Abel Upshur – Constitution And Democracy Are Our Problems

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – “The intriguing thing about reading Abel Upshur, or Judge Upshur, as he should be called, is that Upshur proceeds from the point of view that the fatal flaw in our American system — and he predicts all the events of the 1860s and everything atrocious that has happened afterwards — was brought about by what most of you think is the saving grace of the American system, which is the U.S. Constitution.” Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  I had shared with you an essay that was written in 1840 by Abel Upshur.  Many of you had requested that the Upshur segment from the program last week be a transcript, and it is.  We’ll post it this morning.  I’ve also located the two other pamphlets that Upshur wrote.  The intriguing thing about reading Abel Upshur, or Judge Upshur, as he should be called, is that Upshur proceeds from the point of view that the fatal flaw in our American system — and he predicts all the events of the 1860s…

Read more of Mike’s research and commentary into Judge Abel Upshur here

and everything atrocious that has happened afterwards — was brought about by what most of you think is the saving grace of the American system, which is the U.S. Constitution.

To read Upshur’s take on this and the way he reasons through why he thinks that and what he thinks ought to be done to correct it is to, I think — number one, as you’re reading it, some of you might get angry.  [mocking] “That’s not true!  It’s a sacred, hallowed document.  You need to stop promoting that stuff!”  Others of you may say: I never thought of it like that.  Maybe that’s why we keep beating our heads against the walls, because these solutions that we are proposing or trying to execute are all constitutional.  If the Constitution is the flaw, then we’re thinking about fixing the problems that we collectively experience together in a manner that is going to deliver more of the same.  Perhaps this explains the continual progression of the enlargement of the size of the State and the centralization, or as Upshur and men of the 18^th and 19^th century would have called it, the consolidation of the government.

As we have talked about on numerous, hundreds of occasions on this program, it is centralization or consolidation that is at the root of most of the problems that you and I complain about.  If things weren’t centralized or consolidated, then they would be left up to the individual smaller bodies of the body politic to be able to work out.  As it is, we are prevented from working them out.  I want to give you the latest example.  Eric, did you see the story where the federal appeals court basically told the State of Kansas that its rules to guarantee the sanctity of their own elections are now fair, so they threw out the requirement that to register to vote you have to be able to prove who you are?

Eric:  I did not see that one, no.

Mike:  Well, they threw Arizona in on this.  The attorney general for Kansas, God bless him, says: This is a sovereign state, Court.  Let me tell you something, Court.  This is a sovereign state.  The sovereign states of Kansas and Oklahoma have the right, no, they have the duty to ensure that those that are voting in their sovereign elections are actual citizens and are actually able or should be participating in the process.  We’re not going to let you tell us otherwise.  So the case has been appealed.  The fact we have an attorney general of a state in the American Union that actually has resurrected the term sovereign and used it in a sentence properly, I am impressed.  This is one of the most fundamental assaults upon the remaining shreds of federalism that we have, and that is this idea that universal suffrage is a good idea.

You know what universal suffrage is called in other parts of the world?  It’s called democracy.  Universal suffrage is everyone has to vote.  Everyone must participate in the process.  Only when we have everyone participating in the process is it a good process.  So if 50 percent of the people plus one in a democracy vote to expropriate the property of the 49.999 percent of the people because majority wins and majority rules, you guys are in the losing end.  Sorry to see you lose your house but lucky for us.  So those that are on the majority side in a democracy will always be able to terrorize or tyrannize the minority.

This is why there is caution after caution after caution that is raised in the founding generation, during the Declaration of Independence, during the writing and ratifying of the Articles of Confederation, during the debate in Philadelphia over the Constitution, during the debate to ratify the Constitution, that an excess of democracy is a bad thing. [/private]

As a matter of fact, Gouverneur Morris, one of the most outspoken delegates at the Federal Convention of 1787 actually warned that if the United States, if the newly-independent and free American colonies adopted democracy as a plan of government, they would fall into the exact same despotism that the democracies of Europe had fallen into and many of their ancestors had escaped.  It’s just fascinating to read this stuff and to consider it.

What is it that the general government then, and all the president’s men and Eric Holder and all the rest of them, what is it that they’re trying to do, folks?  This is not even thinly veiled.  What is it that they’re trying to do?  They’re trying to see to it that there is a tyranny of the majority, that we are no longer representative and republican, but we are instead majoritarian and democratic.  You know what happens after democracy, don’t you?  Tyranny, despotism, destruction and confiscation of property.  This is not me speaking.  I’m quoting to you the history of the planet.

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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