Updates for Tuesday, January 25th [2005]

Here we ponder what would happen if James Madison, supposed "Father of the Constitution" and fourth President of the United States, had taken Jefferson's place in my story.

To the honorable State of the Internet,

It has been nary a year and one half since the unfortunate accident that brought me to this wretchedly loud place, but all is well it appears. It seems this modern and civilized society definitely has thoroughly divided itself into different interests and factions, as there happen to be creditors or debtors -- rich or poor -- husbandmen, merchants or manufacturers... everywhere that one might look. It is the method of human nature taken to a grand scale, which is somewhat to the better interest of us all. This larger America than before, surely has it's majorities divided into so many minorities that pluralities are hard to come by.

Paper money has indeed become the mischief of the central government, something I had feared only from the States before, many minorities I can see very oppressed before me to it. I have found that perhaps my council had been taken for granted by officials within the modern government, who totally neglect and ignore the State legislatures, at once it was to my surprise they took this advice and now I regret it fully. For I see the majority merely want more out of government, whether they disagree in other regards matters none, as government grows into a body of supreme power on account of it. That is the way I feared the States would go if left to their ends, never once thinking the Federal government would be so quick to fall to the bankers and aristocrats. I had certainly not forseen that all in Congress and the President himself would become so belligerent as to hold hostage the passage of good laws for the obnoxious gains of his party and constituents. Certainly my checks and balances were destined to fail to great and malignant corruption. A government without a proper Executive & Judiciary is indeed like a trunk of a man without arms or legs to move and act, however I did not foresee that once given his arms and legs they would act in concert to openly seize and oppress.

It seems to me that the vicious and reprehensible King of Great Britain levied powers that feign in comparison to the man who is President today, and that this man is not a good representative of the people, more importantly, that the citizen's Congress is not a good representative of their interests either. Surely no good or just society would seek the fatal encroachment of liberty by the General Government today, even the modern man's fat squalor.

It is with my great regrets, that in the Constitution which our delegations created, that there was no prefixed declaration telling these people such as this: "That all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from the people. That government is instituted, and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution." For surely, most of these people in the modern times, have forgotten this simple yet elegant truth about their government. I see now the purpose for a bill of rights, and wish that it was written perhaps more fluently, for the common wisdom of yesterday has turned into the common ignorance of today. Particularly, I regret most the wording of the very first amendment. It should there have been doubly noted that no national religion shall be established, and no infringements of any pretext be made, by government, as I fear too well that the churches dictate all too much how this modern world governs. That the freedom of speech, a great bulwark of liberty, should remain involiable, the Federal Communications Commission does not seem to understand this very well. Likewise, the provision protecting peaceful assemblies is selectively ignored and enforced, as too often I have witnessed television broadcast of riots where no guard helps the people, where they cannot be considered peaceful by any means, and too often traffic backed up and cities quartered off for special government functions, prohibiting not only peaceful assembly to "free speech zones" but even interrupting the steady flow of business.

It may be said, in some instances the values that created this government do no more than state the perfect equality of mankind; this to be sure is an absolute truth, and while I once believed it was not absolutely necessary to be inserted at the head of a constitution, it is not until I could see the descendants of our settlements that I must say, that surely we as the land's fathers failed in not providing this basic truth to you, our youth, with more clarity.

Adieu, Yr. Affy.

- James Madison