Mike Tells The Story Of June 1788 and The First Peaceful Transfer of Power

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – We start off taking you back to the 25th of June. That is, the 25th of June in the year of our Lord 1788. It was on this date that in Richmond, Virginia in a place called ‘The New Academy Of Sciences’,which is now just a solitary bronze plaque tacked onto the wall of the hospital at Virginia Commonwealth University. The plaque proudly states that in this location the debate to ratify the Constitution was held. And this debate was the most thorough discussion of the Constitution, the most thorough exploration of the Constitution and finally it was the most reliable guide to the Constitution.

This particular Virginia ratification debate there was actual debate, not to be confused with two minutes here and two minutes there – in fact, Patrick Henry once debated the ratification of the Constitution for a whole day. The reason why this is important is because without Virginia’s ratification we wouldn’t get New York to ratify – and without the two most populous and productive States then the rest of the Union would be screwed. If you don’t already have your history on lock, then give Mike a listen to find out Virginia’s outcome!

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  I want to take you back here to June the 25th, 25 June.  Mike, 2010?  No, no, no, no.  I’m going to take you back to 25 June, 1788.  Why do you want to go all the way back to 1788, Mr. Church?  Mr. Church, Mr. Church, we’ve got a brand new Tea Party in there, and you just wait and see.  Paul Ryan and Scott Brown are gonna do it.  I’ve been wanting to say that for about two weeks, by the way, now that Paul Ryan and Scott Brown are teaming up as Republicans, one in the House, one in the Senate.  Paul Ryan’s gonna do it, Mr. Church.  You just wait and see.  They’re gonna cut a whole $50 million from the budget today, and today alone.  I know this is a great start here.

Take you back to June of 1788.  In the ratification debate over the Constitution in Virginia, it was held in Richmond, Virginia, in a place called the New Academy of Sciences on Shockoe Hill.  It is known today, if you go there to Richmond, you go looking for it, you wont find it.  There’s a bronze plaque, one solitary bronze plaque that is tacked on the wall of the hospital at the university, VCU, Virginia Commonwealth University.  You’ll find a plaque that on this site in 1788 the debate to ratify the Constitution was held.  Ladies and gentlemen, it was the most thorough discussion of the Constitution.  It was the most thorough exploration of the Constitution.  And it was also the most reliable guide that you would have.  Not the Federalist Paper.  You people have been brainwashed your whole life.  The Virginia Ratification Debate provides you all the information you will ever need.
Now, you can use the Federalist, if you want, but you’ve got to bear in mind, when you’re reading the Federalist, that in the federal convention of 1787, Hamilton and Madison, their scheme was defeated.  They didn’t get their way.  And there’s Hamilton out there writing Federalist Papers for what purpose?  Because he was a politician, and he wanted some power.  What purpose do all men aspire?  Fame.  That’s why I wrote another movie called The Fame of Our Fathers to explain this.  So in the Virginia ratification debate, you had actual debate.  None of this two minutes here and two minutes there.  You had guys that would actually hold four-hour speeches.  On one particular day, Patrick Henry held the floor for an entire day.  Yes, that Patrick Henry.  And he opposed the ratification of the Constitution.

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Here’s the point I want to get to.  At the end of the debates, after the Federalists had basically either lied through their teeth or had misrepresented what was going to happen when the new Congress first convened in 1789, and it was apparent that the Constitution was going to be ratified by Virginia which was the keystone state, not Pennsylvania.  If Virginia doesn’t ratify, New York wont ratify.  And if New York and Virginia don’t ratify, then the other states in the union are ewscrayed.  They can’t continue the union without the two most populous and most productive states.

At the end of the debate, though, after extracting promises from these men called Federalists James Madison, Edmund Monroe, or Edmund Randolph, who else, John Marshall, future chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.  After extracting all these promises, number one, that there would be amendments; and, number two, that no, no, no, no, this federal government will not be able to do any of those things that you guys are worried about, there was a meeting held at a place called the Swan Tavern.  Its in Richmond, Virginia.  There’s still a there’s a mockup of the Swan Tavern there.

And at that meeting the anti-Federalists were all up in arms because they were going to be defeated, and they were terrified that this new federal government that they had just voted to adopt in Virginia was going to be one of tyranny, and it was going to rain holy hell down on their heads.  And so they were marshaling their forces together to begin the opposition for Virginia, to have another convention to basically get out of the deal, go their own way, form their own little republic, and any other states that wanted to join it.  It was at this moment that the tradition that you saw yesterday was started.

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When Patrick Henry entered that room in June of 1788, he would have none of this, none of it.
And the great Patrick Henry said, look, we debated, we remonstrated, we wrote, we editorialized, we pleaded with our constituents, we pleaded with our colleagues.  We lost.  Violent opposition is not the way to go.  We will do the opposite.  We will be peaceful in transferring this power.  But we will be ever vigilant in holding these peoples feet to the proverbial fire, Patrick Henry said.  And they won’t get away with any of these things.  All these things that we fear that they’re going to do, they are going to try.  But were not going to let them get away with it because were going to repeat their words to them.  We’re going to repeat the claims that they made.  We’re going to repeat the promises that they made.  And we’re going to hold them accountable for what it is they said that this federal government could and could not do.

So they transferred power peacefully.  It’s the first time it happened.  That is the hallmark of, one of the hallmarks of the way that we legislate and that we do politics in this country.  And it’s been that that tradition has been handed down ever since.  And you don’t hear very many people talk about that. But that’s really the genesis of it.  So when you have all these prognosticators yesterday, I heard Charles Krauthammer last night on Special Report with Bret Baier, waxing on about how he’s always amazed at the transfer of power, the peaceful transfer of power and what have you.  And its always interesting to me that few people know where that tradition began.  And, look, Washington was in on this.  Madison was writing letters to Washington, telling Washington, oh, man, this Henry guy is gonna lose it, dude.  This Patrick Henry guy is gonna lose it.  If we ratify this thing, hes gonna get upset.  And it of course did not materialize.

And then there was the first transfer of power from Washington to Adams, and then from Adams to Jefferson.  If you’ve seen the movie John Adams, you know that Adams basically left town, would have nothing to do with Jefferson’s inauguration.  He just left town.  So it is an endearing tradition, and its a good one.  Now that we’ve got our history lesson out of the way for the day, or one of our history lessons…

End Mike Church Show Transcript

TheKingDude

Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

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