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logo    Promoting Democracy to Make the World Safer


The President, as he stated in the State of the Union address, wants to commit America to a policy of promoting democracy throughout the world, an extension of the latest justification for the war in Iraq. His view is that a more democratic world would be more peaceful and secure. What kind of historical studies he bases this belief on are unknown. Perhaps he thinks that such studies are unnecessary.

What he and others fail to realize, however, is that the founders of this nation considered that question? Opponents of the Constitution were of the opinion that union was unnecessary, but others thought that disunion would lead to conflicts between the colonies. So Hamilton addressed the subject in Federalist Number Six.

He asks, "Have republics in practice been less addicted to war than monarchies?" And then goes on with this: "Sparta, Athens, Rome, and Carthage were all republics. . . . Yet they were as often engaged in wars, offensive and defensive, as the neighboring monarchies of the same times. . . .Carthage, though a commercial republic, was the aggressor in the very war that ended in her destruction. . . . Venice, in later times, figured more than once in wars of ambition. . . . The provinces of Holland, till they were overwhelmed in debts and taxes, took a leading and conspicuous part in the wars of Europe. . . . In the government of Britain the representatives of the people compose one branch of the national legislature. . . . Few nations, nevertheless, have been more frequently engaged in war. . . . There have been, if I may so express it, almost as many popular as royal wars . . .sometime contrary to the real interests of the state." Some historian, perhaps, can provide a more recent list than that provided by Hamilton.

Of course, it is unreasonable for us to expect a president to be a scholar, but I find it odd that our political leaders do not seem to even be conversant with the history of the founding of this nation and the writing of the Constitution. Isn't it somewhat shameful to have to admit that our leaders todayeven those with degrees from some our most prestigious universitiesare less educated than the founders of this nation were more than two hundred years ago?

Perhaps the President should take two statements from the quotation above to heart: Carthage was the aggressor in the very war that ended in her destruction, and Holland, till they were overwhelmed in debts and taxes, took a leading and conspicuous part in the wars of Europe.

Some would argue that America is already in danger of being overwhelmed in debts and taxes. And that, of course, is one way of destroying the nation. (2/28/2005)