The selfishest souls

Yesterday being Independence Day, I was thinking further about Congress, & the delta between what was envisioned more than 200 years ago & what we have today.

I do not venerate the Founding Fathers—they were human males with plenty of flaws; womanizers, failed businessmen, political manipulators & slaveholders as well as principled, thoughtful idealists. When they made the considered decision to overthrow British rule & build a new nation, they had to balance a lot of differing & conflicting commercial & philosophical interests.

They struggled with these issues & our first government, a confederation, didn’t work because all those interests kept the states from playing nicely with each other. (The Confederacy of 1861-1865 had exactly the same problem, which is why, for example, Georgia sent supplies to its own troops, but not to those of North Carolina or Tennessee. You may recall how that turned out.)

But the FF kept working on it, determined that this new government would succeed. This required that the representatives of each state sacrifice some interests toward the greater good of the nation.

The very location of the nation’s capital is an example of this: the Constitution stated that there should be a national capital separate from & therefore not owing to any individual state, but there was major disagreement about where that capital should be. The northern states wanted it in the north, the southern states in the south. Each region was afraid that the other would exercise undue influence over the national government—the north favoring industry, the south agrarian pursuits.

This may seem kind of petty these days, but it was serious business then. The north particularly objected to the capital being so close to the institution of slavery, & it was a contentious discussion.

Finally Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson & James Madison worked out the Compromise of 1790: northern states agreed to locate the capital along the Potomac River, on land donated by Maryland & Virginia, while the southern states signed up to retire all state war debts—by that time, mostly from the north. The north compromised on ideology, the south on finances.


Keep in mind that Hamilton & Jefferson couldn't agree on much of anything & entertained a cordial loathing for each other & their political philosophies. & yet they came to an agreement on this very contentious decision.

Now—can you imagine the Congressmorons currently sat in the Capitol, whining about having to work on the holiday, putting the common good ahead of their own special interests for anything short of someone holding an NRA-approved gun to their collective overcoiffed heads?

Sadly, I cannot.

& I cannot imagine the Founding Fathers ever imagined the Congress they put together with such care would become so self-serving & useless.