Bullock Texas State History Museum
The Revolution Doesn't Need To Be Violent, but It Has To Happen
RECEIVED Fri., July 24, 2009
Dear Editor,
Your “fantasy scenario” actually happened once in this country ["Page Two,” July 24]. During the John Adams administration in 1798, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, used to abuse supporters of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The result was what Jefferson called the Third Revolution, the first two being the War of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution. It was the election of 1800. Jefferson won, sweeping in his supporters, who came to be called “Jeffersonians” but were formally known as the Democratic-Republican Party. They continued to dominate constitutional construction until 1824 and, to a lesser degree, throughout most of the 19th century. The Federalist Party of Adams and Alexander Hamilton disappeared from the scene following their rejection.
It is misleading to suggest that the expansion of federal power during most of the 20th century and into the 21st has the support of the people and that that may be taken as a kind of ratification of informal amendments to the Constitution. Granted, the voters have acquiesced to most of it, but not because the question of departures from original understanding were put to them in those terms and they were allowed to vote on the departures. What happened was the voters were presented with personalities and offers of benefits without being fully informed of the constitutional implications. That is bait-and-switch, and the people are waking up to what has been done.
The revolution doesn’t need to be violent, but it does need to occur.
Your “fantasy scenario” actually happened once in this country ["Page Two,” July 24]. During the John Adams administration in 1798, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, used to abuse supporters of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The result was what Jefferson called the Third Revolution, the first two being the War of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution. It was the election of 1800. Jefferson won, sweeping in his supporters, who came to be called “Jeffersonians” but were formally known as the Democratic-Republican Party. They continued to dominate constitutional construction until 1824 and, to a lesser degree, throughout most of the 19th century. The Federalist Party of Adams and Alexander Hamilton disappeared from the scene following their rejection.
It is misleading to suggest that the expansion of federal power during most of the 20th century and into the 21st has the support of the people and that that may be taken as a kind of ratification of informal amendments to the Constitution. Granted, the voters have acquiesced to most of it, but not because the question of departures from original understanding were put to them in those terms and they were allowed to vote on the departures. What happened was the voters were presented with personalities and offers of benefits without being fully informed of the constitutional implications. That is bait-and-switch, and the people are waking up to what has been done.
The revolution doesn’t need to be violent, but it does need to occur.
Jon Roland
[Editor Louis Black responds: Although Jefferson labeled it the Third Revolution, it was not the kind of outside-the-system radical overthrow that the term often implies. Regardless of its ideological and political consequences, it was a traditional, Constitution-based election. One can argue that the elections of Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan, among others, also represented the voters' demand for radical change.
It may be misleading to accept the passage of constitutional amendments as representing the will of the people, but isn’t it just as misleading, as well as arrogant, to not just speak on behalf of all those citizens but to assume they share your views? Finally, if the people are to be distrusted because they are so easily manipulated, can someone at least directly address the concerns raised in my column as to how that would be changed after the revolution?]
