May 20, 2019 Monday
Bedtime Story
James Madison and The Senate
James Madison argued that in the revolution
the masses would seek “a rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for
an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project.”
It is strange or rather I must say quite
remarkable that the dangers that Madison wrote about would be realized in seven
decades within the Union and much later all across Europe and Russia over a
century with the ideas of socialism and communism which would have been an
anathema for the Founding Fathers.
If the Federalist Papers were published in
1787 then The Communist Manifesto was released to the world in 1848 just 61
years later.
If the Federalist Papers sought to
safeguard the “opulent minority landholders” The Communist Manifesto looked
down upon them and sought for the rights of working class or the proletariat.
The point at which they both agreed was the
existence of class struggle in any society between the few land holders and the
majority working class who did not hold land.
James Madison who was the delegate from
Virginia (which was a classical slave state of the Upper South that would
declare its secession and join the Confederacy after the Civil War would break
out exactly 74 years from the day when Madison wrote his essay), both a
plantation and slave owner, and is known as “Father of the Constitution” had
this to say on this matter:
“The man who is possessed of wealth, who
lolls on his sofa or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge the wants or feelings
of the day laborer.
The government we mean to erect in intended
to last for ages.
The landed interest, at present, is
prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and
kingdoms of Europe, - when the number of landholders shall be comparatively
small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed
interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided
against, what will become of your government?
In England, at this day, if elections were
open to all class of people, the property of landed proprietors would be
insecure.
An agrarian law would soon take place.
If these observations be just, our
government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against
innovation.
Landholders ought to have a share in the
government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the
other.
They ought to be so constituted as to
protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.
The Senate, therefore, ought to be this
body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and
stability.”
This idea was one of the key points that
now in history known as the James Madison’s blueprint or the Virginia Plan.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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