Episode one introduces the series, then covers the Articles of Confederation,…
Confounding Father - Episode 4
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
The ratification battle still echoes in American politics - Luther Martin published and spoke vehemently against the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights was a concession to opponents and not favored by many famous Founders. The U.S. Constitution has become more democratic and thus upends the original intention of the framers, but does it still primarily protect white elites? Epilogue on Luther Martin.
Confounding Father is available for individual streaming via OVID.tv.
. . . has made me, a professional historian, want to rush to the nearest library, read the historians’ books in full, and contemplate anew how a country originally organized around opposition to tyranny and coercion rather quickly made the watershed move at the Constitutional Convention to lay the groundwork for a country now characterized by authoritarianism and disregard for democracy. - Rev. Ellin Jimmerson, PhD
Citation
Main credits
Hall, Richard R. (film director)
Hall, Richard R. (film producer)
Hall, Richard R. (videographer)
Hall, Richard R. (editor of moving image work)
Browne-Marshall, Gloria J. (interviewee)
Distributor subjects
No distributor subjects provided.Keywords
WEBVTT
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♫ Here\'s a tale you ought to know about the Constitution and a man who thought it ♫
00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:27.510
♫ did reverse the revolution. Luther Martin
lost the fight, forgotten is his glory ♫
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♫ drink some coffee, sit up straight, we\'re
going to tell his story ♫
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There has been no revision these
amendments supplement the Constitution.
00:00:38.350 --> 00:00:44.319
They do not change it, of course! George
Mason who truly supports the Bill of
00:00:44.319 --> 00:00:50.620
Rights and is a libertarian at that
level is certainly somebody worth
00:00:50.620 --> 00:00:55.359
reading on the other hand it\'s important
to remember Mason owns 250 or 300 slaves,
00:00:55.359 --> 00:01:01.510
and so there\'s something kind of ironic
about him talking about liberty during
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the Revolution that British Tory Samuel
Johnson said why is it that we hear the
00:01:06.190 --> 00:01:11.590
greatest yelps for liberty from the
drivers of Negroes and and that\'s that\'s
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something that Americans need to think
about as well. Of course the Bill of
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Rights is ignored for a century. The court
pays no attention, now that\'s the only
00:01:21.670 --> 00:01:25.510
thing to take care about is the Bill of
Rights, but for a century that you don\'t
00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:28.640
get court decisions hinging on the Bill of Rights.
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...reject the advice of those political
quacks, who under pretence of healing the
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disorders of our present government,
would urge you rashly to gulp down a
00:02:02.710 --> 00:02:08.170
constitution which in its present form
unaltered and unamended would be a
00:02:08.170 --> 00:02:15.069
certain death to your liberty as arsenic
could be to your bodies. Under the
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Articles of Confederation required all
thirteen states to amend the Articles.
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The Constitution when it was sent out
from Philadelphia had a provision that,
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you know, it took effect upon
ratification by nine states. This was
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this was astonishing to the
anti-federalists and the defenders of
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the Articles of Confederation. One of the
great questions in American history is
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how was it that the founding fathers who
knew they were writing an
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anti-democratic document and said so in
the privacy of the Constitutional
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Convention were able to impose this Constitution on the
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American people, and you know it\'s not like
they did it by military coup they set up
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these ratifying conventions all of that
was illegal under the Articles of
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Confederation, but it was a pretty
democratic setup. They you know there
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was disproportion, the West as usual
didn\'t get as many representatives in
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the conventions as the East did and
there were things like that and of
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course the vast majority of people
couldn\'t vote because they were either
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female, or enslaved, or didn\'t own
property and so forth but of course that
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had been the case before so you can say
that\'s on both sides of the equation.
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So how did they do it? Well number one is
they lied repeatedly to the voters about
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why they\'d written the Constitution and
about what it would do. That old rascal
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Hamilton at the New York ratifying
convention, essentially lies about his
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role in Philadelphia.
Hamilton tells them that he was the, you
00:03:55.450 --> 00:03:59.440
know, that he was solicitous of the
rights of states during the convention
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and then in fact this Constitution
protects and even empowers the states
00:04:04.510 --> 00:04:09.400
and they\'re saying no that\'s not
possible, this you know this is a
00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:14.100
constitution in some ways looks forward
to the diminishment of state power,
00:04:14.100 --> 00:04:19.810
but they had no record with which to
compare, you know, what Hamilton is saying
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now what he said in the convention. So,
the secrecy rule put the
00:04:23.710 --> 00:04:26.530
anti-federalists at a tremendous
disadvantage.
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Many of the anti-federalists in the
ratifying conventions tend to be
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middling sorts who are not well educated,
and this of course gave a tremendous
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advantage to the Federalists, but what is
amazing to me is how effective they are
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in their speeches. They\'re terrific in
the debates, they give these
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college-educated people like in New York,
Hamilton and Livingston,
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Melancton Smith gives these guys a run for
their money. He\'s a terrific debater,
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brings up wonderful issues as does
Martin. Of course Martin is a Princeton
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graduate so he\'s not socially
representative of many of the
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anti-federalists, so he\'s a little bit of
an anomaly in that sense.
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I\'d say the single biggest reason that
enough people came around to support the
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Constitution to get it adopted was that
it would cut their taxes.
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The Revolutionary War had been expensive, a
huge number of bonds floating around
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after the war, mostly bought up by
speculators, to pay off those bonds the
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states had adopted incredibly high taxes,
high enough in Massachusetts to cause
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Shay\'s rebellion and also to cause
rebellions in other states and one of
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the things that the Constitution did was
offer the prospect of tax relief.
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The Constitution offered tax relief in
kind of an ironic way because it creates a
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new government that can also tax you,
that is you\'re living in the state of
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Maryland, the federal government can now
tax you and so can the state government
00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:14.139
of Maryland. It can\'t do quite all the
taxes it couldn\'t before but can still
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do lots of taxes. Double taxation would
actually result in a tax cut because the
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federal government could tax merchandise
as it entered American ports and get
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most of the revenue it needed that way
and that was actually a lot cheaper,
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a lot easier on farmers because there\'s no
money in circulation in the countryside
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and we don\'t have to get money out of
the farmers anymore because we\'re gonna
00:06:37.870 --> 00:06:42.819
get most of it from the merchants, and so
at least in the short term the
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Constitution promised small farmers a
tax cut, and it delivered that promise.
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Unfortunately the short term turned out
to be very short for many farmers
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because in order to take over paying off
the state\'s debts for the Revolutionary
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War, Congress adopted a new tax; an
excise on whiskey and that was so
00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:09.759
onerous that it led to the Whiskey
Rebellion, not just in western Pennsylvania
00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:13.479
it also happened in Kentucky and
Connecticut and other states as well.
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I think that if there had been a modern
kind of voting and a modern referendum
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the Constitution would
have been opposed I mean the majority of
00:07:22.629 --> 00:07:27.460
people were probably opposed it but the
politics of it as described by
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Pauline Maier in her book on
ratification are interesting because one
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after the other the states, and they have
to, keep the Federalist are brilliant
00:07:35.219 --> 00:07:38.710
political organisers,
and when they see in New Hampshire that
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it\'s going the wrong way well
let\'s postpone convention send the
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people back get it get another take on
this and bring them back, and they you
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know that votes are very close. It\'s
almost impossible for us to conceive
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today that people were, many people, were
opposed to the color of the ratification
00:07:55.599 --> 00:08:02.169
of the Constitution in 1787, 1788 you
know we have this consensus view of
00:08:02.169 --> 00:08:07.300
American history, you know, in which
anytime it was a great quarrel clearly
00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:10.629
there were there were the white hats and
the black hats and after a certain
00:08:10.629 --> 00:08:15.219
struggle the white hats won, and we
forget the black hats we paint devil
00:08:15.219 --> 00:08:21.580
tales on them, and then we forget them. In
the Maryland ratifying convention Luther
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Martin he arrived late which was a
disaster because it was a very short
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convention. He had laryngitis and said
nothing
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so his role was not what you would call
influential. This guy who could not shut
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up and he arrives in Annapolis and he couldn\'t talk.
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♫ Maryland would now decide, does this plan unite us? ♫
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♫ Luther Martin came to fight, but he had laryngitis ♫
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♫ Constitution won the day, opponents are forgotten ♫
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♫ To the victor go the spoils and losers they are rotten ♫
00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:10.240
There was much dissension, but we finally
ratified the Constitution on the
00:09:10.279 --> 00:09:14.330
condition that it be amended at the
first session of the new National
00:09:14.330 --> 00:09:22.320
Congress, and it was by ten amendments
called the Bill of Rights.
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The anti-federalists do win a concession:
the Bill of Rights. You know which
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Madison, and Hamilton, and Wilson, etc. had
resisted strongly saying there\'s no need
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for it you know you can trust us you can
trust the central government it\'s not
00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:45.100
going to exceed its powers.
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First of all the idea of the Bill of
Rights that the anti-federalists wanted was
00:09:57.930 --> 00:10:03.180
structural they wanted real changes, you
know, limiting the taxing power, limiting
00:10:03.180 --> 00:10:09.660
the presidency, and what Madison does is
take 200 amendments that the various
00:10:09.660 --> 00:10:14.820
states had proposed and sort through
them and come up with, he comes up
00:10:14.820 --> 00:10:20.070
about 12. There are now but 12 amendments
to our Constitution which would require
00:10:20.070 --> 00:10:27.300
your approval or recommendation to the
state. Expressed originally in many more,
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they represent the honoring of pledges
made, not to disgruntled factions
00:10:32.670 --> 00:10:38.820
advocating revision of our fundamental
law, but to patriotic Americans who made
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that law effective and desire now its
strengthening. So, Madison kind of outwits
00:10:45.390 --> 00:10:49.830
the anti-federalists and that\'s why they
call the Bill of Rights that\'s proposed
00:10:49.830 --> 00:10:55.410
a \"tub for the whale\", because you know
sailors when they\'re out and a whale is
00:10:55.410 --> 00:10:59.070
coming at them they throw a tub
overboard victory area would be diverted,
00:10:59.070 --> 00:11:01.440
a diversion.
00:11:09.280 --> 00:11:15.280
Many of the anti-federalists were
completely disappointed with the Bill of
00:11:15.330 --> 00:11:20.630
Rights because they wanted much more
fundamental changes in the Constitution.
00:11:20.630 --> 00:11:25.620
They wanted to make it harder for
Congress to adopt navigation acts, that
00:11:25.620 --> 00:11:32.060
is laws favoring American manufacturers
over imports from overseas. They wanted
00:11:32.060 --> 00:11:36.960
to shift some of the taxing power back
from the federal government to the
00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:43.020
states. Some wanted, a very few wanted, to
allow the states to print paper money
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which the Constitution prohibits them
from doing and that really would have
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wiped out the Constitution in the eyes
of its authors because that\'s one of the
00:11:49.170 --> 00:11:52.590
main things Constitution does, it
prohibits the states from printing paper
00:11:52.590 --> 00:11:56.520
money. Here\'s Patrick Henry,
anti-federalist, on the idea of
00:11:56.520 --> 00:12:00.510
ratifying the Constitution with the hope
or promise that a Bill of Rights would
00:12:00.510 --> 00:12:05.220
later be attached: \"only a crazy man
would buy a defective machine in hope of
00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:09.930
repairing it afterward\". They were saying
this Constitution allows for too much
00:12:09.930 --> 00:12:14.420
power in the federal government, that\'s
why we need to have changes made
00:12:14.420 --> 00:12:19.080
amendments and they didn\'t have in mind
what Madison proposed that became the
00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:23.130
Bill of Rights, they wanted restrictions
on the power to raise money and the
00:12:23.130 --> 00:12:28.230
power to raise men. Now, they lost on that.
There has been no revision, these
00:12:28.230 --> 00:12:35.000
amendments supplement the Constitution
they do not change it. Of course we feel
00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:40.740
comfortable with the critics of the
Constitution because as we see it they
00:12:40.740 --> 00:12:47.520
argued for greater support for rights
and certainly the most popular part of
00:12:47.520 --> 00:12:53.160
the Constitution is the first
ten amendments, what we call the Bill of
00:12:53.160 --> 00:12:59.970
Rights. George Mason, who truly supports
the Bill of Rights and is a libertarian
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at that level is certainly somebody
worth reading. On the other hand it\'s
00:13:03.990 --> 00:13:08.400
important to remember
Mason owns 250 or 300 slaves, and so
00:13:08.400 --> 00:13:13.800
there\'s something kind of ironic about
him talking about liberty. During the
00:13:13.800 --> 00:13:18.270
Revolution that British Tory Samuel
Johnson said, \"why is it that we hear the
00:13:18.270 --> 00:13:23.070
greatest yelps for liberty
from the drivers of Negroes?\"
00:13:23.070 --> 00:13:27.870
And that\'s something that Americans
need to think about as well. Of course
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the Bill of Rights is ignored for a
century, the court pays no attention.
00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:36.400
Now, that\'s the only thing that they care about
is Bill of Rights, but for a century
00:13:36.400 --> 00:13:40.960
you don\'t get Court decisions
hinging on the Bill of Rights until after
00:13:40.980 --> 00:13:50.010
the Civil War. The country became
democratic in 1868, in 1870, 1868 with the
00:13:50.010 --> 00:13:53.930
14th amendment in 1870 when it gave
black men the right to vote and
00:13:53.930 --> 00:13:59.520
immediately upon the heels of doing that
became undemocratic once those rights
00:13:59.520 --> 00:14:05.190
were being exercised and the Supreme
Court failed to uphold those rights and
00:14:05.190 --> 00:14:12.090
support the democracy it claimed it was
supposed to be supporting, it failed then
00:14:12.090 --> 00:14:20.130
until it reached 1965 with a Voting
Rights Act and then once again failed
00:14:20.130 --> 00:14:29.100
this nation in June of 2013 when Chief
Justice John Roberts continued in what
00:14:29.100 --> 00:14:36.810
he had started over 20 years ago which
which was his theory on how to gut the
00:14:36.810 --> 00:14:41.910
Voting Rights Act, and that\'s the opinion
he wrote in Shelby County versus Holder.
00:14:41.910 --> 00:14:48.720
The preclearance provision that we now
find undermined again, the democracy we
00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:51.040
claim to have in this country.
00:15:01.680 --> 00:15:06.000
There is an irony in saying we should
worship the founding fathers for giving
00:15:06.030 --> 00:15:08.970
us gun rights, and freedom of speech, and
freedom of Liberty, and no unlawful search
00:15:08.970 --> 00:15:12.870
and seizure, because they didn\'t give us any of that
stuff! Now Luther Martin demanded a Bill of
00:15:12.880 --> 00:15:20.240
Rights, but as an opponent of the Constitution, it was sort of a side issue for him almost.
00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:24.240
He noted that \"had the government
been formed upon principles truly
00:15:24.250 --> 00:15:27.940
federal as I wished it there would have
been no need of a Bill of Rights.\"
00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:32.860
Madison of course says that a Bill of
Rights is a parchment barrier, that it
00:15:32.860 --> 00:15:36.040
won\'t do any good
and he\'s seen that in Virginia over and
00:15:36.040 --> 00:15:40.750
over again, and if you think about the
fact that within seven years after the
00:15:40.750 --> 00:15:45.160
passage of the Bill of Rights, we passed
the Sedition Act, and then in World War I
00:15:45.160 --> 00:15:48.790
President Wilson gets Congress to pass
00:15:48.790 --> 00:15:54.010
first the Sedition Act and then the
Espionage Act which makes basically free
00:15:54.010 --> 00:16:00.160
speech illegal if you oppose the war
effort in any way. I mean there\'s a movie
00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:04.840
banned during World War I about the
American Revolution because it puts our
00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:10.510
British allies in a bad light. This is
absurd! So at one level Madison is
00:16:10.510 --> 00:16:13.930
right that it\'s a parchment barrier and
another level of course he later comes
00:16:13.930 --> 00:16:17.290
to the conclusion that having this on
paper is a good thing because it gives
00:16:17.290 --> 00:16:24.280
us something to try to achieve. Now we
had a nation, a constitution, and a Bill
00:16:24.280 --> 00:16:29.560
of Rights with provision for further
amendments. It was up to us to protect
00:16:29.560 --> 00:16:30.880
these privileges.
00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:35.360
What happened?
00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:42.760
Well that got the idea across.
00:16:42.760 --> 00:16:44.880
I\'ll have this gizmo fixed in a second.
00:16:44.880 --> 00:16:49.640
Then put on something easier to take, a rootin\' tootin\' Western. Men fighting it out the old fashioned way.
00:17:01.800 --> 00:17:04.920
Now did they solve every problem? You know, of course not.
00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:08.720
But they started that foundation that through the years could expand
00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:12.600
and really live up to that promise of \"We the People\" and \"all men created equal\".
00:17:12.600 --> 00:17:20.680
They were radical ideas, they\'re still radical ideas in lots of places.W hat gives you hope for the future?
00:17:20.709 --> 00:17:27.280
My hope for the future rests in my faith in
a god and it\'s been said I believe by
00:17:27.280 --> 00:17:37.470
Dr. Woodson that the European lost their
Christianity in the Middle Passage and
00:17:37.470 --> 00:17:44.980
maybe that\'s where Africans gained theirs.
I have a faith in a sense of what is
00:17:44.980 --> 00:17:49.540
right and that this is earth, this is not
heaven and on earth there will always be
00:17:49.540 --> 00:17:54.340
battles and as long as people know that
this is a battle and that they\'re ready
00:17:54.340 --> 00:18:00.700
to come in with a value system that\'s
not based in rhetoric of this American
00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:07.030
dream and the praise of the founding
fathers, just for their existence, but
00:18:07.030 --> 00:18:12.850
looking at this from a very practical
standpoint. The anti-federalists lost decisively
00:18:12.850 --> 00:18:18.640
and their heirs had been losing
decisively for 225 years and yet there
00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:23.590
are American political movements that I
think have the anti-federalists as a
00:18:23.590 --> 00:18:28.510
kind of wellspring or source who worry
particularly about the corrosive effects
00:18:28.510 --> 00:18:35.410
of military Empire on America. Senator
William Fulbright, the Arkansan, Fulbright
00:18:35.410 --> 00:18:38.530
said the price of empire is America\'s soul
and that price is too high.
00:18:38.530 --> 00:18:45.710
He said that in the mid 1960s
as Vietnam was deteriorating into it
00:18:45.710 --> 00:18:51.110
became and that\'s very much an anti-federalist sentiment. I think that the
00:18:51.110 --> 00:18:59.690
best antidote to the empire is
recovering a sense of place. No matter
00:18:59.690 --> 00:19:03.710
where you are, it can be it can be your
hometown, it can be the place you live
00:19:03.710 --> 00:19:07.669
now, but you know Booker T Washington
once said cast down your bucket where
00:19:07.669 --> 00:19:12.799
you are. That means knowing your
neighbors, that means supporting local
00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:20.149
businesses, local music, local artists, and
I see great hope in these things and
00:19:20.149 --> 00:19:23.360
they completely transcend any kind of
liberal conservative left/right
00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:27.040
boundaries, all that red state blue state
nonsense.
00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:34.309
Most anti-federalists believed to much
greater extent than the men who wrote
00:19:34.309 --> 00:19:40.280
the Constitution that ordinary Americans
have the capacity to govern themselves
00:19:40.280 --> 00:19:47.059
and the Constitution made a supreme,
powerful, statement that ordinary people
00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:53.150
can\'t rule themselves and a lot has
changed since 1787, but that issue is
00:19:53.150 --> 00:19:59.270
still out there. There is still a
fundamental question about where is the
00:19:59.270 --> 00:20:05.720
problem? Is the problem that ordinary
voters want to be freeloaders and get
00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:09.950
free stuff from the government? Or is the
problem that there are wealthy interests
00:20:09.950 --> 00:20:15.470
who have too much power in Washington?
And that\'s the same battle that there
00:20:15.470 --> 00:20:20.780
was between the federalists the anti-
federalists. We the people of the United
00:20:20.780 --> 00:20:27.679
States in order to form a more perfect
union.. Is there a need to re-examine the
00:20:27.679 --> 00:20:31.940
structure of government? Well I think there are enormous
00:20:31.940 --> 00:20:36.890
problems with the structure the American
government. I don\'t know that a
00:20:36.890 --> 00:20:41.380
constitutional convention would be the
way to solve it. One could only imagine
00:20:41.380 --> 00:20:47.570
what kind of circus that could become
today. It would not be held in closed
00:20:47.570 --> 00:20:51.080
doors
it would not be leak-proof. It would not
00:20:51.080 --> 00:21:00.169
allow for a philosophical debate over
government. In terms of dysfunctional
00:21:00.169 --> 00:21:04.910
yeah we\'re kind of dysfunctional right
now, we have had dysfunctionality before
00:21:04.910 --> 00:21:11.450
I think of 1860, 1861. But we have
conventions, and developments, customs
00:21:11.450 --> 00:21:14.360
that have that have created this
government.
00:21:14.360 --> 00:21:20.549
I mean political parties, the
the agencies, the various federal
00:21:20.549 --> 00:21:24.239
agencies. They\'re not part of the
Constitution, they just develop. We have a
00:21:24.239 --> 00:21:31.529
whole structure of government that\'s
arisen that supplements fills in the
00:21:31.529 --> 00:21:35.820
Constitution. It\'s a very small document.
Jefferson and Madison would be shocked at
00:21:35.820 --> 00:21:40.470
the extent of the power that the
national government has, but some others
00:21:40.470 --> 00:21:44.729
like Hamilton would be delighted, this is
what he wanted all along. You know he
00:21:44.729 --> 00:21:49.499
would be delighted with the Pentagon and
the CIA and the whole vast apparatus
00:21:49.499 --> 00:21:53.279
that was his dream. It was not
Jefferson\'s at all. What is this
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:59.399
country? Why was it created? What are the
consequences of the mechanisms of
00:21:59.399 --> 00:22:04.710
creation and as we are looking at today
going into the future has this growing
00:22:04.710 --> 00:22:10.789
population of people of color will then
become the majority of the United States
00:22:10.789 --> 00:22:17.909
will this constitution be able to
protect the rights of those people?
00:22:17.909 --> 00:22:26.309
Or will it be changed in a way that creates
an apartheid state? That is a question
00:22:26.309 --> 00:22:31.409
that concerns me, but since I know that
people of color have battled against
00:22:31.409 --> 00:22:37.739
more than this, then I look forward to
what we have to do to fight for full
00:22:37.739 --> 00:22:44.309
citizenship. To us, and to each new
generation to come is the continuing
00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:53.280
challenge to preserve for ourselves and
our posterity the blessings of liberty.
00:22:56.120 --> 00:23:02.539
If you think that the current American
state is is too large, too intrusive,
00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:09.379
too war-like, too hostile to personal
liberties and community integrity then
00:23:09.379 --> 00:23:14.330
blame in part the Constitution. I would
say that the Constitution is sort of a
00:23:14.330 --> 00:23:20.450
slur on the capacity of ordinary
Americans, as originally written, and the
00:23:20.450 --> 00:23:25.200
Constitution has become a much more
democratic document. In doing so it has
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:29.720
countered the original intent of the
founding fathers
00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:45.440
Luther Martin had bet on the wrong
horse in 1787, but his neighbors did not
00:23:45.450 --> 00:23:50.159
punish him for it. He would serve 30
years as Maryland\'s Attorney General, the
00:23:50.159 --> 00:23:53.059
longest such tenure in any state in our
history.
00:23:53.059 --> 00:23:57.090
Martin would serve as counsel for the
defense in two of the great state trials
00:23:57.090 --> 00:24:01.440
of the early republic, the defense of US
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, his
00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:05.850
old Maryland patron, against removal from
office after his impeachment and the
00:24:05.850 --> 00:24:10.230
treason trial of Aaron Burr. Both men
were acquitted in no small part because
00:24:10.230 --> 00:24:14.580
of the brilliant defense offered by
Martin. And what\'s fascinating is is that
00:24:14.580 --> 00:24:21.119
he\'s Attorney General of Maryland for a
very long time and he is a delegate to
00:24:21.119 --> 00:24:25.980
the Constitutional Convention. He is a
powerhouse in Maryland politics. He\'s a
00:24:25.980 --> 00:24:31.080
powerhouse in the Maryland legal
community, despite the fact that even his
00:24:31.080 --> 00:24:37.789
friends find him almost unbearable. He is
I think known in Baltimore as \"attorney
00:24:37.789 --> 00:24:46.379
brandy bottle\". What alcohol had not
numbed, a severe stroke polished off.
00:24:46.379 --> 00:24:50.369
The light went out but the motor still ran.
There are stories of Martin in Baltimore in
00:24:50.369 --> 00:24:54.919
the early 1820s wandering the streets
in frayed old clothes,
00:24:54.919 --> 00:25:00.840
partly demented, partially drunk, gnawing
on gingerbread. Sometimes wandering in
00:25:00.840 --> 00:25:07.049
and out of courtrooms. Yet, even in his
pathetic final years and the slough of
00:25:07.049 --> 00:25:12.480
senility, Martin was still respected by
his neighbors. you know. History may
00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:17.909
record him is this gadfly, but the people
of Maryland respected what he had done.
00:25:17.909 --> 00:25:22.919
In fact, he was paid an unprecedented and
unrepeated honor. The state of Maryland
00:25:22.919 --> 00:25:27.149
levied a tax of five dollars on every
lawyer in order to defray the expenses
00:25:27.149 --> 00:25:31.110
of his penniless old man. This is not a
tribute of state pays to its bums and
00:25:31.110 --> 00:25:38.460
gadflies. In his absolute final years,
Aaron Burr never forgot that Martin had
00:25:38.460 --> 00:25:43.169
stood by him in his hour of need,
and so when Luther Martin was gone into
00:25:43.169 --> 00:25:46.530
senility, reduced by drinking age to a
babbling old man
00:25:46.530 --> 00:25:52.230
rested threadbare wandering the streets,
Aaron Burr took him in. His final days
00:25:52.230 --> 00:25:58.110
Martin lived in Burr\'s home in New York
City. Luther Martin died July 10, 1826
00:25:58.110 --> 00:26:03.120
which was just six days after the
providential death of Jefferson and
00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:05.730
Adams on the same day, the fiftieth
anniversary of the signing of the
00:26:05.730 --> 00:26:12.000
Declaration. He was buried in Manhattan
and his grave is unmarked. It was in fact
00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:19.050
paved over, we have a general idea of
where he\'s buried but there\'s not even a
00:26:19.050 --> 00:26:21.080
marker.
Distributor: Nerds Make Media
Length: 28 minutes
Date: 2020
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Closed Captioning: Available
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