“Justly revered as our great Constitution is, it could be stripped off and thrown aside like a garment, and the nation would still stand forth in the living vestment of flesh and sinew, warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws. … “
-Woodrow Wilson on the US Constitution
“Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader.” “A (true leader) uses the masses like (tools). He must inflame their passions with little heed for the facts. Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader”.
-“Woodrow Wilson from his essay “Leaders of Men” 1890.
“Progressivism and its late 20th century spawn; Modern Liberalism is a cancer that was slow to grow but has now metastasized and is now poised to kill our republic”
-Dennis Brady
The average American citizen a century ago revered the constitution realizing his rights came from his creator and not from government. The Federal government in Washington was a distant place if not by actual geography but by the fact it rarely interfered or placed requirements on them. The Federal government was limited to only to protect his unalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The idea to most educated citizens that Washington had the power to grant rights and regulate almost every aspect of ones private and commercial life as it is in the present day would have seemed alien and abhorrent as if we woke up one day and found ourselves under the rule of some foreign power.
A century ago we were free to do almost anything as long as it did not interfere with the rights of others. We were free to open businesses, schools, associations etc as long as we had the initiative, drive, intelligence and financial capital to do so. Those who initially lacked the financial capital to achieve their dreams had many opportunities to increase their economic lot in life with little or no interference by a particular state or the federal government. Inequality did exist of course with a large segment of the population. African Americans and women were for the most part second class citizens but the historic prejudices were slowly being eliminated . African Americans were starting to educate themselves and were a at that time a force in the Republican party.
Women had won the right to vote in many states and momentum was gaining to grant them national voting rights. Although there was federally established safety net there were many institutions that were started by immigrant and other groups. This era for instance saw the greatest increase in religious charitable organizations for the poor by communities of faith. Both the establishment protestant denominations and the immigrant Catholic Church were building of hospitals and establishing local welfare societies for the poor. The country indeed was not perfect and there were many social ills caused by the industrial revolution that needed to be addressed. American’s still instinctively knew what the founders believed in that a limited government with its emphasis on social, political and economic freedom of the individual person was the best way to solve the nations problems. With the election of President Wilson in 1912 that would all begin to change and America would start to go down a different and very misguided path. The President Wilson that is taught in the progressive dominated public schools of today is a sanitized propagandized view of the man and of the movement he championed.
Wilsons View of the Constitution
Woodrow Wilson believed the constitution was outdated. He thought the founders had a “Newtonian” view of government that was static, he believed that the current leadership of the nation should be able to legislate without regard to the constraints of the constitution especially the limits spelled out by the enumerated powers of the federal government listed in the constitution. He was the father of the modern view of the constitution that it is a “living document”. Essentially he believed that the constitution means anything the current president and congress think it should mean with no regard to the original intent of the founders. Wilson thought the checks and balances that the founders incorporated into the constitution to check governmental power were “Inefficient” and needed to be eliminated.
Wilson’s Record on Race
Wilson was an elitist in my opinion he was also a racist. My evidence is his own words and actions. When he was at Princeton University he turned down African American candidates for admission to the college. He called their desire for a college education “unwarranted” for their race. He stopped the long standing policy of desegregation of Federal Government departments lead by the Republican party since 1863. Further proof is that he “officially” reintroduced segregation by approving his new Postmaster General’s plan that Washington offices be segregated, with the Treasury and Navy soon doing the same. He also forced from office large numbers of black federal employees. He then showed his white supremacist beliefs by supporting a Democratic house measure making racial intermarriage a felony in the District of Columbia.
When some African American groups protested his actions Wilson lectured them by saying “segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.” In 1914, he was quoted by the New York Times saying that “If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it.” Wilson’s actions in my opinion strengthened the Democratic polticians in the south to further instutionalize Jim Crow on the state level.
Wilson’s Record on Civil Liberties
President Wilson’s record on civil liberties was most likely the worst in American history. He supported and signed into law the “Espionage Act of 1917” and the “Sedition Act of 1918”. Wilson’s authorized the shutting down of newspapers in large numbers. Criticism of the government, even in your own home, was punishable. One man was brought to trial for explaining in his own home why he didn’t want to buy Liberty Bonds during the war.
He was also a late to comer to the idea of women’s suffrage. He originally was against a women’s right to vote and he even arrested National Woman’s Party leader Alice Paul, and other members of her party. He put them in a mental ward because her along with her followers refused to quit silent peaceful protests outside the white house. Wison had her and some of her followers forced fed in prison when they went on a hunger strike to gain public support for their cause. It was only until after the war and when public support grew that Wilson changed his mind and supported the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote.
The first supportors of the "Federal Reserve Act "
The Federal Reserve:
Article I, Section 8, Clause 5, of the constitution provides that congress has the sole authority of coining money and regulating its value. Wilson supported the Federal Reserve Act which transferred this power to a private entity which is the Federal Reserve Bank. What most Americans do not know is that foreign banks own a large part of its shares. The creation of the “Fed” in my opinion along with many scholars is at odds with the constitution. The “Fed” is not directly answerable to the Federal Government. The American people have been suffering the effects of this “Act’ ever since with the value of their currency declining every year. I hope to write a future article describing this corrupt leviathan in detail.
One World Interventionist:
Wilson authorized interventions in Nicaragua, to determine its presidential leadership and to pass a trade treaty that gave the United States special treatment. In 1915 he authorized the invasion of Haiti to put into power a leader of our choosing. His greatest intervention was in 1917 the United States entered the First World War which could have been avoided. He lied to the Irish-American community who had a large influence in the Democratic Party. Most were against intervention in the war because of the brutal suppression by the British of the Irish Rebellion of 1916. Wilson won them over by promising to press Britain after the war for Irish independence. Wilson broke his promise and when the Irish community denounced him for it he called them disloyal Americans.
Wilson entered the first world war with grandiose ambitions that a new world order could be established. He hoped that if America joined the League of Nations; peace could be maintained all over the world with the assistance of the American Military. He wanted authority to use military to support the league’s policies even if no direct American interests were threatened. You could make the argument that Wilson was the first president to support America’s role of being the policeman of the world. He refused any compromise that to strip out of the treaty of Versailles binding American participation in peace keeping operations. Ourcurrent intervention In Libya this would be keeping with Wilson’s philosophy.
Summing up:
The dismantling of the constitution that begun under the beginning of the last century has continued to this day with a few brief pauses. The limitation on our personal economic and political freedoms as well as the freedom of the states as outlined under the 9th and 10th amendments has been eroded. We are at the point were we must choose to return to the path our founders envisioned where each common individual can govern themselves under a federal government that lives under its constitutional limits or under a central government that is run by a elitist few that decides what is best for us.
-Just my opinion D.B.