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Was there corruption when the U.S. was founded? |
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Written by Stumo
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Wednesday, 03 February 2010 |
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Corruption is recent. Only us modern folks face the issue. Big money, back room deals. Things were much more pristine and pure when the Republic was founded. Right?
Wrong.
Corruption was discussed more often in the Constitutional Convention than factions, violence, or instability. It was a topic of concern on almost a quarter of the days that the members convened. Madison recorded the specific term corruption fifty-four times, and the vast majority of the corruption discussions were spearheaded by the influential delegates Madison, Morris, Mason, and Wilson. The attendees were concerned about the corrupting influence of wealth, greed, and ambition. They were concerned that the small size of the young country (compared to the great European powers) would open it up to foreign corruption, that the proposed Senate would be easily corrupted because of its small size, and that the proposed populist House of Representatives would be easily corrupted because of the weak virtue of the men who would stand for it. The delegates' discussion of these issues was far more oriented toward thwarting corruption than of promoting virtue. Corruption was a “crucial term” for the American Framers.
In the writing of the Constitution, “[n]othing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.” Some of the most extensive debates in the Convention-- those about emoluments and perquisites for civil office, who should have the power of appointment, and the size of the relative bodies--were debates about the relative strength of different constitutional designs to withstand corruption. The “unique and universal crisis” of corruption as perceived by the Framers led to frantic, near-apocalyptic language and a search for tools to ward off its threats.
The Framers worked hard to create such a tool through a document that would protect new citizens of the Confederation from each others' most mercenary and covetous tendencies, and delay--if not forestall--the corruption that they believed would eventually founder America. Against these fears, the delegates attempted to build a bulwark against corruption in the clauses and structure of the Constitution.
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-Benjamin Franklin-
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the american people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
-Thomas Jefferson-
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country...the growth of the nation therefore and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world..."
-Woodrow Wilson- (After signing the Federal Reserve Act 1913)