America is Gone

By Larry Porter

America is Gone is an historical explanation of why the United States is no longer a Democratic Republic. Instead, we have become both a bureaucracy and an oligarchy, no longer being representative by elected officials. From the time of our founding, first in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, then in 1787 with the writing of our Constitution, the nation has been an experiment in self-governing. Human nature has dictated that this new form of governing, giving the power to the people, not the governing body, would be tested again and again. With each test came first, a small nudge away from the basic idea, then, the nudges became pushes then hard shoves, until the system broke.
As the author starts with the historical establishment of each subject, for example, Education, or the Judiciary, the reader observes the progress of the downfall of each area of our lives. Each begins in such small increments, it is hardly noticed. And these incursions into our freedoms, given by our Constitution, have not even commented on, or if they were, no one has become alarmed enough to say STOP throughout our history. The power brokers within our government, both elected and bureaucratic, and most recently corporations, have used fear over and over to attain the positions of power they've wanted.
By 2001, with the 911 attacks, we allowed our government, because of fear, to take away nearly all of the few freedoms we still had when they passed the Patriot Act. The most insidious of the power hungry, who, by the way, made no secret of wanting to transform this country into a modern version of communism, used a new flu-like virus, brought to the world by the one country that is positioning itself to capture the rest of the world, Communist China. It is still not clear whether this was intentional. That is left for history to decide. But those power hungry individual managed to do the unthinkable. Using fear once again, they convinced the entire population to agree to give up all freedoms including their jobs and businesses, their church attendance, their visits with sick and dying elderly relatives, everything of any value, all in the name of saving lives. If people really care, they will dig into the facts and discover the numbers that reveal it has all been fabricated into a world-wide pandemic worse that anything the world has ever seen. Even the 1918 Spanish Flu was made a minor incident by these people, compared to what was happening with the
coronavirus 19. Check the numbers. You will find how false these accusations have been.
America is Gone does not leave the reader in a state of despair. There are solutions if we are willing to follow any of them. Things will, by necessity, change drastically from what we have known. The Untied States, as we have known it is gone. But those who love freedom and want their liberties back do have options at their disposal. But one must be warned. As the Jews learned in Germany in 1938, time is of the essence. We are falling very fast into an abyss that will be impossible to climb from if we do not act now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Larry Porter
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005120955

Larry Porter

Larry Porter has been writing since 1976, when he had his second project, a children’s play, Treehouse, produced in Atlanta, Ga. He has written fourteen full-length plays. Another, The Gospel According to Jesus, was produced in Asheville, NC. He has written numerous short stories, eight novels including Chance Mountain, Ivan the Backward Man, True Globalization, The Carousel, The Blue Barrel, The Visitor, and After America: Rebuilding. He has a memoir, Self-Storage Business and a collection of short stories titled Heaven? dealing with the afterlife. He has written four screenplays. His latest project is writing history in verse. A compilation of four epic poems titled History in Verse includes The Experiment, a history of the US, The Reconstruction of a Nation, a history of the Civil War, The Quest for the West, a history of the settling of the US west, and The Sixties, a history of the decade of the 1960s in the US. Look for a new series of totalitarians of the twentieth century coning soon. He lives in the North Carolina Mountains where he continues to write.

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AMERICA IS GONE

By Larry Porter

Copyright 2021 Larry Porter

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1 INTERPRETATIONS AND ACTIONS UP TO THE CIVIL WAR

CHAPTER 2 THE WAR PRESIDENTS

CHAPTER 3 JUSTICE AND THE JUDICIARY

CHAPTER 4 BUILDING THE BUREAUCRACIES

CHAPTER 5 TAXES AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE

CHAPTER 6 EDUCATION

CHAPTER 7 MEDIA

CHAPTER 8 TRANSFORMATION

CHAPTER 9 DIVISION

CHAPTER 10 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 11 SOLUTIONS

PROLOGUE

It’s said that we begin dying the minute we are born. That’s true of nations as well. History has shown over and over that when governments get established, especially after revolutions or coups, the people settle in and begin giving them more and more power as they become relaxed and lazy. They demand from their government’s security. For that they give the governments their freedom. And for this, the government taxes them into poverty under the guise of the need for money to provide the security they are demanding. The United States has moved into the final phases of that cycle. We have given most of our freedoms up as we have become fat and lazy. It began a short seventy-four years after the nation was born. With each tragedy and major event, the country passed more freedoms into the ether. Today, the politicians continue to talk about this or that being protected by our Constitution. But they all know there is no longer a working Constitution in this country. All the freedoms they speak of are an empty joke.

The final straw came with a virus that swept the nation and the world. It has been little different than the major flues we’ve gotten every two or three years. But this time, the politicians saw an opportunity to push the final phase for power into an unbelievable grab of it. They shut the entire country down in the false premise that the coronavirus could be quelled. Bent, swamp infested officials were seen everyday on TVs stating the only way we can save millions of lives is for everyone to shake with fear inside their houses. Don’t go to work, or to school, or to any kind of group activities, including to church, they shouted, or you will all die. And the bent mass media echoed those sentiments over and over and over again making sure the people were scared to death. The obedient population followed as Democrat governors and Democrat mayors completely shut down their cities and states dictating that everyone stay indoors. You may go out, they declared, to shop for necessities, or to, what they determined to be, get essential items. No, you may not go to your workplace, unless your job is essential. Then they proceeded to tell each of their citizens what jobs were essential and what jobs weren’t. Each of these lists was an arbitrary guess by the officials guiding each of these leaders. It became a joke the people didn’t see. They had already been primed by past events to obey unquestioningly. With most of the population no longer working, the economy collapsed. No surprise there.

Then another event took place that was also no surprise. The federal government, as they have been doing since the Great Depression, threw scratches of money at the population to keep them settled down and quiet. It was scratches in comparison to what they would have made if they were allowed to work, but with a population of over three hundred-fifty million people, it was a huge cost toward enlarging our debt. A government twenty-three trillion dollars in debt, printed another three trillion to pass out to disgruntled American citizens. Through it all, the government has been given an extremely important piece of information. They now know that fear can be used to make this population do anything the federal government wishes them to do. They weren’t sure about that before this pandemic, but they certainly are today.

Donald Trump was impeached for the second time. Never heard of. He was acquitted, as expected. But the process, which was a total sham by any sane person’s intelligence. It was not just political on the Democrat side, it showed the real nature of our political environment today. The one article the House impeached him on was insurrection for inciting a protesting crowd to rush the Capitol building while the congress was debating the electoral count from the November election. Trump actually told the crowd to march peacefully as the patriots you are, to the Capitol and let them know you will not be silenced. You have rights in the country. That is not a pure quote, but it was the message he was relaying. Just as the politicians had been interpreting the COVID, they decided to tell the people what he was really saying. They’ve been doing this for the past four years with impunity. Seven Republicans voted along with the Democrats for conviction. It leaves no doubt where they stand for this country. They all know this is aiding and abetting the fall. This is what they want. Then comes Mitch McConnell, the now minority leader of the Senate. President Trump is still liable for everything he did while in office, he said. He didn't get away with anything yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. Yes, he voted to acquit. But his statement leaves unsaid what he was really saying. You no longer have freedom of speech. Anything you say makes you liable to be prosecuted. We, the government, are now telling you what is acceptable and what is a crime. If anyone doubts this, you best find another place to live. You will never survive what is coming.

This is the third impeachment trial in forty-five years. There was one impeachment of Andrew Johnson, in the first seventy years, in 1868. That was the beginning of using impeachment to remove presidents the Congress does not like or whose policies they disagree with. Johnson was impeached on a trumped-up charge using an unconstitutional law passed to usurp the executive branch powers. The Senate was one vote short of the two-thirds needed to remove him and the Tenure of Office law was repealed within twenty years. But Congress showed that it was not afraid to use anything to remove an unpopular president. The Founders debated vehemently for and against impeachment, itself. Many feared it could be used exactly the way it has been used. Fortunately, impeachment lay at rest for one hundred-six years before it was used again to remove a president the Congress didn’t like.

Congress did not have to go on to a conclusive impeachment with Richard Nixon, in 1974. He resigned after evidence was forced, through subpoena powers from the Supreme Court, that he did lie to investigators. And since the process was bipartisan, he knew the trial in the Senate would most likely prove him guilty and remove him from office. So, the impeachment became moot. This was a truly bipartisan movement. Most Congressmen from both parties agreed he committed high crimes when he committed, then covered up, a felony.

Bill Clinton, on the other hand, had committed a crime when he lied to investigators about sexual activity within the White House. Then, as history and current actions by women who accused him of sexual abuse and rape became apparent, the Republicans pushed on with fervor. It became evident as the case progressed, that this was payback for the Nixon trial. Twenty-four years after Nixon, impeachment was again being used for political reasons, to condemn a president the opposing party disliked.

And so, twenty-one years after that trial, another started. It was purely partisan, political, and insidious when considering the Democrats knew Trump would not be removed. They had their own agenda, of course, but the country has become divided like never before since the Civil War. Sadly, this seems to be the desired method of removing or, with this case, the House majority being the opposite party of the Senate majority, embarrassing the president so that he may not be able to get re-elected. This is the culmination of this country’s move away from the Constitution. How did this happen? There is little doubt, if we do not turn into a one-party socialistic Marxist country after this election, Joe Biden, will also be impeached if Republicans ever gain a majority in Congress again. That is in real doubt right now. In this case, the proof is already in evidence that Biden really has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. If he is, in fact, impeached and removed, he will be the first to have deserved that and much more. So far, however, no Democrat has paid any price for crimes committed. We shall see. Let us gather the historical facts.

CHAPTER 1

INTERPRETATIONS AND ACTIONS UP TO THE CIVIL WAR

THE FRAMERS SERVE

The United States of America, the country formed in 1787, is no longer. It hasn’t been for more than one century, maybe two. The experiment didn’t work for long. But the question is, Can any country remain what it started to be for long? On paper, this seemed like the perfect answer to how to form a sustainable country. The Founding Fathers, Madison, et. al. put together what should have been a government that would be around for awhile. But in less than one hundred years, it failed.

When most people read that last sentence, they will say, What? What are you talking about? We’re still here after two hundred thirty plus years. Some will understand and smile, smile with hurt. But the truth is, today, after two hundred years, we have moved so far from what is written in the United States Constitution, the Founders wouldn’t recognize our government. It certainly is not what they wrote and thought they were forming.

The wisdom put forth in the 1787 work was genius. People around the world said so. And many tried to copy it. For the first time in history, the people were put in charge. The head of the government and all the people associated with it designated to operate, administrate and judicate it, would have to answer to the people. Even within that document were placed safeguards to protect the true power put on the people’s shoulders. The Founders also put in its methods to keep those people delegated, from usurping the people’s power. But nearly every person working to adopt and institute the Constitution, warned that it would be difficult to retain. And it may become necessary to use undue force from time to time, just to keep it. They understood human nature. They understood that certain men will, in every generation, try to gain more power in any way.

This happened very quickly. Within the very first term of the second president, John Adams, the Founder whose Massachusetts Constitution was the model used to write the United States Constitution, the legislature wrote a law negating the first amendment. The Seditions Act, passed in 1798, and signed into law by John Adams, criminalized making false statements against the federal government. He knew the whole purpose of the First Amendment’s free speech inclusion was to allow citizens to criticize their government without fear of being jailed for it. Of course, using the term false statement, was a politician’s way of making the law sound to the people, harmless, unless you were the one making false statements. But politicians know such an ambiguous term could be interpreted by any lawyer to determine your statement as false. Thus, you’d better think twice before you say anything against the government, true or false. The country was still in its infancy, so sounder minds, in 1801, allowed the act to expire on its own.

The first five presidents were all original Framers who had heavy hands in the formation of America. Washington, the first president, led a ragtag army of farmers, journeymen, common people doing common things to keep the commerce growing and mouths fed. He fought with this army for eight years after the Declaration of Independence was written against the most powerful army in the world at the time. And he won! He was also present to overlook the writing of the Constitution. He was so highly thought of, he was voted as the first president. But in so doing, even after the Constitution was written, many were not sure what kind of leadership he would select. But at the time, everyone trusted his honesty and integrity to do the right thing.

The second president was John Adams. He was vice-president to Washington. At the time, the second highest vote-getter became VP.

The third president, again vice-president to Adams, was Thomas Jefferson. He was the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence and attended the Second Continental Congress which created the Continental Army to fight the British. Under George Washington he served as one of four cabinet members, Secretary of State. He tied with Arron Burr, his running mate. The election went to the House of Representatives, following the Constitution in the case of no majority candidate gaining a majority of electors. As per the Constitution, the electors were then chosen, one from each state. The candidate gaining the most electors was Jefferson who was named president. The next highest vote getter among the electors was Aaron Burr who became Jefferson’s vice-president.

The fourth president and Framer was James Madison. He was called the Father of the Constitution and co-wrote the Federalist Papers, a compilation of essays explaining in detail, what the Framers meant by the words within the Constitution and why they were included. He also served as the fifth Secretary of State, serving under Jefferson.

The fifth president, James Monroe, served under Washington as a soldier, fighting in the Revolutionary War. As a delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress, he opposed the first draft of the Constitution, refusing to ratify. It had no Bill of Rights. Only after Madison reversed himself as everyone agreed a Bill of Rights would be established by the First Congress did the Virginia delegation sign on to the new Constitution.

All five of these men, and especially Washington, were walking lightly through their presidencies. This was new territory for any head of state. Never before had a country existed that gave the power to the people, making the office holder a subject of the people rather than the other way around. Each had to poke at duties and actions to see how they held up under this new Constitution.

Under Washington’s watch, his biggest battle was trying to keep Hamilton, his Treasury Secretary and Jefferson, his Secretary of State separated. They belonged to opposing parties and saw every move Washington take as points to argue about. By the start of his second term all his cabinet, including Hamilton and Jefferson, had departed. The second activity he struggled with was working foreign policy with France and Great Britain. It was during this squabble that he encountered his first constitutional test. He produced the Jay Treaty called the The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, with Great Britain. When signed, as per the Constitution, he forwarded it to the Senate to be ratified. On June 4, 1795, it was signed. Now began the fight. On March 2, 1796, Edward Livingston, of New York City, roused enough interest in the House to write a resolution requesting Washington to turn over all papers involved in the forming and executing the treaty. Several of the Framers offered opinions and advice at this time. Madison talked with Jefferson and Washington sent Oliver Wolcott, Jr, auditor of the US Treasury, to talk with Hamilton about it. Afterall, the Senate did ratify it. But now he needed the House to appropriate the funds. Paperwork and resolutions went back and forth twenty-eight days until the House finally approved the money and the Treaty officially went into effect.

Washington sent the militia into Pennsylvania, in 1794, to put down a rebellion by farmers protesting the Whiskey Tax. The Constitution gave the Legislative Branch the right to call the militia. However, the Militia Act of 1792 empowered the president to call the state militias at his discretion. So, he tried the act for the first time and had no blowback from it. This set precedent for the presidents thereafter to call on militia, or National Guards when they felt the need.

Mr. Adams, the second president, signed an act that he knew was unconstitutional. He had a ringside seat as Washington’s VP, to watch how the first executive handled this new concept of a government owned by the people. And since the very Constitution they worked under was fashioned by Adams own work in his home state of Massachusetts. What he did was not something he did unwittingly, pretending he wasn’t aware signing the Aliens and Seditions Acts was completely unconstitutional. So, the question becomes why.

The Framers, including Adams, were aware of the frailties of human beings. Every word they entered into the document was well thought out toward preventing such frailties from toppling it. The Revolutionary War had ended a scant fifteen years before its signing in 1798. European nations seemed bent on fighting constantly. The French consul stated that here, in the US, there were more than twenty-five thousand French emigres, booksellers, restaurants, newspapers. They acted as they did in France, spouting obscenities here against the US government. The elected officials would probably have signed on if Adams had asked for a declaration of war against France for such behavior. The population, along with most of Congress felt we were already at war with them. But Adams thought a war for such a young, unformed country could be the end. And perhaps he realized this was not his father’s country. This country did not rise up at every dissident. This country’s citizens were free to speak their mind. Or perhaps it was simply that he thought throwing the individuals in jail was a way to prevent war. Since he did not aske for war, the Federalists in Congress took a different route. They wrote acts in the hope they would prevent a rebellion from within.

Not only the French, but the Irish and people from other European countries were coming to this new country to get away from all the revolutions and turmoil and the freedoms they were losing if they ever really had them in Europe. The Naturalization Act, part of the Aliens Acts, increased the period an immigrant must live in the country before they could become a citizen, from five years to fourteen. The Alien Act gave the president the right to expel any foreigner he considered dangerous. Jefferson, the VP, said this was something straight from the ninth century. Others on the Republican side thought there would be boat loads being sent back to Europe. Secretary of State Pickering wanted massive deportations. But Adams, to his credit, never invoked that law.

The Seditions Act, however, was the most insidious. It allowed for fines and imprisonments of anyone who made false, malicious, or scandalous remarks toward the government, Congress, or the president. Though it was clearly a violation of the First Amendment of free speech, the Federalists insisted it must be enacted as this is a war measure. Yet there was nothing in the Constitution until 1973 about extreme war measures. Beside that, the Constitution does not define war. What was the true purpose was purely political. The Federalists were trying to stifle the Republican press, most of which had Republican editors. This was the only controversy Adams had during his term. But it was most likely the signing of these acts that caused him to lose to Jefferson in the next election.

Jefferson became the third president. He was Secretary of State under Washington, vice-president under Adams, a minister to France, primary writer of the Declaration, and Governor of Virginia. As a states rights politician, along with James Madison, they wrote the Kentucky-Virginia Resolution which was meant to stop the Aliens and Sedition Acts by giving states the right over such laws. It never made it through Congress.

Two events in his tenure had constitutional implications. The first involved an action taken by the lame duck Congress of 1800. The Courts had been packed by Washington, then Adams, both Federalists, with Federalist judges. On the eve of his inauguration, the Congress reduced the Supreme Court from six to five justices. Then they passed the Midnight Judiciary Act of 1801, called such as it was a last-minute attempt to pack the circuit courts. When Jefferson took office, he named Madison his Secretary of State. As such, Madison went to work to try to undue the Judiciary Act. This caused one of the most important events in the history of the country. Federalist, William Marbury, was named Justice of the Peace of the District of Columbia. Madison refused to process the selection. Marbury sued. It fell to Chief Justice, John Marshall, to rule. He declared that the Supreme Court did not have the authority to force Madison to make the appointment official. In ruling this way, in the Marbury v. Madison case, Marshall established the three branches, each with its own power. This ruling made part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional because the judiciary did not have the power granted within the framework of the Constitution.

The second act Jefferson performed was buying the Louisiana Territory from France. He more than doubled the United States, carrying it to the Mississippi River, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, for fifteen million dollars. No one was sure if this was constitutional or not. The previous two presidents had not bought any territory. The Constitution remained silent on this action by a president. No one challenged it so it set precedent.

Madison, the fourth president, spent most of the time through his first term, trying to hold back war with Great Britain. There had been struggles since 1801 with Britain and France. By the time Madison took the reins, it had bubbled over. As the conflicts between the two nations grew fierce on the seas, the British navy was involved in impressment of US ships. By 1809, their ships sat just offshore of the United States, in plain view of Americans. When US naval ships impressed British sailors, they allowed them to become naturalized citizens. Meanwhile, the British supported the Indians in the Northwest Territory of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. This, of course, had become part of America, with the Louisiana Territory purchase.

Add to this the weakening of the Democratic Republican Party, its power base mostly in the South. The Federalists, in the Northeast, wanted stronger ties with the English and a stronger central government. There were stirrings that people in the Northeast were ready to succumb and join the British, bringing the Northeast into Canada. On June 18, Madison signed the approved declaration of war the Congress sent to him. After Washington DC was burned down, and fierce fighting in the Northwest Territory and along the Canadian border, as well as naval battles in the Great Lakes, a peace treaty of sorts was signed. The Treaty of Ghent, singed in December, 1814, ended the physical fighting but never declared a winner. It did afford Madison time to look after other affairs. He signed a bill to once again establish a national bank. This was entirely constitutional. He never challenged the Constitution.

Number five was the last Founder to be elected president. James Monroe marched with Washington from Valley Forge to Trenton and continued in the War for a time after that. He was Governor of Virginia in 1799 and was delegate to the Continental Convention. He served as Ambassador to France and as a senator from Virginia. Then, before he was elected to the Presidency, he served as Secretary of State under Madison.

During his two terms, he had few confrontations. He did not encounter any actions during this time that challenged the Constitution. However, because of his veto of the Cumberland Road Bill, the Constitution began a long journey toward the problems the country has today. Monroe never believed that the Constitution spoke to the Federal government becoming involved in states rights, including spending money within states for their benefit. He continually requested the Congress to write an amendment specifically addressing this issue, though. The population was growing and the country was expanding. Many Americans were requesting (some demanding) that the Federal government make improvements and add infrastructure, like roads, to the country. Finally, in 1822, Congress passed the Cumberland Road Bill which turned the Cumberland Road into a toll road and allowed the government to spend those tolls on improvements and other transportation means. When Monroe vetoed it, Congress sent it to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that the Commerce Clause, Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution gave the Feds the right to go forward with that bill.

When the Federalist Papers, No. 11, by Hamilton, and Nos. 42 and 45, by Madison, explained what the Commerce Clause meant and its importance in the Constitution. It has one sentence regarding commerce: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. Hamilton wanted a national navy, so his thrust was strictly about the foreign nations. He talked about the need for a strong navy to administer that commerce. Madison was very clear in explaining how he felt about the states, dealing with each other must be guarded from cheating each other with unlawful tariffs. He made a point of his belief that states should be left alone, without Federal interference, when dealing in goods, manufactured, grown, and such, with each other. He felt they would become stronger on their own. But they hardly got that chance.

The Supreme Court opened the first door for politicians, being what they are, to walk through with all sorts of mischief. Monroe’s name has forever been associated with a doctrine he, with his Secretary of State and future president, John Quincy Adams developed. It eventually became known as the Monroe Doctrine, but only became known as such in 1850. Monroe was attempting to prevent the Western Hemisphere from becoming a copy of the ever-fighting countries of Europe. He stated that colonialism would no longer be tolerated in the Western Hemisphere. What countries existed would not be captured as new colonies by past colonialists from the Eastern Hemisphere. For such a new, barely tested country, it was a bold doctrine to put forth to the world. It had its dissenters, but never was challenged by Congress or the Judicial branch.

AFTER THE FOUNDERS

John Quincy Adams, John Adams’ son, followed his stint as Secretary of State for Monroe with being elected the seventh president of the United States. He was the first that was not a Founding Father or Framer of the Constitution.

The Twelfth Amendment was ratified in 1804 establishing the method by which a president would be elected if no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. Those who have complained through the years about a president gaining office through electoral votes but not receiving a majority in the popular votes have not looked closely at their history nor understand the reasoning behind it. We ARE NOT a democracy! In the 1824 election, four candidates ran for the presidency, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Crawford. Jackson received the plurality of electoral votes, 99. Adams got 84. But the majority needed was 131. To add to the insult, Jackson also received one hundred fifty-one thousand popular votes to Adams’ one hundred thirteen thousand. Without a majority of electoral votes, the Twelfth Amendment directed the results to be forwarded to the House where a contingent vote had to be made by the state legislators, each state getting one vote. With 24 states an absolute majority would be 13. Adams got 13 votes and became president. In this election neither the candidate with the highest popular vote nor the highest electoral vote, both held by Jackson, won the office. Jackson went quietly, abiding by the Constitution, not offering Adams to a duel as was the norm in that day. But he did become a candidate for president in 1825, readying for a strong run in 1828.

In today’s world we are wondering if this scenario abounds, will we have a peaceful transition. From what we have seen of the shredding of the Constitution and the cowering (so far) of the Supreme Court, will we ever have another peaceful election?

Adams as president, tried to put into force his American System which would send much federal money into the states, an attempt to strengthen the Federal government and put it directly into the citizens’ lives. Nearly every proposal he put forth was voted down by a States Rights Congress. With little support outside the North, Adams was ineffective, which means he did not have any Supreme Court cases changing the Constitution nor did he enforce anything that tilted the Constitution away from its basic intentions. Considering the Founders’ purposes, perhaps he was the most effective president we’ve had by simply being unable to push more federal mandates onto the citizenry. That has certainly changed in the minds of the population going forward.

From George Washington through Adams Two’s term, except for the horrendous mistake Adams One made, which got corrected shortly into Jefferson’s first term, the Constitution stayed intact, for the most part. The word commerce got twisted into something the Founders did not mean it to be. And that would become costly as the country grew. Branches were each testing their power and dividing their territories by actions they each committed to, to see how much pushback they got. But overall, we were still in good shape.

This election of 1828 followed the same two candidates from the 1824 election which had resulted in testing the Twelfth Amendment and placing in office the candidate with the second highest electoral and popular votes. This may have caused the contention that was in the campaigns of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson in this election. It has been said that this opened the way for what has become modern day campaigning. Both candidates focused on the other’s character rather than policies. And both received favors from particular newspapers, allowing the other to claim foul. In fact, the number of newspapers in the country nearly doubled from 1824 to 1828. Partisan papers wrote slanted pieces for each candidate, with each saying the country would be in deep trouble if the other was elected. Sound familiar? But Jackson won with nearly all the electoral votes outside of New England.

Jackson brought a new dimension to the office. In his inaugural speech, he recommended term limits for presidents and proposed the spoils system stop. But, in fact, he only reduced the ten thousand strong civil service system in his eight years, by about nine percent. It’s interesting to note that by that time in our country’s history, the civil servant population was about .008 percent of the population. In 2019, it remained about .008 percent.

Jackson, a Southerner, entered office under the Tariff Act of 1828 signed by Adams in his last days. It was considered a blow to Southerners because it aided northern industry and punished southern cotton exports. John Calhoun, Jackson’s vice-president at the time, strongly opposed it but Jackson remained silent on the issue. Calhoun, from South Carolina, urged the South Carolina state house to vote on a nullification ordinance. Jackson was instrumental in leading the federal House to draw up a compromise which averted secession by South Carolina, thus a civil war.

The second crisis was brought on by Jackson himself. In the Supreme Court case of Worcester v. Georgia, Samuel Austin Worcester, a missionary on the Cherokee Territory, was living on Territory ground. To maintain Indian sovereignty on their grounds, Georgia passed a law that said no white man can live there. In a twist of fate, they were trying to keep the white settlers, moving farther and farther west, to stay off Indian land. The case was forced up to the Supreme Court. John Marshall’s court ruled that, based on the inherited rights passed on from Great Britain to the federal government, they, and not the states had all rights over Indian sovereign nations.

With pressure and violence coming from settlers advancing West, the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830. Jackson agreed that Indians needed to be moved past the Mississippi River. After Marshall’s ruling, Jackson stated, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it. Georgia, in attempting to save the Cherokee Nation in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and with Marshall’s ruling that states did not have the power of keeping whites off the land, Jackson was able to move all the Indians, Cherokee, Muscogee, Choctaw and Chickasaw from their lands and move them west to Oklahoma. This became the Trail of Tears.

Jackson’s action was a definitive move in establishing, again in this young nation, which Branches had what powers. The Supreme Court was assured it could rule on what was and what was not constitutional. But it had to rely on one of the other Branches to enforce its rulings. Otherwise, they would lay in limbo until a new ruling was made and enforced on each precedent.

In 1833, Marshall’s Court made another groundbreaking decision. In the Barron v. Baltimore case, a private citizen sued for just compensation, as struck in the Fifth Amendment, for the government taking private property. The Marshall Court set a precedent that would have consequences right through our present day. He stated that, basically, the constitutional limits do not apply to states. It meant the Bill of Rights did not restrict states. So, if a local government took property from private citizens, no matter what compensation they received, they shall not bother to sue for just compensation all the way to the Supreme Court. It would be halted at the state’s highest court.

ANOTHER WAR ANOTHER STATE

John L. O’Sullivan was a columnist who was an advocate for Jackson’s democracy. He used a term in an article to describe a concept of what was happening in this new country. Many understood what he meant. Some agreed, some did not, of this seemingly unstoppable thrust. In his article, he advised the United States to annex the Republic of Texas because it represented Manifest Destiny meaning we had a Divine destiny to take in territory because of the values we represented. The Whigs opposed this drive for more land. But the Democrats, urged on by Jackson and directed by the acting president, John Tyler, annexed Texas in 1845.

Tyler broke new ground on a couple fronts regarding the Constitution. William Harrison, the ninth president, did not last long enough to warm the President’s chair. He died one month after taking office. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 states: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President… This seems clear enough. However, politicians being what they are, Tyler’s enemies from the opposite party decided to fight what the real meaning was. At that time, remember, the VP was usually from the president’s opposing party having garnered the second most votes in the election. Harrison’s Cabinet refused to call him President. The said he was still Vice President or acting president only doing the duties of the President. He insisted that the Constitution meant he was to become the President, so he had Judge William Cranch swear him in, once again taking the oath, as president of the US.

Tyler also strengthened the Executive Branch by vetoing bills coming from Congress on his opposition to their merits as law. Other then Andrew Jackson, this was unheard of. Until this time, Congress had felt when they sent a bill up, it was law and the President only needed to sign it as a routine executive duty. His actions were making such staunch enemies of the opposition, they began the sorry action that has evolved now into shameful, of impeachment by the opposition. They never really voted on it, but they did have the numbers in the House and they certainly had the movement pushed by such names as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. Tyler, like the rest who have come close or been impeached, was being considered for removal from office because his opponents disliked him that much. It’s remarkable how politicians can conjure up high crimes and misdemeanors so easily because of hate. The Founders knew from whence they wrote about the nature of politicians.

The last thing Tyler did was to hand James Polk, the next president, the war with Mexico. Three days before leaving office, he finally signed the bill to annex Texas as a state, much to the fury of Mexico.

Polk ran on a platform to broaden US territory in the Northwest and California. With a stand against Great Britain to take over the Oregon Territory, the two countries fussed with each other but finally settled the actual territory with the Oregon treaty, thus averting yet another war with Great Britain. Meanwhile he was pressed to solve the Texas annexation problem.

By July of his first year in office, he sent General Zachary Taylor into Texas and Commodore David Conner, with naval ships to sit off the Mexican coast. Then, later in that year he sent sent an emissary, John Slidell, to try to purchase California and New Mexico. The Mexican president refused to see him. He sent troops across the Rio Grande, to take back Texas. To no one’s surprise, this brought on the Mexican-American War. The second major war in the short history of the country. Constitutionally, Congress, geared for war, approved. It was not only an act to gain more territory for the US in our Manifest Destiny mode, but as it seemed to become commonplace, it allowed the military to exercise their new toys and give their officers a chance to learn war tactics on a real playing field. Many of the futures generals on both the North and South sides in the coming Civil War, as well as future presidents, made a name for themselves in this war. We also gained our 28th state. Before Polk left office, in 1849, he established the fifth Cabinet, the Department of the Interior. The Bureaucracy began growing.

As these lands came into the fold as territories, then raised to state status, the elephant in the mix was always whether they would be free states or slavery states. Through the years leading up to the Civil War, Congress wrestled with each new state admitted to the Union. The Missouri Compromise had been signed by Monroe in 1820 as Maine and Missouri were both admitted as states. The fight was starting as Southerners wanted a slave state if Maine, the northernmost state, would be free. A compromise was established making Missouri a slave state and stating that any state admitted thereafter, except Missouri, above the 36-degree 30-minute parallel line would be free and states below that line would be slave states.

The Compromise of 1850 once again tried to quiet all objections about slave and free states. Whig Clay and Democrat Douglas worked up a package of five bills addressing existing battlegrounds between the parties and geography. It also included the Fugitive Slave Act. Every law enforcement official in the US was required to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway slave. The proof only need be the word of the claimant. And anyone accused of aiding that fugitive was liable to a one thousand dollar fine and six months in jail. There were additional harsh penalties regarding such incidents. They were all completely unconstitutional. Also, Washington DC inhabitants were prohibited from trading slaves but were allowed ownership of them. One wonders, if they could not trade, how they acquired or disposed of them. This bill alone enraged abolitionists so much it brought about the Underground Railroad, a system of people opposing slavery, bringing slaves from the South through dangerous territory, safe house to safe house, to the North and therein, hiding them from enemy eyes. The Compromise bills did little to assuage positions on either side.

When Nebraska Territory was being made into a state, in 1854, Southern senators objected because it was north of the 36-30 line. Stephen Douglas proposed that the territory be divided into two states, Nebraska and Kansas, with each of their populations being allowed to determine where they stood on the question. But that required the Missouri Compromise be abolished. He assumed the more southern state would select slavery while the more northern one would vote Free State.

As the North and South continued to wrangle politically over slavery, new parties began forming out of the differences. The Free Soil and Know-Nothing Parties became prominent briefly. Kansas was the southern territory of the two but the citizens there were split. Some wanted to be free while others wanted slavery. The territory bordered Missouri which had been a slave state since 1821. Violence broke out within Kansas and became known as Bleeding Kansas. Missourians joined in the fight with the slavers and as a harbinger of things to come, a mini civil war was fought in Kansas.

The Free Soilers operated as a government out of Topeka. The slavers were settled in Lecompton. In Topeka, the government created the Topeka Constitution. President Franklin Pierce, who saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to the nation, refused to recognize the Topeka Constitution. He claimed it to be an act of insurrection. Congress went along and rejected ratification. From Lecompton, in 1857, came the Lecompton Constitution. It was presented to the Kansas citizenry for a vote, but the Free Staters refused to even turn out for a vote knowing the Constitution would still allow slave holders to keep their slaves. But James Buchanan, the new president, endorsed it. When it passed by a huge margin, Congress ordered another election, stating irregularities in the voting. Sound familiar? If we don’t like the results, let us try again. So, they did. In 1858, a new vote was rejected 11,812 to 1926. While this constitution was pending, two more were presented. Both languished in the dead file as the citizens awaited statehood until 1861.

In 1857, the Taney Court ruled on the now famous Dred Scott v. Sanford case. Dred Scott was a slave taken by his owners from Missouri, a slave state, to the Illinois Territory, then to Wisconsin Territory, which were both free territories. He claimed to be free but was taken back to Missouri State, along with his new wife, by his owners. The case went through the courts finally ending in the Supreme Court, with Taney, himself, writing the opinion of the Court, that black people are not included and were not intended to be included in the word citizen in the United States Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. This ruling stood until the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865 and the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, became the law of the land and blacks were made citizens. Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 with a country badly divided and in disarray with many parties and no definitive direction.

THE WAR YEARS

From 1789 to 1861, for the most part the Constitution held the intentions of the Founders together. There were instances, as we have seen, where actions moved away from those intentions. But they were mostly politicians pushing into unspecified territory to see what a phrase meant or to test if it meant what