0/5/2015 Lost Secrets Of The Founding Fathers Reveled
http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/lost-secrets-of-founding-fathers-revealed/ 'They wrote about financial corruption, crony capitalism, moral degeneration in ways that are simply stunning'
Americas Founding Fathers left succeeding generations a wonderful gift, according to a scholar who has studied and written about the Founders. However, he believes too many Americans today fail to appreciate it.
It was like [the Founders] wrenched an immense and very amazing piece of gold from the earth called self-government, said Joshua Charles during a recent appearance on Dennis Pragers radio show. But when they did it, there was still quite a bit of dirt on it you know, s***ery, other things like that.
But what Im worried about is that the Left, the academia, you know, however you want to phrase it they make everything about the dirt. And so the great danger in my eyes is that in acknowledging the dirt, we use it as an excuse to do away with the gold.
Charles, a WND columnist, is well acquainted with both the gold and the dirt. He spent five to six years combing through thousands of pages of speeches, letters, diary entries and other lesser-known writings of Americas Founding Fathers.
The result was his recently released book Libertys Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of Americas Founders.
Theres a lot more than people realize, the author revealed. Theres the Declaration, theres the Constitution, theres the Federalist Papers, which were all of course wonderful, but theres letters, theres diary entries, theres newspaper editorials.
Theres even books. John Adams, for example, wrote a massive three-volume tome, The Defense of the Constitutional Government of the United States, and its an immense historical survey basically putting forward the idea of separation of powers. So theres all sorts of stuff that people have no idea about and which I see rarely quoted, rarely referenced.
Unfortunately, the 27-year-old Charles doubts whether his fellow millennials would fully appreciate all the writings he has dug up and documented in his book.
He shared an anecdote that happened when he was touring the National Archives in Washington, D.C., recently. While he was gazing at the original Declaration of Independence, he overheard a group of teenage girls ask a National Archives staff member, Whats the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?
Charles was incredulous.
I was thinking to myself, These young women have been in public education for a decade or longer most likely, and they dont even know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, he said.
Charles and Prager, the host, both worried that young people would initially think white male Christian s***e owner if they saw the writings Charles dug up. Charles acknowledged s***ery was a great stain on our nations history, but he urged listeners not to lose focus on the unique nature of Americas founding.
The United States was the first nation in the world to be established by reasoned consent of its people, he said. It wasnt by war, it wasnt by happenstance, it wasnt by conquest. We had a war for independence, but the actual establishment of our government, the Constitution, that was peaceful. It was through debate, it was through reason, and that was the first time that had happened in human history.
In recent months, Democrats in some states have tried to distance themselves from one Founder in particular: Thomas Jefferson. Party committees in Georgia, Connecticut, Missouri and Iowa have v**ed to rename their annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinners because Jefferson owned s***es and Andrew Jackson relocated thousands of Native Americans from the South. At least six other states are considering the same move.
Charles urges Democrats not to let Jeffersons s***e ownership override all the great things he did for America. In addition, the author pointed to one passage from his book that he said demonstrates Jefferson was not a r****t. In 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens gave his famous Cornerstone Speech.
He specifically references Jeffersons ideas, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, Charles said. And not only does he specifically reference them, he specifically eschews them
[He] said the Confederacy is based on the exact opposite.
Indeed, Stephens stated: Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great t***h that the negro is not equal to the white man; that s***ery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.
Take note, says Charles: a Confederate official claimed his r****t ideals were exactly the opposite of Jeffersons.
Of course, Jefferson and the other Founders wrote about more than just s***ery. Charles revealed that, while researching for the book, he discovered numerous writings on issues people still care about today.
One thing I discovered is youll go through their writings and theres so many things that are utterly relevant today, he said. I actually coined a phrase I called a one-niner. Whenever Id be reading, Id put it in the margins, and it comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9 Theres nothing new under the sun.
You can read so much of what they wrote. They wrote about banks, they wrote about financial corruption, they wrote about what we call crony capitalism, they wrote about moral degeneration, they wrote about education in ways that are simply stunning.
Prager, who is also a WND columnist, offered effusive praise for Charles, calling him a living, breathing reason for optimism for the United States.
The host said he was so impressed with Charles book that he agreed to write the foreword.
So he has written this book, and it is so good that I have to say that if you read three books on what America stands for and its founders stand for, this has to be one of them, Prager enthused. And if it was the only one, you would do well.