Bill Kauffman is one of the best writers pounding the keyboard today. Consequently, when he publishes a book, I review it, because (1) the man can write history, (2) he’s the funniest political theorist around, and (3) I get a copy free (the "f" word!).
Kauffman’s latest, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and the initial offering in their new series, "Lives of the Founders," is a short biography (202 pages) of Maryland lawyer, Luther Martin, titled: Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet (ISI Books, Wilmington, Del., 2008).
It is a gem of a book!
Kauffman does an outstanding job in detailing Martin’s life: he was Samuel Chase’s lawyer in his famous impeachment proceedings, Aaron Burr’s mouthpiece at his treason trial, and in his drunken dotage stood for Maryland in the infamous case, McCulloch v. Maryland, where Chief Justice Marshall explained to states’ rights advocates where, exactly, the bear defecates in the woods. By providing the central government with that signal victory, Kauffman writes, "The defeat of the states was total, complete, shattering. Nationalism had triumphed."
And it was this case that in the opinion of Lenord W. Levy "laid the constitutional foundations for the New Deal and the Welfare State," not to mention what Obama has in store for us in the near future!
However, the leitmotif of Kauffman’s effort is an exegesis of Martin’s participation in the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia during that hot and steamy summer of 1787.
To even say the word "Constitution" these days is to set both liberal Democrats and confused neocons to apotheosize that ancient document as the holiest of holies of American civil theology! But, it appears that that may not be the case. Indeed, as Kauffman illustrates, the Constitution was a document created under false pretense and for nefarious purpose!
And, who was it that stood, swaying under the effects of John Barleycorn, against this abrogation of states rights and individual liberty? That’s right, Maryland’s beloved sot, her grandest Anti-Federalist, Luther Martin!
Kauffman writes with his usual wit, wisdom, panache and elan in explicating not only the convention’s secretive proceedings but in describing the political milieu leading up to the convention. He does his readers the good service of reporting the congressional resolution of February 21, 1787 ordering the convention proceedings "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation . . . " The key word, dear reader, is REVISING! That is the olde, beloved Articles of Confederation were to be maintained but with the addition of a few jots and tittles.
Alas, that proud and competent document, the true glory of the American revolution, stood in the way of a cabal of progressive radicals, led by the diminutive and asthenic Virginian, Jimmy Madison, and that lying bastard, Alexander Hamilton.
The primary obstacle of the progressive "federalists (a misnomer if ever there was one)" was the "equality of state suffarge under the Articles." The Articles stipulated that each state carried the same weight, "a single vote in Congress," and that dog didn’t hunt with progressives whose labors were directed toward a highly centralized national government while eschewing the virtues of a loose confederacy that "linked the thirteen states in ‘a firm league of friendship’ to secure the liberties and the common defense."
Kauffman provides a list of "Anti-Federalists (or perhaps, libertarian decentralist party men) " who were not available for the convention: Patrick Henry, Samuel Chase, Richard Henry Lee, Sam Adams, Willie Jones, Tom Jefferson, George Clinton, and any representives from the "proud and obstinate and Anti-Federalist as all hell" state of Rhode Island. Which clearly indicates the Anti-Federalists were without the services of their first team. But, as Kauffman points out they had the brash, brilliant, and oft times drunk, Luther Martin and Luther "had the guts in abundance" to take on the likes of the sissified Madison, the arrogant Hamilton, their coterie of bootlicking supporters (the Federalists), and the monied interests who backed their cabal.
And, so it is that Kauffman provides the very great service in examining in some detail the outrageous proceedings of that secretive, closed door, convention. He utilizes the available diaries and journals of men who participated and his revelations are, well, revealing.
In the end, the hero of this drama is a man who drank too much and talked too much but possessed the backbone and wisdom to recognize the flaws and dangers inherent in the Constitution, a signal document ultimately designed to locate political power "in a remote central authority."
In citing some the predictions of the Anti-Federalists regarding the successful passage of this new Constitution, Kauffman writes that George Clinton (no relation to Bubba) of New York "’ . . . prophesied that the federal city created by the Constitution, (later known as Washington, D.C.,) "would be an asylum of the base, idle, avaricious and ambitious.’ Gee, thank God that never happened."
Kauffman tells us that Luther Martin died broke and senile and living under the benevolence and generosity of the great state of Maryland and the traitor, Aaron Burr. No plaque marks his now lost and paved over grave and he is repeatedly villified by the school historians but as soon as I’m finished here I intend to pour two fingers of a fine Kentucky burbon and salute a true American.
So here’s to you, Luther Martin, may you rest in the bosom of the Lord, and here’s to you Bill Kauffman, may you keep reminding us of what it means to be a real, honest-to-God, American!
