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Emphatically and categorically disagree !!!
Our legacy developed from the English Colonists starting w/Jamestown in 1607!
Some 400 years earlier, Magna Carta had diluted some of the absolute power of
English Monarchical Rule, planting the seeds of decentralized authority.
Over the centuries, this became an integral component of English Common Law
and Governance, unlike their continental colleagues.
In turn, it was actively promoted by our Founding Fathers who, by the way, were
English Citizens, before our Independence.
Your response has absolutely positively NOTHING to do with what I posted.
In case you're interested, here is the 1856 GOP platform:
https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/exhibits/show/benjamin-hedrick/item/285Opening paragraph:
This Convention of Delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; to the policy of the present Administration; to the extension of Slavery into Free Territory; in favor of the admission of Kansas as a Free State; of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson
Imagine that. Restoring our government to the intent of our founding fathers. That doesn't sound at all like you describe.
But there's more:
Resolved: That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution are essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, must and shall be preserved.
Well look at that. The very first Republican platform, and there it is in the very first paragraph - States Rights. Go figure.
But there's even more:
Resolved: That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people, in order to "form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty," and contain ample provision for the protection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen, the dearest Constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them.
Their Territory has been invaded by an armed force;
Spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced;
The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been infringed.
Test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office.
The right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied;
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been violated;
They have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law;
That the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged;
The right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect;
Murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished;
That all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present National Administration; and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity, we arraign that Administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists, and accessories, either before or after the fact, before the country and before the world; and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages and their accomplices to a sure and condign punishment thereafter.
Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a state of this Union, with her present Free Constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory.
So the territory of Kansas is under invasion by the federal government, and its only course of resolve is to become a State in order to secure the rights granted States under the Constitution and reserved by its people.
