political acquiescence

 I received a few comments on yesterday's posting that were positive. That's always nice to hear. I do hope to share some information of value. Sometimes I get accused of being a know it all or acting like I'm so smart and I have to chuckle about that. All I'm doing is sharing my thoughts and what facts I have learned from history, or Goggle. Yes, Google provides me with a good bit of information same as the encyclopedia did back in ancient times when scribes were writing that stuff down. I don't actually remember all these dates and names; I have to look them up occasionally. Yesterday, well actually it was the day before, the Monroe Doctrine popped into my mind for some unknown reason. I did go to the internet to refresh my knowledge of just what that was. I was pleased to learn that it was pretty much what I remembered from history class. The policy of, mind your own business. I suspect that came to mind as I listened to Biden and his willingness to acquiesce to the wants of foreign powers. A very weak stance on the world political podium in my opinion. A policy of, we don't want to offend anyone. 

 As is often the case the why of something is often lost in the action that followed. How did the Monroe Doctrine come to be? Well, it's interesting because it involves Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. We have all heard about their famous debates when Lincoln ran for the Senate. We all know that Lincoln won. But what was the hot topic of those debates? The expansion of slavery is the answer. Stephen Douglas had proposed the Kansas Nebraska act which would allow slavery to exist in those places. This act was in contradiction to the Missouri Compromise outlawing slavery above 36 degrees parallel in the Louisianna purchase. That territory was above that line. This was so hotly debated that congressman Preston Brooks (D) beat Senator Charles Sumner with his cane so severely it took Sumner three years to fully recover. Sumner was anti-slavery. The whole deal split the Whig party in two. The Whig party would basically collapse afterwards. Then the Democrats took control. Lincoln and the newly formed Republican party were in opposition to slavery. But what is interesting to note is what plan they had in mind.

 The plan, in a nutshell, was to surround the slave holding states with free states. Lincoln never said he was going to abolish slavery. He never said he was going to set anyone free, take the slaves away from their owners. No, his idea was that slavery as an institution would collapse on its own given time. That is one reason to stop the expansion of slavery, in fact the only reason given. Regardless of any personal feelings Lincoln may have had regarding slavery he was against any expansion of it anywhere in the country. That's why the Kansas-Nebraska act was so vehemently defended. Eventually by 1861 those slave holding states would start a civil war to keep their "property." That was their view. There were other laws passed about fugitive slaves, bounty being offered and that you had to return slaves if they ran away. 

 It was James Monroe that signed the Missouri Compromise into law. That compromise allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave holding state while admitting Maine as a free state. The compromise was an attempt to keep the number of free states and slave holding states equal in number. The reason for that, in Monroe's thinking, was to preserve the country they had so recently won. Monroe and others were keenly aware that the holding of slaves could cause a very deep division in the nation. That compromise took place in 1820. Forty-one years later that division took place! Interesting to note is the fact that Monroe was a slave holder himself. He straddled the issue realizing how it was pitting the states against the federal government. You could say the Monroe Doctrine was doing the same thing. You mind your business and I'll mind mine. In the end however no one could stay out of anyone's business and here we are today. The states are in opposition to the federal government on many issues of the day. Marijuana usage, abortion, gay rights, indeed government itself. The current administration is adopting a position of, we'll just do what makes you happy. Political acquiescence. That's the foreign policy I'm seeing. The domestic policy is, the minority will make the rules because the majority are just racists, misogynists, radicals and terrorists. Another great divide! If history is a guide, we should be prepared for what's coming. Might take forty years or more, but it's coming.