A Must-Know Constitutional Minute from the Probing America Radio talk show, 590 KID AM.
At the close of the Constitutional Convention "A lady asked Dr. Franklin, Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it."1 Establishing a new government was no small thing to the framers. James Madison warned the delegates, “the liberty or misery of millions yet unborn are deeply concerned in our decision.”2 The welfare of an entire people, as well as a nation, was in their hands. The framer's aim was to ensure the rights and the freedoms that the citizens had just won at such an enormous cost would be preserved. “Modern times have the signal advantage,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, “of having discovered the only device by which these rights can be secured, to wit, government by the people, acting not in person but by representatives chosen by themselves.”3 That device- a representative, federal republic. Madison declared, “the genius of republican liberty seems to demand… that all power should be derived from the people, [and] that… the trust should be placed not in a few, but a number of hands.”4 And, so, after much deliberation, the founders decided that “a republican form was most consonant with reason, with right, with the freedom of man… [to] the love of country [and] devotion to its liberty, its rights, and its honor.”5
by: Mark Richardson © 2008 Probing America
The Constitutional Minute can be heard daily on Probing America talk show, and encourages you to become educated on the principles of freedom and a voice of truth.
References
1. McHenry, The American Historical Review, vol. 11, 1906
2. Jonathan Elliot, Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 3, p.271
3. The Real Thomas Jefferson, p.419
4. James Madison, Federalist No. 37, p.243 - p.244
5. The Real Thomas Jefferson, p.607
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