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In answer to ‘Reader critical of opinion pages’

Dear Editor,

In answer to the letter “Reader critical of opinion pages:

He complains about the syndicated columnist and local writers regaling us with imaginary Biden defects. If you mean that they are pointing out the Bidens’ actions that will result in:

∫ Hyperinflation which will drive the prices of virtually form of goods and services available to we the consumers.

∫ The Southern Border that for all practical purposes no longer exist and the country being flooded with illegal immigrants that have not for the most part not been vetted and many of whom are infected with the coronavirus.

∫ The United States is again becoming dependent of foreign oil but prior to his election was energy independent. Just wait until this winter when your friends and neighbors start paying for the inflated natural gas prices. That will surely endear Biden to them.

∫ The growing empty shelves in the stores because of the breakdown in the supply chain that the Biden administration is doing absolutely nothing to remedy.

∫ His abandoning many Americans and many of our Afghan allies to the cruel hands of Taliban and Al Qaeda which will devastate the trust our allies around the world.

∫ Then there is the sophistry that the Biden administration has used to usurp our First (intimidating the parents in the Critical Race Theory issue), Fourth (the attempt to give the IRS the power to track individual bank transaction of $600 or more) and Tenth Amendments (Using the FBI to monitor the parents that are involved, again, in the Critical Race Issue).

Now, let’s talk about the people obsessing about their freedoms guaranteed by that darn outdated United States Constitution. Let me point out that the Framers of that document understood human nature far better than most behavioral scientist do today. They examined the strengths and weaknesses of the different forms of government that had existed up until that point and came up with what we know as the republican form of government. You know a government that invests the final sovereignty in its citizens. A form of government that protects their rights and at the same time limits the power of government.

To quote one of the only seven men to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Justice James Wilson.

Justice James Wilson on the relationship of man and government. Lectures on Law, 1790-91:

“Does man exist for the sake of government? Or government instituted for the sake of man? What was the primary and the principal object in the institution of government? To acquire a new security for those rights which we were previously entitled buy the immediate gift of our all-wise and all beneficent Creator?

“Yet we are told, in order to acquire security, we must surrender the great objects to be secured that we may depend on the pleasures of that power, to which the power was made. Is this a bargain to be proposed to those, who are both intelligent and free?

“Freemen, who know and love their rights, will not exchange their armor of gold, for one of a baser and lighter metal, however, finely be blazoned with tinsel.”

Then the writer goes on to point out that the Constitution has gone from the original Ten Amendments to twenty-six amendments as if that somehow implies that it is a deflect in the Constitution. No, Mr. Morgan, that implies that the Founders recognized that we human creatures were not perfect. So, they made sure that the Constitution had enough flexibility to affect change it if it became necessary. But they also had the wisdom to make sure that if that change were to happen it would be agreed upon by a very large majority of the citizens that have to live with those changes.

To quote James Madison (often considered the Father of the Constitution) in the Federalist Paper No. 51:

“It may be a reflection of human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government itself. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections of human nature? If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on people is, no doubt, the primary control on government, but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

Daniel Webster on “The Enemies of the Constitution” The fourth of July Oration at Charleston Mass., 1802 :

“If an angel should be winged from Heaven, on an errand of mercy to our country, the first accents that would glow on his lips would be, ‘Beware! Be cautious! You have everything to lose; nothing to gain. The history of the world is before us, The civil. The social, the Christian virtues are requisites to render us worthy the continuation of that government which is the freest on earth.

“We live under the only government that ever existed which was framed by the unrestrained and deliberate consultation of the people. Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in six thousand years cannot be expected to happen often. Such a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for ages with revolution and tumult, riot, and deposition.”

In closing, I would like to ask the writer: Please list those natural rights in the Constitutions that you would consider so trivial that we citizens should not be very jealous of and protect and obsess over.

Then perhaps you would give us some guidance in what kind of government you would replace this great Republic with that accomplishes the description of a good government that James Wilson, James Madison, and Daniel Webster described in their quotes.

Lucien Murzyn

St. Clairsvillle

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