Texas Liberal Video–Reading Federalist Papers At Site Of Texas Independence To Assert Federal Power Over The States

Above is a video of me reading a brief passage from Federalist Paper #9 at the San Jacinto Battlefield State Historic site. This reading  is in response to recent disloyal comments by Republican Texas Governor Rick Perrry suggesting that  Texas might wish to consider leaving the union.

The video runs 1 minute and 40 seconds.  

The San Jacinto Battlefield Site is where Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836.

Here is information about what Governor Perry said about Texas possibly leaving the union.  

Here is information about Federalist Paper # 9 and about the Federalist Papers.  As I say in the video, Federalist #9 asserts the supremacy of the Federal Government over the authority of the individual states

Here is the link for visiting the San Jacinto Battlefield Historic site in LaPorte, Texas. LaPorte is just outside of Houston. 

Here are facts about the Battle of San Jacinto from the excellent Handbook of Texas Online.

As you heard in the video, I was at the battlefield on a windy day. Here is an explanation of wind.

In the video you can see the wind move the clouds that are in the background. Here is an explanation of why clouds are white along with other facts about clouds.  

Federalist Paper #9—For Central Government Over The Powers Of The States

Federalist Paper #9, written by Alexander Hamilton, is a winner.

In Federalist #9, Hamilton speaks for the Union of the States under a central government.

The intent of the Federalist Papers was to help win ratification of the Constitution in the New York State and elsewhere in the nation.

The 85 Federalist Papers were written by Hamilton, James Madison  and to a lesser extent, John Jay.   

(Above–Hamilton as painted by John Trumbull in 1806.  A book to consider reading about Hamilton is Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Please click here for the review. The review also includes the names of other authors who have written about Hamilton.)

A central government strong enough to aid the people in a central thought of political liberalism as it is defined in the United States today. 

Hamilton was a not a liberal in the sense we now understand it in America, but we owe him a debt for his advocacy of the powers of the federal government in relation to the powers held by the individual states.   

Here is information about the life and works of Alexander Hamilton.

Here is information about the Federalist Papers.

 Here are all the Federalist Papers from the Emory University Law School.

You can also buy a cheap mass-market book copy of the Federalist Papers that would fit in your purse or back pocket.

It is up to you learn about your history. As much as you may respect your teachers, your parents, your co-workers or whoever is in your life, you can’t count on anyone but yourself  to learn about your past. 

Here is Federalist 9—

A firm Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the States, as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection. It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy. If they exhibit occasional calms, these only serve as short-lived contrast to the furious storms that are to succeed. If now and then intervals of felicity open to view, we behold them with a mixture of regret, arising from the reflection that the pleasing scenes before us are soon to be overwhelmed by the tempestuous waves of sedition and party rage. If momentary rays of glory break forth from the gloom, while they dazzle us with a transient and fleeting brilliancy, they at the same time admonish us to lament that the vices of government should pervert the direction and tarnish the lustre of those bright talents and exalted endowments for which the favored soils that produced them have been so justly celebrated.

From the disorders that disfigure the annals of those republics the advocates of despotism have drawn arguments, not only against the forms of republican government, but against the very principles of civil liberty. They have decried all free government as inconsistent with the order of society, and have indulged themselves in malicious exultation over its friends and partisans. Happily for mankind, stupendous fabrics reared on the basis of liberty, which have flourished for ages, have, in a few glorious instances, refuted their gloomy sophisms. And, I trust, America will be the broad and solid foundation of other edifices, not less magnificent, which will be equally permanent monuments of their errors.