Fragile Freedom

In our day and age we tend to think that we have some sort of monopoly on short sighted politicians that believe that they are elected to represent a people who do not know what they want, or that can’t understand what is in their best interest. We complain about these leaders following their own agenda’s and their own interests, failing to necessarily represent the interest of those who elected them. Though this is not always the case with every elected official, it does seem to be a chief complaint we do have. Yet this isn’t reserved for our time. It has existed since the beginning of the Republic.   Today, as we continue our ongoing series on the history of the Bill of Rights we continue with the Battle in Congress as men like James Madison, John Page and others seek to drag opponents to where they needed to be on the question now before them. With barriers in front of them, and powerful opponents rising to challenge them it would be apparent that it would not be a simple or an easy task. Facing off with d

If “Congress will devote but one more day to the subject, so far as to satisfy the public that we do not disregard their wishes, it will have a salutary influence.” Those would be the words of James Madison as he rose, despite the apathy and the opposition faced to the amendments that he was now proposing to the House of Representatives. As promised, in this episode we take the Bill of Rights to the floor of the Congress for the reaction of those Representatives to James Madison’s proposal. Already having faced considerable opposition from both sides, those who believed the Constitution was fine the way it was, and those who believed it encroached on the rights and the freedoms of the people, many had waited to see what the Virginia Congressman was going to propose. Now it was becoming abundantly clear that a fight was brewing not just between the Federalists and the Antifederalists, but the interests and the agendas of politicians united for one reason or another in their opposition to what was being propose

History is more than just trivia. It is more than just names or places or events. Because of that it is important to dig deeper in order to find the answers that we are looking for, in order to truly understand and draw from that knowledge. It is about cultivating a greater comprehension so that we are capable of utilizing the lessons of our past as building blocks for the future.  For this episode of Fragile Freedom we are doing something a little different. Before our next episode on the Battle in Congress, we are going back to the source: James Madison's Speech which presents his Amendments to the House of Representatives. Join host Wyatt McIntyre in this extra long episode between episodes where he presents it in its entirety.  --- I am sorry to be accessary to the loss of a single moment of time by the House. If I had been indulged in my motion, and we had gone into a Committee of the whole, I think we might have rose and resumed the consideration of other business before this time; that is, so far as it

If I thought I could fulfill the duty which I owe to myself and my constituents, to let the subject pass over in silence, I most certainly should not trespass upon the indulgences of this house.” He would state plainly. “But I cannot do this; and am therefore compelled to beg a patient hearing to what I have laid before you.”   The air hot and heavy, the crowds would look on as James Madison rose to the floor of Federal Hall in New York to address the House of Representatives. The galleries full, yet the seats of North Carolina and Rhode Island still empty, he would look down to the notes scribbled on a piece of paper and begin to speak, offering up his amendments to the Constitution.   This week on Fragile Freedom we continue our ongoing series on the history of the Bill of Rights as the Father of the Constitution, a man who once argued that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary, presented his amendments to the body. For Madison it would not be an easy or a simple road, but it would be one that he knew he had to

The war was over.   The years had passed since General Charles Cornwallis had surrendered following the Siege of Yorktown, and the Treaty of Paris had been signed, but not so many that they had forgotten. They won the Revolution, and the yoke of England had been cast off. They had set out to secure their independence, challenging the most powerful empire in the World, and, after years of sacrifice, loss and pain, after years of being met with devastating defeats and glorious victories, they controlled their destiny, free of that far distant monarch and parliament. Nowhere had that been more celebrated than Massachusetts, where the first shots had been fired.   Returning to their homes and their farms, they believed that they could find some level of normalcy. Still, throughout the states, including Massachusetts, unrest was beginning to build.   The truth was though that America was a new nation and few knew what the new normal would be. The economic climate had changed. Depression, debt, and challenges in fo

“Poor Madison got so Cursedly frightened in Virginia, that I believe he has dreamed of amendments ever since.” Robert Morris, the newly elected Senator from Pennsylvania, an ardent Federalist who had argued for ratification and against the need for a Bill of Rights, would observe. The truth? James Madison had every right to be frightened. He had staked his entire reputation on the Constitution and it almost cost him his political future. Denied a seat in the Senate by the Antifederalist Virginia Legislature led by Patrick Henry, he had faced every obstacle in his bid to win a Congressional Seat. Now, despite the gerrymandering, despite being denounced by the most powerful man in the state, despite facing a younger, more popular opponent, he had won. Yet that victory had come at a price. He had to back peddle on his initial opposition to a Bill of Rights, an idea that had been presented at the Constitutional Convention by the likes of his fellow Virginian George Mason. Not only would he now support the idea, h

He had escaped, he was free.   Most, if not all, in his position, would have kept running, and not looked back. They would have fled to the Northern Free States, or perhaps British North America, to try and start a new life there, just out of reach of their slave master. That was what his father had done before him when the boy was still too young to remember him. Not young Nat Turner though. After a month in the wilderness, he would return to his master by his own free will. Later, he would explain to Thomas Ruffin Gray, a lawyer who frequently represented slaves, and who'd go on to write “The Confessions of Nat Turner”, “the Spirit appeared to me and said I had my wishes directed to the things of this world, and not to the kingdom of heaven, and that I should return to the service of my earthly master.”   In many senses, though Turner was different than his brothers and sisters in bondage, something that was recognized early on in his life. Though a slave, his first master, Benjamin Turner, would let him be

For many, the sounds of the alarms had become so commonplace that few bothered to listen to them anymore. Before the war had even started, Lawrence had become a center of the struggle between abolitionists and pro-slavery settlers in the Border War that would infamously become known as Bleeding Kansas. In 1856 800 men entered the town under the leadership of Sheriff Samuel Jones and destroyed the anti-slavery presses and the Free State Hotel, built the previous year by the New England Emigrant Society as a temporary home for Free-Stater’s relocating to the state. Even if it wasn’t safe, it had seemed to calm, at least for a while. The threat was nothing like it was after the Confederate victory at the Battle of Lexington, or in those days and weeks following the Battle of Springfield just a few months prior. It had seemed like the rebellion in Missouri was finally put down, and the army patrolled the Border. However uneasy it was, there was some semblance of peace. Regardless, with an almost constant state of

How far would you trust the current Congress? Would you trust the House and the Senate to take up the cause of your individual rights and freedoms? Would you vest in them the power of Government, with new, more broad expansions of the control that they currently have on the promise of these politicians that they would ensure your rights and freedoms? We probably wouldn’t. Living in a day and an age when the Bill of Rights is seen more as a hurdle to get over than a framework for responsible government, we probably wouldn’t believe the assurance even of well-meaning politicians to do protect our liberties. Yet as the Constitution was ratified that was exactly what the states and the people did. They ultimately agreed to approve this vast expansion of the powers of government in the promise that these politicians would take to the Congress to draft a Bill of Rights ensuring that as the political rights of the nation were entrenched in the Constitution the Individual Rights of the People would be ensured in an e

Even as Preston Brooks entered the Senate Chamber on May 22nd, 1856 few would predict the chain of events that he would set in motion, least of all him. A Southern Democrat representing South Carolina, he had heard of and read the speech made by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. It had publicly Andrew Butler, who was not only his state’s Senator, but also his cousin. Now he demanded retribution. Whereas he might have demanded a duel, it was, after all his first instinct, he was talked out of it by his fellow Congressman Laurence Keitt. This was, after all, a man below his station. He had proven, in his speech and the language he used, that point. Dueling him would be beneath Brooks. No, if he were to get satisfaction it would be by treating him like the slaves the Northern Abolitionist loved so dearly, and caning him. The events that would follow would become an iconic moment in American history and a turning point as Senator Sumner crumbled unconscious in a pool of his own blood on the floor of the Senat

We talk a great deal of our rights as we define and then redefine them for our present age and way of thinking.  This is not necessarily something that is new. It did not just suddenly start with the Emancipation Proclamation or Universal Suffrage, it did not begin with the Civil Rights Movement, the Warren Court or the Civil Rights Act. No, this has been something that we have discussed, debated, and even go to war over. Since before there was an American nation and an American people, before the Republic was born and the institutions of it came into being we have talked about our rights, at times even struggling with the theory versus the practical experience with them. But what is the American tradition of rights and where did the Bill of Rights come from? The truth? To truly appreciate our rights, and understand what they are and what they mean. We need to study them so that we can truly appreciate them. We need to do this from a perspective that transcends just our modern age and our modern understanding

As the second Republican National Convention met in between May 16th and 18th, 1860 it had seemed like it would go to New York Senator William Seward. Experienced, from a large state, and without a serious contender with the National Profile necessary to swing the delegates, he had a road map to victory. He would contain Senator Simon Cameron in Pennsylvania, and let Congressman Henry Bates and Governor Salmon Chase split the Ohio delegates. Abraham Lincoln, who had just recently lost the Senate Election to Stephen Douglas, considered the front runner at the Democratic Convention that was to reconvene in Baltimore might make a stir but he hardly had the profile to mount a serious campaign against him. He would offer him the Vice Presidency on the second ballot to shore up his support and ensure the much needed Western States were represented on the ticket.  In many senses it was Seward's to lose as nothing seemed to stand in the way of his ambition or his path to the White House. It was his time and it was hi

By 1773 the British East India Company had found itself skirting on the edge of bankruptcy. Between payments to the English Government, rising dividend costs, and its growing land empire, it had found itself dangerously low on money. Yet in its roughly 170 year history it had built for itself connections that wove through the ranks of British Government, moving through Parliament and the Halls of Power, all the way to Whitehall and later St. James Palace. The company was, at its core, too big and too well connected to fail, with many Members of Parliament shareholders in it. The plan from Lord Frederick North, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, would be to offer the beleaguered behemoth a bailout. The government would offer the company 1.4 million pounds to get it out of its current financial situation and would pass the Tea Act to give the Company and opportunity to pay back the loan. Parliament, and North, believed this to be the perfect solution. Lowering the price of the duty it would actuall

It had been just over three years after General James Wolfe met the Marquis de Saint-Veran, General Louis-Joseph Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. Though it would cost both commanders their lives, it would be the turning point in the war that would lead to the inevitable British victory in North America. Not even the French successes at the Battle of Quebec could turn that tide anymore. Now, with the Treaty of Paris signed by France, England and Spain, that vast Northern territory that once belonged to Louis XV now rested in the hands of his nation’s ancient enemy. Soon it would fall upon the shoulders of the newly appointed Governor-General, Jeffery Amherst, the chief architect of the British victory, to secure the peace as, as Francis Parkman, author of France and England in North America, would observe, “Half of the continent had changed hands at the scratch of a pen.” Perhaps had the Court of St. James chosen any other man some level of conciliation with the Native tribes could have been reached. Yet, fo

In many ways it had earned the nickname Rogue’s Island. Founded by Roger Williams when he had been expelled from Massachusetts colony for sedition and heresy, it had become the home of what many considered the most radical elements of the Puritans population in the colonies. While the colony itself had grown and prospered as a Mercantile hub, especially with the rise of the Transatlantic slave trade, the radical, rogue nature of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations had remained. By 1764 a group of Loyalists known as the Tory Junto, concerned with the revolutionary streak that ran through the Colony would go as far as to petition the Court of St. James to repeal the Colonies Royal Charter and replace it with Royal Government. In the end they would fail. They would be chased from Rhode Island. The colony, on the other hand, would remain largely unchanged, with many committed to the cause of Independence even in those early days. That independent spirit that refused to relent to King and Parliament would beco

The smoke lifted through the air as the houses burned, undoubtedly seen across the border in Dutchess County, New York. Earlier that day 2,000 British soldiers, marching from Fairfield, Connecticut under the command of Willian Tryon, Royal Governor of New York and Major General of the Provincials, had arrived in Danbury. Searching for rebel weapons and supplies, they would start to mark the homes of Loyalists. It wasn’t just that were going to deprive the enemy of guns and food. No, they were going to send a message. The unmarked homes, homes of Patriots would be set on fire. As word reached Colonel Henry Ludington, commander of the local militia, fresh returned from a three-day ride with his troops to shore up supplies, a sinking feeling had to come over him. The Patriots had only recently moved their supplies to Danbury in the belief that they would be safe there. Now they gone. Worse yet though, the veteran of the French and Indian Wars had to know that it was only a matter of time before the British Army

Lord Dartmouth had put it plainly to Governor Thomas Gage, “the sovereignty of the king over the Colonies requires a full and absolute submission.” Still few in Parliament had perhaps seen it going like this when, in February of that year, they had declared the Colony in an open state of rebellion, and pledging English lives and property to putting it down. Now even with the re-enforcements of Lieutenant-General Hugh Percy arriving with a thousand fresh troops to aid the expedition of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, the Patriots had refused to relent. They pushed forward without giving an inch to British Regulars as they inflicted heavy casualties on them. Once, where they had perhaps been able to be talked down, it had now gone too far. Shots had been fired, blood had been shed, and the war was upon them. It had to be dawning on Governor Gage, as he looked out late in the evening and saw the camp fires surrounding the city, that there would be no submission, there would be no obedience in the colonies exce

Few knew the pressure that Sir Thomas Gage was under to put down the rebellious spirit that had swept through Massachusetts Colony. Sir Thomas Hutchinson, and Sir Francis Bernard, who had both aspired to the position of Governor had found that their ambition was ill-equipped for the task in front of them as the Colony always seemed to simmer right near the boiling point, ready, at a moment’s notice, to spill over into violence. Appointed Military Governor by the Board of Trade in 1774, Gage had but one task, to bring those colonists in line by reminding them that they were loyal British subjects by whatever means he deemed necessary. Married into an old American family that has immigrated when New York was still New Amsterdam, many had perhaps hoped that Gage, with his reputation as a fair minded individual, would be more sympathetic than his predecessor had been. He was not. He was there on the King’s business and he would do the Kings business. Now he had received word that the Americans were gathering and

Thrown from his horse and kicked in the head as he tried to answer his brothers frantic calls, for two weeks the 8 year old boy lay in a coma, teetering on the edge of life and death. When he eventually regained consciousness, and the bandages were removed he had lost sight in one of his eyes. Though the blindness would eventually fade, his fear of the powerful animal would not. Distrustful of horses for the rest of his life in many senses Benjamin Grierson was perhaps one of the most unlikely of soldiers, let alone a Calvary Officer. Yet, with the drums of war now beating, and the bonds of union between the states shattered, the music teacher from Jacksonville, Illinois, deeply in debt, with his wife and children living with his parents, enlisted as an unpaid aid to Major General Benjamin Prentiss. It was here that he flourished, rising first to the rank of Major, and then Colonel of the 6th Illinois Calvary. Now, with the resignation of General Charles Hamilton, and his eyes set on the last Confederate Stro

Few knew the man’s private anguish as Patrick Henry rose to the floor at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia. They perhaps knew that only four days prior he had said his final goodbye to his beloved wife Sarah, the mother of his six children, but what they didn’t know was the long battle that they had waged against her mental illness, or how he chose to care for her at home rather than subject her even to the harsh but progressive treatment of the newly opened Eastern State Hospital. Having seen the condition, having witness the deplorable, even cruel estate they would have left his wife in, the 38 year old Virginia lawyer would take on the care of her himself at their home at Scotchtown Plantation, watching over her to prevent her from hurting herself, bathing and clothing and feeding her. Even as she passed, denied a Christian burial because of her illness, Henry would bury her not more than 30 feet from their home, planting a lilac bush to mark that place now so sacred to him. No, how could they know t