The New York Times has begun a major
initiative, the “1619 Project,” to observe the 400th anniversary of the
beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe American history so that
slavery and the contributions of black Americans explain who we are as a nation.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine wrote the
lead article, “America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One.”
She writes, “Without the idealistic, strenuous and patriotic efforts of black
Americans, our democracy today would most likely look very different — it might
not be a democracy at all.”
There are several challenges one can
make about Hannah-Jones’ article, but I’m going to focus on the article’s most
serious error, namely that the nation’s founders intended for us to be a
democracy. That error is shared by too many Americans. The word democracy
appears nowhere in the two most fundamental founding documents of our nation —
the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Instead of a
democracy, the Constitution’s Article IV, Section 4, declares, “The United
States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of
Government.” Think about it and ask yourself whether our Pledge of Allegiance
says to “the democracy for which it stands” or to “the republic for which it
stands.” Is Julia Ward Howe’s popular Civil War song titled “The Battle Hymn of
the Democracy” or “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”?
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The founders had utter contempt for democracy.
James Madison, the acknowledged father of the Constitution, wrote in Federalist
Paper No. 10, that in a pure democracy “there is nothing to check the
inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual.” At the
1787 Constitutional Convention, delegate Edmund Randolph said, “that in tracing
these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and
follies of democracy.” John Adams said: “Remember, democracy never lasts long.
It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a
democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” U.S. Supreme Court Chief
Justice John Marshall observed, “Between a balanced republic and a democracy,
the difference is like that between order and chaos.”
The
U.S. Constitution is replete with anti-majority rule, undemocratic provisions.
One provision, heavily criticized, is the Electoral College. In their wisdom,
the framers gave us the Electoral College so that in presidential elections,
heavily populated states could not run roughshod over sparsely populated
states. In order to amend the Constitution, it requires a two-thirds vote of
both Houses, or two-thirds of state legislatures, to propose an amendment, and
requires three-fourths of state legislatures for ratification. Part of the
reason for having a bicameral Congress is that it places another obstacle to
majority rule. Fifty-one senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives
and 49 senators. The president, with a veto, can thwart the will of all 535
members of Congress. It takes a two-thirds vote, not just a majority, of both
houses of Congress to override a presidential veto.
In addition to not
understanding our Constitution, Hannah-Jones’ article, like in most discussions
of black history, fails to acknowledge that black Americans have made the
greatest gains, over some of the highest hurdles in the shortest span of time
than any other racial group in mankind’s history. The evidence: If black
Americans were thought of as a nation with our own gross domestic product, we’d
rank among the 20 wealthiest nations. It was a black American, Gen. Colin
Powell, who headed the world’s mightiest military. A few black Americans are
among the world’s wealthiest. Black Americans are among the world’s most famous
personalities.
The
significance of this is that in 1865, neither a slave nor a slave owner would
have believed that such progress would be possible in less than a century and a
half, if ever. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people. Just
as importantly, it speaks to the greatness of a nation within which such
progress was possible, progress that would have been impossible anywhere else. The challenge before us is how those
gains can be extended to a large percentage of black people for whom they
appear elusive.
Walter
E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George
Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist. To find out more about
Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
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