Thursday, August 25, 2011

Founding Fathers' Conspiracy Theories - 2

Two years ago on this date, Dredd Blog published a post concerning the viewpoint founding fathers had on the dangers of war.

We are not speaking of the dangers that may first come to mind, that is, those dangers that happen in a far away place where a war is ongoing.

No, rather, we are talking about the dangers to a nation that war engenders at home, yes, those dangers we speak of in this case are the dangers to "public liberty" and the dangers to "the public treasuries", as shown in the following copy of that post:
James Madison was the 4th President, Bill of Rights author, Congressman, Cabinet Member, and was also called the "Father of the U.S. Constitution".

He voiced a conspiracy theory in 1795:
In war, the public treasuries are to be unlocked; and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them.

In war, the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed; and it is the executive brow they are to encircle.

The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.
(Toxins of Power Blog, emphasis added). The above quote is from his "Political Observations," April 20, 1795, in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Volume IV, page 491.

This is the type of "shadow movement" or "shadow government" talked about in a previous post; meaning these conspiracies are not individual people conspiring, instead they are unseen forces at work against us all.
He went on to say:
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied : and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.
(ibid). Those truths President Madison spoke of, those truths Dredd Blog revisited two years ago in the post republished above, are still in existence, still true, in our world today.

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