Mike Parker: Franklin’s words still resonate
On Monday, September 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin rose to address the delegates to the Constitutional Convention. The fledgling states of our new nation had sent representatives to rewrite America’s first attempt at national government, the Articles of Confederation. Soon the delegates trying to tweak the Articles realized the document created a form of government that would not work.
As a result, these men went to work and drafted an entirely new document to establish the framework for a national government. “We the People of the United States” have operated based on the Constitution they created for nearly 240 years.
Despite all the deliberation and debate, the delegates still faced what they considered insurmountable differences of opinion on critical issues. In fact, the U.S. Constitution contained provisions that made nearly everyone unhappy.
Franklin rose to address the delegates during this critical period of U.S. history. His “Speech for Adoption of the Constitution” beseeches each delegate to “doubt a little of his own infallibility” and give unanimous endorsement to the Constitution.
By the time of this speech, Franklin was nearing 82. He had an international reputation as a diplomat, a thinker, and a scientist. He was civic-minded, working to see that Philadelphia had paved, clean, and well-lit streets. In 1731, Franklin began efforts that resulted in the first circulating library, the foundation of our present public library system.
One of the essential points Franklin made in his speech appears in these words:
“Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”
Franklin made several key points. First, for government to benefit the people it serves, it must be well-administered. Franklin contended that self-government only works with people who possess self-discipline.
Looking into the future, he contended that even our form of government would end up seizing our rights once our people became so corrupt that they needed some form of tyrannical government to keep them in check.
Franklin’s assertion troubles me. Each day I see the erosion of our rights. Please remember: Our liberties are guaranteed, not granted, by our Constitution. However, people can only enjoy freedom when they have the self-discipline to rein in their base desires and wholesome lives.
We have lived to see at least three generations of Americans who frankly confess they do not know what is good and what is evil. That confusion in morals and ethics shows up in tragic crime statistics, rising rates of divorce, and hypocritical behavior of the religious. The failure of public officials to display standards of conduct high enough to generate public confidence and trust offers strong evidence that our government is no longer “well-administered,” to use Franklin’s term.
Are we moving toward the despotic government Franklin saw as the logical end of people who lack the self-discipline to exercise self-government? How corrupt have we become as a nation?
That question demands serious and soul-searching examination.
When we desert the high moral ground, we descend into the quagmire of tyranny.
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
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