                                  T H E

                               Z E P H Y R

                      __     M A G A Z I N E
                     {__]++++++++++++++++++++++++++[]
                     Issue #45                8-24-87

                A weekly electronic magazine for users of
                            THE ZEPHYR II BBS
                        (Mesa, AZ - 602-894-6526)
                    owned and operated by T. H. Smith

                        Editor - Gene B. Williams

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                                (c) 1987

    THIS ISSUE:

       This is our 200th anniversay of the Constitution of the
    United States. It's also yet another year when violations of
    the Constitution by those in high office has been questioned.
       Debates have occurred on the various BBSs around the Valley -
    and probably around the country. What's surprising is how little
    some people seem to know about our Constitution or even the
    founding of our country.
       Chris Mitchell has gone to the bother of keyboarding the
    entire Constitution. (Actually it's a fairly small document,
    but still represents a lot of work on his part.) I knew it was
    coming and so began writing up a brief introduction to it.

       Well, you know me.

       The introduction has become an issue of its own. The Constitution
    will follow as an add on, as its own issue, or perhaps just as a
    download available to you.

                             A COUNTRY BORN

       When was the "birth" of America?
       Many people will answer, 1776. In some ways they'd be right;
    in other ways they'd be wrong.
       In the early 1600s people began arriving in America to
    colonize. There seemed to be plenty of land, the Indians at
    the time didn't seem to mind too awful much, and most important,
    the new colonists were away from direct control of the crown.
       That control still existed, of course, but enforcement was a
    bit tough, especially since England was having a bit of a squabble
    (complete with bullets, blades and blood) with France.
       The colonists simply ignored most of the laws.
       In 1763, after the defeat of the French (with the help of the
    Indians) the British government saw that this land was pretty
    rich, with all sorts of things they wanted. And they began to
    exercise more power and more control.
       Britain wasn't the only greedy group. The colonists expanded
    and moved westward. So what that the Indians owned the land. If
    they didn't like the whites moving in and setting up shop, tough
    tookies.
       Skirmishes began. Pontiac, leader of the Indians, took some
    drastic measures to prevent the loss of their land. The whites
    were, at this time, invaders.
       A man named Grenville put out the Proclamation of 1763. This
    forbade the colonists from moving west of the Allegheny Mountains
    except by special permission, and told those colonists who had
    already moved into Indian land to back off.
       The attitude of the colonists was, "We can do whatever we want,
    so go eat some sawdust. And take Pontiac with you."
       Then came the Stamp Act in 1765. The government wanted more
    money. They raised it by requiring stamps to be placed on many
    items - kinda like the "stamps" you now see on a variety of things,
    such as cigarettes, gasoline, and etc.
       The colonists wondered about what would be taxed next. (The Stamp
    Act placed a tax on newspapers, calendars, almanacs, playing cards
    and certain legal papers.)
       Then came "The Stamp Act Congress" - an informal group assembled
    from each of the 9 colonies (at the time). They wrote a protest and
    sent it to England (kinda like writing or sending a petition to
    your Congressman). They then organized a boycott, encouraging the
    colonists to not buy British goods.
       The Stamp Act was repealed the next year. (Big Bucks talk!) But
    in a typical government attitude, at the same time they had to make
    themselves feel "big" and said that although they'd repeal the tax,
    they maintained to right to tax or make laws.
       The colonists continued to defy the government. You can bet that
    this made King George REAL happy. Basically, he and his ministers
    had had just about enough. "Give 'em an inch and they'll take a
    mile," which pretty much described the whole thing.
       So England decided to enforce the laws, even on the colonists. To
    make it official they formally declared their intentions in The
    Townshend Acts.
       Again there were protests. The rebels began insulting the British,
    calling their soldiers "red coats" and "lobster-backs." Sounds sorta
    like the 1960s with the police being called "pigs." And just about
    the same thing happened as what happened on a famous university
    campus. The people threw things at the "police," tempers flared,
    and a few shots were fired into the crowd. A few people died.
       The British government called it a minor skirmish with rebels. The
    colonists called it "The Boston Massacre." Now we're in 1770.
       All taxes were repealed, along with the rest of the Townshend Acts.
    But to do the usual trick of those in power, the British maintained
    a 3c tax on imported tea.
       In charge of just about all the tea importing was the British East
    India Company. Some smart man in England figured out that it was
    less costly to ship the tea directly to the Americas rather than to
    route it through England. England suffered since it didn't get to
    collect import taxes. The cost of tea to the colonists dropped like
    crazy. They paid less than anyone else in the (British) world, even
    with the 3c tax. Even the tea smugglers (mostly from Holland) couldn't
    come close to matching that extremely low price.
       Those smugglers were, in essence, being squeezed out of business.
    They began to stir up trouble, for business' sake. A few colonial
    "stockholders" helped.
       A group put on costumes and had themselves a wild time - the Boston
    Tea Party. They wasted a whole shipload of tea by tossing it into
    the salty water.
       A number of colonists protested this as a vigilante move, and
    tried to reason with the others. They had the lowest price on tea
    of anyone - the big reason behind the whole rebellion was caused
    by the Dutch who were losing money, and if the Dutch got back into
    it again, the price of tea would once more skyrocket.
       Great Britain also took a dim view of the whole affair. They'd
    repealed all taxes except that one, had given the colonists a big
    say in how they lived, etc.
       1774 - laws were passed, mostly aimed at Massachusetts. The port
    at Boston was closed until those to blame paid for the damage they'd
    caused. The formerly allowed self-government was taken away until
    the rebels stopped taking potshots and destroying property.
       The British thought of this as trying to restore peace and good
    business. The colonists called the laws, "The Intolerable Acts."
       Now we're at September of 1774. The basically underground
    rebellion came above ground. 50 some-odd people gathered to talk
    about how to proceed. The meeting was called, "The First Continental
    Congress."
       1775 - the rebellion continued to grow. Groups in Massachusetts
    armed themselves and began to drill. The general idea through the
    colonies was that with more protests things would go back to the
    way they had been.
       The British reaction to the arming and drills was to pass the
    so-called British Act. Under the leadership of General Thomas
    Gage, a small company of British soldiers marched to Concord, some
    18 miles outside of Boston, to destroy arms and explosions gathered
    by the rebels.
       About 6 miles outside Concord, the soldiers were ambushed. 8
    of the rebels were killed, and ten more were wounded. The soldiers
    continued into Concord and succeeded in destroying the cache of
    arms.
       Rebels took potshots at the soldiers all the way back to Boston.
    By the time the British got back home, some 300 were dead or missing.
       That was April 19, 1775.
       On June 16 of the same year, 1200 rebels snuck up the sides of
    Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill just outside Boston. They managed to
    capture Breed's Hill. The next morning the British counterattacked.
    This was the famous Battle of Bunker Hill, which really had nothing
    to do with Bunker Hill.
       Fighting continued. By March 1776 the rebels took control of
    Dorchester Heights and armed it with cannon (taken from the British
    at Ticonderoga) that could be fired down into Boston. By March 17
    the British withdrew and sailed off to Nova Scotia.
       To strengthen his troups, George III hired Hessians - German
    mercenaries - to help maintain law and order. The colonists became
    violently furious, saying that it was bad enough to have British
    soldiers around, but who wants a bunch of foreigners who talk
    funny?
       Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet he titled, "Common Sense." In it
    he said that there was little sense in having a continent tied
    to a small island thousands of miles away. In the pamphlet he
    griped about the attempts to put down the armed rebels and pleaded
    for separation.
       Now we're at June 1776. Richard Lee of Virginia stood up in
    the Second Continental Congress and declared that he'd been
    directed by the people of Virginia to say, "Resolved, that
    these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
    independent states."
       Now Thomas Jefferson (also from Virginia, and 33 at the time)
    got into the act. He had a nice touch with words. With a little
    help from others, he drafted the Declaration of Independence.

       The idea of rights of the people and of the public wasn't
    new. Way back in 1215 the British drafted the Magna Carta, forcing
    King John to realize that he couldn't do whatever he felt like
    doing - that ordinary people have rights, too. (Well, sorta. Mostly
    it was that the rich land holders had rights, too.)
       When the colonists were first coming to America, King Charles I
    was in charge. Despite the Magna Carta, he tended to ignore
    Parliament (their Congress) and to consider them as little more
    than people who had no right to know what was going on. The
    "Petition of Right" was drawn up which declared that the British
    should not be taxed without consent of Parliament, which in
    turn represented the people. (Consequently, taxation without
    representation was NOT new in America - the British had it, and
    so did the colonists. Their representatives were the members
    of Parliament - just as ours are the members of Congress.)
       King James II didn't fare much better. He ended up having to
    run for his life in 1689 for again not paying any attention to
    the people or to Parliament. The "Bill of Rights" was drafted
    and put into effect.
       Almost 100 years before the American Revolution, the English
    citizen had the right to a fair trial by a jury of his peers,
    the right to elect representatives, and so forth. In fact, much
    of our own Constitution is based around all of this.
       The problem was distance. The colonies were so far away from
    Mother England that it was kinda tough to have any real say in
    the laws.

       The Declaration of Independence said it all over again. It
    declared the right of the people to determine their government
    all the way through. (Lincoln later rephrased it as, " . . . a
    government of the people, by the people and for the people . . .)
       It was drafted on July 4, 1776, which is the date that most
    people accept as the formal birth of our nation. Our country
    was no longer "The United Colonies" but "The United States of
    America."

       Well, the war went on for some time. It consisted of a whole
    lot of skirmishes and a few rather large battles. John Paul Jones
    took on the British fleet in the water, showing that our forces
    were also to be respected at sea.
       Fighting finally stopped in October of 1781 when Cornwallis
    surrendered at Yorktown. It took another two years (1783) before
    a formal declaration of peace was drawn up. In this the British
    recognized our country as a sovereign nation, extending from
    the Canadian border to Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean to
    the Mississippi River. (Other nations, including the Indians,
    had claim to the rest.)
       It took another 4 years to draw up the set of laws that would
    govern our country. The Constitution was put into effect in 1787.
    There was a major problem. Before the revolution, each of the
    13 colonies considered themselves as separate entities. There
    were no Americans. Instead there were Virginians, Rhode Islanders
    and so forth, each with its own local government although owing
    loyalty to England.
       Once independence was won, the squabbles and attitudes continued.
       As early as 1754 a group got together in Albany, New York and
    came up with the Albany Plan of Union. It was rejected almost
    instantly because of the demand that each colony remain in charge
    of itself.
       After the war came The Articles of Confederation. It was
    rejected in part by the dollar sign again. Some of the states
    had claim to lands west of the Appalachians. Others did not.
    The Articles of Confederation gave those states with claims
    right to hold those claims - which didn't set too well with the
    states that hadn't yet expanded over the mountains. Those smaller
    states wanted that western land turned over to the general
    government - to be shared equally.
       Things didn't work out very well. Our country very nearly
    folded up even before it got started. Several of the states were
    very close to going to war with each other over disputes. (For
    example, Pennsylvania and Connecticut just about duked it out
    over a chunk of disputed land.)
       By 1785 just about everyone realized that things just flat out
    weren't working out as planned. Virginia and Maryland got together
    and figured out a peaceful solution to their dispute over the
    Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. With this fresh in their minds
    they appealed to the other 11 states to get together and discuss
    how things could be changed.
       In 1786 a meeting was held. Disappointingly, only 5 states sent
    representatives. Things looked pretty bleak, but promising. It
    didn't help that the meeting was held in Maryland.
       A new meeting was scheduled, this time in Philadelphia. And
    this time only Rhode Island refused to attend.
       George Washington was in charge of the 55 or so delegates. The
    meeting was held in total secrecy. Despite the heat of the summer,
    all windows were kept closed so that the people outside couldn't
    hear what was going on and what was being said. Fresh dirt had even
    been put down so that the noise of traffic wouldn't bother those
    inside.
       The first order of business was to dissolve the Confederation.
    The country no longer existed, although no one outside that hot
    room knew it. New plans were suggested.
       Virginia wanted a very strong central government, centered around
    representatives based on population. It was quickly pointed out that
    Virginia had the greatest population and would thus have more power
    in the central government.
       New Jersey came up with the idea that the common people wouldn't
    have enough sense to elect proper representatives and wanted the
    state governments to be solely responsible for who represented
    the individual states in the central government.
       That was no good. It meant that the central government would not
    represent the people at large, and would be unfair to the larger
    states with more people.
       A compromise was reached. It was decided that there would be
    two houses of the central government. The House of Representatives
    would be based on population. The Senate would have two represent-
    atives, regardless of the size of the state.
       This so-called "Great Compromise" is the basis of our Constitution.
       It took until September 17, 1787 for all the compromises to be
    worked out. Then came the long, drawn-out process of ratification.
    Each state had to sign the document. This was tough. In the
    Constitution the central government was powerful. A lot of people
    feared this. Thomas Jefferson headed this group. He suggested a
    Bill of Rights, patterned after the Bill of Rights of England.
       Debates and discussions began. Voting to accept or reject the
    Constitution was close in many cases. In New York, for example, the
    vote to accept the Constitution as opposed to the Articles of
    Confederation won by a margin of just 3 votes. Even Virginia, one
    of the strongholds, had a margin of just 79 to 89 in favor.
       The new Constitution was set to take effect in the spring of
    1789.
       On April 30, 1789 George Washington stepped out on a balcony
    overlooking Wall Street in New York and took his oath of office
    as President.
       "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the
    office of President of the United States and will, to the best
    of my ability, protect, and defend the Constitution of the
    united States."
       Two years later the first ten ammendments were added - the
    Bill of Rights. It's now 1987. There are 26 ammendments, with the
    latest added in July of 1971.

       In 1976 we had the big celebration of the 200th anniversary
    of the independence of America.
       We're presently celebrating the 200th anniversary of the
    Constitution, originally written in 1787.
       That important document is what we're all about. A surprising
    number of people have very little idea of what it says. Even fewer
    have much of an idea of how it came about. There are so many
    misconceptions that American history has become, for TOO many,
    a matter of opinion rather than fact.
       Things like - George Washington was our first President. (Nope.
    America declared its independence and became a country some 13
    years before Washington took office.)
       Or that the reason for the revolution was taxation without
    representation. (Nope. We had that all along, guaranteed by
    the Bill of Rights of 1689.)
       Or that the colonies had no say in their government. (Nope.
    They'd been self-governed for some time, and only Massachusets
    was threatened with removal of that right, and then only after
    the rebellion we call the Boston Tea Party, and to be withheld
    only until the damage had been paid.)
       Or that we were founded on Christian principles. (Nope. A prime
    reason for coming to America was to get away from religious control.)
       Or that we were founded on the principle that all men are
    created equal and had a right to vote. (Nope. A huge chunk of
    our founding fathers wanted the vote to be restricted to land
    owners - male and white - and even suggested as a viable plan
    a document that said that the common person didn't have enough
    sense to vote.)
       Often people argue and debate without the slightest knowledge
    of what they're saying. They'll claim that this is unconstitutional
    or that violates the Bill of Rights. More than a few think that
    the Constitution is a huge and ponderous book.

       Argue all you want. But read a little first.
       We began as a nation of rebels - no, not really. We began as
    a nation of common people who really had little interest in
    government but were dragged along by a handful of rebels with
    financial interests. Those same acts today would obviously be
    call for armed police action. In fact, when the southern states
    attempted to separate there was an extremely bloody confrontation
    we call The Civil War.
       I've been a little flippant in this week's article. There
    were certainly some very good reasons for the revolution, not
    the least of which was a leader (the king) who had a real
    attitude problem and a wishy-washy means of enforcement.
       At the same time, things are often not what they seem - and
    nearly as often are not quite what you were taught in school.
    Take the Boston Massacre. It's often given as a prime cause of
    the revolution. It was. But it was hardly a massacre. What it was
    was a bunch of citizens throwing things at armed soldiers,
    literally daring them to fire, and just 3 dead at the end of it
    when the soldiers finally defended themselves.
       Or the Boston Tea Party. From school you get the idea that people
    were protesting the high price of tea. In actuality, the Americas
    paid less for tea, including the 3 cent tax, than just about
    anyone else in the world. The Dutch instigated that action because
    they could no longer economically smuggle in tea. British tea
    cost less.
       Or the proverbial "shot heard 'round the world." The common
    idea is that the British were marching against Concord, while in
    actuality their goal was to destroy the cache of arms (and to
    capture a few rebel leaders reported to be hiding in Lexington).
    The end result was 8 dead rebels, compared to 300 British soldiers
    who were sniped down.
       Then comes the idea that it was American bravery and ingenuity
    that won the war. Far from it. We had the French helping us, and
    the Spanish, and the Dutch, and the Indians, and . . .
       No matter what, all this was 200 years ago. Things have worked
    out pretty well for all concerned (except for the American Indians
    we pushed out).
       We almost failed as a nation at first. By the time the
    Constitution came along, we'd declared our independence some
    13 years before, and had been officially independent for 6
    years and governed under the Articles of Confederation.
       The Constitution came about in 1789. Through it we became
    the greatest and most powerful country in the world.
       How many have ever bothered to read it? How many have a copy of
    it right at hand?
       It's a remarkable document. There's very little new in it as
    far as concept. It just takes the best of so much of that went
    before and combines all of that in one place - and does so in
    a beautifully concise manner.

    Until Next Time

       Chris Mitchell has been busy at work keyboarding the
    Constitution. Next time - and not long from now, that will
    be put up. (At very least it will be made available as a
    download.)
       In honor of the 200th anniversary of the Constitution, I'm
    very glad to make it available to anyone who doesn't already
    have it. Your real thanks should go to Chris, however. He
    did all the real work.
       The document is (or will be) also available for download
    on the Silent Side (962-7698), probably as an ARC file. So
    you will have a choice.

       By the way, this might be a good time to remind all of you
    that all back issues are available for download. To get there,
    press "U" for Upload/Download. The prompts there will tell you
    what to do.
       The first thing I'd suggest is that you capture and print
    a copies of the issues available. That will make it easier on
    you and you can decide what you'd like, and what doesn't
    interest you in the slightest. Issue #34 gives you a brief
    summary of each issue for 1986 if you want more details.

Zephyr Magazine is © Gene Williams. All rights reserved.