States

[level_head]

“Life in these United States,” an old Readers Digest humor feature, had many amusing stories. Like this one:

The teacher in one of our local grade schools was showing a copy of the Declaration of Independence to her pupils. It passed from desk to desk and finally to Luigi, a first-generation American. The boy studied the document reverently. Then,

Comments

[justgoto]

That is a wonderful little story!
...it is a shame Liberty isn't a principle anymore.

[rowyn]

It would be a very different country if we thought of ourselves as a union of states, instead of America.

[level_head]

And yet that's the thinking of Jefferson, Madison, and the essence of the arguments for ratification.

As Jefferson put it, if we (Virginia) don't like what the federal government does, we can leave. And Gouverneur Morris, the actual transcriber of the Constitution and the person whose handwriting we now view, put the distinction this way between federation and nation: "the distinction between a federal and a national supreme government; the former being a mere compact resting on the good faith of the parties, the latter having a complete and compulsive operation."

Indeed, we'd be a little bit more like the European Union. But that little bit, I think, would be a good thing - not that I'm a fan of the EU.

Morris is an interesting fellow, by the way - worth a post on his family (on both sides of the revolution), and almost another on the unpleasant way that he died (involving a whale and his penis).

===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle

[level_head]

In other words, it would resemble the arrangement described in the Constitution! ];-)

Yes, very different indeed.

===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle

[rowyn]

You understand!

It's a miracle we have as much of the Constitution left as we do, after so many decades. :|

[ext_1399643]

Interesting idea. Guess there is no to test it at this point.

I use to get the Reader's Digest, most to read the humor. Great stuff!