Understanding the Constitution #9 - It's More Fragile Than We Think
Americans are used to thinking of the Constitution as the cornerstone of the foundation of our public life, as the lodestar of our civic future. It is the longest living written constitution in the world, so our reverence for it is understandable. But, like all living things, it is subject to disease and mortality.
This was especially true in the Constitution's childhood. When the nation under the Constitution was only eight years old, on September 19, 1796, President George Washington told the nation that he would not serve a third term as president. His Farewell Address, as it has since been called, was written as both warning and entreaty.
Washington longed for retirement. Tired of political infighting and beaten up by opponents during his second term, he had written Thomas Jefferson just two months earlier that "every act of my administration is tortured, in such exaggerated and indecent terms, as could scarcely be applied to Nero, to a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket.”
Washington was no intellectual or political theorist. He led no political party (there were none yet). He was a man of experience - Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, president of the Constitutional Convention, and twice elected unanimously by the Electoral College. So he offered "sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people."
His first, and overarching, plea was for Americans to cherish unity, "indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest." He recognized that a nation torn apart by divisions could not preserve its liberty against either internal or external enemies. A companion plea urged respect for the Constitution, " the offspring of our own choice . . . adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation." The Constitution was at that point the only thing that asked people in thirteen diverse states to define themselves as Americans.
Washington saw self-interest, as the most serious threat. It would propel people to form "factions" that would put "in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community." Unchecked, factions could "become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government."
These factions, he warned, would contest in alternating grabs for power, which would frustrate and anger the people. "The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."
The Constitution and its separation of powers would need to be the bulwark against the demagogues and despotism, but this demanded the three branches of government "confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism."
If this sounds all too familiar today, it is a testament to Washington's foresight and a condemnation of our proclivity for ignoring him. Our generation is not alone, but it too bears the responsibility for constraining the power of factions, for preventing the rise of demagogues, for understanding and honoring the Constitution, and for preventing the concentration of power in one branch of government.
Washington understood that elections could not be counted on to solve the problem. Electoral majorities, especially when won by demagogues, could too easily lead to tyranny by placing government in the hands of unprincipled people. Besides, once the majority has spoken at the polls, what is the alternative save the next election or revolution? The mechanisms of government could thus be too easily subverted, so Washington reminded us that "virtue or morality" are essential to preserve liberty.
Every year since 1896, on his birthday, Washington's Farewell Address is read aloud in the Senate. That honors his sentiments, though they seem too quickly forgotten. Washington understood this too. Near the close of his address, he said about his counsels: "I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But . . . that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism, this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated."
We need more of Washington's wisdom, and the courage to act on it.
Photo Credit: Tracy Lee Carroll
