Funding a Nation: Questions from the Audience

[Music] this program was made possible through generous support from the Donald W Reynolds foundation to George Washington's Mount Vernon estate Museum and Gardens funding a nation is a co-production of the Fairfax Network and George Washington's Mount Vernon estate Museum and Gardens I think it would be appropriate in light of the fact that we all stand as stewards of the public trust and their civil servants to this nation but we would allow our fellow citizens to engage us in any questions or inquiries or conundrums that they may have for us about what you have heard our lives our times our contemporaries and I would ask as mr. Jefferson so aptly mentioned earlier in his discourse that we turn this event back to the people if any of you have any questions we would be most pleased to accept them if you are afraid to ask the first question we will accept the second question first anyone fall for any one of us the wilderness gentlemen I'm delighted to hear the few gentlemen speak today so eloquently I also have a question on other personalities burgeoning into the mainstream of America today I will ask all who gentleman's opinion of a gentleman effort on the frontier Colonel Burr he is from your state I believe Colonel although a New Jersey born is he not I think his family as as occupied administrative offices at the Presbyterian College in Princeton New Jersey yes yes indeed yes mr. burr and I you know I have to tell you I when I speak I'm frequently asked about Colonel Bell he likewise in the same breath I usually cautioned against drooling and I'm not certain as to why and I know Colonel bar has aspirations to be about the highest office in the land I think he would like to see him your your vice president if you were to become president and I know it'd be a strange thing for you to imagine in your day and age that a vice president of the United States should shoot someone but was I'm using a attorney rater Colonel Burr and I is it colonel Burris a dualist he is a man of I've known for many many years we served with him in the military together he was I was an aide-de-camp to General Washington Colonel Burrell was an aide-de-camp to General Washington barely briefly Colonel Burr and I are both attorneys in New York we've argued on the same sides of cases argued on opposite sides of the cases I do not see much substance in his arguments I will tell you he is a great politician as opposed to a statesman his work in the elections in New York are ferocious if you will and I it is hard for me to projector where mr. burr might end up I will tell you that when when I was serving under the general in New York we were cut off from the rest of the army there was a young captain who was able to lead us back along lines we did not know where we were able to rejoin the general line his army and if not that there we would certainly have been captured and I will tell you I was very happy to see to see captain Burr that day what Burr and I it is it's difficult to speak and say too much about the man except that were it to come down between two men for the office of presidency that I would perhaps not be behind so say mr. Jefferson and mr. burr I I would perhaps have to in this instance support mr. Jefferson and I know this would perhaps take your back but mr. Jefferson though a man a very different principles at least he has them do you know I would like to answer in in reply as well sir because I I can substantiate the opinion of Colonel Hamilton I have known burr and of his family for some time and though he is a a staunch Federalist as that political opinion has been solidified over the last several years there is still somewhat of a suspicion that were the opportunity to present itself he would very quickly change his coat and become a renegade and go to the opposing political platform just to support his own personal ambition the kernel is what to reflect upon him as a a duelist most interested in that barbarous method of settling the arguments between gentlemen and I would concur from what I have heard and even the more so from what you have heard me say that in my opinion even as I have written he is a crooked barrel who shot you could never depend upon I beg your pardon colonel I I do rest upon your very same opinion in regard to burr but he is no less dedicated to the idea of the federal bank you are tenacious if nothing else mr. Jefferson you know sir I will just add to the comment although it is on a bit of discomfort on my part speaking about an individual when he is not here but in the second term of my presidency senator Burr was one of the individuals who sought the office I will tell you that mr. burr if I can use the word as uncomfortable as it makes me ran for the presidency all the rest of us stood for the presidency and that caused me great concern because when someone runs for the office it connotes an overarching ambition for the office which may not bode well for the common welfare is there another question please sir first question goes to both Hamilton and Jefferson I want to imagine that if the government got so big where it's representing 50 states in the House of Representatives over 200 in the Senate a hundred can a government oh do you think a government that big that's everything that so many people could work and in the second question in regards to that mr. president is do you think one single leader of the country is capable of truly leading that country with the government so big as to your remarkable idea that we should accumulate some somewhat he said 50 50 states as long as they held together under our Constitution because of course Constitution should always consist of general principles the reason is that they must be permanent and cannot calculate on the possible change of circumstance so I believe our Constitution and the frame of government we have established here is strong enough to endure and to adapt to situations we cannot even conceive of in the future I believe that we have the resiliency in our Constitution to do so because we have the ability to make amendment and change things as we need i'm agreed with Colonel Hamilton upon that truly Oh indeed sir I think we recognize sir that that the government should grow as the people grow after all of this common sense you've heard me say this many times as a child of fourteen cannot wear the same clothes at the age of 40 our laws and institutions must grow as we grow as a people and perhaps this will be a consequence them also in the future if we have a greater representation of the people themselves you heard this excellence of remark upon that ancient cry no taxation without representation and he is correct to state that very few were properly represented in the government under the old government the old regime the greater majority were not represented those few who had the requisites of representation in government were not in the British government as well consider who here in this room to our knowledge are not represented in our government who are they well women folk absolutely others but not only Negroes but anyone of color anyone of color from the kingdoms of the ages are not prepared the Aborigines not represented and still others gentlemen you know who you are the white males in this room 21 years of age or older who do not owned one of the following three requisites 50 acres unimproved or 40 acres with a dwelling upon the dwelling must be 12 foot square or a lot within a recognized corporate municipality such as Alexandra or Georgetown on the opposite side of the river Williamsburg or Norfolk and gentlemen you cannot be mortgaged you must be a freeholder so can you imagine Sunday sir for those requisites suddenly to become null and void and to my hope an educated citizenry in its place then I dare say Colonel would you agree that that a government of over 50 states and representation will be the most remarkable achievement in the history of man and yes I think capable thereby too to be successful in the hand still of an enlightened citizenry and sir I simply add my concordance with both of these gentlemen I believe that the if I will use the term flexibility inherent in our Constitution through its amendment process and such I do believe that as senior as a single executive as one of the three legislative branches all in checks and balances with each other can carry forth in public as a public steward and the ball show if that chief magistrate were elected directly by the people themselves no no perhaps remodeling more debate of the electoral college gentlemen and accept the questions of these individuals is there a third question amongst you good sir Caroline listen understand Jenna convention you spoke for several hours concerning the need of a king what was your rationale in that I have been greatly misquoted uh you must understand those who kept Diaries or letters or journals of what was discussed in the convention in Philadelphia were not supposed to we had all sworn an oath of secrecy now not from some nefarious purposes mr. Jefferson might tell you but from Sir an honest hope that we would have a freedom of expression of ideas for if we knew that upon utterance our ideas were to be taken to the newspapers and spread to the public at large there would be great fears in bringing great ideas forward and we needed the best of all of our ideas also the freedom to change one's mind also the freedom to change one's mind I put forth a system that I thought would be the best system to offer as something perhaps to be worked on and amended and I've course based it on the British form of government the longest lasting form of government in the world experience is the Oracle of truth and where its responses are unequivocal they must be held sacred and here we have an example of something that has lasted for a long time now I called for a government very akin to British form of government likewise I called for an elective non-hereditary but I used the term unfortunately monarch I am NOT a monarchist despite what others might say I am NOT a monarchist I just heard what he had to say the British form of government the perhaps most successful and finest in the history of mankind what does that smack of democratical republican principles hardly that we must have a good stable government and here Alexander Pope has been want to say four forms of government let fools contest what's best administered is best and here we had a form of government as an example before us that had great success it offered the British Empire operates worldwide it dominates the globe and all from a small island I thought this was a great example now what I called for an elective monarchy must understand I thought I was speaking with the rule of gentlemen and the word would go no further you must understand term president president in our time was the head of a committee we had already had quite enough of government by committee there was a committee of the Treasury under the Articles of Confederation and we'd all seen the damage that had done to us no we needed a strong energetic executive and perhaps I ought to have said chief magistrate but I thought I was speaking liberally and with some license who knows sir there were many proposals that were discussed at great length mr. Hamilton's was one of them and it Ruth be told it was not given very serious and long-term consideration I think however it prompted ideas to move us forward the colonel mentioned earlier and I I think it cannot be emphasized enough that our Constitution is not a perfect document but it was very clear to those who signed that day that an imperfect something was better than a perfect nothing other questions madam sirs I know that this may be a sensitive habit but your opinions on the subject of slavery how can it be built it cannot be considered a sensitive subject madam it must be considered a most immediate and necessary subject to remain open in compromise let alone debate we must extricate ourselves from this barbarous commerce so that he holds our future hostage to the extent no child will be born in our nation knowing nothing other way of livelihood but being free or enslaved and yet at the same time we continue to be enslaved to this barbarous practice his excellency knows well when I was elected to my very first public office they has a bird to take my seat the spring of 17 and 69 my first action was to stand and call for permission simply to permission to begin a debate well it's ending the importation of slaves I was proud roundly trounced asked immediately to proceeded I to be seated I I didn't succeed to provoke a consternation amongst my fellow Burgesses who is this upstart from the wilderness they cried who is this turncoat unto his class I have remained continuous in my objections to the to the enforcing of the laws of slavery and and therefore yes I hope we may have an opportunity someday to seek events a with the appropriation of lands for further settlement to the West I would see it take to the great Stony Mountain so far to the west and therein to provide a new Empire of Liberty where we will be prohibited to take this commerce in our fellow man shackled as a unit of property even west of the Mississippi River that way we can begin to constrict it and then hope to succeed to end the importation of slaves and the expansion westward it elect to office those who will seek to build public consensus and eradicate the laws of slavery on our books I hope I am so enlightened to recognize it will not happen tomorrow and perhaps I will not even live to see it but we must begin and it must continue as you have been so free to seize the moment and purport the question I can briefly say that I as perhaps you know and do not know I was raised cheaply in a Christian steady and said qua and I saw the slave trade quite close to hand it is a commerce repugnant to humanity I am one of the founding members of the Society for the manumission of slavery in New York although I will tell you I called for a resolution as part of that society to ask that all the members of that society who owned slaves to remit their own slaves to freedom and they refused to do so though I am still a member of that organization and they still do some good work and I retain my membership as a because it is for the betterment and begins to work to ward perhaps the abolition of slavery I I must admit I I had to sit back and fall back because here this society for the manumission of slavery as it was in New York City was nothing but a group of hypocrites hmm I hope to see it eradicate and may I remind you sir the minute someone spends money they do not have they have enslaved themselves unto their creditors that is not precisely true but it's another debate Madame it is not an institution it is an abomination and I agree with everything that mr. Jefferson said and the colonel I will tell you that it harkens back to the question that this fine gentleman posed this subject came up during our constitutional discussions and it was very very clear as clear as the Sun in its Meridian sky that had we pressed forward on this issue Georgia South Carolina North Carolina perhaps our beloved Virginia would have stood up and walked out of the proceedings the Union would have fallen apart before it could even stand and so again it also harkens back to the point I made that an imperfect something an imperfect something was better than a perfect nothing we have put this off to the Future it will be dealt with in 1808 when this Union has not only stood but has proceeded to take its place on the world stage and of course I would invite all gentlemen everywhere who may be slaveholders to join me in my plan of Mannie meeting all of my people it is an abomination other questions madam could you comment upon the events in France and ask and comment on where you think the conflict is headed and what our position should be we all have fairly strong opinions of these events but I think it is appropriate that secretary of foreign affairs answers I thank you your excellency perhaps appropriate because madam I I spent five years there recognizing after that time that Lebel France is certainly my second home I found great solace there and I came to love those people so very very much and can you imagine reassured as I was there the fact that we must never forget and that is simply that the success of the American Revolution rested on the support and the aid of France it would never have been successful otherwise if most have great influence unto the French that success I was there at the time that the statute of Virginia for religious freedom having been resolved in our Virginia House of Delegates appeared in the newspapers throughout the kingdom of France and throughout the other kingdoms of Europe and astounded if you will the subjects of all of those kingdoms as to help people possibly could live free to carry their commune with their maker as they should choose and the duty of government not to go acid or impose upon it but rather to protect and defend it as an inherent right and that was followed within a short time with the news of the the impending ratification of the Constitution of the United States that here we have finally solidified the principles of the Declaration of American independence to grant unto a people that inherent right to hold the reins of their government this is what began to spur if you will the French in particular in recognition that this opportunity had come about because of their support and particularly as the the French monarchy was deeply in arrears to the payment if you will unto their own people of the proceeds of the American Revolution that they are support more than anything else of our American Revolution bankrupted then was bankrupting them it was believed that what could be established and be stabilized is the idea of a constitutional monarchy and the here of our American Revolution the hair of the French General the Marquis de Lafayette of the cell both agreed that what would be necessary is then is simply the drawing together the principles that led to the American Revolution to be drawed up into a declaration of rights unto the French people in the citizenry there that would establish the idea of the government in the hands of what had long been established the French monarchy but if you will and assembly of notables and representatives of the people themselves and that is what we said about to do I'm afraid however over the years what we have seen happen in France is something that no one not only Americans but the French people themselves never saw to begin with and that is what I think all three of us explained earlier is the fact that we had long been settled free here in North America even the thaw revolution began again that we had tasted the sweetness of Liberty we had become acquainted with holding the reins of self-government and therefore when having that imposed upon drawing or retaliating in in a frenzy holding the reins of self-government the game being familiar with where we are we were able to conduct ourselves forward my point being simply the French and the majority of people across this globe have never even been there that is what has led to the instability if you will simply the lack of experience in self-government and that is where I think we can be of a continued support of the French people as they supported us I think it is a marvel I would like to see it run round the globe I bore witness to the storming of the Bastille and and I can assure you that the French Revolution in my opinion will succeed to liberate the peasants throughout the kingdoms of Europe from centuries of exploitation by corrupt monarchs and degenerate priests a mutual friend general marquis de lafayette languishes in a austrian prison due to the usurpation of our so called sister Republic of France and weeoo weeoo France a great deal from the war but we owe the monarchy of France not this seasonal government that exists in France and the new monarchy would not be in power were it not for the approbation of the citizenry mr. Locke more than anyone else helped us to come to that reason that no government anywhere at any time would long survive unless it recognizes it receives its just powers to govern from home the govern absolutely but real Liberty comes neither in despotism nor in the wild extremes of democracy but only in moderate governments we must have order revolution is as natural in the political world as storms and tempest are in the physical and therefore we should remind ourselves the politics just like nature abhors a vacuum we have apparently ended exactly where we have begun I will tell you madam with regard to this administration's perspective on the mission on the issue we are as I said many times this day a young fledgling nation and while we should stand as a beacon light for other countries we should not impose our form of government upon them we should instead stand as an example and we must maintain to the degree that we can a neutral position engage in relationships with other countries through Commerce have no permanent friendships with any particular country nor permanent animosities with any particular country and we recognize that in all cases whatsoever we cannot afford at this time to be pulled into the embroilment of foreign lands I want to thank you all for your great attention your thoughtful questions [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Fairfax Network - Fairfax County Public Schools

Views: 2,729

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Funding a Nation, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, United States History

Id: D2CBSf89BRk

Length: 26min 45sec (1605 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2017