wars 47 00:04:35.320 --> 00:04:40.680 I've just mentioned or told the truth about the damage to liberty in the other wars of the 20th 48 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:47.720 Today we no longer have the republic created by our founding fathers, but instead we have 49 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:53.560 a nation and an empire created by the war and welfare century, the twentieth century. 50 00:04:53.560 --> 00:05:00.240 Let's take a look at just a few of the pertinent facts about the present American empire. 51 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:03.960 Today we have approximately one million armed soldiers in our standing army on the American 52 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:14.960 But we have approximately 1.5 million armed forces spread over more than 138 nations throughout the world, many stationed at expensive American bases. 53 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:24.960 In 1990 alone, $30 billion was spent for covert operations of the CIA throughout other nations of the world. 54 00:05:24.960 --> 00:05:26.440 of the World. 55 00:05:26.440 --> 00:05:32.800 It has now been confirmed that the CIA has issued orders to carry out the political assassinations 56 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:36.640 of the leaders of five different foreign nations. 57 00:05:36.640 --> 00:05:41.360 President of the United States now has the use of the CIA as his private paramilitary 58 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:45.880 armed force with virtually no control by Congress. 59 00:05:45.880 --> 00:05:51.160 In an excellent new book entitled Presidential War Power by Lewis Fisher, he documents the 60 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:56.680 The CIA has sponsored guerrilla wars in 20 foreign nations, several of which, such as 61 00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:02.360 Vietnam, led to the eventual use of regular armed forces of America. 62 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:07.640 The noted historian, English historian, Arnold Toynbee, was quoted in the New York Times 63 00:06:07.640 --> 00:06:16.040 in May 7, 1971 as follows, quote, to most Europeans, I guess, America now looks like 64 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:18.920 the most dangerous country in the world. 65 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:23.840 In fact, the roles of the United States and Russia have been reversed in the eyes of much 66 00:06:23.840 --> 00:06:27.280 of the world. 67 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:31.080 Today America has become a nightmare. 68 00:06:31.080 --> 00:06:36.320 Toynbee based his conclusion primarily on the unjustified meddling of the CIA, which 69 00:06:36.320 --> 00:06:41.720 has secretly intervened into the internal affairs of Europe, Latin America, Asia and 70 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:42.720 Africa. 71 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:48.960 We've reached a point today where it is widely advocated and accepted that the constitutional 72 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:55.280 requirement that Congress must declare war or authorize the president to use armed forces 73 00:06:55.280 --> 00:07:00.240 is a provision which is now archaic and no longer required to be observed in these modern 74 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:01.840 times. 75 00:07:01.840 --> 00:07:06.800 People advocating this idea point out that American presidents have frequently committed 76 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:12.680 armed forces to foreign lands without a declaration of war or authorization from Congress, and 77 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:19.440 And one of the primary examples these people usually cite is the example of the use of 78 00:07:19.440 --> 00:07:24.600 armed forces to attack the Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean Sea by President Jefferson. 79 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:30.040 What they fail to point out is that Congress at that time enacted ten different statutes 80 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:34.760 specifically authorizing the President to deal with the Barbary Pirates. 81 00:07:34.760 --> 00:07:40.160 President Jefferson refused to take any action without specific authority from Congress. 82 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:45.360 Although there was no declaration of war, there was specific authority for the president to act. 83 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:50.280 This is just a thumbnail sketch of the present American Empire, but I think it's clear we 84 00:07:50.280 --> 00:07:54.920 have violated many, many of the lessons of history as well as the very specific advice 85 00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:59.360 of our founding fathers to get where we are today. 86 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:03.800 Shakespeare gives us one of these lessons of history when he talks about the oldest 87 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:07.820 trick of the trade of rulers, kings and dictators. 88 00:08:07.820 --> 00:08:14.020 This trick has also been used widely by the democratically elected presidents of the United States. 89 00:08:14.020 --> 00:08:20.220 You may recall that Shakespeare's King Henry IV, he advised his son, the future Henry V, 90 00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:24.700 that he had launched a foreign war into the Holy Land which was completely spurious and 91 00:08:24.700 --> 00:08:25.700 unnecessary. 92 00:08:25.700 --> 00:08:32.340 However, Henry IV found that this action silenced his domestic critics and centralized so much 93 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:37.580 great power into his hands that it increased his ability to act and do what he wanted, 94 00:08:37.580 --> 00:08:40.860 which is something he had not had the power to do during peacetime. 95 00:08:40.860 --> 00:08:44.020 So his specific advice to his son was, 96 00:08:44.020 --> 00:08:46.220 quote, therefore, my Harry, 97 00:08:46.220 --> 00:08:51.940 be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels. 98 00:08:51.940 --> 00:08:56.020 It was because the framers of the American Constitution understood this old trick of the trade 99 00:08:56.020 --> 00:08:59.620 as well as other lessons of history 100 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:03.920 which teach that liberty is diminished domestically in foreign wars, 101 00:09:03.920 --> 00:09:05.700 even those wars you win, 102 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:11.720 and therefore they wanted to put strict limitations on the executive power to engage in wars. 103 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:16.020 They understood the doctrine of the separation of powers which was present in the English 104 00:09:16.020 --> 00:09:22.460 Constitution where the power of the sword in the executive hand was separated from the 105 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:24.820 power of the purse in the legislative hand. 106 00:09:24.820 --> 00:09:29.180 The English Civil War was fought over the point to maintain that separation. 107 00:09:29.180 --> 00:09:35.100 However, the colonists and the framers understood that the powers of the executive are drastically 108 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:40.300 increased during times of war which is a threat to individual freedom and therefore they explicitly 109 00:09:40.300 --> 00:09:46.620 put further restrictions on the executive by removing from him the power to declare or start 110 00:09:46.620 --> 00:09:52.860 a war and gave this power exclusively to congress which was a major difference from the english system 111 00:09:53.900 --> 00:09:59.500 it was a plan of the founders that only after both houses of congress had debated and declared war 112 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:05.020 or specifically authorized executive action for military purposes that the president became the 113 00:10:05.020 --> 00:10:13.020 The President has always had the power to defend against a sudden attack without specific congressional authority. 114 00:10:13.020 --> 00:10:17.020 But how many actual attacks on America have we had? 115 00:10:17.020 --> 00:10:27.020 Listen to the words of the father of the Constitution, James Madison, as he explains the reasons for this extra limitation upon executive power. 116 00:10:27.020 --> 00:10:35.460 Quote, Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because 117 00:10:35.460 --> 00:10:39.220 it comprises and develops the germ of every other. 118 00:10:39.220 --> 00:10:44.480 War is the parent of armies, and armies and debts and taxes are the known instruments 119 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:48.780 for bringing the many under the domination of the few. 120 00:10:48.780 --> 00:10:54.100 No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. 121 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:55.660 End quote. 122 00:10:55.660 --> 00:10:59.660 Madison also spoke about the specific war powers of the present, quote, 123 00:10:59.660 --> 00:11:05.660 War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement. 124 00:11:05.660 --> 00:11:10.660 In war, physical force is to be created, and it is the executive will which is to direct it. 125 00:11:10.660 --> 00:11:16.660 In war, the public treasuries are to be unlocked, and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them. 126 00:11:16.660 --> 00:11:21.660 In war, the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied, 127 00:11:21.660 --> 00:11:29.660 and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed, and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. 128 00:11:29.660 --> 00:11:34.660 The strongest passions and the most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast, 129 00:11:34.660 --> 00:11:44.660 ambition, avarice, vanity, honourable or vain love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace." 130 00:11:44.660 --> 00:11:49.660 In 1994, the Mises Institute held a conference in Atlanta, Georgia 131 00:11:49.660 --> 00:11:57.660 To look at the cost to the American people, especially their loss of liberty, which had occurred in our victorious wars. 132 00:11:57.660 --> 00:12:01.660 Speakers later submitted their papers for publication and as Lou told you, 133 00:12:01.660 --> 00:12:08.660 Transaction Publishers of Rutgers University is publishing the book, which will be out next month, February 97. 134 00:12:08.660 --> 00:12:16.660 The book includes a much expanded version of my talk today with numerous footnotes, so you can check these things out. 135 00:12:16.660 --> 00:12:30.660 But it also includes about 20 other articles by outstanding speakers and writers that you know, such as Murray Rothbard, Paul Fussell, you may know, Ralph Raico, and many others, some others here today. 136 00:12:30.660 --> 00:12:40.660 I think this book communicates some of the most important ideas that are necessary if we are to reclaim our liberty in the 21st century. 137 00:12:40.660 --> 00:12:45.140 Let's take a look at the three wars which I think changed America in the wrong direction, 138 00:12:45.140 --> 00:12:50.580 away from the ideas of our founders. I contend that all three of these wars were unnecessary 139 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:55.380 and could have been avoided by presidents who were committed to peace rather than war. 140 00:12:56.100 --> 00:13:02.340 In our book, The Cost of War, Murray Rothbard analyzes the philosophical discussion which begins 141 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:09.380 with Saint Augustine concerning the question of what is a just war. He answers the question by 142 00:13:09.380 --> 00:13:15.020 by stating that in America only two wars have met this philosophical definition. 143 00:13:15.020 --> 00:13:20.600 These were the American War for the Independence from England and the War for Southern Independence 144 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:21.600 from the Union. 145 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:26.860 He did not think the Union cause was just, but the war is more widely known as the Civil 146 00:13:26.860 --> 00:13:34.020 War and it is the most costly, far the more costly than any other since it took over 600,000 147 00:13:34.020 --> 00:13:35.660 American lives. 148 00:13:35.660 --> 00:13:41.040 These huge costs, including the loss of liberty for Americans, are stated to be justified 149 00:13:41.040 --> 00:13:46.620 by the court historians because the purpose, they say, of the war was to abolish slavery. 150 00:13:46.620 --> 00:13:50.300 We're never told that the war had such serious consequences to the ideas of the founders 151 00:13:50.300 --> 00:13:52.460 that it virtually ended the American Republic. 152 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:56.520 I believe it's important to determine the real purpose of the war in order to realize 153 00:13:56.520 --> 00:13:59.260 that its severe costs are not justified. 154 00:13:59.260 --> 00:14:04.380 I do not believe that the purpose of the war was to abolish slavery and that slavery would 155 00:14:04.380 --> 00:14:08.500 have ceased to exist in America as it did throughout the rest of the Western world in 156 00:14:08.500 --> 00:14:11.460 several decades without any war taking place. 157 00:14:11.460 --> 00:14:17.260 I also think that you can understand the real cause of the Civil War only if you study two 158 00:14:17.260 --> 00:14:18.820 separate questions. 159 00:14:18.820 --> 00:14:22.140 First, why did the South secede? 160 00:14:22.140 --> 00:14:27.240 Primary reason the South seceded was not because it was trying to protect the immoral system 161 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:28.620 of slavery. 162 00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:31.860 And there's no question that it was wrong just like segregation. 163 00:14:31.860 --> 00:14:37.140 However, the Constitution protected slavery, especially through the fugitive slave law, 164 00:14:37.140 --> 00:14:42.180 and the Supreme Court had reasserted the protection of slavery in the Dred Scott decision. 165 00:14:42.180 --> 00:14:46.700 The North did not have enough power to amend the Constitution, but it did have enough power, 166 00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:51.140 especially in the House of Representatives, to pass punitive tax laws which were primarily 167 00:14:51.140 --> 00:14:53.220 the protective tariff. 168 00:14:53.220 --> 00:14:57.480 And then the North had the further political power to vote for most of those taxes to be 169 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:02.720 be used in the North for internal improvements under the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution. 170 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:08.360 The South seceded because it could no longer control its destiny in Congress. Due to the 171 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:11.840 large number of immigrants flowing in from Europe to northern industries, the balance 172 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:17.720 of power in Congress strongly favored the North. This became evident in 1828 with the 173 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:22.920 passage of the punitive protective tariff, which was known as the tariff of abominations. 174 00:15:22.920 --> 00:15:27.560 This remained a vital issue between the North and the South up until 1860. The South was 175 00:15:27.560 --> 00:15:33.240 a very rich agricultural society but completely dependent on purchasing its manufactured goods 176 00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:38.720 from outside of the region. With a protective tariff, Northern industries could charge exorbitant 177 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:43.720 prices for their products sold to the South. If the South refused to buy the products from 178 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:48.680 the North and insisted on buying them from England, then it had to pay the protective 179 00:15:48.680 --> 00:15:55.520 Tariff. Over three-fourths of the entire protective tariff was paid by the South. Therefore, 180 00:15:55.520 --> 00:16:00.480 whether the South purchased their manufactured goods from the North or paid the tariff and 181 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:05.800 bought their manufactured goods from England, most of the money ended up in the North. It 182 00:16:05.800 --> 00:16:11.720 was because of this great injustice which the South could not prevent while in the Union 183 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:17.920 that it put in its Confederate Constitution, put in its Confederate Constitution the abolition 184 00:16:17.920 --> 00:16:22.640 of the General Welfare Clause, it prohibited protective tariffs and it prohibited tax funds 185 00:16:22.640 --> 00:16:26.320 from being used as internal improvements. 186 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:30.480 The second question is why did the North refuse to let the South go? 187 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.920 Was it for the purpose of abolishing slavery? 188 00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:38.300 If the North had wanted to abolish slavery, it should have let the South secede. 189 00:16:38.300 --> 00:16:42.860 You may recall that there was a small vociferous group known as the abolitionists who became 190 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:46.360 extremely unpopular in the North prior to the war. 191 00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:49.840 Because under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison, they advocated that the North should 192 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:56.280 secede from the Union in order to abolish slavery. Garrison had correctly perceived that 193 00:16:56.280 --> 00:17:00.900 a Northern secession would relieve it of the constitutional mandate to return fugitive 194 00:17:00.900 --> 00:17:05.840 slaves to the South, and he further recognized that slavery could not long endure under those 195 00:17:05.840 --> 00:17:11.120 circumstances. President Lincoln was very explicit that the abolition of slavery was 196 00:17:11.120 --> 00:17:15.960 not the purpose of the war. He fully recognized that he had no authority to try to abolish 197 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:23.200 The issue regarding slavery between the North and the South before the Civil War was not 198 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:28.280 whether slavery should be abolished where it existed, but whether the system of slavery 199 00:17:28.280 --> 00:17:32.000 should spread to the new western states and new territories. 200 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.680 This spread of slavery and the increase in the South's political power, if that occurred, 201 00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:41.000 were the ideas that Lincoln opposed. 202 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:46.120 Listen to these words of Lincoln's first inaugural address before the war, quote, I 203 00:17:46.120 --> 00:17:50.280 have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery 204 00:17:50.280 --> 00:17:55.480 where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination 205 00:17:55.480 --> 00:18:01.320 to do so. However, in that same speech, Lincoln specifically stated he would use force if 206 00:18:01.320 --> 00:18:08.960 necessary to collect taxes. A year and a half after the war had already been in progress, 207 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:14.360 Richard Horace Greeley wrote an editorial in his New York Tribune advising Lincoln that 208 00:18:14.360 --> 00:18:20.720 he should give the war a strong moral purpose by declaring that it was being fought to abolish 209 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:21.960 slavery. 210 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:27.640 Lincoln answered in writing and stated the following, quote, My paramount object in this 211 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:33.360 struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. 212 00:18:33.360 --> 00:18:37.400 If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save 213 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:51.160 Some court historians have tried to convince the public that the Emancipation Proclamation 214 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:56.560 issued by Lincoln late in the war in 1863 shows that the purpose of the war was to abolish 215 00:18:56.560 --> 00:18:57.560 slavery. 216 00:18:57.560 --> 00:19:02.880 They completely ignore the fact that the proclamation did not even purport to free the slaves in 217 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:05.800 the four slave states which remained in the Union. 218 00:19:05.800 --> 00:19:11.020 So slavery was not abolished in those states. Furthermore, in the succeeding states, it 219 00:19:11.020 --> 00:19:17.160 exempted many, many counties which had remained loyal to the Union. So slavery was not abolished 220 00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:23.200 there. Lincoln made it clear that the Emancipation Proclamation was merely a quote, emergency 221 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:28.760 war measure and without any issue of this, without any congressional approval. It was 222 00:19:28.760 --> 00:19:35.680 designed to do two things. Number one, to promote a slave revolt in the South, which 223 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:45.680 Number two, to keep England from intervening in the war and breaking the blockade that the North had by making it appear that the war's purpose was to abolish slavery. 224 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:50.680 And it was completely successful in this respect and it prevented England from intervening. 225 00:19:50.680 --> 00:20:04.680 Since England had led the battle throughout the world to abolish slavery, it could not afford to be perceived as protecting slavery by intervening in this war which was perceived, hopefully, by Lincoln would be perceived as one to abolish slavery. 226 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:11.120 of Bally's Slavery. Listen to Lincoln's words as to why he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 227 00:20:11.120 --> 00:20:16.400 quote, things had gone from bad to worse until I felt that we had reached the end of our 228 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:23.040 rope on the plan we were pursuing. We had about played our last card and we must change 229 00:20:23.040 --> 00:20:29.920 our tactics or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the Emancipation Policy, 230 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:35.360 President Lincoln specifically limited the cause of war to preserving the Union, but 231 00:20:35.360 --> 00:20:39.360 this is only a partial answer and you must understand why certain people and certain 232 00:20:39.360 --> 00:20:42.360 economic interests wanted to preserve the Union. 233 00:20:42.360 --> 00:20:48.960 In fact, economic reasons play a major factor in almost every war, but rarely, if ever, 234 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.680 are those economic reasons mentioned as the cause for wars. 235 00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:57.120 You must look at the fact that prior to the Civil War there were only two main sources 236 00:20:57.120 --> 00:20:59.720 of income to the Federal Government. 237 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:05.600 80% came from the tariff and the remainder primarily came from land sales. 238 00:21:05.600 --> 00:21:09.960 In order to get the nomination in Chicago and be elected in the general election, Lincoln 239 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:14.680 had to promise an extremely high protective tariff to get the votes of industrial centers 240 00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:20.200 such as New Jersey and especially the vote of Pennsylvania with its iron and coal industries. 241 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:24.200 The high protective tariff was part of the platform on which he ran. 242 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:29.040 Lincoln kept his promise with the highest tariff in American history, the Morrill Tariff, 243 00:21:29.040 --> 00:21:33.480 which was passed just prior to the bombardment of Fort Sumter. 244 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:38.440 Just imagine what would have happened especially in the short run to profits in northern industries 245 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:41.360 as well as the tax revenues in the north. 246 00:21:41.360 --> 00:21:45.160 If the south had been allowed to secede and to be a free port country where they could 247 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:50.880 buy all of their manufactured goods from England without paying any tariff, Lincoln refused 248 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:54.360 to allow this to happen and instead deliberately chose war. 249 00:21:54.360 --> 00:21:59.720 Charles Adams, who you will hear speak this afternoon, covers this subject of the tariff 250 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:04.200 and its impact and cause of the Civil War in two chapters of his excellent book, For 251 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:08.960 Good and Evil, and he's researching a new book on this subject alone, which I'm looking 252 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:11.060 forward to. 253 00:22:11.060 --> 00:22:15.200 In regard however to Lincoln's choice of war rather than letting the South succeed, it's 254 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:21.080 important to remember that Congressman Lincoln had been a severe critic of President Polk 255 00:22:21.080 --> 00:22:25.400 When Polk had ordered American troops into the disputed boundary between America and 256 00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:30.880 Mexico, thereby provoking the Mexicans to fire the first shot and start the war, Congressman 257 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:36.400 Lincoln said that Polk caused an unnecessary and unconstitutional war. 258 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:39.800 This was an example that Lincoln never forgot. 259 00:22:39.800 --> 00:22:44.700 President Lincoln was advised both by his Secretary of State Seward and by his top military 260 00:22:44.700 --> 00:22:50.400 adviser, General Winfield Scott, that he should not attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter since 261 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:56.080 It would cause an unnecessary war. Secretary Seward advised him to continue to follow the 262 00:22:56.080 --> 00:23:03.360 policy of President Buckhannon and not attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, which was a key outpost 263 00:23:03.360 --> 00:23:08.160 in the South to assure collection of tariffs. General Scott said that Fort Sumter could not 264 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:14.720 be protected indefinitely and therefore should be abandoned. In fact, Secretary Seward, who knew 265 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:20.320 the benefits that occur when you busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels, advised Lincoln 266 00:23:20.320 --> 00:23:25.160 Lincoln instead to provoke a war either with France or with England, and with England he 267 00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:28.360 could make a third attempt to take Canada. 268 00:23:28.360 --> 00:23:32.240 Seward had also met frequently with the Confederate representatives in Washington and repeatedly 269 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:36.360 assured them that Lincoln would not attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter. 270 00:23:36.360 --> 00:23:40.200 When Lincoln disregarded all of this top-level advice and followed the example of President 271 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:46.200 Polk and provoked the South into firing the first shot, it started the Civil War. 272 00:23:46.200 --> 00:23:51.760 Later, Presidents McKinley, Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt would study how Lincoln maneuvered 273 00:23:51.760 --> 00:23:56.160 the South into firing the first shot, and they would use those very same tactics during 274 00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:57.800 their respective administrations. 275 00:23:57.800 --> 00:24:02.880 However, our book, The Cost of War, is not primarily about the causes of war, but concentrates 276 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:06.240 on the cost, especially as to freedom. 277 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:10.060 Let's look briefly at some of the costs of the Civil War. 278 00:24:10.060 --> 00:24:13.920 It brought America the first national income tax, which was clearly unconstitutional, but 279 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:19.760 but it took many years to get that court decision that it was unconstitutional but it set a 280 00:24:19.760 --> 00:24:24.680 very important precedent, created the first internal revenue service which has become 281 00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:27.880 the most oppressive government agency in American history. 282 00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:32.760 The war took America off the gold standard through legal tender laws and through legal 283 00:24:32.760 --> 00:24:38.100 tender laws forced Americans to use fiat paper money known as greenbacks. 284 00:24:38.100 --> 00:24:42.940 A new national banking system, a forerunner to the Federal Reserve system was created 285 00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:48.380 Reinstating a system that had been abolished by Presidents Jefferson and Jackson. 286 00:24:48.380 --> 00:24:52.580 Over 80 percent of the war was financed through massive government debts, the first prominent 287 00:24:52.580 --> 00:24:54.700 example of deficit spending. 288 00:24:54.700 --> 00:24:57.900 The first national draft was instituted. 289 00:24:57.900 --> 00:25:02.260 The writer Gore Vidal in his study of Lincoln points out that President Lincoln became America's 290 00:25:02.260 --> 00:25:09.220 first dictator, and he states, quote, The memory of Lincoln was and is a constant stimulus 291 00:25:09.220 --> 00:25:15.380 to the ambitious Chief Magistrate, who knows that once the nation is at war, his powers 292 00:25:15.380 --> 00:25:21.940 are unlimited while the possibilities of personal glory are immeasurable." 293 00:25:21.940 --> 00:25:26.780 The truly horrible violation of civil liberties, which occurred at the hands of Lincoln, occurred 294 00:25:26.780 --> 00:25:28.860 primarily in the North. 295 00:25:28.860 --> 00:25:33.460 This is fully covered in a new book written by Martin Neely, who is the current director 296 00:25:33.460 --> 00:25:36.260 of the Lincoln Museum and a strong supporter of Lincoln. 297 00:25:36.260 --> 00:25:41.700 The title of his book is The Fate of Liberty. He analyzes all of the transgressions and 298 00:25:41.700 --> 00:25:48.260 primarily focuses on the study of 13,000 trials where American citizens in the North were 299 00:25:48.260 --> 00:25:52.940 arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced under martial law even though the civil courts were 300 00:25:52.940 --> 00:25:58.340 readily available. These people were not allowed any due process of law and the writ of habeas 301 00:25:58.340 --> 00:26:03.420 corpus was unconstitutionally suspended by Lincoln. They were charged merely with being 302 00:26:03.420 --> 00:26:15.420 To many contemporaries of Lincoln, he was labeled America's Robespierre because of his horrible violation of the civil liberties of the people and the expansive use of the presidential powers. 303 00:26:15.420 --> 00:26:23.420 However, Neely admits these transgressions of civil liberties occurred, and he cannot deny that Lincoln became a dictator. 304 00:26:23.420 --> 00:26:29.420 But he says that this is all justified because the purpose of the war was to abolish slavery. 305 00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:35.920 In 1953, Russell Kirk observed part of the tragic cost of the war by stating in his book, 306 00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:40.460 The Conservative Mind, that the suppression of the South so injured the ideas of the limited 307 00:26:40.460 --> 00:26:44.940 government and free market economics that it took over a hundred years for these ideas 308 00:26:44.940 --> 00:26:46.380 to begin to make a recovery. 309 00:26:46.380 --> 00:26:52.200 And even then in 1953, there was no recovery in the popular mind for these ideas. 310 00:26:52.200 --> 00:26:58.340 He stated, quote, the influence of the Virginia mind upon American politics expired in the 311 00:26:58.340 --> 00:27:05.420 The Jeffersonian scholar, Merrill D. Peterson, in his book published in 1960 entitled, Jefferson 312 00:27:05.420 --> 00:27:10.420 Image in the American Mind, devotes an entire study to the fact that the influence of Jefferson 313 00:27:10.420 --> 00:27:13.380 in American politics ended with the Civil War. 314 00:27:13.380 --> 00:27:18.900 And from that point forward, it has been the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, who became the 315 00:27:18.900 --> 00:27:24.060 predominant political theorist and model for Americans to follow. 316 00:27:24.060 --> 00:27:28.220 The next war which has proven so detrimental to the plan of the founders was the Spanish-American 317 00:27:28.220 --> 00:27:32.660 War, when America first began to acquire its foreign empire. 318 00:27:32.660 --> 00:27:37.780 The idea of acquiring Cuba had been around for a long time prior to this war and was 319 00:27:37.780 --> 00:27:43.420 popular among many members of Congress during the administration of President Grover Cleveland. 320 00:27:43.420 --> 00:27:48.540 An unusual event mentioned in the book by Louis Fisher, the presidential war power, 321 00:27:48.540 --> 00:27:53.180 which I mentioned earlier, shows that some of the members of Congress were itching for 322 00:27:53.180 --> 00:27:58.260 War, and they asked for an audience with President Cleveland and announced to him, 323 00:27:58.260 --> 00:28:03.660 quote, we have about decided to declare war against Spain over the Cuban question. 324 00:28:03.660 --> 00:28:05.700 Conditions there are intolerable. 325 00:28:05.700 --> 00:28:11.800 Whereupon President Cleveland responded, quote, there will be no war with Spain over Cuba 326 00:28:11.800 --> 00:28:12.800 while I am president. 327 00:28:12.800 --> 00:28:17.800 One of the members of Congress protested that the Constitution gave Congress the right to 328 00:28:17.800 --> 00:28:22.440 declare war, whereupon Cleveland answered that the Constitution also made him commander 329 00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:29.360 and Chief of the Armed Forces, and he stated, quote, I will not mobilize the army, end quote. 330 00:28:29.360 --> 00:28:33.920 This incident demonstrates part of the benefit of the separation of powers provided in the 331 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:34.920 Constitution. 332 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:38.380 And I think it's probably the only instance in American history where the President was 333 00:28:38.380 --> 00:28:42.560 restraining Congress from declaring war. 334 00:28:42.560 --> 00:28:47.500 But Congress later found a very willing and eager participant with President McKinley. 335 00:28:47.500 --> 00:28:51.800 The true purpose of this war became evident when McKinley sent the American Navy to the 336 00:28:51.800 --> 00:28:56.040 of the Philippines in order to support the local rebels there, who were trying to throw 337 00:28:56.040 --> 00:28:59.400 off their Spanish rulers. 338 00:28:59.400 --> 00:29:04.240 After supporting the rebels in their successful revolt against Spain, McKinley ordered American 339 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:11.080 guns turned on the rebels themselves, murdering thousands and thousands of them in cold blood. 340 00:29:11.080 --> 00:29:15.760 America acquired its first foothold in Asia for its Pacific Empire by taking the Philippines 341 00:29:15.760 --> 00:29:21.080 and Guam from Spain, which allowed American ships to have co-ing stations for foreign 342 00:29:21.080 --> 00:29:26.840 Trade with China, which was the real purpose of the war. McKinley ruled the Philippines, 343 00:29:26.840 --> 00:29:32.560 Guam, Puerto Rica, and Cuba as a military dictator without any congressional authority. 344 00:29:32.560 --> 00:29:38.160 Furthermore, while Congress was out of session and without any authorization from Congress, 345 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:43.600 McKinley sent 5,000 armed troops to China to assist other European nations in putting 346 00:29:43.600 --> 00:29:49.260 down the Boxer Rebellion, which was a rebel movement in China to remove foreign powers 347 00:29:49.260 --> 00:29:53.100 from its Soul. 348 00:29:53.100 --> 00:29:59.020 Mark Twain, who originally supported the Spanish-American War because he thought that its purpose was 349 00:29:59.020 --> 00:30:05.260 to support Cuban rebels against Spain, eventually saw that its real purpose was trying to establish 350 00:30:05.260 --> 00:30:07.180 an empire in the Pacific. 351 00:30:07.180 --> 00:30:11.700 It was then he made his famous statement, quote, We cannot maintain an empire in the 352 00:30:11.700 --> 00:30:15.460 Orient and maintain a republic in America. 353 00:30:15.460 --> 00:30:20.940 In an excellent study of this war and its effect, Harper's magazine editor Walter Karp 354 00:30:20.940 --> 00:30:26.500 states in his book, Politics of War, the following, What McKinley envisioned for the American 355 00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:33.860 Republic was a genuine new order of things, a modern, centralized order, elitist in every 356 00:30:33.860 --> 00:30:37.500 way, profoundly alien to the spirit of the Republic. 357 00:30:37.500 --> 00:30:44.180 Of necessity, therefore, the key to McKinley's grand design for national unity and cohesion 358 00:30:44.180 --> 00:30:50.460 was the Republican large policy. It was the only way to supplant the Republican spirit 359 00:30:50.460 --> 00:30:56.620 with the spirit of nationalism and replace the love of liberty with love of the flag 360 00:30:56.620 --> 00:31:03.300 to make the nation a political presence strong enough to overwhelm the Republic and supplant 361 00:31:03.300 --> 00:31:09.340 it in the popular affections. Only by transferring America into an active world power in contact 362 00:31:09.340 --> 00:31:13.820 with considerable foreign powers at as many points as possible could the nation become 363 00:31:13.820 --> 00:31:20.540 from a unifying force that McKinley and the Republican oligarchy intended to make of it." 364 00:31:20.540 --> 00:31:25.940 The main provocation that the court historians have stated caused this war was that the Spanish 365 00:31:25.940 --> 00:31:30.700 sank the American battleship to Maine. McKinley had ordered this battleship in the Havana 366 00:31:30.700 --> 00:31:36.500 harbor as a provocation to be a sitting duck with Spanish attack. McKinley and the war-mongering 367 00:31:36.500 --> 00:31:42.020 press maintained at the time that the Spanish fired the first shot when they sank the ship 368 00:31:42.020 --> 00:31:49.020 by placing a bomb outside the hull. However, the naval study published in 1976 by H.D. 369 00:31:49.540 --> 00:31:55.220 Rickover entitled, How the Battleship Maine was Destroyed, shows conclusively that the 370 00:31:55.220 --> 00:31:59.500 explosion occurred from within the ship and therefore could not have been done by the 371 00:31:59.500 --> 00:32:04.460 Spanish. The sinking of the battleship Maine caused the loss of lives of several hundred 372 00:32:04.460 --> 00:32:09.680 American sailors and served as the primary justification for McKinley asking Congress 373 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:11.400 for Declaration of War. 374 00:32:11.400 --> 00:32:16.740 However, it was America's very late entry into World War I under the misguided leadership 375 00:32:16.740 --> 00:32:23.960 of President Wilson, when America's politicians completed the repudiation and sent troops 376 00:32:23.960 --> 00:32:28.080 – the repudiation of the ideas of the Founding Fathers – and sent troops to the trenches 377 00:32:28.080 --> 00:32:32.680 of France for a bloody debacle which changed the course not only of America but of all 378 00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:33.680 Western civilization. 379 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:38.640 By the time of America's entry into World War I, the ideas of Jefferson, probably our 380 00:32:38.640 --> 00:32:43.560 Our greatest founder had completely disappeared from the political consciousness of America 381 00:32:43.560 --> 00:32:49.200 because of the Civil War. However, listen to Jefferson's explicit warnings about why 382 00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:55.160 America should not engage in wars in Europe. Quote, I have deemed it fundamental for the 383 00:32:55.160 --> 00:33:00.640 United States never to take an active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political 384 00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:06.800 interests are entirely distinct from ours. They are mutual jealousies. They are balance 385 00:33:06.800 --> 00:33:12.920 of Power. Their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government are all 386 00:33:12.920 --> 00:33:18.980 foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the 387 00:33:18.980 --> 00:33:24.920 destruction of labor, property, and lives of the people. On our part, never have a people 388 00:33:24.920 --> 00:33:31.480 had so favorable a chance of trying the opposite system of peace and fraternity with mankind 389 00:33:31.480 --> 00:33:36.760 and the direction of all our means and faculties to the purpose of improvement instead of destruction. 390 00:33:36.760 --> 00:33:42.760 Again, the cause for America's late entry into this war has been hidden from the American 391 00:33:42.760 --> 00:33:45.900 people and deleted from our textbooks. 392 00:33:45.900 --> 00:33:51.880 A book entitled The Lusitania by Colin Simpson shows that the German embassy warned Secretary 393 00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:57.960 of State William James Bryan that the British ocean liner, The Lusitania, had a false manifest 394 00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:02.560 and that it was actually carrying illegal contraband and therefore was a lawful target 395 00:34:02.560 --> 00:34:04.640 for German submarines. 396 00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:09.140 Bryan attempted to get President Wilson to warn the American passengers not to sail, 397 00:34:09.140 --> 00:34:15.640 and because Wilson refused, Bryan eventually resigned. The German industry did put ads 398 00:34:15.640 --> 00:34:20.920 in the paper before the ship sailed warning the Americans not to sail, and that was considered 399 00:34:20.920 --> 00:34:29.480 a hoax by the press. This failure to warn Americans about Wilson led to the loss of 400 00:34:29.480 --> 00:34:34.480 over 100 American lives when the German submarines sank to Lusitania, but it did provide the 401 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:39.560 The emotional cause for America's late entry into the war a short time later, blaming German 402 00:34:39.560 --> 00:34:41.840 submarine warfare tactics. 403 00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:45.560 The private papers of President Wilson and his main advisor, Colonel House, show that 404 00:34:45.560 --> 00:34:51.160 Wilson had this insatiable desire to help design the New World Order, which would emerge 405 00:34:51.160 --> 00:34:53.600 from the peace process in Europe. 406 00:34:53.600 --> 00:34:57.920 And Wilson recognized that he would not be a part of this process unless America was 407 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:00.920 a major participant in that war. 408 00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:05.160 There were also very powerful financial interests in America, particularly the House of J.P. 409 00:35:05.160 --> 00:35:10.840 Morgan, which had made substantial loans and established substantial credit for England 410 00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:12.360 and her allies. 411 00:35:12.360 --> 00:35:16.720 They wanted to make sure that the war was won unconditionally, and they also wanted 412 00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:21.100 to make sure that Germany would pay reparations for its war damage so that the allies could 413 00:35:21.100 --> 00:35:23.360 repay their loans. 414 00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:27.960 One of the greatest mistakes in World War I was the horrible Treaty of Versailles which 415 00:35:27.960 --> 00:35:30.000 ended that war. 416 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:33.520 America's late entry into the war prevented a failing negotiated settlement with a very 417 00:35:33.520 --> 00:35:38.160 vigorous Germany which had in effect defeated Russia and now only had to fight one war on 418 00:35:38.160 --> 00:35:44.080 its western front against two badly injured allies, France and England. 419 00:35:44.080 --> 00:35:48.840 Germany had become a threat to the economic prosperity of the British Empire after 1870 420 00:35:48.840 --> 00:35:51.420 and up into the 20th century. 421 00:35:51.420 --> 00:35:55.440 And this is the principal reason for war on England's behalf. 422 00:35:55.440 --> 00:35:59.720 However, with America's entry into the war, the balance of power completely shifted because 423 00:35:59.720 --> 00:36:05.040 Because President and then President Wilson promised that his 14 points would be the basis 424 00:36:05.040 --> 00:36:07.980 on which a peace treaty would be negotiated. 425 00:36:07.980 --> 00:36:11.980 Germany and Russia were excluded from the conference table and a Carthaginian treaty 426 00:36:11.980 --> 00:36:15.140 entirely punitive toward Germany took place. 427 00:36:15.140 --> 00:36:20.380 It imposed such harsh terms upon Germany that it was clearly recognized among the many allies 428 00:36:20.380 --> 00:36:25.260 at the time and certainly by Germany that unless the treaty was eventually revised, 429 00:36:25.260 --> 00:36:28.100 Germany would have to go to war to remove the burdens of the treaty. 430 00:36:28.100 --> 00:36:34.380 I think as a footnote, I think the only thing I've ever agreed with by John Maynard Keynes 431 00:36:34.380 --> 00:36:40.260 was his statement that the Versailles Treaty was unfair to Germany and would provoke a 432 00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:41.260 war. 433 00:36:41.260 --> 00:36:45.700 The only way to understand how Hitler rose to power through the democratic process and 434 00:36:45.700 --> 00:36:49.820 why Germany invaded Poland is to understand how horrible the Treaty of Versailles was 435 00:36:49.820 --> 00:36:52.140 and how, in fact, it was to Germany. 436 00:36:52.140 --> 00:36:56.300 You would think that America had learned its lesson by the horrible Treaty of Versailles 437 00:36:56.300 --> 00:37:00.340 and what it did to help cause World War II. 438 00:37:00.340 --> 00:37:04.700 But then look at what Franklin Roosevelt did in the conferences of Tehran and Yalta, which 439 00:37:04.700 --> 00:37:08.580 ended World War II, while America won that war militarily. 440 00:37:08.580 --> 00:37:13.340 It lost the peace and favor and enlargement of communist power in Russia and expansion 441 00:37:13.340 --> 00:37:16.940 of communist power in Central and Eastern Europe. 442 00:37:16.940 --> 00:37:22.380 Getting back to World War I, the whole mindset of Western civilization was changed by World 443 00:37:22.380 --> 00:37:26.780 of World War I, and this remained in effect throughout the remainder of the 20th century. 444 00:37:26.780 --> 00:37:31.160 The following statement by Italian dictator Mussolini, who, by the way, was one of Winston 445 00:37:31.160 --> 00:37:36.600 Churchill's great heroes at the time he made the statement and continued to be one of his 446 00:37:36.600 --> 00:37:40.480 heroes up until Mussolini betrayed the Allies. 447 00:37:40.480 --> 00:37:44.520 This statement captures the spirit of the 20th century, and I think as you listen to 448 00:37:44.520 --> 00:37:48.920 the ideas of Mussolini, you can close your eyes and actually picture Teddy Roosevelt 449 00:37:48.920 --> 00:37:55.960 saying this, quote, fascism believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual 450 00:37:55.960 --> 00:38:02.360 peace. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts a stamp 451 00:38:02.360 --> 00:38:07.280 of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it. It may be expected that 452 00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:13.800 this will be the century of authority, a century of the left, a century of fascism, for if 453 00:38:13.800 --> 00:38:19.360 The 19th century was a century of individualism. It may be expected that this will be the century 454 00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:26.080 of collectivism, and hence the century of the state. For fascism, the growth of empire, 455 00:38:26.080 --> 00:38:31.440 that is to say the expansion of the nation, is the essential manifestation of vitality 456 00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:38.160 and its opposite sign of decay and death." The end result of World War II and the Treaty 457 00:38:38.160 --> 00:38:41.800 of Versailles was to replace individualism with collectivism. 458 00:38:41.800 --> 00:38:47.420 It brought communism to Russia, fascism to Italy, Nazism to Germany, and state capitalism 459 00:38:47.420 --> 00:38:48.840 to America. 460 00:38:48.840 --> 00:38:53.240 It created the War and Welfare 20th Century. 461 00:38:53.240 --> 00:38:56.960 Bruce Porter, again in his study of the cost of World War I to America and specifically 462 00:38:56.960 --> 00:39:01.880 the tax consequences, points out that the income tax which was passed as a constitutional 463 00:39:01.880 --> 00:39:05.840 amendment in 1913 was a very, very low tax. 464 00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:09.880 But it rose sharply during World War I and became a permanent fixture. 465 00:39:09.880 --> 00:39:15.040 He points out that federal tax receipts have never again dropped lower than five times 466 00:39:15.040 --> 00:39:16.800 the pre-World War I level. 467 00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:23.120 And also, the progressive rate feature of the income tax was permanently instituted 468 00:39:23.120 --> 00:39:26.100 as a result of World War I. 469 00:39:26.100 --> 00:39:29.560 The damage to civil liberties was immense under President Wilson through the use of 470 00:39:29.560 --> 00:39:34.640 the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. 471 00:39:34.640 --> 00:39:39.280 One example among thousands that I could cite here is the alleged unpatriotic statements 472 00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:43.880 of Rose Pastor Stokes who wrote a letter to the Kansas City Star which stated, quote, 473 00:39:43.880 --> 00:39:47.600 No government which is for profiteers can also be for the people. 474 00:39:47.600 --> 00:39:51.120 I am for the people while the government is for the profiteers. 475 00:39:51.120 --> 00:39:55.320 Judge Falkenberg sentenced her to ten years in the penitentiary for that one statement 476 00:39:55.320 --> 00:40:01.360 and stated to her in the sentencing that the only free speech was that which is, quote, 477 00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:08.760 Friendly to the government, friendly to the war, friendly to the policies of the government." 478 00:40:08.760 --> 00:40:13.200 President Wilson then instructed the Attorney General to institute treason proceedings against 479 00:40:13.200 --> 00:40:18.480 the publisher of that paper. Wilson became so enamored with his powers under the Sedition 480 00:40:18.480 --> 00:40:23.920 Act that after the war and as late as 1920, he vetoed a bill which would have abolished 481 00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:29.400 the espionage and sedition acts. In summary, I think the presidents who are guilty of completely 482 00:40:29.400 --> 00:40:33.800 and the Changing the Direction of America Away from the Republic were Lincoln, McKinley 483 00:40:33.800 --> 00:40:38.920 and Wilson through the unnecessary wars they manipulated America into. 484 00:40:38.920 --> 00:40:43.980 While they set the new direction and paved the road, it was Franklin Roosevelt and his 485 00:40:43.980 --> 00:40:48.420 four terms who took America further down that road than any other president through the 486 00:40:48.420 --> 00:40:53.400 combination of his New Deal and his manipulation of America into World War II. 487 00:40:53.400 --> 00:41:00.200 Let me say in conclusion that if we as Americans are to ever regain our heritage of freedom, 488 00:41:00.200 --> 00:41:05.640 we must abolish the empire and reverse the growth of the Leviathan state. 489 00:41:05.640 --> 00:41:09.960 Congress must reassert its constitutional war powers over the president and stop the 490 00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:12.340 imperial presidents in general. 491 00:41:12.340 --> 00:41:16.480 We must eliminate the bloated bureaucracy of government agencies which have arisen under 492 00:41:16.480 --> 00:41:18.580 these executive powers. 493 00:41:18.580 --> 00:41:23.980 And as Americans, we must change our love of nation and empire to love of our Republic. 494 00:41:23.980 --> 00:41:28.540 And we must change our love of the flag to love of liberty. 495 00:41:28.540 --> 00:41:33.340 The writer James Russell Lowell was once asked how long he thought the United States would 496 00:41:33.340 --> 00:41:34.340 endure. 497 00:41:34.340 --> 00:41:40.500 He stated, quote, so long as the ideas of the founders remain dominant. 498 00:41:40.500 --> 00:41:44.980 Senator Daniel Webster issued a stern warning for future generations of America when he 499 00:41:44.980 --> 00:41:49.740 and he stated, quote, miracles do not cluster, hold on to the Constitution of the United 500 00:41:49.740 --> 00:41:55.580 States of America for which it stands and the Republic for which it stands. 501 00:41:55.580 --> 00:41:59.900 What has happened once in 6,000 years may never happen again. 502 00:41:59.900 --> 00:42:05.380 Hold on to your Constitution, for if the American Constitution shall fail, there will be anarchy 503 00:42:05.380 --> 00:42:07.220 throughout the world. 504 00:42:07.220 --> 00:42:13.060 I believe that the greatest achievement of Western civilization was the discovery of freedom 505 00:42:13.060 --> 00:42:18.300 through the Effective Limitation on the Power of the State, and I believe that the American 506 00:42:18.300 --> 00:42:23.200 Founding Fathers provided the best formula to limit that power. I believe further that 507 00:42:23.200 --> 00:42:27.860 war is the quickest and surest way to increase the power of the state, and therefore war, 508 00:42:27.860 --> 00:42:33.420 even victorious war, is the greatest threat to freedom. As we approach the 21st century, 509 00:42:33.420 --> 00:42:38.260 I think the most important activity to be engaged in is the communication of the ideas 510 00:42:38.260 --> 00:42:43.180 of Freedom so that Americans will come to understand these principles again. 511 00:42:43.180 --> 00:42:47.980 But as we come to the end of this war and welfare century, I'm actually optimistic about 512 00:42:47.980 --> 00:42:51.500 the future of freedom in America in the next century. 513 00:42:51.500 --> 00:42:56.540 I believe we're seeing the beginning stages of a very active intellectual interest in 514 00:42:56.540 --> 00:43:00.880 restoring the ideas of the Founding Fathers and that there's a real renaissance of freedom 515 00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:02.500 ahead of us. 516 00:43:02.500 --> 00:43:06.660 The Mises Institute is one of the examples of why I believe this is happening and the 517 00:43:06.660 --> 00:43:13.300 is in the forefront of this revolution. For 150 years, socialism has captured the imagination 518 00:43:13.300 --> 00:43:18.620 of most of our intellectuals, most of the academics and the medium. However, these ideas 519 00:43:18.620 --> 00:43:23.660 have now proven to be absolutely false and unworkable. I also believe that the American 520 00:43:23.660 --> 00:43:29.860 people, when armed with the knowledge as well as the solution, their will is strong and 521 00:43:29.860 --> 00:43:36.500 even irresistible. We still have the means by which to change and to restrain our government 522 00:43:36.500 --> 00:43:43.820 and thereby restore liberty in America, but to reclaim the American dream for our future, 523 00:43:43.820 --> 00:43:48.900 we should look back to our beginnings to see what made America great and its people free.