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NOTE 03. The States' Rights Tradition Nobody Knows (video)

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Well, I've been told that today, June, I guess today's June 21st, apparently this is an important anniversary in American history because in 1788, New Hampshire ratified the Constitution, so thus the requisite nine states had ratified and it went into effect, so there's a big mistake.

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I'd like to just start off by, first of all, mentioning a few books because I always forget

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to mention recommended reading as I'm going along.

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I want to reiterate a couple that I mentioned the other day on these general topics.

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James Kilpatrick, K-I-L-P-A-T-R-I-C-K, his book, The Sovereign States, is indispensable.

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Secondly, William Watkins, Reclaiming the American Revolution, is a book on the Virginia

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and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and is equally important.

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The Watkins book is useful because it gives the background to the resolutions, the discussion

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of the Resolution of Themselves, The Persistence of the Principles of 98, and the Relevance of some of these ideas even to today.

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And he mentions issues as contemporary as the medical marijuana issue and how these principles are pertinent.

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Then there's a book I didn't mention yesterday that I more or less recommend by Forrest MacDonald called States, Rights and the Union.

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I think that came out within the past 10 years. I remember being a student buying it and reading it.

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So those are the ones I recommend and other ones will occur to me as we move along.

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But certainly I would say those are the indispensable starting points for covering this type of material.

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Now this third talk today I think concludes a kind of a unit with the first two.

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Then the one this afternoon is sort of on its own, and then the next three days, each day, will in effect be a unit in and of itself.

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But I think it's useful just to recall the important points that I think I've been trying to make,

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just collapse them together briefly so that the material today makes logical sense and you see how it follows from these ideas.

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I've been trying to discuss, beginning with the discussion of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798,

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Jefferson's theory of the Union, basically, a theory that's shared not only by Calhoun, but also by lesser-known figures like St. George Tucker and Abel Upsher and still others.

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And that view is premised upon the idea that the United States is composed of sovereign states that joined the Union for certain limited, finite purposes, delegated limited powers to a central government,

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reserved the remainder of the powers to themselves but also according to the

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Virginia and Kentucky resolutions reserved to themselves the right to

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determine whether a federal law was in fact constitutional or not and if the

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state's determination was that it was not the state as a defense mechanism

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retained the right of nullification of that law. I then wanted to make the point

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that these ideas of Jefferson did not just emerge fully formed out of his head

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but that instead they represented the culmination of a line of thought that had been germinating for ten years ever since the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788.

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The Virginians, when they ratified the Constitution, inserted, they developed and they drew up an instrument of ratification, a document whereby they ratified the Constitution accompanying that decision to ratify

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and in that document they made quite clear what their understanding of ratification was, what ratification really amounted to and we looked at the primary drafters of that ratification instrument, there was a committee of five and I quoted for you Edmund Randolph who was on that committee and who assured his fellow Virginians at the convention that the ratification of the Constitution was in a certain sense not as momentous

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The New Federal Government had only those powers that were expressly delegated, and he used the word expressly, and he said that, as did the instrument of ratification itself, that Virginia retained the right to, in fact, recall the rights of the people of Virginia, the people of Virginia, the people of Virginia, the people of Virginia, the people of Virginia, the people of Virginia.

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The Compact Theory is all over this instrument of ratification.

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And then in the ensuing years, we get not only Patrick Henry's 1790 resolution reaffirming these ideas,

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but we also get thinkers like John Taylor, who began to propose the idea that the state legislatures ought to be intervening to prevent the enforcement of unconstitutional laws,

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and then finally the Virginia-Kentucky Resolutions where we get the idea of interposition and nullification.

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It develops logically from these original promises made by pro-constitution people, made by Federalists like Edmund Randolph.

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Then at the end of last time I want to look at something specific.

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I mean the Virginia-Kentucky Resolutions are specific, but look at specific applications of these ideas

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Even in states that had once opposed these ideas.

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And so I gave the example of the embargo imposed during Jefferson's second term

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that did tremendous damage to commerce and to the economic well-being of New England.

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And we saw how did New England respond to that.

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Well, they responded in some cases, they called for the secession from the Union.

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We've got a southern president who knows nothing about northern interests.

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We need to secede from the Union.

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More commonly, we got other types of lesser forms of resistance.

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We got, for example, a congressman from New York expressly recalling the Virginia-Kentucky resolutions

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and saying, how can we blame Massachusetts for appealing to, in effect, these principles?

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Why shouldn't she appeal to these principles?

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So the Virginia-Kentucky resolutions are being appealed to by the very section of the country that had once spurned them.

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We even get certain New England states saying that the embargo is not legally binding on them because it's unconstitutional, regardless of the fact that a federal court found it to be perfectly constitutional.

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So these are very lively forms of resistance that we see, and they're taking this Jeffersonian form.

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Alright, well, today I'd like to start with, I said yesterday I wasn't going to talk about the Louisiana Purchase, but I think I will just briefly, because I don't want to assume people know about this stuff.

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I'm going to go backward in time for a few years, and then we'll go forward in time to the War of 1812.

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It's worth mentioning that in 1803, when the United States made the Louisiana Purchase and acquired an amount of territory, of course it's not simply confined to the present day state of Louisiana,

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in fact doubled the size of the country. When this took place, there were people who were opposed to it. In fact, I read not long ago, Stephen Kinsella can give you the link, I think you can bother him about it,

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about somebody who recently drew up a whole series of imaginary articles of impeachment for Jefferson for going through with the Louisiana Purchase. So there are still people today who would fault him for this.

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Why would he be faulted for it?

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Well, first of all, why is he so eager to acquire this territory from France?

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Jefferson being in large part an agrarian was of the opinion that it's generally preferable for a person living in a free society

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to in effect be his own boss, to be a landowner, just sort of like the old sturdy Roman Republican type

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where you own your own land, you are your own boss, you don't take dictation from anybody.

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working for somebody else, answerable to somebody else, and not the kind of sturdy, independent character in whom Jefferson placed his hopes.

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But if you acquire the Louisiana territory and you double the size of the country, then you indefinitely postpone that much-feared day,

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because there's all this open land for people to go and use and settle on.

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So Jefferson's quite anxious, though, of course, he has constitutional scruples.

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The way Jefferson interprets the Constitution, very simply, is that if you propose some Federal action,

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before he even considers the wisdom of the action, he wants to consider the legality of it.

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So he'll look at Article 1, Section 8 and see if the proposed power is listed among the delegated powers to the Federal Government.

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And if he does not see it there, then his presumption is that it is unconstitutional

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and that an amendment to the Constitution would be necessary in order to grant that power to the Federal Government.

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Well, of course, Jefferson does not see any authorization for the purchase of additional territory.

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He doesn't see that, but he really, really wants this territory.

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And naturally his thought is we should amend the Constitution, but the French are fickle here.

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They may not want to stick around making this offer this whole time during the deliberately difficult

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and time-consuming process of amending the Constitution.

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So this opportunity may pass very quickly.

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So Jefferson allowed himself to be talked into the position that the treaty-making power implicitly contained the authorization for what it is that he sought.

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And so he went ahead with the Louisiana Purchase and he concluded that since the American people are in the last resort, the ultimate guardians of the Constitution,

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Well, there were people, as I say, who were opposed to this, and in particular, we have New England Federalists, people who belong to the Federalist Party, tend to favor a stronger central government, who are Jefferson's political opponents, were actually opposed to this, and one of the arguments that they raised was constitutional. They argued that Jefferson has interpreted

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Well, well, well. In my opinion, it sort of serves them right. Because all during the 1790s, they were advocating a broad interpretation of the Constitution, and now they suddenly realize that certain dangers come from this. Yes, they do. Yes, they do.

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The Federalists were opposed, a great many of them, to the purchase, but apart from the constitutional question, what concerned them in addition was that if you add this enormous amount of additional territory to the country, you're going to absolutely swamp New England.

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New England's interests will be much less easily protected because New England proportionately will be less influential in the union with it being that size.

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So they're very concerned. They believe New England has interests, distinct interests of its own that are less likely to be protected in the future.

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So they oppose this. And in fact, there is talk of New England's secession, secession from the union over this issue.

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And one of the leaders of that secession movement is a man named Timothy Pickering.

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Now Timothy Pickering is not just some yahoo who fell off the turnip truck.

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Timothy Pickering had been Secretary of State, he was a senator from Massachusetts, he was a distinguished figure.

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Totally unlikable. I haven't found a single historian who likes this guy.

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But nevertheless, he's a qualified, he's not just a nobody.

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and Pickering was interested in advocating New England's secession

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but the thinking was that if New England secedes and forms its own confederation

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it would be more likely to succeed in the long run if New York joined it

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New York is a large influential state so we want to get New York's cooperation

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so the plot that was more or less hatched by some of these feblists was to bring Aaron Burr on board

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Aaron Burr. As soon as I mention Aaron Burr, I get snickers and laughter because my students know about him.

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Why do you think my students know about Aaron Burr?

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The duel.

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Oh, the duel. That's true. But no, no, no. Much, much no. You're way too sophisticated a level here.

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Why else? The milk commercial. Remember the milk commercial?

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The more intelligent people remember saying, I have no idea what that is. That's good. That's a good sign.

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The milk commercial where this guy is trying to answer this contest question over the phone but his mouth is full of what is a cake or peanut butter or something so he can't get the name and the answer to the question is Aaron Burr and he can't get the name and he's trying to say Aaron Burr and it's not coming out and they're saying oh sorry and he doesn't win the prize. That's what my students say, oh yeah, Aaron Burr, yeah, the peanut butter milk guy. Yes, yes, that's who he is. Yes, thank you so much.

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Well, that's right. They do know about the duel, but let's just first say about Aaron Burr.

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The idea was that we get Aaron Burr elected as Governor of New York,

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and then he will secede New York from the Union and join us.

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Now, it's not clear how explicitly Burr acceded to this.

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There's no ironclad proof that he said, yes, I will carry out this quid pro quo.

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Well, as you may know, he does not get elected governor of New York, and he believes that

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one of the reasons he was not elected was that Alexander Hamilton had been speaking

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very badly of him, saying he was a sexual deviant and a number of other things, a scoundrel,

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and that this contributed to his defeat.

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And so this is why the duel takes me, challenges Hamilton to a duel.

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Now, since dueling is actually illegal, typically, because it would be considered murder if you

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shot, killed somebody, you can't just advertise, hey everybody, it's a duel between Alexander

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Hamilton and Aaron Burr, why don't you come out and bring your picnic basket and whatever.

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This is actually illegal.

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And when Burr does shoot and kill Hamilton, he is actually on the run at that point.

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So it is possible to have a more notorious vice president, possibly, than we have now.

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But in any event they have this duel and of course Burr shoots Hamilton.

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Now Hamilton goes into the duel believing that as a Christian he cannot really fire

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a shot at Burr.

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So you sort of wonder, he's a little bit at a disadvantage then, like he's got no

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chance of winning, really, unless, you know, unless Burr is just struck down on the spot

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So my students think this has got to be the dumbest thing anyone's ever done. Just to vindicate his honor, he's going to go and take part in a duel in which he's not going to fire.

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Well, there are a couple of possibilities that could have occurred here. Sometimes when someone is challenged to a duel, if the two participants of the duel show up at the duel, sometimes that was considered enough.

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They look at each other and say, all right, well, we're both courageous people. See you later. And they just go home and that would be the end of it.

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That could have happened. What also could have happened is that Burr might have shot and missed. That's happened in the past too.

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There have been a number of duels where that's happened. So Hamilton sort of hoped that that might take place.

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It didn't. Hamilton was shot, but he did not die instantly. He was in agony for about 40 hours, and then he died.

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So, funny, you can't tell what this audience is going to laugh at. So poor Hamilton died. Now, whatever people thought of Hamilton, and I'm not a big fan of him, you know, I don't think he should be shot, you know, I mean, I think he has a right not to be shot, and so when this happened, it tended to throw the whole New England secession movement, you know, into disrepute and it was discredited because anything that Aaron Burr touched or was associated with now just

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and the return to rust, and so the whole thing collapsed as a result of that.

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But at the beginning, or at least part of a great American tradition of dueling,

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one of my favorite American duels, by the way, if I may go on a tangent,

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is a duel between Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hart Benton.

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Now, they had this duel, and then years later, Andrew Jackson becomes president.

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and Jackson is, it so happens that I believe Thomas Hart Benton was Speaker of the House at that time, so it's very odd that sure enough the two duelers are more or less facing each other in Washington D.C., and if I can remember, somebody's going to have to refresh my memory on this, but one of them shot the other in that duel, and the bullet was sort of too deep for, at first for them to get it out, and eventually later on they did get it out,

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And I believe it was that, if I remember correctly, it's that Jackson shot Benton, but all you Jackson scholars email me and tell me if I was wrong on this.

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But the way it goes is that, oh, no, no, I'm pretty sure the bullet was in Jackson. Right, the bullet was in Jackson.

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So Jackson sends the bullet to the house with a note to Thomas Hart Benton saying, dear sir, I believe this belongs to you.

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And then Benton, you know, reads it, wraps it back up, returns it to Jackson, and says that, no, he believes it, I believe it belongs to you by right of long possession.

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So, I mean, what a, you know, it's like a different world, really, a whole different, whole different world.

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Anyway, but that's the significant thing, that here you have the New England states seriously contemplating secession.

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And as I say, there's a lesser, there's a secession proposal of lesser significance during the embargo.

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New England, then, with the Purchase II, there was an ugly ethnic, but because you know the New Englanders were...

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The War of 1812 issue contains some points that are pertinent to our discussion that I think are not as well known.

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The War of 1812, of course, has a number of causes that are posited.

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And one of them involves the same kind of harassment of American shipping

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that had been taking place at the time of Jefferson's embargo,

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that had encouraged him to look in that direction, to propose an embargo.

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So you've got both the British and the French violating American neutral rights,

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You have the problem of impressment of sailors because the British Navy had a tremendous problem of desertion because the conditions and the pay were quite poor.

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One commentator described the British Navy as a floating hell. It's not the most enjoyable working conditions and so sometimes British sailors would desert.

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And after deserting, it would occur to them, well, what do I know how to do for a living?

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I know how to be on a ship.

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So sometimes they would join, sometimes they'd be on the Merchant Marine somewhere, or they'd work on some ship.

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Well, some of them became American citizens and then worked on American ships.

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But the British claimed a right to impress these soldiers back into service.

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That is to say, forcibly bring them back into the service of the British Navy,

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because the thinking was that once you're in the British Navy, you're always in the British Navy.

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So they can come and get you even if you've become an American citizen and so from the American point of view this is an insult and it shows that the U.S. is not being treated with the dignity that a sovereign nation merits because the British were boarding their ships and searching for deserters and sometimes plucking people who had become American citizens into the service and in at least some cases impressing people who were American citizens who had never been in the British Navy but sometimes the British

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The British were not terribly discriminating in the people they impressed, and we get some testimony about life in the British Navy and impressment by the fact that I've read of one case of a guy who was impressed back into the service of the British Navy 11 times.

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I mean, he just stinks at this, right?

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I mean, it never occurred to him to just put on a false mustache or something?

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Or cases of people who jump overboard and drown rather than go into the British Navy.

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So that's a source of irritation as well.

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But let's also be frank that there is, at the same time, a desire on the part of some people who favor the war to annex Canada.

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There is this land hunger, and you think, well, didn't you just get the Louisiana Purchase?

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Why do you still have land hunger?

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I don't know either. It's just never enough.

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Let's get some really, really cold territory, too.

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So there is a desire for additional land, in the case of Canada.

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Let me take the questions afterward, please.

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So there's no question about that, and New Englanders saw that,

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that there was, at least on the part of some people, a desire to annex Canada.

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But the reason for annexing Canada is not just simply limited to land hunger.

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There was also this conception that the British position in Canada was permitting the British to outfit some of the American Indian tribes with weapons,

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and that this was obviously not something that would conduce to American security.

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So there are a variety of rationales that are proposed for the war, and in June of 1812, Madison goes and gets a declaration of war,

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The Declaration of War, but typically in American history, declarations of war are extremely lopsided in terms of the vote.

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I mean, if you look at the declaration of war on Japan, for example, in World War II,

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but in the case of the War of 1812, in the House, the House votes 79 to 49 to go to war,

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and the Senate votes 19 to 13 to go to war.

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Very close, very close really by comparison with any other war.

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So close that in fact Samuel Elliot Morrison around the time of the second half of the 20th century said this is the least popular American war and he included Vietnam in that. Interesting.

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Well anyway, as the war goes on, New England becomes more and more alienated from it. They were not particularly in favor by and large.

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The impressment issue irritated them, but they never thought that the numbers were significant enough to warrant a full-fledged war against Britain, which they feared could interrupt profitable trade.

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The harassment of shipping, as I said, they had ways of getting around that. They didn't like it, but New England would make statements.

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New England spokesmen and newspaper and editorial writers would make statements repeatedly during the war.

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What a shame it was that here's the country from which so many of us are descended,

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and that we're at war with them and it's going to cut into our prosperity.

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And of course late in the war, by the last year of the war,

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the British are imposing a blockade on the coast and it's going to cause them difficulty.

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Well, New England therefore becomes less than enthusiastic about lending its support to the war.

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So what's very significant in the connection with the state's rights issue is that under the authority of President Madison,

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General Henry Dearborn issued an order to Massachusetts and Connecticut demanding that they call out their militias

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in order to protect the coast from possible British raids.

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Now, the Federal Government has the authority to call the state militias into action for these, quote,

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to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.

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Well, from the Massachusetts point of view, they didn't see that really any of these three cases that would justify calling out the militia

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were in fact operative at that time and they took the position that we have the reserved right as a state to decide for ourselves if any of these three conditions hold and if they don't hold then we're not calling out our militia.

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So for example, the Massachusetts governor answered General Dearborn by saying the states reserve the power to determine whether these three conditions held

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and he requested that the Massachusetts Supreme Court render a judgment on the matter and the Massachusetts Court agreed with the Governor and declared as this power that is the power to determine whether any of these three conditions holds as this power is not delegated to the United States by the Federal Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states it is reserved to the states respectively and from the nature of the power it must be exercised

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Well, that's a very radical position, isn't it? A very radical position. I wonder what

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all the anti-war but pro-central government people would think of this. There are a lot

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of anti-war people out there, but they're all horrified by nullification and states'

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rights. Well, you know, if you want to throw a monkey wrench into the works, maybe this

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This is a possibility. Connecticut followed suit. Connecticut, here's an official statement.

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It must not be forgotten that the state of Connecticut is a free, sovereign and independent

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state, that the United States are a confederacy of states, that we are a confederated and

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not a consolidated republic. The governor of this state is under a high and solemn obligation

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to maintain the lawful rights and privileges thereof as a sovereign, free and independent

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state as he is to support the Constitution of the United States and the obligation to

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support the latter imposes an additional obligation to support the former.

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So if it were the case that the militia were ever to be called out for a purpose other

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than those listed in the Constitution, according to the state of Connecticut, it would be not

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not only the height of injustice to the militia but a violation of the constitution and laws

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of this state and of the United States and they went on to say the president had no authority

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to demand that the militia of Connecticut, quote, assist in carrying on an offensive

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war.

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That's how they looked at it.

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It's a war to go after Canada and in fact, we'll get to that in just two seconds, Connecticut

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declare that they would not participate until such time as New England should be threatened

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by an actual invasion of any portion of our territory.

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Now it's a fact that some companies of militia absolutely refused to cross over into Canada

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when the United States government began operations against Canada, because here is the confirmation

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of what they had suspected that, at heart, this is not fundamentally a defensive war.

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Interestingly, it was militia units of the state of New York that declared, quote, we

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were enlisted to protect our state, not to invade foreign territory.

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Now, of course, the War of 1812 ultimately, from a political point of view, wound up basically

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was really a draw because the Treaty of Ghent that ended it in December 1814 essentially reestablished the status quo antebellum.

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There was no transfer of territory, indemnities, any such thing.

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In effect, things just were as they were before.

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None of the issues on which the war reposed were in fact even mentioned in the treaties,

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nothing on impressment, nothing on harassment of shipping.

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But the harassment of shipping was dwindling away anyway as the Napoleonic Wars had wound down.

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So the issues were dissolving in any event.

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But the point is that the war winds up more or less a draw politically.

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But from a military point of view, it was a complete British route.

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It was a route of an unprepared American population.

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I mean, as many of you know, it involved even the burning of the White House.

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The British soldiers actually ate the meal that had been prepared for Madison and his wife and then they burned the place down.

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Bad cooking, I don't know. Anyway, but because it was very bad, it was going very badly,

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in fact the greatest American victory, land victory in the war, was the Battle of New Orleans

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The symbolism of that, symbolizes how badly the war went, was that that battle occurred two weeks after the war had been declared over, but General Jackson didn't know that, hadn't actually reached him, so there he is winning this glorious victory and the war is over.

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Well, that's how it went. Well, it shouldn't be surprising then to learn that Congress seriously considered the possibility of military conscription as a way of fighting the war.

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And here is where Daniel Webster comes into the picture.

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Daniel Webster was a long-time senator from Massachusetts.

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I'm from Massachusetts. Everything's named after Daniel Webster.

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I mean, the Daniel Webster Inn, Daniel Webster Highway, Daniel Webster Overpass.

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It's like no one ever came from Massachusetts other than Daniel Webster.

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But I suppose it's better than the Ted Kennedy Highway or the Ted Kennedy, I don't know,

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Daniel Webster is highly regarded at that time, and even by his opponents, they at least respected him as a great speaker, and as somebody who loved the country whether you agreed with him or not.

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Daniel Webster is very often a villain, in my opinion, in American history, but here he's an unbelievable hero.

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I don't know how many people in this room have ever read Daniel Webster's speech against conscription.

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Anybody ever read it? It's beautiful.

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It was reprinted in the 1960s in the New Individualist Review, which some of you know is the publication that Ralph Raico was involved in

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when he was at University of Chicago and Jim Powell.

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Great publication, you can get the full bound edition of all the issues in its tremendous

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journal and they republished Webster's speech against conscription.

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This is my favorite line from that speech, Webster said, and by the way you will see

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what the connection of states rights is and principles of 98, Webster says, where is it

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written in the Constitution?

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In what article or section is it contained that you may take children from their parents

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and parents from their children and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which

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the folly or the wickedness of government may engage in.

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Now, could you imagine saying that today?

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You know, you'd be considered a wacko, you know, anti-American, unpatriotic and whatever.

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Here's Daniel Webster.

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Now, if you're going to be deranged enough to say Daniel Webster is unpatriotic and anti-American,

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then there's probably no hope for you, I would say.

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So I mean, I just wonder what the neocon establishment would say about Daniel Webster.

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The very idea that you could say that the government may actually engage you in a wicked or silly war.

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Apparently that's just ipso facto impossible, what you hear today.

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Well, you'll forgive me, but I'm going to read a few passages from this address, because it just leaves me speechless, how wonderful it is.

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And then we're going to see, specifically, what Webster says should be done

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if the Federal Government should in fact carry out the military conscription.

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Webster says,

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When the present generation of men shall be swept away,

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and that this government ever existed shall be a matter of history only,

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I desire that it may be known that you have not proceeded in your course,

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Let it then be known that there were those who would have stopped you in the career of

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your measures and held you back as by the skirts of your garments from the precipice

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over which you are now plunging and drawing after you the government of your country.

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It is time for Congress to examine and decide for itself.

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It has taken things on trust long enough.

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It has followed executive recommendation till there remains no hope of finding safety in

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that path.

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What is there, sir, that makes it the duty of this people now to grant new confidence

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to the administration and to surrender their most important rights to its discretion?

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On what merits of its own does it rest this extraordinary claim?

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When it calls thus loudly for the treasure and lives of the people, what pledge does

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In the failure of all past promises, do we see any assurance of future performance? Are we to measure out our confidence in proportion to our disgrace, and now at last to grant away everything, because all that we have heretofore granted has been wasted or misapplied?

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What is there in our condition that bespeaks a wise or an able government?

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What is the evidence that the protection of the country is the object principally regarded?

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In every quarter that protection has been more or less abandoned to the states.

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That every town on the coast is not now in possession of the enemy or in ashes,

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is owing to the vigilance and exertions of the states themselves,

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and to no protection granted to them by those on whom the whole duty of their protection rested.

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Let us examine the nature and extent of the power which is assumed by the various military

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measures before us.

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In the present want of men and money, the Secretary of War has proposed to Congress

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a military conscription.

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For the conquest of Canada, the people will not enlist, and if they would, the treasury

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is exhausted and they could not be paid.

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Conscription is chosen as the most promising instrument, both of overcoming reluctance

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to the Service and of Subduing the Difficulties of the Exchequer.

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The Administration asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion.

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It contends that it may now take one out of every twenty-five men, at any part or the

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whole of the rest, whenever its occasions require.

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Persons thus taken by force and put into an army may be compelled to serve during the

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war or for life.

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They may be put on any service, at home or abroad, for defense or for invasion, accordingly

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to the will and pleasure of the government.

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The power does not grow out of any invasion of the country or even out of a state of war.

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It belongs to government at all times, in peace as well as in war, and it is to be exercised

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under all circumstances according to its mere discretion.

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This, sir, is the amount of the principle contended for by the Secretary of War.

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Is this consistent with the character of a free government?

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Is this civil liberty?

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Is this the real character of our Constitution?

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Indeed it is not.

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The Constitution is libeled.

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People of this country have not established for themselves such a fabric of despotism.

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They have not purchased at a vast expense of their own treasure and their own blood a Magna

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Carta to be slaves.

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Where is it written, as I said, that's the quotation about taking children from their

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parents, under what concealment has this power lane hidden which now for the first time comes

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forth with a tremendous and baleful aspect to trample down and destroy the dearest rights

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of personal liberty?

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Who will show me any constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people

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to surrender everything valuable in life and even life itself, not when the safety of their

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country and its liberties may demand the sacrifice, but whenever the purposes of an ambitious

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and mischievous government may require it?

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Sir, I almost disdain to go to quotations and references to prove that such an abominable

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doctrine has no foundation in the constitution of the country.

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It is enough to know that that instrument was intended as the basis of a free government

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and that the power contended for is incompatible with any notion of personal liberty.

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An attempt to maintain this doctrine upon the provisions of the Constitution

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is an exercise of perverse ingenuity to extract slavery from substance of a free government.

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It is an attempt to show by proof and argument that we ourselves are subjects of despotism

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and that we have a right to chains and bondage firmly secured to us and our children by the provisions of our government.

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And then so on and on. And of course, the argument for conscription comes from the power to raise armies in the Constitution.

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But the power to raise armies does not necessarily imply the power to conscript people forcibly into the army.

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So Webster addresses that point. He says the Secretary contends, with connection to this idea that the Congress has the power to raise armies,

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But no restraint is to be imposed on the exercise of this power, except such as is expressly

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stated in the written letter of the instrument.

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In other words, that Congress may execute its powers by any means it chooses, unless

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such means are particularly prohibited.

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But the general nature and object of the Constitution impose as rigid a restriction on the means

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of exercising power as could be done by the most explicit injunctions.

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It is the first principle applicable to such a case, that no construction shall be admitted

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which impairs the general nature and character of the instrument.

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A free constitution of government is to be construed upon free principles and every branch

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of its provisions is to receive such an interpretation as is full of its general spirit.

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No means are to be taken by implication which would strike us absurdly if expressed.

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And what would have been more absurd than for this constitution to have said that to

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secure the great blessings of liberty it gave to government uncontrolled power of military

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Conscription, yet such is the absurdity which it is made to exhibit under the commentary

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of the Secretary of War.

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And then at great length going on in this regard continuing his exegesis of the clause

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that permits the Congress to raise armies and explaining why this does not in fact authorize

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military conscription.

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I'll just conclude with one of his last points. He says,

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All the means and instruments which a free government exercises, as well as the ends and objects which it pursues,

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are to partake of its own essential character and to be conformed to its genuine spirit.

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A free government with arbitrary means to administer it is a contradiction.

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A free government without adequate provisions for personal security is an absurdity.

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A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is a solicism.

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at once the most ridiculous and abominable that ever entered into the head of man.

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I know, it's incredible, it's incredible.

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And as I say, today this would be banned, like there are people who would want to ban this.

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And it's Daniel freaking Webster, for heaven's sake.

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I mean, no greater supporter of the Union can be found than Daniel Webster.

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Now, here's the key.

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Not only was that a wonderful thing to listen to, but here's the key.

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What happens if the conscription bill should pass? Then in that case, according to Webster,

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these are his words, it would be the solemn duty of the state governments to protect their

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own authority over their own militia and to interpose between their citizens and arbitrary

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power. Interposition, the exact language of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.

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The Connecticut legislature announced that the proposed conscription bill was not only

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intolerably burdensome and oppressive, but utterly subversive of the rights and liberties

382
00:41:59.960 --> 00:42:07.960
of the people of this state and the freedom, sovereignty and independence of the same.

383
00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:19.180
In December 1813, a new embargo was imposed, more oppressive than even the one of 1807-9.

384
00:42:19.180 --> 00:42:22.740
New England began to protest yet again.

385
00:42:22.740 --> 00:42:28.640
The state legislature of Massachusetts was overwhelmed by petitions and demands and expressions

386
00:42:28.640 --> 00:42:32.920
of frustration and anger.

387
00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:39.720
The Massachusetts legislature then decided to establish a committee, at least to try

388
00:42:39.720 --> 00:42:42.520
to develop some kind of a response to this situation.

389
00:42:42.520 --> 00:42:47.120
That committee was headed by a gentleman named William Lloyd.

390
00:42:47.120 --> 00:42:52.080
February of 1814, he issued a report that has become known as Lloyd's Report.

391
00:42:52.080 --> 00:42:57.460
It was approved by the Massachusetts General Court and it said this, he's going to be

392
00:42:57.460 --> 00:43:02.360
making the same sort of point that New England states tried to make years earlier when they

393
00:43:02.360 --> 00:43:07.560
Many argued that the federal government's power to regulate commerce does not extend

394
00:43:07.560 --> 00:43:09.280
to a power to annihilate commerce.

395
00:43:09.280 --> 00:43:15.320
He says a power to regulate commerce is abused when employed to destroy it, and a manifest

396
00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:20.520
and voluntary abuse of power sanctions the right of resistance as much as a direct and

397
00:43:20.520 --> 00:43:22.600
palpable usurpation.

398
00:43:22.600 --> 00:43:26.320
The sovereignty reserved to the states was reserved to protect the citizens from acts

399
00:43:26.320 --> 00:43:31.780
of violence by the United States, as well as for purposes of domestic regulation.

400
00:43:31.780 --> 00:43:36.220
We spurn the idea that the free, sovereign and independent state of Massachusetts is

401
00:43:36.220 --> 00:43:41.660
reduced to a mere municipal corporation without power to protect its people and to defend

402
00:43:41.660 --> 00:43:46.100
them from oppression from whatever quarter it comes.

403
00:43:46.100 --> 00:43:50.560
Whenever the national compact is violated and the citizens of this state are oppressed

404
00:43:50.560 --> 00:43:58.340
by cruel and unauthorized laws, this legislature is bound to interpose its power and wrest

405
00:43:58.340 --> 00:44:17.340
This is why I want to emphasize it. This is why, as I say, Chapter 4 of the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History is geared toward this issue, because it just doesn't go away. And nor should it go away. It's wonderful, right? These are great. This is what a free people is all about.

406
00:44:17.340 --> 00:44:23.340
Well, one final word about the War of 1812 before moving on to other issues.

407
00:44:23.340 --> 00:44:30.340
One final word about the War of 1812 before moving on to other issues where we see these principles.

408
00:44:30.340 --> 00:44:38.340
It should be mentioned that in December 1814 there was an event called the Hartford Convention in Hartford, Connecticut,

409
00:44:38.340 --> 00:44:50.340
in which leading Federalists attended to discuss what should be done because by this point they were absolutely beside themselves with opposition to the war

410
00:44:50.340 --> 00:44:56.780
War, and to James Madison, they called it Mr. Madison's War, so I sort of miss that,

411
00:44:56.780 --> 00:45:02.060
that old terminology, Mr. Madison's War, Jimmy Polk's War, or you know, Mr. Wilson's

412
00:45:02.060 --> 00:45:07.460
War and whatever, we should bring that back, you know, like it's not, it's his war, right?

413
00:45:07.460 --> 00:45:12.180
It's not my war, I mean there is a distinction between the government and the people, we

414
00:45:12.180 --> 00:45:14.580
are not the same thing, for heaven's sake.

415
00:45:14.580 --> 00:45:19.900
Well the Hartford Convention is totally opposed to the war and they also believe that New

416
00:45:19.900 --> 00:45:24.100
New England's interests are not being adequately protected in the Union.

417
00:45:24.100 --> 00:45:28.380
And in particular the fact that the, by historical standards later on, they couldn't have known

418
00:45:28.380 --> 00:45:34.940
about of course, but that the War of 1812 was actually voted on by a very close vote

419
00:45:34.940 --> 00:45:41.540
by war standards, they began to propose amendments to the Constitution that would more adequately

420
00:45:41.540 --> 00:45:43.060
protect New England.

421
00:45:43.060 --> 00:45:46.940
And so one of the amendments proposed at the Harvard Convention was that there should be

422
00:45:46.940 --> 00:45:52.220
a requirement of a two-thirds vote, a two-thirds majority before going to war.

423
00:45:52.220 --> 00:45:55.700
That obviously would have prevented the outbreak of the War of 1812.

424
00:45:55.700 --> 00:46:01.740
The thinking behind this was, before you engage in a matter so grave as war, you want to make

425
00:46:01.740 --> 00:46:06.240
sure that the whole country is fully on board with it, or at least a very substantial portion

426
00:46:06.240 --> 00:46:10.820
of it, not just 19 to 13 in the Senate, for goodness sake.

427
00:46:10.820 --> 00:46:16.420
Other proposals were that you can't have two presidents in a row from the same state.

428
00:46:16.420 --> 00:46:19.380
Gee, I wonder, do you think that's aimed at Virginia?

429
00:46:19.380 --> 00:46:24.580
You can't have presidents having more than one term, limit them to one term, because

430
00:46:24.580 --> 00:46:28.700
they're pretty tired of two Jefferson terms, two Madison terms, little do they know that

431
00:46:28.700 --> 00:46:31.700
they've got two Monroe terms still to go.

432
00:46:31.700 --> 00:46:37.360
So they're proposing things of this kind to protect New England.

433
00:46:37.360 --> 00:46:42.080
And so historians have more or less concluded that the Hartford Convention was basically

434
00:46:42.080 --> 00:46:48.280
dominated by moderates who wanted to reform the Union so as to make it more congenial

435
00:46:48.280 --> 00:46:53.360
to New England, more protective of New England's interests, and really to discourage secessionist

436
00:46:53.360 --> 00:46:57.200
sentiment which was at a peak once again in New England.

437
00:46:57.200 --> 00:47:01.620
But we should nevertheless remember that at the time of the Convention, secession proposals

438
00:47:01.620 --> 00:47:04.980
of various kinds were all over the Federalist press.

439
00:47:04.980 --> 00:47:12.260
There was a proposal by a guy named John Lowell that the original 13 states should secede

440
00:47:12.260 --> 00:47:16.200
and just leave the West to be its own country, just abandon the West.

441
00:47:16.200 --> 00:47:17.900
The West got us into this war.

442
00:47:17.900 --> 00:47:22.440
There were other proposals that New England should just get out and Virginia is largely

443
00:47:22.440 --> 00:47:24.740
responsible for our plight.

444
00:47:24.740 --> 00:47:30.580
All kinds of proposals were coming out in the Federalist press as possible points of

445
00:47:30.580 --> 00:47:32.020
discussion at the convention.

446
00:47:32.020 --> 00:47:37.860
So secession sentiment was in fact still very much live and the convention closed with this

447
00:47:37.860 --> 00:47:43.140
note that they would meet again the following year in Boston and reassess the situation,

448
00:47:43.140 --> 00:47:45.620
particularly if their demands had not been met.

449
00:47:45.620 --> 00:47:50.780
And there I think it's probably not crazy to assume that secession would at least have

450
00:47:50.780 --> 00:47:55.140
been entertained at that point if they had received absolutely no redress at all.

451
00:47:55.140 --> 00:47:58.940
So the idea of secession is still floating around, is not considered a crazy idea, a

452
00:47:58.940 --> 00:48:01.420
ludicrous idea, it's considered a progressive idea.

453
00:48:01.420 --> 00:48:06.920
This is the way, peacefully, people who have irreconcilable differences resolve those differences.

454
00:48:06.920 --> 00:48:11.420
Instead of going to a total war with each other and killing one out of every four of their citizens,

455
00:48:11.420 --> 00:48:15.420
just go your separate ways in peace.

456
00:48:15.420 --> 00:48:20.420
Now let's say a few words, if we may, about the bank, the central bank,

457
00:48:20.420 --> 00:48:23.920
or we should say the national bank in the United States,

458
00:48:23.920 --> 00:48:27.920
Because here again we have states trying to resist the federal government.

459
00:48:31.420 --> 00:48:40.420
Now early on the first bank of the United States, around 1791, was being debated on constitutional grounds and it was approved.

460
00:48:41.420 --> 00:48:46.420
Jefferson had been against it on strict construction grounds and because he didn't think a national bank was necessary.

461
00:48:46.920 --> 00:48:50.920
He didn't see the federal government had been delegated a power to establish a national bank.

462
00:48:50.920 --> 00:48:58.920
Hamilton took a broader view of the Constitution that, in effect, the bank was necessary and proper to carry out other functions of the government.

463
00:48:58.920 --> 00:49:00.920
He favored the national bank.

464
00:49:00.920 --> 00:49:07.920
And George Washington, who would be hard to find somebody who knew less about national banking than George Washington,

465
00:49:07.920 --> 00:49:11.920
changed his mind depending on who was the last person who spoke to him on the subject.

466
00:49:11.920 --> 00:49:17.920
And so Hamilton got to him last, I think, but also Hamilton being the Secretary of the Treasury,

467
00:49:17.920 --> 00:49:23.920
Washington thought this was sort of his area, he does finance and that sort of thing, so we'll give him the National Bank.

468
00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:31.920
Well, it had an expiration, it was set to expire in 20 years, it had a 20 year charter, it expired in 1811, but then later it was renewed.

469
00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:45.920
Madison, James Madison, as president, supported the renewal of the bank, a new bank, the second bank of the United States in 1816, and that too, unless renewed, would expire in 1836.

470
00:49:45.920 --> 00:49:56.920
And it's not pertinent to my discussion, but in the 1830s you get Andrew Jackson, who was reviled by historians for opposing the Second Bank of the United States, but he's totally heroic on this.

471
00:49:56.920 --> 00:50:07.920
And there's some great banking treatises written in the 1830s that are totally sound. They have exactly the right reasons for being against the Second Bank.

472
00:50:07.920 --> 00:50:14.920
My favorite scene from that is when Jackson at one point has taken ill. He's fighting against the bank.

473
00:50:14.920 --> 00:50:17.920
and his Vice President Martin Van Buren goes to visit him

474
00:50:17.920 --> 00:50:20.920
and Jackson sits up in his bed and he says,

475
00:50:20.920 --> 00:50:25.920
the bank is trying to kill me.

476
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:27.920
That's great.

477
00:50:27.920 --> 00:50:31.920
Anyway, the thing is that the second bank of the United States

478
00:50:31.920 --> 00:50:38.920
began to get a reputation for corruption, mismanagement, favoritism,

479
00:50:38.920 --> 00:50:43.920
also discombobulating local economies through inflationary policies

480
00:50:43.920 --> 00:50:44.920
and so on.

481
00:50:44.920 --> 00:50:48.920
And so a number of the states had really grown quite impatient with this bank.

482
00:50:48.920 --> 00:50:54.920
It had opened branches in ten different states, and so these states had a direct day-to-day

483
00:50:54.920 --> 00:50:57.920
connection with the bank.

484
00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:05.920
Now, the bank question had been dealt with by the Supreme Court, and John Marshall had

485
00:51:05.920 --> 00:51:09.920
declared the national bank to be constitutional.

486
00:51:09.920 --> 00:51:31.920
And he also said that the states could not tax the bank, tax their state branches of the bank, because a number of the states had begun trying to do that, to levy taxes on the branches of the bank in their state, for the express purpose of hobbling the national bank.

487
00:51:31.920 --> 00:51:36.160
and so you know as a libertarian you wonder well I don't know I have kind of mixed feelings here

488
00:51:36.160 --> 00:51:41.200
I mean on the one hand I hate the national bank the other hand I hate taxes well how do I feel

489
00:51:41.200 --> 00:51:46.560
about taxes on the national bank I guess I favor that I think if it would shut down the national

490
00:51:46.560 --> 00:51:50.400
bank and then maybe they would collect the taxes and maybe give them back to the people maybe that

491
00:51:50.400 --> 00:51:54.880
would be the best way to do it I don't know but anyway the states are trying whatever they can to

492
00:51:54.880 --> 00:52:00.800
give this bank some problems and I'm sure a lot of you have heard the phrase the power to tax

493
00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:02.800
Tax Involves the Power to Destroy

494
00:52:02.800 --> 00:52:08.800
Well, the context for that phrase was Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall

495
00:52:08.800 --> 00:52:13.800
arguing that when the states are imposing taxes on the bank's branches,

496
00:52:13.800 --> 00:52:16.800
they're doing something that's going to tend to destroy the bank

497
00:52:16.800 --> 00:52:19.800
because the power to tax the power to destroy,

498
00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:22.800
therefore the states don't have the power to tax the bank

499
00:52:22.800 --> 00:52:25.800
because the bank was something that was established by the whole union

500
00:52:25.800 --> 00:52:30.800
And no individual state has the right to interfere with a measure that was imposed by the whole union.

501
00:52:30.800 --> 00:52:33.800
Well, of course, there were still people who believed the bank was unconstitutional.

502
00:52:33.800 --> 00:52:38.800
I mean, so what, if John Marshall thinks it is, plenty of people thought it was not.

503
00:52:38.800 --> 00:52:41.800
And on top of it, it was obnoxious and terrible.

504
00:52:41.800 --> 00:52:46.800
Okay, well, what in fact do the states try to do?

505
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:49.800
Well, as I say, they try to tax the bank.

506
00:52:49.800 --> 00:52:53.800
And I'd like to look at some specific examples of that.

507
00:52:53.800 --> 00:53:09.800
But we should also note on the constitutional point that even though there has been an official statement from the Supreme Court in this matter that does not close the issue in the same way that when a federal court found the 1807-1809 embargo constitutional that did not close the matter for Massachusetts.

508
00:53:09.800 --> 00:53:15.800
They said that that would be a tyrannical idea that we can't even debate something once the Supreme Court or some federal court has spoken.

509
00:53:15.800 --> 00:53:38.800
I do humbly conceive that the states never could have committed an act of such egregious folly as to agree that their umpire should be altogether appointed and paid by the other party.

510
00:53:38.800 --> 00:54:02.800
The Supreme Court may be a perfectly impartial tribunal to decide between two states but cannot be considered in that point of view when the contest lies between the United States and one of its members.

511
00:54:02.800 --> 00:54:18.800
So, basically Rowan is saying that the states have the right to tax the bank, and it's up to the states themselves to decide ultimately what is the constitutional position on this issue.

512
00:54:18.800 --> 00:54:25.800
So, I'd like to look at the case of what happened in Ohio, because this is my favorite one.

513
00:54:25.800 --> 00:54:31.800
They tried to make the operations of the bank difficult in Ohio in the 1820s

514
00:54:31.800 --> 00:54:36.800
by taxing each of the two Ohio branches about $50,000 a year.

515
00:54:36.800 --> 00:54:40.800
And, of course, the bank refused to pay because they cited, you know, they said,

516
00:54:40.800 --> 00:54:44.800
look, the courts have spoken, you have no right to tax us,

517
00:54:44.800 --> 00:54:51.800
and a federal judge, in fact, helped to try to keep the state from collecting the taxes.

518
00:54:51.800 --> 00:54:58.800
Well, Ohio decided, well, to heck with the Supreme Court, to heck with these federal judges, we're going to collect these taxes anyway.

519
00:54:58.800 --> 00:55:09.800
So, the state auditor ordered one of his employees to go down to the bank branches and collect the tax and tell them, you know,

520
00:55:09.800 --> 00:55:14.800
we're going to collect this tax from you peacefully, if possible, but this is your last chance.

521
00:55:14.800 --> 00:55:21.800
If you will not pay this tax to Ohio, we're going to do what we have to do.

522
00:55:21.800 --> 00:55:26.800
But one last time, the bank branch manager said, absolutely no way am I paying this tax.

523
00:55:26.800 --> 00:55:37.800
So this gentleman, who was in the employee of the state auditor's office, simply leaped over the counter, went into the vault and helped himself to $100,000.

524
00:55:37.800 --> 00:55:41.800
Must be fun working for the government, right?

525
00:55:41.800 --> 00:55:52.800
Well, Ohio of course then has to sort of give a reckoning of this behavior and a special committee of the legislature said,

526
00:55:52.800 --> 00:55:57.800
the committee are aware of the doctrine that the federal courts are exclusively vested with jurisdiction

527
00:55:57.800 --> 00:56:02.800
to declare in the last resort the true interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.

528
00:56:02.800 --> 00:56:08.800
To this doctrine in the latitude contended for, they never can give their assent.

529
00:56:08.800 --> 00:56:38.800
Thus has the question whether the Federal Courts are the sole expositors of the Constitution of the United States in the last resort, or whether the states, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, have an equal right to interpret that Constitution for themselves, where their sovereign rights are involved, have been decided against the pretension of the Federal Judges by the people themselves, the true source of all legitimate powers.

530
00:56:38.800 --> 00:56:56.680
When the general government encroaches upon the

531
00:56:56.680 --> 00:57:01.320
rights of the state, is it a safe principle to admit that a portion of the encroaching

532
00:57:01.320 --> 00:57:06.880
power shall have the right to determine, finally, whether an encroachment has been made or not?

533
00:57:06.880 --> 00:57:10.520
In fact, most of the encroachments made by the general government flow through the Supreme

534
00:57:10.520 --> 00:57:16.600
Court itself, the very tribunal which claims to be the final arbiter of all such disputes.

535
00:57:16.600 --> 00:57:21.240
What chance for justice have the states when the usurpers of their rights are made their

536
00:57:21.240 --> 00:57:27.180
judges? Just as much as individuals when judged by their oppressors. It is therefore believed

537
00:57:27.180 --> 00:57:31.500
to be the right, as it may hereafter become the duty of the state governments, to protect

538
00:57:31.500 --> 00:57:36.860
themselves from encroachments and their citizens from oppression by refusing obedience to the

539
00:57:36.860 --> 00:57:39.860
and the Unconstitutional Mandates of Federal Judges.

540
00:57:39.860 --> 00:57:41.860
I mean, there's some courage there.

541
00:57:41.860 --> 00:57:45.860
A totally courageous statement.

542
00:57:45.860 --> 00:57:52.860
Well, finally, on the point of the true history of the principles of 98 and interposition

543
00:57:52.860 --> 00:57:55.860
and state resistance and so on and so forth,

544
00:57:55.860 --> 00:58:00.860
I want to say something about slavery and the various fugitive slave acts

545
00:58:00.860 --> 00:58:05.860
because I think this is maybe one of the most interesting features of this history of all.

546
00:58:08.860 --> 00:58:15.860
Now, there is in effect a kind of nullification undertaken by a number of states against fugitive slave laws

547
00:58:15.860 --> 00:58:19.860
and at first glance that may seem to run counter to the idea of nullification

548
00:58:19.860 --> 00:58:26.860
because nullification, as Jefferson understood it and as later expositors understood it,

549
00:58:26.860 --> 00:58:34.360
involved declaring null and void an act that violates the Constitution.

550
00:58:34.360 --> 00:58:39.360
Well, strictly speaking, the Constitution does, in fact, call for the return of runaway slaves.

551
00:58:39.360 --> 00:58:48.360
So it may seem that to nullify the Fugitive Slave Act is really to violate one of the pillars of the doctrine of nullification,

552
00:58:48.360 --> 00:58:53.360
because the Fugitive Slave Act perhaps may not be unconstitutional.

553
00:58:53.360 --> 00:59:02.360
And, of course, you may want to resist it for other reasons and other ways, but I'm just saying that it at first seems that it does not conform to the demands of nullification.

554
00:59:02.360 --> 00:59:18.360
But, in fact, it's not quite as clear as that, because, for instance, one of the things that particularly irritated many of the northern states was the manner of enforcement of this fugitive slave clause that you see in the fugitive slave legislation.

555
00:59:18.360 --> 00:59:35.360
The first fugitive slave law is in the early 1790s, but there's widespread evasion of it, and already from the 1780s onward, you see northern states passing so-called personal liberty laws,

556
00:59:35.360 --> 00:59:44.360
the purpose of which was to prevent slave owners from reclaiming any slaves that had managed to escape into the free states.

557
00:59:44.360 --> 01:00:13.360
And so, you know, for example, New York and Pennsylvania, Ohio, started to make it more difficult for people to reclaim their slaves, tried to at least establish jury trials for the slaves, but the Supreme Court in 1842 declared that any state law that obstructs a slave owner's right to recapture his slave was unconstitutional.

558
01:00:14.360 --> 01:00:19.360
So, the federal government upholds slavery in that case.

559
01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:26.280
But undeterred, the states come up with other means of preventing enforcement.

560
01:00:26.280 --> 01:00:34.280
Massachusetts, for example, in 1843, passed a personal liberty law that simply would forbid

561
01:00:34.280 --> 01:00:40.420
any state official to take part in any way in catching runaways, or it would forbid the

562
01:00:40.420 --> 01:00:43.440
use of state facilities for that purpose.

563
01:00:43.440 --> 01:00:47.400
So that would mean that if I were a southern slave owner going up to a northern state,

564
01:00:47.400 --> 01:00:51.680
I would have to rely on federal officials to help me, and there weren't terribly many

565
01:00:51.680 --> 01:00:53.520
of those.

566
01:00:53.520 --> 01:01:00.480
So when the various northern states were engaged in this type of behavior, in violating the

567
01:01:00.480 --> 01:01:07.120
Fugitive Slave Act, in 1850 you got a tougher Fugitive Slave Act as part of the Compromise

568
01:01:07.120 --> 01:01:08.120
of 1850.

569
01:01:08.120 --> 01:01:13.400
This is one of the features of that compromise that was meant as sort of a sop to the south.

570
01:01:13.400 --> 01:01:17.400
and this really put teeth in the Fugitive Slave Clause of the Constitution

571
01:01:17.400 --> 01:01:22.400
because it took these fugitive slave cases and put them exclusively under Federal jurisdiction

572
01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:30.400
and it provided, it allowed special, it looked for special commissioners

573
01:01:30.400 --> 01:01:36.400
who basically would be empowered to issue warrants for the arrest of fugitives and the return to their masters

574
01:01:36.400 --> 01:01:40.400
solely on the basis of an affidavit by the slave owner

575
01:01:40.400 --> 01:01:46.400
Slave Owner. He just simply says, well, that's my slave. Well, that's good enough for us.

576
01:01:46.400 --> 01:01:51.960
We'll arrest the guy and have a trial where he will not be allowed representation or a

577
01:01:51.960 --> 01:01:57.240
jury trial. Or you can't testify in your own defense if you're accused of being a runaway

578
01:01:57.240 --> 01:02:02.040
slave. You can't testify in your own defense. You don't have the right of a jury trial.

579
01:02:02.040 --> 01:02:07.640
And these federal commissioners were told that they would make $10 if they found in

580
01:02:07.640 --> 01:02:12.920
in favor of the slave owner, and they'd make $5 if they found in favor of the slave.

581
01:02:12.920 --> 01:02:16.160
Sort of stacking the odds, it seems to me.

582
01:02:16.160 --> 01:02:18.840
And then still other obnoxious ways.

583
01:02:18.840 --> 01:02:24.520
They could force bystanders to assist in the capture of a runaway slave.

584
01:02:24.520 --> 01:02:30.600
They could punish local marshals who allowed slaves to escape because of their own negligence.

585
01:02:30.600 --> 01:02:42.600
For example, if citizens were found harboring runaway slaves or in some way impeding their arrest, they could be fined and imprisoned.

586
01:02:42.600 --> 01:02:50.600
This was viewed as an extremely obnoxious measure, so the result was still more attempts to evade.

587
01:02:50.600 --> 01:02:57.600
Forrest MacDonald tells us that in Chicago, the city council declared the Fugitive Slave Act to be void,

588
01:02:57.600 --> 01:03:03.600
and, in fact, the citizens of Chicago forced a Federal Commissioner to free a man being held as a fugitive.

589
01:03:03.600 --> 01:03:13.600
In fact, McDonald says that one effect of the Fugitive Slave Act was to convert thousands of previously conservative and law-abiding Northerners to the cause of abolition.

590
01:03:13.600 --> 01:03:21.600
It also taught them that a state's rights position was more compatible with the cause than was looking to the Federal Government.

591
01:03:21.600 --> 01:03:28.600
Well, what I find most interesting is this, what the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared in 1859.

592
01:03:28.600 --> 01:03:36.600
Wisconsin had been variously ignoring the Fugitive Slave Act, and their Supreme Court makes an interesting statement.

593
01:03:36.600 --> 01:03:44.600
Let's first remind ourselves of some of the most significant words from Thomas Jefferson's Kentucky resolutions of 1798.

594
01:03:44.600 --> 01:03:46.600
Let's just remind ourselves of them.

595
01:03:46.600 --> 01:03:48.360
Jefferson had written,

596
01:04:16.600 --> 01:04:27.600
The compacts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force, that to this compact each state exceeded as a state, and is an integral party, its co-states forming as to itself the other party.

597
01:04:28.600 --> 01:04:41.600
Very significant. That the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the constitution, the measure of its powers.

598
01:04:41.600 --> 01:04:53.600
But that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge of itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.

599
01:04:53.600 --> 01:05:02.600
Here's how the Wisconsin Supreme Court defended Wisconsin's position that it was not going to assist the return of fugitives.

600
01:05:02.600 --> 01:05:11.600
Resolved, that the government formed by the Constitution of the United States was not the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself,

601
01:05:11.600 --> 01:05:15.600
but that as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge,

602
01:05:15.600 --> 01:05:22.600
each party has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.

603
01:05:22.600 --> 01:05:27.600
Resolved, that the principle and construction contended for by the party which now rules in the councils of the nation,

604
01:05:27.600 --> 01:05:32.600
That the general government, as the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it,

605
01:05:32.600 --> 01:05:37.600
stop nothing short of despotism, since the discretion of those who administer the government

606
01:05:37.600 --> 01:05:41.600
and not the constitution, would be the measure of their powers.

607
01:05:41.600 --> 01:05:45.600
That the several states which form that instrument, being sovereign and independent,

608
01:05:45.600 --> 01:05:48.600
have the unquestionable right to judge of its infractions,

609
01:05:48.600 --> 01:05:54.600
and that a positive defiance of those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done or attempted to be done

610
01:05:54.600 --> 01:05:59.920
The principle of that instrument is the rightful remedy.

611
01:05:59.920 --> 01:06:04.600
So there are the principles of 1798 still going strong in 1859.

612
01:06:04.600 --> 01:06:11.200
And yet they are like the phantom principles of American history, totally lost, not ever mentioned.

613
01:06:11.200 --> 01:06:16.240
And it seems to me they should be mentioned like every three seconds if possible.

614
01:06:16.240 --> 01:06:19.480
Which by the way as you noticed, that is what I have been doing with the past three lectures.

615
01:06:19.480 --> 01:06:44.480
On the slavery issue, I think it is worth noting something that I'm sure a lot of you already know, is that a lot of the most radical abolitionists were in fact not unionists in the sense that they felt uncomfortable about the Federal Union and in particular the fact that the Constitution clearly recognized the slave relation.

616
01:06:44.480 --> 01:06:53.480
There were some abolitionists, for example, who did try to argue that the Constitution implicitly was anti-slavery.

617
01:06:53.480 --> 01:06:59.480
And so if we just obey the Constitution as it was intended, then it's anti-slavery.

618
01:06:59.480 --> 01:07:04.480
But other people like William Lloyd Garrison took the other view.

619
01:07:04.480 --> 01:07:09.480
Garrison was the founder of a newspaper in Massachusetts in 1831 called The Liberator.

620
01:07:09.480 --> 01:07:17.480
And his newspaper wasn't that it had huge circulation, but his articles would be reprinted in larger circulation papers and would circulate.

621
01:07:17.480 --> 01:07:29.480
He was well known. William Lloyd Garrison was well known because it so happens that the same year that he established the newspaper The Liberator, that was the year of the Nat Turner Rebellion.

622
01:07:29.480 --> 01:07:57.480
The Nat-Turner Rebellion was a terrifying slave revolt that really sent shockwaves throughout the South, and it occurred in 1831.

623
01:07:57.480 --> 01:08:01.980
And the thinking was that Turner had in some way been influenced by William Lloyd Garrison.

624
01:08:01.980 --> 01:08:06.480
Could it really be a coincidence that Garrison starts this really fiery newspaper

625
01:08:06.480 --> 01:08:13.980
that takes on a much, much more violent rhetorical tone than the abolitionist movement had previously been associated with?

626
01:08:13.980 --> 01:08:17.480
You know, could this really be a coincidence? Well, almost certainly it was a coincidence.

627
01:08:17.480 --> 01:08:22.980
But the point is that that's the kind of fear that William Lloyd Garrison struck into the hearts of slaveholders.

628
01:08:22.980 --> 01:08:33.980
And eventually he began the New England Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society and he was an opponent of the Constitution.

629
01:08:33.980 --> 01:08:42.980
He was an opponent of voting and he would publicly burn copies of the Constitution, which was not exactly endearing him to the mainstream of the country.

630
01:08:42.980 --> 01:08:45.980
So he was considered to be very much a radical.

631
01:08:45.980 --> 01:08:51.880
But very significant is that he actually passed through his American Anti-Slavery Society

632
01:08:51.880 --> 01:08:57.260
the requirement of a resolution, resolved, that abolitionists should make it as one of

633
01:08:57.260 --> 01:09:01.700
the aims of their agitation to dissolve the American Union.

634
01:09:01.700 --> 01:09:07.060
So he was a secessionist, but he favored the secession of the northern states, and he favored

635
01:09:07.060 --> 01:09:13.180
that partly because of his desire for political purity and the same kind of motivation that

636
01:09:13.180 --> 01:09:34.180
The Constitution recognizes slavery, and that also motivates him to favor separation, because he had the slogan, No Union with Slaveholders, I don't want to be associated with slaveholders.

637
01:09:34.180 --> 01:09:45.180
But secondly, of course, there's the strategic point that if you're a separate country, then you're no longer bound by the terms of any fugitive slave act of any kind.

638
01:09:45.180 --> 01:09:51.180
And so slaves could just run away to the north and there'd be no obligation to return them.

639
01:09:51.180 --> 01:09:57.180
And you could just turn away any federal agent who tried to get up there, just turn them away.

640
01:09:57.180 --> 01:10:00.180
You get out of our country. You have no authority to come up here.

641
01:10:00.180 --> 01:10:10.180
And this would, he thought, this would seriously disrupt the slave relations, certainly in the upper South, and begin to put pressure on the whole system.

642
01:10:10.180 --> 01:10:18.180
So it's quite interesting to note that people who are under the impression that states' rights are just for slavery and this and that,

643
01:10:18.180 --> 01:10:25.180
I think what we've seen so far is that any principle can be used for good or bad, just about, really.

644
01:10:25.180 --> 01:10:31.180
Christianity has been used for good or bad by people who either understand it or don't understand it or distort it.

645
01:10:31.180 --> 01:10:34.180
It's hard to exempt anything from that type of manipulation.

646
01:10:34.180 --> 01:10:39.180
But we've seen that, in fact, this tradition has been used in a great many other cases.

647
01:10:39.180 --> 01:10:44.180
In fact, sometimes on behalf of slaves, as we've seen, but also in a great many other areas

648
01:10:44.180 --> 01:10:49.180
where sometimes we don't even realize that these principles were referred to.

649
01:10:49.180 --> 01:10:56.180
So, having said all that, I think, you know, I had a whole other unit of stuff to do that would take us right up to the end,

650
01:10:56.180 --> 01:11:00.180
and instead I think I'd rather stop and hear what you think about this,

651
01:11:00.180 --> 01:11:06.180
because I think, as I say, this third one concludes sort of, I think, a self-contained unit of this material.

652
01:11:06.180 --> 01:11:11.180
So I'd be happy to hear any of your thoughts that you have or entertain any questions that you have at this point.

653
01:11:11.180 --> 01:11:12.180
Yes?

654
01:11:12.180 --> 01:11:30.180
You mentioned that you talked about New England being constrained in territory, and I remembered from American history about the Connecticut Reserve and expansion of all the states across the Union until the peace treaty basically cut them off the Mississippi River.

655
01:11:30.180 --> 01:11:38.180
So in other words, they were expanding too, the New England states, in territorial planes.

656
01:11:38.180 --> 01:11:53.180
But not in 1803, I mean the point is that in 1803 their thinking is that all these new Jeffersonian type agricultural, well even then they're not as industrialized in 1803 as they will be 10 years later.

657
01:11:53.180 --> 01:12:02.180
But their thinking is that they have distinct interests that can only be protected if they have more influence in the Union.

658
01:12:02.180 --> 01:12:07.780
Union, and as Dr. Prince mentioned, there's also this ethnic concern that you're going

659
01:12:07.780 --> 01:12:14.940
to have all these, as you say, largely Catholic folks who live out there, who are going to

660
01:12:14.940 --> 01:12:21.420
introduce a discordant mix into the population.

661
01:12:21.420 --> 01:12:25.380
The relevant consideration is, what are the territorial boundaries of New England in 1803?

662
01:12:25.380 --> 01:12:29.980
And they are basically, remembering that Maine is part of Massachusetts at the time, they're

663
01:12:29.980 --> 01:12:35.980
are basically what they are now, and obviously in proportion to that, you know, they're going to be less.

664
01:12:35.980 --> 01:12:40.980
That's the way they consistently saw it. That's how they portrayed it. Yes?

665
01:12:40.980 --> 01:13:05.980
Two questions, but I want to ask myself the one. The one is, because the argument that I've heard about is that there's a minority of the people that actually support and advocate just a merchant class or something like that.

666
01:13:05.980 --> 01:13:32.980
The question involves the Hartford Convention and to what extent was it supported by the majority of the people,

667
01:13:32.980 --> 01:13:36.980
To what extent was it just an unrepresentative number of merchants?

668
01:13:36.980 --> 01:13:43.480
Well, we should remember that the convention itself wound up recommending a fairly moderate course

669
01:13:43.480 --> 01:13:47.480
that I think a typical New Englander would have a hard time objecting to.

670
01:13:47.480 --> 01:13:55.480
I mean, because the purpose of it was just to make sure that New England would not be overwhelmed

671
01:13:55.480 --> 01:14:00.980
by this series of Virginian presidents that seems to be just unstoppable at that time.

672
01:14:00.980 --> 01:14:11.980
So, that point is different, but as far as, in other words, the Hartford Convention doesn't actually do things like, say, we're not going to obey the federal government on this or that point.

673
01:14:11.980 --> 01:14:17.980
Various branches of New England governments were doing that up to then.

674
01:14:17.980 --> 01:14:26.980
But if they were actually going to engage in secession, let's say, an extreme measure like secession, then I think they would be fairly well obligated to do that.

675
01:14:26.980 --> 01:14:46.980
Was 1842 the first time the Supreme Court sort of took upon itself to invalidate state law?

676
01:14:56.980 --> 01:15:04.980
1835. I mean, the corpus of his decisions is in the direction of the federal government

677
01:15:04.980 --> 01:15:10.820
as opposed to the state. So off the top of my head, I can't think of the chronology

678
01:15:10.820 --> 01:15:21.500
in terms of in which case do we have, which would be the first example of Marshall saying

679
01:15:21.500 --> 01:15:25.620
or the Supreme Court saying that this state law is unconstitutional. But I mean, we certainly

680
01:15:25.620 --> 01:15:35.500
know that in 1832 with Worcester v. Georgia, and obviously there were ones before that,

681
01:15:35.500 --> 01:15:40.100
I think Dartmouth College would be an example, but already 1832 when Georgia was trying to

682
01:15:40.100 --> 01:15:47.380
impose Georgia law on the Cherokees, Marshall said that would be unconstitutional to do

683
01:15:47.380 --> 01:15:54.500
that. And Georgia did that through a law and Marshall said it was unconstitutional and

684
01:15:54.500 --> 01:16:01.500
And then supposedly, although it looks like he didn't actually say this, Andrew Jackson said, well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.

685
01:16:01.500 --> 01:16:07.500
But there are still earlier ones as well, but I don't know all the dates that are associated with it.

686
01:16:07.500 --> 01:16:11.500
But in the 18 teens, there are a number of them that are significant.

687
01:16:11.500 --> 01:16:13.500
Another one? Yes, Dr. Prince?

688
01:16:13.500 --> 01:16:28.080
The Fugitive Slave Act, or what is that, is that part of the Massachusetts compromise, is that all part of that?

689
01:16:28.080 --> 01:16:35.000
I have to say that's that, Missouri, Missouri combo, is that all part of the slave act?

690
01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:43.320
The, that would have, by the time of the Missouri Compromise, or it was around 1820, I mean, the, what would have been operative at that time

691
01:16:43.320 --> 01:16:49.080
was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which did not have nearly the teeth of the 1851.

692
01:16:49.080 --> 01:16:54.000
But it would have been taken for granted by all parties that that at that time was the

693
01:16:54.000 --> 01:16:55.000
law of the land.

694
01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:57.880
But as far as I know, it was not modified by the Missouri Compromise.

695
01:16:57.880 --> 01:16:58.880
Kevin?

696
01:16:58.880 --> 01:17:00.880
Kevin?

697
01:17:00.880 --> 01:17:04.880
McCullough v. Maryland is a pretty cool case.

698
01:17:04.880 --> 01:17:15.880
I was very interested in having you comment on the role of McCullough, the way that history tech would use McCullough v. Maryland.

699
01:17:15.880 --> 01:17:45.880
I'll just describe, at least, my impression, basically it's part of a program to show the way the federal government came into its own, really, came to sort of civilized rebellious and sort of backwards attitudes and things, so you have that, you have Murray vs. Madison, and they sort of go, this happened and this happened, look at these crazy people packed to the bank, let's just have it flow, that's from nowhere, these people have to be talked to,

700
01:17:45.880 --> 01:18:12.880
John Marshall's tenure as Chief Justice is really difficult to discuss because when he's interfering in the life of the states, he's very often doing so on behalf of property and contract.

701
01:18:12.880 --> 01:18:20.880
So, I mean, I have to admit that part of me thinks, well, you know what, maybe these states shouldn't be acting like this, you know, and John Marshall won't have to smack them around.

702
01:18:20.880 --> 01:18:34.880
You know, but on the other hand, he's setting a precedent for, you know, for future Supreme Courts to intervene in the life of the states when, you know, to say the least, we're not dealing with matters of property and contract.

703
01:18:34.880 --> 01:18:42.880
So, you know, obviously, as I think it's become clear, my own instinct is that obviously the states can do incredibly obnoxious things,

704
01:18:42.880 --> 01:18:47.880
but the Supreme Court can do really, really super obnoxious things to all of them.

705
01:18:47.880 --> 01:18:55.880
And so that even though Marshall, you know, some of his decisions tend in the favor of, tend toward private property,

706
01:18:55.880 --> 01:19:01.880
I would still, you know, I'm still concerned about the centralization of power.

707
01:19:01.880 --> 01:19:08.560
So, Kevin, to answer your question, certainly Marshall's decisions, the major ones, are

708
01:19:08.560 --> 01:19:12.960
portrayed as unambiguously progressive, I think, by a lot of people.

709
01:19:12.960 --> 01:19:16.240
I mean, you might get some leftists who don't like the fact that he is intervening on the

710
01:19:16.240 --> 01:19:22.120
side of property, but by and large, that's overridden by their desire for centralized

711
01:19:22.120 --> 01:19:23.120
government.

712
01:19:23.120 --> 01:19:28.040
And so, typically, it's portrayed as, you know, we had this loose confederation, but

713
01:19:28.040 --> 01:19:34.040
And so now, Marshall sort of, through the force of the Supreme Court, you know, creating a kind of single unified whole.

714
01:19:34.040 --> 01:19:46.040
And since a lot of historians, without knowing it, are wig theorists of history, they always look back in history as if our current situation is the desired goal.

715
01:19:46.040 --> 01:19:54.040
So you then read history in terms of, hey, look at this, John Marshall is leading us toward, you know, Supreme Court imposed feminism and whatever we have today.

716
01:19:54.040 --> 01:19:57.040
It's wonderful. They tend to impose that kind of reading on it.

717
01:19:57.040 --> 01:20:27.040
and I've often thought that what we need is a I'd love to read a good book that critiques Marshall's major decisions like one by one critiques them if there is such a book I'd love if someone could tell me what it is but if there isn't one good place to start would be to read the dissenting decisions just read the dissenting decisions in these cases and oftentimes there are super strong arguments there and so I'd love to see somebody or maybe even just a documentary

718
01:20:27.040 --> 01:20:50.040
I was wondering who it was that there was sticking to the mainland and the world is involved in the Western end of the conflict?

719
01:20:50.040 --> 01:20:57.040
I was wondering who it was that there was sticking to the mainland and the war of 1812 in the Western end?

720
01:21:20.040 --> 01:21:22.040
The Theory of Money and Credit

721
01:21:50.040 --> 01:21:56.640
A serious proposal. Maybe we should get rid of these states. My goodness gracious, how

722
01:21:56.640 --> 01:22:03.640
fluid political conversation once was. Any other? Okay, let's see. One, two, three, please.

723
01:22:03.640 --> 01:22:06.640
I'm sorry, I'm like I'm in the classroom. I'm sorry to do that to you. Yes?

724
01:22:06.640 --> 01:22:30.640
I was just wondering, to be more clear on the issue of slavery, is it not true that the great emancipator said that he would not get involved, I mean, he would not just love the slave institution at all, and is it, I don't know if it's like a conspiracy theory or something,

725
01:22:30.640 --> 01:22:43.640
The reason why they created Liberia was a place for people to go back to their homeland, and a lot of our fathers were about sending slaves back to their homeland.

726
01:22:43.640 --> 01:22:51.640
I want to be more clear on that issue, and is it not true that the Union had many slaves too?

727
01:23:00.640 --> 01:23:17.640
What was Lincoln's position on slavery and what were his announced intentions with regard to slavery and was it not true that some of the founding fathers and important early Americans in fact favored the removal of some of the black population to Liberia or elsewhere?

728
01:23:17.640 --> 01:23:19.640
Well, we'll do one of those at a time.

729
01:23:19.640 --> 01:23:30.640
With Lincoln, his Republican Party took the free soil position, which was the prevention of the expansion of slavery into the territories.

730
01:23:30.640 --> 01:23:33.640
It did not touch on the issue of slavery in the states.

731
01:23:33.640 --> 01:23:37.640
That doesn't mean that Lincoln had no moral position on the subject of slavery.

732
01:23:37.640 --> 01:23:44.640
You do sometimes hear him say that slavery is a bad thing and appalling and this and that.

733
01:23:44.640 --> 01:23:48.640
But with regard to what he believed his political authority permitted him to do,

734
01:23:48.640 --> 01:23:54.640
He did not believe it permitted him to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed and he said that repeatedly.

735
01:23:54.640 --> 01:24:03.640
He also said that in order to keep the union together, which was his goal,

736
01:24:03.640 --> 01:24:09.640
if what he had to do was to approve an amendment to the Constitution

737
01:24:09.640 --> 01:24:17.640
that would have forever prevented the federal government from ever interfering with the institution of slavery ever in the future,

738
01:24:17.640 --> 01:24:19.640
The Theory of Money and Credit

739
01:24:47.640 --> 01:24:57.640
This isn't a conspiracy theory at all, it's just a fact that there was an organization founded around 1816 called the American Colonization Society,

740
01:24:57.640 --> 01:25:05.640
and the purpose of it, the question was what do we do with what the census refers to as the free persons of color.

741
01:25:05.640 --> 01:25:11.640
American census, when it classified people, had a classification called free persons of color.

742
01:25:11.640 --> 01:25:16.640
These were former slaves or the descendants of former slaves who were no longer enslaved.

743
01:25:16.640 --> 01:25:24.640
By the time you get to 1860, there were about a half million of them, and slightly more than half of those lived in the South.

744
01:25:24.640 --> 01:25:33.640
Now, the free persons of color could have gotten that way, by the way, by either just being emancipated by their masters, which did happen.

745
01:25:33.640 --> 01:25:40.640
Some of them might be fugitives, although I don't know if you'd want to be counted by the census if you're in a fugitive.

746
01:25:40.640 --> 01:25:45.640
The government says, I'd like to count you. I think you'd just run away, probably.

747
01:25:45.640 --> 01:25:54.640
But also there were some who managed to buy their freedom because of the certain type of slavery they lived under.

748
01:25:54.640 --> 01:25:57.640
But anyway, the question became, well, what do we do with these people?

749
01:25:57.640 --> 01:26:07.640
And it didn't matter what you believed about slavery, because some slaveholders and some abolitionists agreed that they could not be assimilated into American society.

750
01:26:07.640 --> 01:26:13.640
Now, Garrison wasn't of that opinion. Garrison was reasonably egalitarian on this.

751
01:26:13.640 --> 01:26:21.640
But a lot of people thought, you know, whatever we feel about slavery, whether it's acceptable or whether it's an abomination, does not touch on this question.

752
01:26:21.640 --> 01:26:28.640
They need to be colonized. And so the American Colonization Society decided on Liberia.

753
01:26:28.640 --> 01:26:34.640
After looking around, they decided on this place. They called it Liberia, capital Monrovia after James Monroe.

754
01:26:34.640 --> 01:26:42.640
But after about four and a half decades of this, or four decades, they'd only managed to settle about 11,000 people there.

755
01:26:42.640 --> 01:26:50.640
Now that's a drop in the bucket, obviously, and the reason for that was that they were not going to use coercion.

756
01:26:50.640 --> 01:26:55.640
It was only if people voluntarily wanted to go. And by and large they did want to go.

757
01:26:55.640 --> 01:27:02.640
The freed slaves believed this is our country. At this point I would be as out of place in Africa as anyone else.

758
01:27:02.640 --> 01:27:10.640
And I have no desire certainly to go and start something new over there. So that's basically the story of Liberia.

759
01:27:10.640 --> 01:27:16.640
However, it's worth noting just how many prominent Americans were involved in it.

760
01:27:16.640 --> 01:27:19.640
And in fact, some of them were officers of the organization.

761
01:27:19.640 --> 01:27:30.640
So, Daniel Webster, Francis Scott Key, Roger Tani, I'm trying to think of Henry Clay was involved.

762
01:27:30.640 --> 01:27:37.640
Anyway, a whole bunch of them. I don't want to say something and have it be wrong.

763
01:28:07.640 --> 01:28:27.640
of the Black Population, and he considered at one point setting aside Texas for the slave population, he looked at places from the Amazon to all around the world to resettle them, and he considered a constitutional amendment that would have given the federal government the power to raise money for this purpose.

764
01:28:27.640 --> 01:28:35.640
It is worth noting, by the way, that at the very time the federal government would not put up money for roads and canals because it was unconstitutional.

765
01:28:35.640 --> 01:28:42.640
They did, early on in the history of the American Colonization Society, give a $100,000 grant to that organization.

766
01:28:42.640 --> 01:28:46.640
It tells you a little something about the state of opinion at that time.

767
01:28:46.640 --> 01:28:49.640
Okay, I hope that's at least some kind of answer to your question.

768
01:28:49.640 --> 01:28:51.640
Do we have time for just one more?

769
01:28:51.640 --> 01:28:53.640
Yeah, what about Maryland in relationship to it?

770
01:28:53.640 --> 01:28:55.640
I don't believe Liberia and Maryland went to war.

771
01:28:55.640 --> 01:29:00.640
I think the capital was Buchanan, Nazi society in Liberia when they had their...

772
01:29:00.640 --> 01:29:04.640
I know there were two anti-slave societies and they had both their colonies next to each other.

773
01:29:04.640 --> 01:29:14.640
I never heard that, but that's very interesting. I never heard about that.

774
01:29:14.640 --> 01:29:22.640
Okay, does that bring us to the end, Chad? Okay, Chad is nodding, so we'll talk with each other over lunch, and thank you very much.