No We Couldn't

Couldn't what? Keep it. Keep what? A Republic. We couldn't keep the Republic. Maybe we can restore it, maybe we can re-found it, but we couldn't keep it. Two Hundred and twenty three years ago a lady asked Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention: “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”, and Franklin replied: “A Republic, if you can keep it.” The lady got her answer that day, and now we have Franklin's answer for him.

Our founders always knew this day would come. They prayed it would not, and there were many miracles along the way, and many days of blood and pain to preserve it. But battered and bruised it kept on. Until today. Today we have lost the Republic, if only temporarily. Today the Republic gave in to the pull of Socialism, and betrayed all its principles to do so. Today, the agreement between the sovereign States of America has been broken.

Always before, the agreement, the Constitution that bound the country and created a voluntary union of the separate states, had held, even if bent beyond recognition at times. Now the agreement has been flagrantly violated, and the "political bands which have connected them with another" have been dissolved, in spirit if not yet by law.

And so by law the Republic will continue to appear to function, to push forward. But the heart has been shattered, and the blood will eventually stop flowing through its veins. The heart was the American Spirit of people willing to do Good in a country that asked it of itself, but never forced that Good upon itself or others; of people willingly binding themselves to laws that punished only the commitment of Evil upon one another.

But no more. Now the willing spirit has been shackled like a slave. To representatives charged with protecting our way of life, it is no longer enough to merely punish Evil acts. Now the version of Good as seen by some must be forced to become the Good done by all in the country. Now, if your Good acts are not as some see Good, you have become Evil, and must be punished. Now, you cannot do Good willingly. Now you are compelled to do what some call Good; and in the subjugation to the Good will of some, we are all made slaves. Now, our reward for our willingness to do Good has been lost. We are forced to do what we do not believe is Good, and the Good we do has been forced from us, making all our gifts and generosity into mere obligation.

^{1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.}

²"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matthew 6:1-4

Now, we can no longer do Good in the name we choose. Now our Good is done for us in the name of our representatives, chosen by some but not all, and we have again lost our reward.

This Republic has struggled over what was Evil, and what was to be punished as Evil by the Republic. Never have we struggled so hard over what was Good, and never has Good been punished as Evil by the Republic like today. Our Republic should and can deal with two groups of people who wish to do Good in their own way. And when those groups disagree, it has provided us with a way to establish a new agreement, if agreeable to most all, and if not, to allow us to continue doing Good in our own ways.

But now one group's Good has become the other group's Evil. Now instead of two groups doing Good in their own way, one group's Good of Socialism and Social Justice has been forced on the other, and the other group's Good of Economic Liberty and Personal Responsibility is a punishable Evil. And now we have proven that the two Goods will not mix, not even in our Republic that fought so hard, and bled so much so that they might.

"And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay." ^{Daniel 2:43}

And now we go about the business of disuniting, in spirit if not in law. As long as the one side compels the other, we may never disunite by law. But as long as we are compelled, we will never be the Republic of the United States of America again.

Sincerely, in peaceful melancholy and yet in hope of the return of my Lord Jesus,

Benjamin Passler Claggett

A Citizen and a Christian

Written this day, the Twenty Second of March, in the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ Two Thousand and Ten