The Origin of American Politics
GOVERNMENT AS A REFLECTION OF THE VALUES OF THE RULERS OF THE SOCIETY
Why did the founding fathers and all the State Legislatures restrict voting rights to such a small percentage of people? There are two big reasons. The first is that the politicians represent the interests of the business owners which is a relatively small group. The second is in the values of this group, especially their attitude toward others who are not in the group.
As an example, let’s look at some of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. He was a prolific writer and one of the most influential men of the founding fathers. Below are some of his writings on women, black people, and Native Tribes (Indians).
Here are some quotes from Thomas Jefferson about women.
But our good ladies, I trust, have been too wise to wrinkle their foreheads with politics. They are contented to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate. They have the good sense to value domestic happiness above all other, and the art to cultivate it beyond all others. There is no part of the earth where so much of this is enjoyed as in America. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-13-02-0076
The ornaments too, and the amusements of life are entitled to their portion of attention. these, for a female, are dancing, drawing & musick. … for the French rule is wise, that no lady dances after marriage. this is founded in solid physical reasons; gestation & nursing leaving little time to a married lady, when this exercise can be either safe or innocent.
I need say nothing of houshold economy, in which the mothers of our country are generally skilled, and generally careful to instruct their daughters. …. the order and economy of a house are as honorable to the mistress as those of the farm to the master and if either be neglected, ruin follows, and children destitute of the means of living. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-12-02-0438-0001
The tender breasts of ladies were not formed for political convulsion; and the French ladies miscalculate much their own happiness when they wander from the true field of their influence into that of politicks. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-13-02-0498
The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-4862
Of blacks, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
but of this color we know, brought up from their infancy without necessity for thought or forecast, are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of taking care of themselves, and are extinguished promptly wherever industry is necessary for raising the young. in the mean time they are pests in society by their idleness, and the depredations to which this leads them. their amalgamation with the other colour produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent.
but, as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/159.html
Of the indigenous tribes of North America, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
this unfortunate race, whom we had been taking so much pains to save and to civilize, have by their unexpected desertion and ferocious barbarities justified extermination, and now await our decision on their fate.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-07-02-0046#RFH79736218131229300_2 (Note: This quote was during the War of 1812 when the British supplied some Indians with weapons to help the British fight the Americans).
INTRODUCTION
There are four major highly emotional issues that have been in America’s awareness the past few years that have really caught my interest. The first revolves around civil rights of African Americans (social injustice) as centered around the Colin Kaepernick protest during playing of the national anthem at football games. The second issue revolves around treatment of women in our society which has recently been in the news with groups such as the #metoo movement and the dethroning of rich, mostly white, males such as Bill O’Riley, Les Moonves, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, and Jeffery Epstein. The third is the protection of water sources from oil pipeline spills in lands of the Indigenous People. The fourth is the discussion of the richest 1% in that the richest 1% of Americans hold the same wealth as the poorest 90% combined.
All of these issues are centered around human rights and civil rights in our society. [See future post about rights]. Colin Kaepernick brought up the issue that black people didn’t have the same civil rights as white people since black people were getting shot and killed by police for driving a car or walking down the street or selling a cigarette. The #metoo movement states that women should have the same rights as men to have access to jobs without sexual exploitation and should be able to able to go through their daily life without violence. The Water Protectors situation is that oil companies still have the right to put commercial pipelines through areas granted to Indigenous People – even area of water supply for these people. The richest 1% exposes wealth inequality in term of worker exploitation and tax exemptions for the wealthy.
So if black people do not have the same civil rights as white people in social interaction with police, and if women do not have the same human rights as men in workplace relationships and in social relationships, and Indigenous People do not have the right to protect their water supply from potential contamination among other things, and society fosters poverty, then who has these rights and how are they denied to women, black people, Indigenous People, and the poor? How did these advantage/disadvantage situations come about in our society? The answer to who controls the rights of people in our American society is found if we look at why the Colonies were originally founded, who ran the new American Government after the overthrow of the English King, the values of these early American politicians, and how these politicians limited participation in government by limiting the voting rights.
The Catbird Seat
Clean and Simple.
.WHY DID SETTLERS FIRST COME TO AMERICA?
The link between the business class and the ruling class will be presented in detail in a future companion article on this website titled, “The Origin of American Economics”, but a brief summary is as follows.
As stated by the Library of Congress, “European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. “ Colonization of what would specifically become the United States of America was started in the year 1607 and founded by English investors as a business venture to create profit by establishing farms to produce tobacco, cotton, indigo, wheat, and corn, among other things. (The Virginia Charter and the Massachusetts Charter were the first two investor contracts to initiate Colonial settlement). The profit or the product of the farms were used to pay off the investors in England and create wealth for the Colonial business owners. The society developed with two primary groups: business owners (property or land owners) and workers who consisted of black slaves and poor white indentured servants). Almost all work done on the farms was done by hand and thus large numbers of workers were needed for each owner. There were no powered machines at all as gasoline engines and electricity were not invented until the mid to late 1800’s. There was some limited use of oxen and horses, but most plowing, planting, weeding, harvesting, and refining were done with human hand labor.
American lore has the Colonies being settled primarily as a refuge of religious persecution. While religious persecution was one reason that a few settlers came here, it was a small amount of people and by no means the primary reason for Colonial Settlement. The Library of Congress estimates that less than 20,000 Puritans came to the Colonies to flee religious persecution. (The population of European white people in the colonies in 1790 was 2,800,000.) The Puritans were Protestant and many of the businessmen were Protestant, but the businessmen came here for business reasons and not just to practice their religion in peace.
The first Puritans landed in the Colonies on the Mayflower ship in 1620 to flee religious persecution. However, even their voyage was financed by investors in England. These pilgrims had to create wealth on their farms to pay back their English investors just like every other colonist. So even the Mayflower Pilgrims were part of the same business model.
The rulers of this political class system were the upper class who represented the business class and the lower class consisted of the subservient or working class. There wasn't much of a middle class at this time. Therefore, all politicians came from the business or property owners and no politicians represented the working class of slaves and indentured servants.
As stated above by the Library of Congress, in addition to creating wealth for the English investors, the American Colonies were also established to spread English influence across the world or to put it in other words, to continue to expand the English/British empire. The American Colonies were just one of numerous English and British Colonies across the world. Some of the other English colonies included India, South Africa, East Africa, West Indies, Singapore, Honduras, Canada, Sierra Leone, Australia, Malta, Fiji, Ceylon, Hong Kong, and many more. After the American revolution, the Americans continued this policy of expanding influence across the world. This will be discussed in more detail in an upcoming article American Empire.
Let’s look at an overview of some of the values of the founding fathers of the United States of America.
SUMMARY
The founders of the United States of America had a great vision to improve society. They were sick of being ruled by a King (the form of government called a monarchy). The King was a supreme ruler and all citizens are subjects of the King and their lives are bound by the rules and behavior controls (laws and customs) as supplied by the King. The founders wanted to govern their own society. They wanted the profit from their business ventures for themselves. They did not want to pay the majority of their work to the King in the form of taxes and profit. So they created a new form of government that expanded the right to participate in the government from just a king to a wider group. The practical standards and rules were documented in the Constitution. The moral justifications of the overthrown of the rule of the King and the British Colonial government were presented in the Declaration of Independence.
Some of the very beautiful words and noble values used in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence include: “All men are created equal”, “unalienable Rights [of] Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness “, “We the people”, “Justice”, “Tranquility”, “promote the general welfare”, and ”liberty for ourselves and our posterity”. This sounds all inclusive, but it’s not.
When the founding fathers expanded the right to participate in the government from just a king (Monarchy), they wanted to limit this right to only rich, white, male businessmen (Aristocracy or Oligarchy) . Their belief was that only rich, white, males were competent enough to be the ruling class. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ”, “We the people”, “promote the general welfare”, etc. did not apply to women, blacks, indigenous people or poor white people. Thus, the founding fathers needed a way to legalize excluding these groups from participating in the government while still preserving the words in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They did it by limiting voting rights. The right of all American citizens to vote is NOT included in the Bill of Rights or any part of the Constitution. It is not anywhere. The founding fathers left voting rights laws to the individual states where the laws initially only granted the right to vote to rich, white, males. Since there is no Constitutional right to vote, the right to vote can change at any time. And often does. These changes occur on the state and local levels of government. See the future article on this website on Voters Rights.
Thus the politics of the United States of America started out as an upper class or ruling club who participated in government and a lower class who had no rights to participate in the government and were not in the club [See the future article series – In the Club]. It is a system of exclusion and the mechanism of exclusion was initially voting rights. The rulers of this political class system represented the business class and the lower class the subservient or working class. The link between the business class and the ruling class will be presented in the future companion article of this website titled, “The Origin of American Economics”. As a brief summary, colonization of what would become the United States of America was started in the year 1607 and founded by English investors to create profit by establishing farms to produce tobacco, cotton, indigo, wheat, and corn, among other things. (The Jamestown Charter and the Virginia Charter were the first two investor contracts to initiate Colonial settlement). These American Colonies were just one of numerous English and British Colonies across the world (at least 24) all created with the intention of furthering business interests (monetary profit) protected and sustained with military force (merchantilism) and under governmental rule of the English King. The profit or the product of the farms were used to pay off the investors in England and create wealth for the Colonial business owners. The society developed with two primary groups: business owners (property or land owners) and workers who consisted of black slaves and poor white indentured servants). Almost all work done on the farms was done by hand and thus large numbers of workers were needed for each owner. There were no powered machines at all as gasoline engines and electricity were not invented until the mid to late 1800’s. There was some limited use of oxen and horses, but most plowing, planting, weeding, harvesting, and refining were done with human labor.
Since people only from the rich, white, male business class were allow to participate in the government, ALL political parities represented only this upper class. The lower and middle class were not represented at all and are actually even thought of as inferior and a threat. The men of the upper class often had different ideas as to how to run the government which led to the different political parties. For example, as the time the country was started there were the federalists and the anti-federalists. The federalists wanted most control in the central federal government. The anti-federalists wanted the majority of power in the individual states and limited federal power. Today we have the democratic party and the republican party. Both of today's parties still represent the business class and the majority of all politicians still are rich, white, males. The republican party is the highly conservative party. They want to conserve or keep the way of the founding fathers in term of politicians being rich, white, males who promote the business class through legislation, trade, war, and other world empire building. A few women have been able to work their way in and just a couple of African Americans. The democratic party is also primarily conservative being pro-business, pro-wealth, pro-trade, pro-war, pro-business expansion throughout the world (pro-empire) as were the founding fathers. They, however, recognize that eventually civil rights and participation in the government must include those other than rich, white, males. They pushed through the civil rights acts of the 1960's for African Americans. Women have made great strides, also. The democratic party has to some degree supported the notion that businesses should do less damage to the environment. Also, the poor have been addressed somewhat with unions, social security, and medicaid. Whether these progressive policies are of genuine concern for the human condition, or just to increase the voter base of the rich party leaders can be debated, but they are part of the democratic party. The popularity of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocassio-Cortez and a few others is a continuation of rights for the lower class. The extreme hatred and resistance to these people by both party officials show the resistance from the rich, wealthy class to allow the poor to participate and have influence (See the upcoming articles on Democratic Voters vs. Democratic Party and Republican Voters vs. Republican Party).
One of the greatest benefits of the Constitution provided by the Founding Fathers, is that it allows for change. Much of the evolution of America has been in the expansion of civil rights as reflected in voting rights. Black people have fought for civil rights and voting rights and are now called African Americans to reflect the fact that they went from a group forced into slavery because of their skin color to a group of people that come from cultures and societies that are from another continent. Women fought for civil and voting rights to expand their roles from domestic affairs and baby-making to influence in economics and politics. The colonized people went from Indians and savages to now being called Indigenous People although their culture is not well honored. The term Indigenous People reflects the facts that there were over 500 cultures living here prior to colonization. Archeologists have found that these Indigenous groups have lived here for 12,000 to 20,000 years before the European Colonists arrived in modern times. The estimated population of Indigenous People in what is now the continental United States ranged from 12 million to 17 million at the beginning of English colonization in the year 1607. Over the 350 years of colonization and westward expansion of the continental United States, this number was reduced to 1 million in one of the biggest genocides in human history.
This potential change recognized by the founding fathers, at least to some degree, is, I believe, the current evolution of our society. Evolution is a universal law. The only thing that doesn't change is that everything changes. How things evolve is not so certain. Americans are in the process of expanding “All men are created equal”, “unalienable Rights [of] Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness “, “We the people”, “Justice”, “Tranquility”, “promote the general welfare”, and ”liberty for ourselves and our posterity” to not just include the original rich, white, men, but African Americans, women, Indigenous People, poor white people, LGBTQ and really everyone in the whole fucking world. We are in the process of expanding political rights and universal human rights to every human being. This is also occurring in many places across the world. In fact, I believe this is the next world wide evolution of politics.
And on a deeper level of evolution, we are learning that each human has a personal authority, a personal will, a human spirit, beliefs, thoughts, emotion that make us a unique individual that is alive and gives each one of us meaning as chosen and judged by ourselves. This is what we should encourage and develop and celebrate. Yes, each human has the capability to harm and destroy. But we are learning that the violence perpetrated on each other is the result of violence perpetrated on ourselves during our development as a human being and as a reflection of the values of our society. Violence is used as a control mechanism. Once we can heal our developmental wounds and get beyond the control mechanisms in our society, we open up a new dimension of possibilities and creativity based on human dignity and integrity. We become truly free.
So as you watch current events in politics, the media, and all actions of society knowing the Origin of American Politics, things will become much clearer. Are they just fostering the restriction of rights and input of the lower class as a control mechanism to foster the status quo of business values of excessive wealth creation of the aristocracy/oligarchy? Or are they on the side of fostering general welfare, happiness, justice, tranquility, creativity, dignity, and freedom for ALL?
NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT
When the United States of America was started, the founding fathers created a new form of government. The cause for the new government was addressed in a list of 27 oppressions (grievances) presented in the Declaration of Independence and the purpose was stated in the Preample of the Constitution. The purpose and moral justifications of the new government are primarily stated in the following two passages.
The Declaration of Independence states,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Constitution of the United States says [underlines added],
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
These are very beautiful words that express noble values. “All men are created equal”, “unalienable Rights [of] Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness “, “We the people”, “Justice”, “Tranquility”, “promote the general welfare”, ”liberty for ourselves and our posterity”. This sounds all inclusive, but it’s not. How did the founding fathers go from these general value statements to a practical system of government?
The government set up for the new country was a system where voters would elect the officials who ran the government (as opposed to the previous system of rule where the society was ruled by the King of Great Britain). A group of candidates was presented to the voters. The voters would then elect a representative who would become a government official. The elected officials were meant to represent the voters. Therefore, the election system consisted of voters, candidates, and elected officials.
There were very few requirements for a person to hold an elected position in the state legislatures or the federal government. They just had a few requirements that were mostly centered around age and residency. Therefore, theoretically, almost anyone could be elected to a government position or be a candidate.
In terms of voting, the Constitution contained no requirements on who could vote. Surprisingly, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights do not even guarantee American citizens the right to vote! Even to this day! Voting rights were (and currently are) left to the individual states. As it turns out, the State requirements on who could vote were extremely restrictive and are the source of prejudice in the laws of our government. The voting rights in the states at the time of the beginning of the United States of America were typically as follows:
Wealth. You had to be a property owner to vote. Poor people could not vote. Poor people of any race, creed, sex, etc. could not vote.
Male. When the declaration of independence states that all men are created equal, they meant men specifically. Women were not allowed to vote because they were women.
White (European Decent). Blacks were considered property and not men. Native Americans or “Indians” were not considered men either, but savages.
Age. The minimum voting age was 21.
Only rich, white, males could vote. Therefore only rich, white, males were elected. ”We the People of the United States” was then defined by “We the voters” to be rich men of white European decent. These rich, white, males ran the country according to their standards and their value system. The American Revolution and creation of the new country then changed the life of the rich white males who could vote, but it did not change life for the 680,000 slaves or the 2,200,000 white indentured servants, women, or Indigenous People. It is estimated that approximately 6% to 10% of the population voted in the first presidential election that elected George Washington.
So when the Declaration of Independence said “All men are created equal”, they meant men and not women; blacks were considered property; Indians were considered savages; and poor whites were considered ignorant and inferior.