Supreme Court Justice Breyer: Founders Were For Restricting Guns… Why Breyer is Wrong
December 14, 2010 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Alexander Hamilton, Anti-Americanism, Ben Franklin, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Founders, Government, Government, Corruption, Guns, James Madison, Liberals, Regulation, Sam Adams, Supreme Court, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Fox News Sunday, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke of his dissenting decisions in the several Second Amendment cases that he heard as a Justice. He told host Chris Wallace that he thought that James Madison only included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights as a sop to the states and Breyer insisted that historians agreed. In essence, Breyer was saying that Madison was not interested in an individual’s right to gun ownership and self-protection and for that reason his dissenting opinions against that individual right accorded well with what the founder’s thought on the issue.
But Breyer’s assumption that a citizen’s right to bear arms is not sacrosanct and his following contention that the founders would agree seems to ignore much of the history of the era not to mention the precedents in law and the historical record upon which the founders relied to define their political ideas — including Madison.
Of course, it is a bit ridiculous to take one lone founder’s words and assume that it represents the opinion of all of them. It is quite easy, after all, to find quotes from any particular founder that in no way reflected even a minority opinion of the day. For instance, Thomas Jefferson once advocated that all laws be dumped every few decades so that the next generation could start over with their own ideas unencumbered by past generations. Even Madison thought that idea was absurd. Hamilton found that many of his most dearly held financial ideas left his fellows cold. John Adams thought that we should call the president “your majesty,” an idea that earned him much derision. And Poor Richard himself, Benjamin Franklin, once proposed that each galaxy had it’s own “God” that ruled in his own sphere meaning that there were infinite gods for infinite galaxies. Not every idea the founders had were gems, to be sure.
Still, Madison spoke with most of his contemporaries, not outside them, when he considered the meaning of the Second Amendment.
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Poor Richard’s Internet
July 3, 2010 | Filed Under Ben Franklin, Computers, Founders, Inernet, John Armor, Technology | Comments Off
-By John Armor
Let us raise two questions: What would Ben Franklin think of the Internet? And, what would be his opinion of efforts by the current Administration to censor Internet content, or even shut it down in “an emergency”? Events in his life may answer those questions.
A recent two-hour TV special on Franklin made one point that deserves repetition. It was that of all the Framers who created the United States of America in law and in fact, the one who would be “most at home in the modern world” was Dr. Franklin.
There are several, sound reasons for that. Franklin was a scientist. He observed facts in the real world. He developed theories to explain those facts. Then, he developed experiments to prove whether or not his theories were correct.
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Publius Podcast: The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor
March 1, 2010 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Conservatives, Constitution, Elections, Founders, Freedom, George Washington, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, History, James Madison, John Adams, Podcasting, Publius' Forum, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off
-By Warner Todd Huston
The newest Publius Forum podcast: The Mount Vernon Statement doesn’t work as a rallying cry, but here is an idea that might…
The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor
February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Budget, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Federalism, Founders, Free Trade, George Washington, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, History, House of Representatives, James Madison, John Adams, Liberals, Patriotism, Republicans, Rights, Senate, Taxes, Tea Party, Thomas Jefferson, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | Comments Off
-By Warner Todd Huston
A group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.
Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion I do not think the letter works.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.
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