<I do not consider Jefferson to be the sole authority on what the Founding Fathers may have intended.>
I don't consider him the sole authority, either. But I do consider him the best authority, since he wrote the rough draft.
If you aren't convinced by 97 quotes from Jefferson, I can supply instead, an equal number of quotes from Madison, Franklin, any of the other Founders. Tell me, which one of the founders do you think wanted the war power shared with the Executive?
Even Hamilton, the most Authoritarian Founder (which is why authoritarians always prefer to quote him, rather than any of the others), was clear on this:
Alexander Hamilton: "The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. . . . It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces, as first General and Admiral of the Confederacy; while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war and the raising and regulating of fleets and armies, -- all of which by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature." (The Federalist, 69, 1788.)
". . . .'The Congress shall have the power to declare war'; the plain meaning of which is, that it is the peculiar and exclusive duty of Congress, when the nation is at peace, to change that state into a state of war. . . ." (C. 1801.) (my emphasis) warandlaw.homestead.com
They all said the same thing, and they all said it very clearly, many times. They all used words like "exclusively" "fully" "completely" "without exception" "in all events", to describe Congress's war-making power. They all believed that an Executive with any part of this power, created the risk of tyranny and unnecessary wars.
Which is exactly what we are seeing today, with our war of aggression against Iraq, imprisonment without charge or trial of Padilla, and concentration camp in Guantanamo. It all flows from abandoning the principles the nation was founded on, and ignoring the Constitution. |
