The members of our Congress can act this way because our own history was so clean and we came together as a country without a single hitch in our get-along.
Oh! Wait a minute! It just dawned on me that, in a book I read a few months ago (A Brilliant Solution by Carol Berkin), the statement I pecked out in the above paragraph might not be as accurate as it first seemed…
- “In 1787 our treasury was empty. Debts to foreign governments and debts to our own citizens could not be paid, and this was a blow to the nation’s honor as well as to its future credit.”
- “anarchy seemed to threaten”
- “These new ideas threatened a social revolution that would destroy not only their own fortunes but also the rule of law.”
- “All around them civil strife seemed to be erupting unchecked, and news of uprisings in western Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Massachusetts during the previous year shook the confidence not only of these wealthy men but also of Americans of all social classes.”
- “With no police force of any sort, military, or civil, the restoration of law and order was in doubt.”
- “Even worse, a political disorder on the highest levels had reached critical proportions.”
- “The cooperation among the states, forged in the 1770s and sustained during the war, had vanished with independence.”
- “Competition and exploitation reigned, and the revival of a fierce localism pitted Virginian against Marylander, New Yorker against New Jerseyite, Georgian against South Carolinian.”
- “The league of friendship called the Confederation that Americans had established as their first government grew more impotent, more lethargic, and more incompetent with every passing day”.
- “The nation was on the verge of self-destruction---or, worse, of simply fading away.”
- “Animated by a heartfelt ill will and rivalry, state legislators missed no opportunity to exploit the weaknesses of their neighbors. They rushed to enact tariffs and trade barriers, replacing the hated British restrictions with restrictions of their own.”
- “With duties to pay at every state border, even the most intrepid merchant or shipper found interstate commerce a nightmare.”
- “Connecticut and New Jersey were rumored to be planning a joint assault on New York.”
The book has a lot more examples of how we "got along" when we were a young country but my fingers are tired.
Would I kid u?
