Dates That Destroyed America

Dates That Destroyed America
By Chuck Baldwin
October 10, 2013

These Dates Forever Changed America For The Worse

Well, Obamacare is now in effect. The decision by Congress to pass Obamacare into law back in 2010 ranks among the most draconian, most egregious, most horrific actions ever taken by the central government in Washington, D.C. This bill rocks the principles of liberty and constitutional government to the core. It changes fundamental foundations; it repudiates historic values. The same flag may fly on our flagpoles, the same monuments may grace our landscape, and the same National Anthem may be sung during our public ceremonies, but it is not the same America. For all intents and purposes, our nation now more resembles the socialist countries of the old communist East Bloc than it does the constitutional republic of the old land of the free.

I was honored to have been invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons recently in Denver. It was a very large gathering of physicians from all over the country. And I can tell you that the doctors I spoke with are all very, very concerned about the future of healthcare in the United States. Take a peek at the condition of healthcare in socialist countries throughout the world or take a peek at the condition of healthcare in our VA clinics and hospitals, and you will get a little feel for what healthcare is going to quickly look like in America.

1860 Morrill Tariff

If there had been no Morrill Tariff there might not have been the Civil War or what southerners call the War of Northern Aggression. A smoldering issue of unjust taxation that enriched Northern manufacturing states and exploited the agricultural South was fanned to a furious blaze in 1860 by the Morrill Tariff. It created regional mistrust and ignited the fires of secession in the South. Remember, prior to the Civil War there was no U.S. income tax. In 1860 about 95% of U.S. government revenue was raised by a tariff on imported goods. A high tariff is usually legislated not only to raise revenue, but also to protect domestic industry from foreign competition. Imported goods become expensive to buy compared to domestic goods. This protects domestic industries and allows them to charge higher prices that otherwise would be lost to foreign competition. High tariffs hurt exporters since they face higher domestic costs and retaliatory foreign tariffs. This depresses export volume and exporters profit margins.

Prior to 1824 in the U.S. the average tariff level in the U.S. had been in the 15 to 20% range. This met the needs of the federal government and did not excessively burden the South. The tariff was raised to 20% in 1816 to help pay for the War of 1812. This resulted in a 26% net profit increase to Northern manufacturers.  

In 1824 the Whigs under Henry Clay and the Northerners began pushing for higher tariffs.

In the 1850s the South accounted for 72% to 82% of U.S. exports and the South was dependent on the North and Europe for manufactured goods.

Northern states only received 20% of the South’s agricultural products, the rest went to Europe. Tariffs were an economic hardship for the South.

In 1824 Clay and his allies passed a 35% tariff and the North boomed but the South suffered immensely and agitation grew in the South. South Carolina’s exports fell by 25% in two years. In 1828 the Northern dominated Congress raised the tariffs to 50%. In short, the South was getting killed economically. The tariffs became known as the Tariffs of Abomination in the South.

The Tariffs led to the Nullification Crisis of 1832 when South Carolina called a state convention and “nullified” the 1828 and 1832 tariffs as unjust and unconstitutional. The North and South nearly came to blows then, except John Calhoun negotiated a compromise in 1833 that returned the tariff to 15%. The tariff stayed at 15% until 1860. Our nation’s political leaders and economic interests in 1860 learned no lesson from the Nullification crisis of 1832.

High tariffs were one of the fundamental policies of the new Republican Party. The recession of 1857 boosted the call for high tariffs for the North.

In May 1860 the Congress passed the onerous Morrill Tariff Bill. Morrill was not only a Senator but a steel manufacturer. The average tariff went from 15% to 37% with an increase to 47% in three years. The South was paying 87% of the total taxes before Morrill so the situation became dire in the South. Furthermore, 80% of the tax revenues were spent on Northern public works and industrial subsidies. The North was being enriched at the expense of the South.

Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens, the most powerful Republican and Pennsylvanian iron manufacturer campaigned in favor of the Morrill Tariff. Two days before Lincon’s election an editorial in the Charleston Mercury stated: quote “The real causes of dissatisfaction in the South with the North, are in the unjust taxation and expenditure of the taxes by the Government of the United States……the nation has turned from a confederated republic to national sectional despotism.” unquote

Lincoln then endorsed the Morrill Tariff in his Inauguration and promised to enforce it on the Southern states even if the Southerners seceded.

At first the Northern sentiment was to allow the South to secede but then Northern industrialists realized their glory tariff days were over and they would have to compete against a free-trade South if the South seceded.

On 4 April 1861, Lincon met secretly with Colonel John Baldwin, a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention.    

Baldwin told Lincoln that a majority of Virginia’s convention wanted to stay in the Union but that Lincoln had to do something about the tariffs or Virginia and the rest of the South would secede. During his meeting with Lincoln Baldwin learned that Lincoln was committed to military action at Ft. Sumter. Ft. Sumter was a tariff collection point. After the Southerners fired on Ft. Sumter northern opinion became enflamed against the South for firing on the flag. Three days later Lincoln called for 75,000 volunterrs to put down the Southern “rebellion”. Lincoln’s action caused the border and Gulf states to secede.

In response to Lincoln’s action Baldwin stated and I quote: “There are now no Union men in Virginia. But those who were Union men will stand to their arms, and make a fight which shall go down in history as an illustration of what a brave people can do in defense of their liberties, after having exhausted every means of pacification.”

The tariff question and the States Rights question were strongly linked and both the issues were linked to the issues of limited government and a strong Constitution. Slavery was merely one of the tensions between the North and the South. The South had sought a proper redress of grievances from a northern dominated government just as the colonies had against King George. Like the King, Northern industrialists were not willing to give up their Southern colonies. After the war, high tariffs and discriminatory railroad shipping taxes continued to favor the Northern economic interests. The South wa impoverished for generations after the war. There would not have been a rush to secession if the Morrill Tariff had been cancelled. The Morill Tariff stands as an example of partisan political, industrial greed, self-centered depravity and sinful nature of man. 

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the dreaded national health care bill into law, and as such, these dates join a list of dates that have contributed to the destruction of a free America. Of course, there are several such dates, but, in my opinion, the following are the most draconian.

April 9, 1865

This is the date when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Regardless of where one comes down on the subject of the War Between the States, one fact is undeniable: Abraham Lincoln seriously dismantled the Jeffersonian model of federalism in America. Ever since, virtually every battle that free men have fought for the principles of limited government, State sovereignty, personal liberty, etc., has stemmed directly from Lincoln’s usurpation of power, which resulted in the subjugation and forced union of what used to be “Free and Independent States” (the Declaration of Independence). In fact, the philosophical battles being waged today regarding the current health care debacle (and every other encroachment upon liberty and State autonomy by the central government) have their roots in Lincoln’s autocracy.

July 9, 1868

This is the date when the 14^th Amendment was ratified. This amendment codified into law what Lincoln had forced at bayonet point. Until then, people were only deemed citizens of their respective states. The Constitution nowhere referred to people as “US citizens.” It only recognized “the Citizens of each State.” Notice also that citizenship was only recognized among the “several States,” not among people living in non-State territories. Until the 14^thAmendment, people were “Citizens of each State.” (Article. IV. Section. 2. Paragraph. 1.) The 14^th Amendment created a whole new class of persons: “citizens of the United States.” This false notion of “one nation” overturned the Jeffersonian principle that our nation was a confederated republic, a voluntary union of states.

Watchman comment: please note the number of disastrous amendments adopted in 1913. Thirteen is satan’s number.

February 3, 1913

This is the date when the 16^th Amendment was ratified, and the direct income tax and IRS were instituted. This was a flagrant repudiation of freedom principles. What began as a temporary measure to support the War of Northern Aggression became a permanent income revenue stream for an unconstitutional--and ever-growing--central government.

April 8, 1913

This is the date when the 17^th Amendment was ratified. This amendment overturned the power of the State legislatures to elect their own senators and replaced it with a direct, popular vote. This was another serious blow against State sovereignty. The framers of the Constitution desired that the influence and power in Washington, D.C., be kept as close to the people and states as possible. For example, the number of representatives in the House of Representatives was to be decided by a limited number of voters. In the original Constitution, the ratio of “people of the several States” deciding their House member could not exceed “one for every thirty thousand.” (Article. I. Section. 2. Paragraph. 3.) And when it came to the US Senate, the framers also recognized the authority of each State legislature to select its own senators, thereby keeping power and influence from aggregating in Washington, D.C. The 17^th Amendment seriously damaged the influence and power of the states by forcing them to elect their US senators by popular vote. The bigger the State, the less influence the State legislature has in determining its US senator. Senators who answered to State legislators, each answering to a limited number of voters, were much more accountable to the “citizens of the several States” than those who were elected by a large number (many times numbering into the millions) of people. For all intents and purposes (at least in the larger states), US Senators are more like “mini-Presidents” than representatives of sovereign states.

December 23, 1913

This is the date when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. This Act placed oversight of America’s financial matters into the hands of a cabal of private international bankers, who have completely destroyed the constitutional principles of sound money and (for the most part) free enterprise. No longer would the marketplace (private consumption, thrift, growth, etc.) be the determinant of the US economy (which is what freedom is all about), but now a private, unaccountable international banking cartel would have total power and authority to micromanage (for their own private, parochial purposes) America’s financial sector. Every recession, depression, and downturn (including the one we are now experiencing) has been the direct result of the Fed’s manipulation of the market. 1913 was not a good year for the United States.

June 26, 1945

This is the date when the United Nations Charter was signed and America joined the push for global government. Ever since, US forces have spilled untold amounts of blood and sacrificed thousands of lives promoting the UN’s agenda and useless wars. Since the end of World War II, in virtually every war in which US military forces have been engaged, it has been at the behest of the UN. And it is also no accident that America has not fought a constitutionally declared war since we entered the UN--and neither have we won one.

Furthermore, it is America’s involvement in the United Nations that has spearheaded this devilish push for a New World Order that George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Walter Cronkite, et al., have talked so much about. The United Nations is an evil institution that has completely co-opted our US State Department and much of our Defense Department. It is an anti-American institution that works aggressively and constantly against the interests and principles of the (constitutional republic) United States. But it is an institution that is ensconced in the American political infrastructure. Like a cancer, the UN eats away at our liberties and values, and both major political parties in Washington, D.C., are culpable in allowing it to exert so much influence over our country.

June 25, 1962, and June 17, 1963

These are the dates when the US Supreme Court removed prayer (’62) and Bible reading (’63) from public schools. At this point, these two Supreme Court decisions were the most serious affront to the First Amendment in US history. Think of it: from before a union of states was established in 1787, children had been free to pray and read the Scriptures in school. We’re talking about a period of more than 300 years! Of course, the various State legislatures--and myriad city and county governmental meetings--still open their sessions in prayer, as do the US House and Senate, and even the US Supreme Court. But this same liberty is denied the children of America. There is no question that America has not recovered from these two horrific Supreme Court decisions.

In effect, the federal government has expelled God not only from our public schools, but also from our public life. And America has not been the same since.

October 22, 1968

This is the date when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Before this Act, the 2^nd Amendment was alive and well in the United States. The Gun Control Act of 1968 turned a right into a privilege and forever forced the American people to bow at the altar of government when seeking to arm themselves. Interestingly enough, this Gun Control Act mirrored Nazi Germany’s Gun Control Act of 1938. In fact, the Gun Control Act of 1968 is almost a verbatim copy of Hitler’s Gun Control Act of 1938.

Our Founding Fathers could never have imagined that the American people would ever allow their right to keep and bear arms be infringed. In fact, it was the attempted confiscation of the firearms stored at Concord, Massachusetts, that triggered the War of Independence in 1775. That the people of Massachusetts would be denied their right to keep and bear arms, as they are today, could not have been foreseen--and would never have been tolerated--by America’s founders.

The hundreds and hundreds of draconian gun control laws that have been inflicted upon the American people have all come about as a result of the Gun Control Act of 1968.

January 22, 1973

This is the date when the US Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, which, in effect, legalized abortion-on-demand. These two decisions expunged the Jeffersonian principle that all men are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to life (Declaration). Since then, more than 50 million unborn babies have been legally murdered in their mothers’ wombs. Abortion is, without a doubt, America’s national holocaust. It has opened the door to a host of Big Government programs and policies that have resulted in the wanton destruction of human life both in the United States and overseas. It has created an entire industry whose express purpose for existing is the destruction of human life. It has desensitized the conscience and soul of America. Furthermore, it has forced men of decency and good will to finance--with their tax dollars--the unconscionable act of killing unborn children.

And once again, another Jeffersonian principle was eviscerated. He said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” The Roe and Doe decisions violate this principle in the most egregious manner possible.

October 26, 2001

This is the date when President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, and the federal government’s war against individual liberty began in earnest. Most of the unconstitutional eavesdropping, snooping, wiretapping, phone call intercepting, email reading, prying, financial records tracking, travel watching, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, by federal police agencies began with the implementation of the Patriot Act. The Department of Homeland Security and the “war on terrorism,” which have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people worldwide, and the usurpation of federal power at home, have all come about as an outgrowth of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act has forever shifted the focus of American law and jurisprudence against constitutional government and individual liberty, toward a police-state mentality.

October 17, 2006, and October 9, 2009

These are the dates when President G.W. Bush signed and President Barack Obama re-signed the Military Commissions Act. This Act is the outgrowth of the Patriot Act and has, in effect, terminated the fundamental protections of individual liberty, which are found in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. For all intents and purposes, the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act (along with the NDAA) eviscerated the 4^th and 5^th Amendments, and do serious injury to several others. The Military Commissions Act also expunges the constitutional right of Habeas Corpus.

March 21 and 23, 2010

These are the dates when Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” the so-called “health care reform” bill that we spoke about at the beginning of this column. While Social Security and various Welfare programs have toyed with socialism in the United States, this bill is the largest and most expansive endorsement of socialism in American history. This bill socializes some 18% of the US economy by socializing the health care industry in America. The fallout and ramifications of this bill are going to be horrific.

When future historians review the demise of our once-great republic, they will observe that the above dates were the dates that destroyed America. The American people have been far too tolerant for far too long.

Presidential Decision Directive 51 handed President Obama dictator status in times of declared, and not necessarily real, national emergency. PDD 51 is a Bush era executive order that gives the President dictatorial power in times of national emergency, eliminates any roadblock to declaring martial law in the United States. It gives Obama the power to suspend elections. Under this arrangement, Obama could have 50 Watergate type of scandals hanging over his head and he does not have to worry about leaving office.