Our Founding Fathers

I am suffocating under papers. The “second” bedroom I use as an office is like Van Gogh’s room under a haystack of paper. Piles thick as telephone books sit in a row on my desk, with a letters waiting to be answered stand propped up behind the telephone. Behind me on the twin bed's blue bedspread is littered with financial statements, Christmas cards, and notes on various scraps of paper. Old magazines are stacked up on the one chair.

I have not yet succumbed to dropping papers on the floor. But I have no idea what unfinished business lurks hidden behind the closet door.

Never mind. While looking for something else — isn’t that always the way? – I found the old envelope on which I scrawled a note while watching Book TV this weekend. I wanted to remember Gordon Wood's "Empire of Liberty."

The title comes from how the Founding Fathers referred to our country. Historian Wood talked about how these men could not foresee the changes in the United States in the first 40 years, between 1789 and 1830. Our Founding Fathers lived to see the new nation change in ways they could not have imagined.

The men who drafted the Constitution did not foresee political parties. They lived in a small, sparsely settled, agrarian country where “propertied” men would select leaders from their own class. The Electoral College chose George Washington as our first President without a single vote for any other person.

In 1790 the United States had a population of about 4 million (less than Dallas today). By 1830 it had grown to 10 million. The right to vote was extended, and the new voters were not all wealthy landowners. Political parties were formed and determined elections. Andrew Jackson was the first to be elected by “popular” vote. (Sarah Palin courts a similar electorate.)

Thomas Jefferson, with his brilliant mind, envisioned a nation of farmers. By his death he deplored the increasing numbers living in towns and cities. He could not have imagined an industrial nation where less than 3% of our people live on farms.

Among the social changes in those first 40 years was the spread of religion. In 1760 there were no Methodists in the Colonies. (People who say, “America was founded as a Christian nation,” don’t know their history.) By 1830 the Methodists had become the dominate religion, with other evangelistic groups, such as the Baptists, rapidly gaining converts.

My reaction: Today we hear that our laws should be interpreted in the way “the authors of the Constitution intended.” This is not possible. This is not the same kind of nation. The Founding Fathers lived in a small nation with a mostly homogeneous population. Today we are a giant nation with a widely diverse population. The important thing is to assure “Liberty and justice for all.” That is endangered by Supreme Court “justices” who let their narrow, outdated views restrict their interpretation of the Constitution.