American Minute with Bill Federer
Shortest term, Longest Inaugural, Gravest Warning - 9th President Wm. Harrison
|
|
"Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was the campaign slogan of
9th President William Henry Harrison,
born FEBRUARY 9, 1773.
|
|
Harrison
was an aide-de-camp to
General "Mad Anthony" Wayne,
who defeated the British and Indians at the
Battle of Fallen Timbers,
1794.
|
|
Harrison
was the hero of the
Battle of Tippecanoe,
1811.
He was victorious in the
Battle of the Thames,
1813, recovering
Detroit
from the British and defeating their Indian allies, led by
Shawnee Chief Tecumseh.
|
|
William Henry Harrison
was the son of
Benjamin Harrison,
a signer the Declaration of Independence, and he was the grandfather of
Benjamin Harrison,
the 23rd President.
|
|
Harrison
became Secretary of the
Northwest Territory,
consisting of 260,000 square miles from which were formed the States of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin
and
Minnesota.
He was the
Territory's first delegate
to Congress and the
Governor of the Indiana Territory
in 1801.
|
|
Elected in 1840,
William Henry Harrison
served the
shortest term as President,
only 31 days, after having given the
longest Inaugural address,
consisting of 8,445 words.
Written with the help of
Daniel Webster,
this profound address took
Harrison
nearly
two hours
to deliver in the cold, wet weather of Washington, D.C.
Catching a cold, and with little time to recuperate due to the demands of the office, he succumbed to pneumonia.
Harrison
was the first President to die in office, April 4, 1841.
|
|
Vice-President John Tyler
succeeded him, declaring April 9, 1841:
"When
a Christian people
feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of
Divine Providence ...
The death of
William Henry Harrison,
late President of the United States, so soon after his elevation to that high office, is a bereavement ... to impress all minds with a sense of the
uncertainty of human things
and of the
dependence
of nations, as well as individuals,
upon
our Heavenly Parent ...
recommending, as I now do, to the people of the United States ... that ... they observe
a Day of Fasting and Prayer."
|
|
William Henry Harrison,
in his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1841, warned:
"
Limited as are the powers
which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute
a despotism if concentrated ...
This state of things has been in part effected by ... the never-failing
tendency of political power to increase itself
..."
|
|
Harrison
continued:
"Republics can commit no greater error than to ... continue any feature in their ... government which may ...
increase the love of power
in the bosoms of those to whom necessity obliges them to commit the management of their affairs ...
When this
corrupting passion
once takes possession of the human mind, like the love of gold it
becomes insatiable.
It is the
never-dying worm
in his bosom, grows with his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim."
|
|
President Harry S Truman
wrote in a personal memorandum, April 16, 1950:
"There is a
lure in power.
It can get into a man's blood just as gambling and lust for money have been known to do."
|
|
Henry Adams,
the great-grandson of President John Adams, stated:
"Power
is
poison."
|
|
Harrison
warned of "class warfare":
"As long as
the love of power is a dominant passion of the human bosom,
and as long as the understanding of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will
the liberties of a people depend on their constant attention to its preservation.
The danger to all well-established free governments arises from the
unwillingness of the people to believe in ... the influence of designing men ...
This is the
old trick of those who would usurp the government of their country.
In the name of democracy they speak,
warning the people against the influence of wealth and the danger of aristocracy.
History, ancient and modern, is full of such examples.
|
|
Caesar
became the master of the Roman people and the senate under the pretense of supporting the democratic claims of the former against the aristocracy of the latter;
|
|
Cromwell,
in the character of the protector of the liberties of the people, became the dictator of England,
|
|
and
Bolivar
possessed himself of unlimited power with the title of his country's liberator ...
The tendencies of all such
governments in their decline
is to monarchy,
and the antagonist principle to liberty there is the spirit of faction -- a spirit which assumes the character and in times of great excitement imposes itself upon the people as the genuine spirit of freedom,
|
|
and,
like the false Christs
whose coming was
foretold by the Savior,
seeks to, and were it possible would, impose upon the true and most faithful disciples of liberty.
It is in periods like this that it behooves the people to
be most watchful of those to whom they have intrusted power."
|
|
Harrison
added:
"The great dread
... seems to have been that the reserved powers of the
States would be absorbed by ... the Federal Government
and a
consolidated power
established, leaving to the States the shadow only of that independent action for which they had so zealously contended ...
There is still
an undercurrent at work
by which, if not seasonably checked,
the worst apprehensions of our anti-federal patriots will be realized ...
Not only will the State authorities be overshadowed by the great increase of power in the Executive department ... but
the character of that Government
, if not its designation,
be essentially and radically changed."
|
|
President Eisenhower
addressed the Governors' Conference, June 24, 1957:
"The
National Government
was itself the
creature of the States ...
Yet today it is often made to appear that
the creature, Frankenstein-like, is determined to destroy the creators."
|
|
Ronald Reagan
stated in his Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981:
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem;
government is the problem ...
We've been tempted to believe ... that
government by an elite group
is superior to government for, by, and of the people ...
All of us together ... must bear the burden ...
We are a nation that has a government -- not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth.
Our government has no power except that granted it by the people.
It is time to check and reverse the growth of government,
which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed ...
Our present troubles ... are proportionate to the intervention and
intrusion in our lives
that result
from
unnecessary and
excessive growth of government."
|
|
Reagan
added:
"It is my intention to
curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment
and to demand recognition of
the distinction between the powers
granted to the
Federal Government
and those
reserved to the States
or to
the people.
All of us need to be reminded that the
Federal Government did not create the States;
the
States created the Federal Government."
|
|
President Donald J. Trump
agreed, exposing the workings of the deep-state "establishment" in his Inaugural Address, January 20, 2017:
"For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.
Washington flourished -- but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered -- but the jobs left, and the factories closed.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens ... That all changes - starting right here, and right now ...
The United States of America, is your country. What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by THE PEOPLE."
|
|
President Harrison
continued his Inaugural:
"It is the part of wisdom for a republic to
limit the service of that officer ... to whom she has intrusted the management
... to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent, not the principle; the servant, not the master ..."
|
|
Harrison
added:
"The great danger to our institutions does ... appear to me to be ... the
accumulation in one of the departments
of that which was assigned to others.
Limited as are the powers
which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute
a despotism if concentrated
in one of the departments ... particularly ... the Executive ...
The tendency of power to increase itself,
particularly when exercised by a single individual ... would terminate in virtual
monarchy."
|
|
Senator Daniel Webster
stated May 27, 1834:
"The contest, for ages, has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of
executive power."
|
|
Woodrow Wilson
addressed the New York Press Club, September 9, 1912:
"The history of
liberty
is a history of the
limitation of governmental power,
not the increase of it."
|
|
Presidential candidate
Barack Obama
enthusiastically declared at a campaign rally, October 30, 2008:
"We are five days away from
fundamentally transforming
the United States of America."
He later expressed intentions
not to have his executive power be limited
by the Constitution, stating January 14, 2014:
“We are not just going to be waiting for legislation ... I've got a pen, and I've got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders."
|
|
As well-intended as government programs are, those that run them have an inherent conflict of interests.
In addition to running the program, they do not want the program to end as they would lose their job.
|
|
Patrick Henry
stated Virginia's Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788:
"Can the annals of mankind exhibit one single example, where rulers overcharged with power willingly let go ...
A willing relinquishment of power is one of those things which human nature never was, nor ever will be capable of ...
But now, Sir, the American spirit, assisted by
the ropes and chains of consolidation,
is about to convert this country to a powerful and mighty empire ...
If you make the citizens of this country agree to become the subjects of one great consolidated empire of America ...
there will be no checks, no real balances, in this government ...
My great objection to the Constitution ... that the
preservation of our liberty depends on the single chance of men being virtuous enough to make laws to punish themselves."
|
|
Over time, some of those running government programs have been tempted to use their positions to perpetuate these programs as job security.
|
|
This creates an
enormous bureaucratic machinery
run by career government employees who have
a vested interest in increasing the size of government.
A public dependency is fostered, for if recipients become independent and no longer need entitlements, the government employees would no longer have a job.
Government may also be tempted use programs to advance radical social agendas by requiring recipients to adopt anti-Biblical beliefs as a condition to receiving the entitlement.
But is the way it is supposed to be?
|
|
An often overlooked Biblical teaching is, that
God gives commands to five major entities:
- individuals;
- families;
- employers & employees;
- church;
- government.
Naive voters and politicians get these commands mixed up.
Just because something needs to be done, does not necessarily mean it is the governments job to do it.
Biblical commands are given to:
- Individuals, who, among other things, are commanded to be forgiving, be charitable to the poor, visit the sick, and care for those in prison.
- Families are given relational commands, such as husbands love your wives, children submit to your parents, etc.
- Employees are told to give an honest day's work and employers are told not to hold back pay.
- Churches, among other things, are to take care of the poor, infirm, widows and orphans. Most hospitals, as well as schools and universities, historically, have been started by religious orders or denominations. Churches still carry out these responsibilities on the mission field.
- Government has the simplest command, namely, protect the innocent and punish the guilty. There is no Biblical command for government to provide jobs, healthcare, education, or other entitlements.
|
|
Early church believers sold their land and
laid the money at the feet of the apostles
for the
church to distribute.
They
did not lay their money at the feet of Pilate
for the
Roman government
to redistribute.
When the government takes money from individuals for entitlement programs,
it robs the individuals of the opportunity to be charitable,
and it
usurps the role of the church
to be responsible.
In a short time,
individuals and churches shirk Biblical responsibilities,
and
politicians and government employees become
discretionary
in the distribution of benefits, or enforcement of regulations, so as to best stay in power.
It is a small step for some to mentally justify using their decision-making authority to
"resist"
those attempting to eliminate their jobs.
This is the loose definition of the
"deep-state establishment."
Those in power want to stay in power, and will use any means at their disposal to do so.
|
|
Britain's Lord Acton
wrote:
"Self-preservation ... Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance."
|
|
In contrast, when church members help people, there develops a
personal accountability,
as well as a God-given
motivation to see the recipient's condition improve
so as to
no longer be dependent.
The
person's self-esteem rises
in an atmosphere of
caring friendship,
rather than interacting with
an impersonal bureaucracy.
|
|
President Trump
expressed:
"Today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another -- but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ...
January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day THE PEOPLE became the rulers of this nation again."
|
|
William Henry Harrison
continued his warning, giving historical examples:
"It is not by the extent of its patronage alone that the Executive department has become dangerous, but by the use which it appears may be made of the
appointing power
to bring under
its control the whole revenues of the country ...
There was wanting no other addition to the powers of our Chief Magistrate to stamp monarchical character on our Government but the
control of the public finances ...
|
|
... The first Roman Emperor (Julius Caesar),
in his attempt to
seize the sacred treasure (in the temple of Saturn),
silenced the opposition of the officer to whose charge it had been committed by a significant allusion to
his sword ...
I know the importance ... to the
divorce ... the Treasury from the banking institutions
... It was certainly a great error in the framers of the Constitution not to have made ... the head of the
Treasury Department entirely independent of the Executive ...
A decent and manly
examination of the acts of the Government should be
not only tolerated, but
encouraged."
|
|
Britain's Lord Thomas Babington MacCauley
predicted the dependency election strategy in a letter to New York's Democrat Secretary of State, Henry S. Randall, May 23, 1857:
"Institutions purely
democratic
must, sooner or later,
destroy liberty,
or civilization ... a ruinous load of
taxation laid on the ric
h for the purpose of
supporting the poor in idleness ...
You may think that your country enjoys an exemption from these evils ... I am of a very different opinion.
Your fate I believe to be certain,
though it is deferred ..."
|
|
MacCauley
continued:
"The time will come when ...
distress everywhere makes the laborer mutinous and discontented,
and inclines him to listen with eagerness to
agitators
who tell him that it is a monstrous iniquity that one man should have a million while another cannot get a full meal.
In bad years there is plenty of grumbling ... and sometimes a little rioting ...
Your Government will never be able to restrain a distressed and discontented majority ...
The day will come when, in the State of New York,
a multitude of people,
none of whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expects to have more than half a dinner, will choose a Legislature ...
On one side is
a statesman preaching patience, respect for vested rights, strict observance of public faith.
On the other is
a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalists and usurers,
and asking why anybody should be permitted to drink champagne and to ride in a carriage, while thousands of honest folks are in want of necessaries ..."
|
|
Lord MacCauley
concluded:
"Which of the two candidates
is likely to be
preferred by a working man
who hears his children cry for more bread?
I seriously apprehend that you will, in some such season of adversity ... devour all the seed-corn, and thus make the next year, a year not of scarcity, but of absolute famine ...
When
a society
has entered on this
downward progress,
either civilization or liberty must perish ... Some
Caesar
or
Napoleon
will seize the reins of government with a strong hand."
|
|
British Prime Minister William Gladstone
wrote:
"Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race."
|
|
President Harrison
contrasted the "spirit of liberty" with the "spirit of party":
"There is at times much difficulty in
distinguishing the false from the true
spirit, a calm investigation will detect the counterfeit ...
The true spirit of liberty ... is mild and tolerant and scrupulous ...
whilst the spirit of party, assuming to be that of liberty, is harsh, vindictive, and intolerant, and totally reckless as to the character of the allies which it brings to the aid of its cause ...
The reign of
an intolerant spirit of party
amongst a free people seldom fails to result in
a dangerous accession
to the Executive power introduced and established
amidst unusual professions of devotion to democracy."
|
|
Similarly,
Washington,
warned in his
Farewell Address,
1796, that politicians may betray their country to foreign nations in order to advance their political careers, while misleading public opinion to attack real patriots:
"Passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils ...
It gives to
ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens ...
facility to
betray, or sacrifice
the interests of
their own country
... sometimes even
with popularity ...
Such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot.
How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with
domestic factions,
to practice the
arts of seduction,
to
mislead public opinion,
to influence or awe the public Councils! ...
Against the
insidious wiles
of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the
jealously of a free people to be constantly awake ..."
|
|
Washington
continued:
"Real Patriots, who may resist the
intrigues (secret plans)
of the favorite (foreign nations), are liable to become suspected and odious;
while its tools and
dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people,
to surrender their interests ..."
|
|
In closing his Inaugural Address,
President William Henry Harrison
stated:
"I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow citizens
a profound reverence for the Christian religion,
and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness."
|
|
Washington
reiterated the importance of religion:
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to
political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports ...
Morality is a necessary spring of popular government ...Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation?"
|
|
A similar sentiment of faith was expressed by
President Trump
at the National Prayer Breakfast, February 8, 2018:
"Our founders invoked our Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence. Our currency declares, 'In God We Trust.'
And we place our hands on our hearts as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and proclaim we are 'One Nation Under God.'
Our rights are not given to us by man; our rights come from our Creator. No matter what, no Earthly force can take those rights away ..."
|
|
Trump
added:
"We love God. As the Bible tells us, for we are God's handiwork, created in Jesus Christ to do good works ...
As long as we open our eyes to God's grace and open our hearts to God's love, then America will forever be the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a light unto all nations."
|
|
President Harrison
concluded his Inaugural:
"And to
that good Being
who has blessed us by the
gifts of civil and religious freedom
... let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time."
|
|
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
|
|
Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
