"Two Hundred and Fifty Years!"

 Happy Mothers’ Day!

 

Yesterday was the 81^st Anniversary of the unconditional surrender of Germany. That victory was followed by the re-building of Europe, led by the generosity of the United States through the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine.

 

.............................................................................

 

I recognize that Independence Day is almost two months in the future, but I don’t believe it is too early to be thinking of the magnitude of what was created in Philadelphia in 1776. 

 

Two hundred and fifty years is a long time. Two hundred and fifty years from now it will be 2276, a future as unimaginable to us as 2026 would have been to the Founders in 1776. Yet here we are, and with luck and forbearance our great-grandchildrens’ great-grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren, may be around to celebrate the quincentenary of the Declaration of Independence.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Two Hundred and Fifty Years!”

May 9, 2026

 

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”

                                                                                                                George Washington (1732-1799)

                                                                                                                Letter to James Madison

                                                                                                                March 2, 1788

 

On July 4 we will celebrate the semiquincentennial (250^th anniversary) of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This is not a celebration of the start of Revolution, which began more than a year earlier in Lexington and Concord. Nor is it to celebrate the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. And it is not to commemorate the signing of the Constitution, which occurred in September 1787, nor to mark the ratification of the Bill of Rights by the thirteen states in June 1788. And this year’s festivities are not to memorialize the inauguration of George Washington as the new Nation’s first President in April 1789. 

 

It is the Declaration of Independence we celebrate. It represented the severance of the colonies’ obedience to the British Empire. In a speech at the University of Texas in Austin on April 15, 2026 Justice Clarence Thomas stated: “The Constitution is the means of government; it is the Declaration that announces the ends of government.” Fifty-six delegates from thirteen British colonies put their signatures to a document that terminated the political bonds that had connected them to the British Empire, then the most powerful in the world. In doing so, they pledged to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Had the Revolution failed, it is likely that all fifty-six would have been hung for treason.

 

The Declaration was unique at the time (and is still so today), in that the delegates believed that “Truths” were “self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Recognizing the wisdom of James Madison, “...if men were angels, no government would be necessary,” the Declaration calls for a government to be established to secure those rights, one created by consent of the governed, and one that “...should not be changed for light and transient Causes.” The bulk of the Declaration is a list grievances, and it ends with the declaration “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.” 

 

Of course, given the time and place, all fifty-six delegates were white men of British heritage. Eight were immigrants, but all from the British Isles. They had an average age of forty-four, which seems young, but average life expectancy at the time was under forty. Nevertheless, there was diversity. Among them were lawyers, planters, doctors, merchants and farmers. They included both slave holders and abolitionists. While most were Protestants, their numbers included two Quakers and a Catholic.

 

From the perspective of 250 years, we can find fault with some of the men, but we should judge those who created this document by the standards of their time, and we should be cognizant of change over time. We should recognize regional differences, that travel was primitive by our standards. For example, in 1776 it took anywhere from two to four weeks to travel from Williamsburg, Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts. The Declaration was drafted by five men from five different colonies: Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. Drafting took weeks and debate was often raucous. 

 

All fifty-six delegates were sons of the Enlightenment, which by the late 18^th Century was in its final innings, with reason and science rejecting blind faith; yet the Founders believed God – not the state – to be guarantor of our unalienable rights. That belief held true for most of our Nation’s existence. In the June 7, 1944 issue of The New York Times (the day after D-Day) the editors wrote of the U.S.: “This nation was born in the only revolution in history made in the name of God.” Belief in a Higher Being persisted over the years. In November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln invoked God in his Gettysburg Address: “...that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” On June 26, 1876, celebrating the Centennial, President Ulysses Grant spoke in Washington: “...acknowledgement should be made to Almighty God for the protection and the bounties which He has vouchsafed to our beloved country.”  President Calvin Coolidge, in speaking on the Nation’s sesquicentennial on July 5, 1926, spoke of the “miracle of the birth of a new nation.” And President Gerald Ford, on the occasion of the Bicentennial Ceremony on July 4, 1976, said: “The Declaration is the Polaris of our political order – the fixed star of freedom. It is impervious to change because it states moral truths that are eternal.”

 

These men and others conceived of and created a government that still stands. It is a government composed of three separate but equal branches, designed to prevent the concentration of power. It is a nation based on law, not men. It is a government that honors individual liberty, values meritocracy, regardless of gender, skin color, or religion. And it is a government accountable to the people.

 

Today, as we remember our Country’s forefathers, belief in God is waning; there is concern that our democratic institutions are failing. Our politicians have become polarized. Our news outlets no longer report dispassionately but rather speak and write passionately in favor of one side or the other. Identity politics have divided us into victims and victimizers, the oppressed and oppressors. Sixty-two years after the Civil Rights Act was passed there are politicians who wield racism as a political tool. And, frighteningly, anti-Semitism is on the rise. There are threats, from both the left and the right, to the principles that infused the fifty-six men who met in Philadelphia 250 years ago to debate their (and our) future.  

 

Yet the draw of the United States remains strong: It is the preferred destination for migrants. Among the world’s major developed nations, its population ranks at the top in terms of diversity. Its universities are among the best in the world. Capitalism allows innovation to soar, productivity to gain, and standards of living to reach heights unimaginable to our forefathers. There is no country in the world with a population over ten million who ranks as high as the U.S. in terms of GDP per capita. Despite political bickering between Parties, and the cynicism and partisanship that that bickering gives birth to, political power has swung back and forth. In the 126 years since 1900, Republicans have served as President for 66 years and Democrats for 60. Democrats have controlled both the House and the Senate more often than Republicans but not by a large margin. Likewise, the Supreme Court has leant both towards conservatives and progressives. This dynamic indicates a country where political change is, in fact, moderate and welcomed – unlike the situations in countries from where migrants emigrate. 

 

The United States is not perfect. It is (and always has been) a work in progress. The challenge, as James Madison warned, is that men are not angels, neither the governed nor governors. It is why individual liberty and limited government, with separation of powers, have been critical to our success; it is why no branch of government should have superiority over another, and why rule of law has prevailed. Despite constant challenges, the architects of the Declaration of Independence produced a document that has guided our country for two and a half centuries. The Declaration set in motion the birth of a nation that is (and has been) exceptional, one unique in the annals of history. Those of us who live here are truly blessed.

"Wolves, Sheep and Shepherds"

 

The photo is from Aesop’s Fables, “The Wolf and the Shepherd.”

 

The essay is my own invention and reflects something about which I have spent many hours thinking. Many of you will disagree with my conclusions, But I have always felt we are best off when we express our opinions...and remembering that they are only opinions.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Wolves, Sheep and Shepherds”

March 6, 2027

 

“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.”

                                                                                                “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” 1815

                                                                                                Lord Byron (1788-1824)

 

The war in the Middle East pits forces of good – Israel and the U.S. – against forces of evil – Iran and its proxies. With their support of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and various Shia militias in Iraq and Syria, Iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. For forty-seven years, they and their proxies have waged a relentless war against Israel and have murdered hundreds of Americans, citizens of the “Great Satan,” along with hundreds of Europeans. In providing funding for weapons, training and intelligence, they have destabilized the region. They are part of an Axis of evil that includes China, Russia and North Korea. As a nation, their leaders are wolves. President Biden said “Don’t.” The Mullahs ignored him.

 

Hitler and Tojo were exemplars of evil, and so was the late unlamented Ali Khamenei. They were wolves. Yet the potential for evil resides within all of us, something Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about in The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” It is our moral duty, for the sake of ourselves and those who follow us, to keep evil at bay. How do we in the United States do that? By never losing sight of our Judeo-Christian heritage: honesty, integrity, perseverance, compassion and respect. Retaining our traditional traits: personal responsibility and accountability. In maintaining a strong military. And by refocusing on individualism, self-reliance, thrift and excellence – factors that allowed the United States to become the most powerful, freest and most prosperous nation in history – while avoiding excessive national debt, state-handouts and multiculturalism.

 

In his poem quoted in the epigraph that heads this essay, Byron wrote of the Assyrian king Sennacherib who in 701 BCE besieged Jerusalem to punish King Hezekiah of Judah. Hezekiah, a reformist and religious revivalist, is praised in the Bible as one of its righteous and faithful leaders of the Jewish people. He rebelled against Assyrian rule. With him as a shepherd, the wolf Assyrian Sennacherib failed in his goal to take Jerusalem and its Temple. There is a lesson for us in the fundamental morality of his story.

 

The United States stands today on a precipice. It is mired in debt, with a population – near to declining – that is increasingly dependent on government subsidies, and therefore ripe for pillaging by wolves in Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. We have lost contact with many of those attributes enumerated above that contributed to our economic success and made us a beacon for aspirant and freedom-loving people. 

 

The United States does not seek war. It knows its horrors, from the Civil War, when 360,000 Union soldiers died freeing four million slaves from bondage. In 1917-18, 117,000 Americans died in Europe, helping their allies in France and Britain defeat imperial Germany. Less than a generation later 410,000 American soldiers were killed in Europe and the Pacific, putting an end to the tyranny emanating from Japan and Germany whose armies threatened Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Another 100,000 Americans died in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. America has always been selfless in their sacrifices for freedom. No, the U.S. does not want war, but it knows the same cannot be said for its enemies, which is why it has understood the importance of a strong defense, and it is why the U.S. and Israel acted against Iran when they did. Obviously, I cannot speak for the 93 million Iranian people, but the numbers of protesters against the regime (and despite the murder of 32,000 of them) suggest many see President Trump as a modern-day Hezekiah. Whether the attack was “preventive” or “pre-emptive,” as discussed in last Wednesday editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, I leave for politicians to decide. From my perspective, it was necessary.

 

We must restore our basic beliefs in those self-evident truths given us by Thomas Jefferson – the ones that offer each of us the opportunity to be a shepherd, not a sheep – “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (not the state) with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We cannot let our defenses down, not unless we choose to be sheep, a target for wolves, with no shepherds to protect us. 

"End of the West? Not so Fast"

 The accompanying photo has nothing to do with today’s essay, but I loved the contrast of the snow-covered branches silhouetted against the bright blue sky.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“End of the West? Not so Fast.”

January 7, 2026

 

“In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the

predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole.”

                                                                                                                Edmund Burke

                                                                                                                Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies

                                                                                                                March 22, 1775

 

“What we once called the normative West no longer exists in this form.”

                                                                                                                Friedrich Merz, German Chancellor

                                                                                                                Speaking to business leaders in Berlin

                                                                                                                December 9, 2025

 

“My single most important responsibility as President is to keep the American people safe,” stated Barack Obama during his Presidency, a sentiment echoed by his successors, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. But what about their responsibilities to ensure those freedoms cited in our Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by our Constitution? Safety appears to have superseded freedom. Keeping people safe is an important government responsibility, but ensuring individual freedom is its most important duty.

 

In his first inaugural, Thomas Jefferson wrote of the need for “a wise and frugal Government, which will restrain men from injuring one another, [but] shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement...” In his letter from Birmingham jail (April 16, 1963), Martin Luther king wrote: “We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.” Ludwig von Mises, in The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method, defined what differentiates Western governments: [1] “The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state.” One has only to look at the plight of citizens in dozens of nations, from China to Venezuela, to recognize that freedom is our most valuable possession.

 

For many politicians, however the dependency of the people on government is an asset. What politician wants to ask their people to work harder or to save more to help ensure a brighter future. Yet, when the state assumes responsibilities better left to individuals, personal freedom lessens as restraints on choice take over. As the power of the state expands, people may feel safer, but it becomes riskier to speak out in opposition. 

 

Those politicians who prefer safety to freedom cite those places where individual freedom leads to personal choices, which, combined with differences in abilities and diligence, leads to vastly different outcomes. People are not equal in abilities. The best gymnast and the best physicist are masters of their respective crafts, but they could not switch places. Those who prefer freedom to safety have history on their side. Individual freedoms, along with the rule of law, the right to own property, tradition and personal virtue, are fundamental to the foundation on which Western civilization was built.   

 

Of course those who carry the greatest influence, teachers and the media, are overwhelmingly of the left, yet voter registration suggests a more nuanced nation – roughly 37% of voters nationally are registered as Democrats, 31% as Republicans, 28% as Independents, according to BallotPedia. In Connecticut, where I live and where all Congressional seats are held by Democrats, unaffiliated voters represent the largest bloc of registered voters at 42%. However, big government is still the preference of most politicians on the right as well as on the left. Benefits once granted are almost impossible to remove. Nevertheless, expanding welfare states have been accompanied with declines in marriages and births. More welfare spending impedes economic growth as investment dollars get diverted. They have, however, increased debt to a level where the easiest decision for a politician is to cheapen the currency. In this, Republicans have been as guilty as Democrats.

 

It is important to understand that individual freedoms, inherent to democracies and fundamental to our concept of the West, are always at risk, as they confound and hinder those who seek political power for personal purposes. “Freedom,” Ronald Reagan said in a 1961 speech in Phoenix, “is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Even so, as long as thought, debate and speech are not cancelled, the West has a weapon unavailable to tyrants – the power of individuals to speak and act.

 

Twice in my lifetime the West was threatened – in the mid 1930s through 1945 from Nazism and Fascism and from 1945 to 1991 by Soviet Communism. In both cases the West was ultimately triumphant, though at enormous costs in human lives. Today, external threats come from Islamic terrorists, a nuclear-armed Russia, and an aggressive Communist China. The latter seeks to extend her military, technological and economic control throughout the world. As well there are internal threats from those who seek to enlarge the role of government, by providing goodies, citing “fairness” and promising to keep us safe. In his January 1^st inaugural address as New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani spoke for those who see government as the answer to all life’s ills: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.” Contrast his words with those of President Reagan (the greatest proponent of individual freedom in my lifetime) at a 1986 press conference where he cited the languages’ nine most terrifying words: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”  

 

What gives me hope is that there are indications that some in the West are backtracking on the nanny state – an excessively protective state that interferes with personal choice. Some signs: the declining influence of climate tyrants, skepticism regarding men competing against women in sports and “gender-affirming” (sex changes) for minors, expanding acceptance of the University of Chicago’s 1967 Kalven Report, which declared that a university is “the home and sponsor of critics but is not itself the critic,” and an acknowledgement that Black Lives Matter (BLM), always a divisive organization in a nation where all lives matter, has lost support. In 2020, when Nancy Pelosi took a knee, along with other publicity seekers, BLM had the support of 67% of the population. Today that is around 45%. The re-emergence of talk, at least in some quarters, of accountability, responsibility, mutual respect, and the celebration of our nation’s semiquincentennial all suggest the early stages of a return to the virtues that propelled Western civilization. 

 

Western civilization is not Utopia, it is not perfect. But it has provided more innovation, better economic and social outcomes, and more individual freedoms than any other. Can the West survive today’s assault on its bulwarks from without and within? The honest answer is no one knows.  But, despite Hollywood’s despicable reimaging of George Orwell’s Animal Farm to be released this spring, I suspect the answer is ‘yes.’ Threats to the West in the past have arisen and fallen. Current ones may worsen, but the call of freedom has echoed through the ages with a clarion tone. It is heard by people around the world.

 

 

---

[1]What is referred to as the “West” should not be construed as a geographic term, but as those nations who adhere to the concept of individual freedom, so includes countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.  

"[Almost] Nothing in Life is Static"

The attached photo, taken a few days ago, captured a moment in time: A quarter moon positioned between curtains of trees, rising over Mud River Swamp in Essex, CT. But nothing stood still. The moon floated higher in the sky, the clouds moved north, and the wind rustled the leaves.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“[Almost] Nothing in Life is Static”

September 6, 2025

 

“The only constant is change.”

                                                                           Attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c.500 BCE)               

                                                                           who believed that the universe is in a continuous state of

                                                                           movement and transformation.

 

That nature is not static is an acknowledged truth– not the universe, climate, plants, animals, nor the mass that comprises the Earth. They are all in a continuing state of flux, adapting to changing conditions. Few things in our lives – apart from history, art, our pasts and a moral code – are static, not politics, jobs, nor our relationships, which require care and attention. Perfection may be sought but is never discovered: Consider Pone de León’s search for the ‘Fountain of Youth,’ or Dorian Gray’s desire for eternal youth.

 

If science teaches us anything about the world around us, it is that evolution allows species to adapt to changing environments. All living matter is born, lives and dies. Inanimate objects are subject to erosion, volcanic activity, etc. It is why, in matters like the environment, the word “conserves” rather than “preserves” more accurately conveys what environmentalists seek. The former implies responsible behavior to protect something from harm or destruction; the latter suggests maintaining the status quo, which is alien to natural changes.  

 

To deal with this persistently fluid world, man created religion to help understand the inexplicable; fostered customs and traditions, like marriage, partnerships and codes of conduct to bring structure and stability; formed clubs and societies to satisfy a need for companionship; built cities to ease commerce, and erected governments and made laws to bring order to what would otherwise be anarchial lives.

 

I have been reading Paul Andrew Hutton’s monumental history of the American west, The Undiscovered Country. The book is instructional on many levels, but an aspect that struck me was the nomadic life of most North American Indians, in the18^th and 19^thcenturies, as hunting, fishing and trapping sustained them. The western movement of European settlers threatened their hunting grounds, but so did other Indian tribes, and alliances with European powers. Their mobile lives stood in contrast to the more staid civilizations built by Aztecs in what is now Mexico and Incas along the Andean Mountains. It makes one ponder: Were those who built cities looking for stability in a peripatetic world? Or were leaders simply seeking power and wealth? Why were cities and civilizations created two to four thousand years ago in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and later ones in Rome and Greece, while Celtics and Germanics roamed central Europe, and myriad tribes persisted as hunters and gatherers in Africa, the Americas and parts of Asia? Why?

 

Survival and economic growth (or the need for room to grow) explain the competition for resources between opposing tribes, peoples and nations, making understandable why they fought, perhaps explaining  why killings and enslavement were common. As Darwin demonstrated, survival went to the fittest. Today, the world faces two distinctive alternatives – the authoritarianism of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, or the liberal world order of Western nations, led by the United States, Europe, Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan. Which will attract the uncommitted?

 

We all strive for security and stability, yet change is (or should be) a natural aspect of democracies. Over the past 80 years, Republicans and Democrats have equally divided time in the White House, a healthy division. Yet, the opposite is true when it comes to big cities and state Congressional delegations. Of the eleven cities in the U.S. with over a million people only one (Dallas) has a Republican mayor. A second (Honolulu) has an Independent as mayor. The rest have Democrat mayors – not positive for democracy. And, in the current Congress, 40% of the states have single party delegations – twelve Republican-only states and eight Democrat-only states, an unhealthy division.

 

There are, however, things that do not change. Works of art, unless vandalized or censored: the music of Beethoven, the plays of Shakespeare, the paintings of Monet, the statues of Michelangelo, the poetry of Whitman. The past can be reinterpreted, but cannot be changed. But most important – what does not change are the principle of right and wrong, the presence of good and evil, and those self-evident, “unalienable truths” of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – gifts endowed by our Creator – and embedded in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. 

 

Nevertheless, in most aspects of our physical lives, change is a force for good. Think of improvements in health, transportation, foods, and communication. Standards of living have improved immensely over the past centuries. While there has been a slight decline in the percent of the world’s population living in democracies over the past few years, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, the numbers are up substantially over the past 100 years. Just as we should celebrate those things that do not change, we should applaud those that do.

 

While I am not a fatalist – a belief that our futures are foretold – I recognize that much of what happens is beyond our control – deadly diseases, earthquakes, reckless drivers, hurricanes, terrorists. I also know we have choices, and that it is necessary to adapt to a changing environment and an unknowable future.

"John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery," David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason

 Even as slavery has been gone a hundred and sixty-two years in the United States, race continues an unresolved issue. Perhaps that is because we conflate morality with democracy – that the latter should reflect the former. Voter interference, whether disallowing eligible voters or allowing ineligible voters, is what destroys democracy, not the election of a candidate disliked by those who comprise the establishment, or any other group.

 

Democracy is amoral; it manifests the will of the people, for good or for bad. In the 19^th Century, property ownership, gender and racial limits on voting meant the will of all the people was not fully represented. Today, those limits have been largely removed. However, a new problem confronts us – illiteracy and innumeracy are on the rise, as seen in falling IQ rates, not just in the U.S., but in much of the West. Blame for the decline can largely be attributed the rise in social media, the introduction of the smart phone, and a reduction in the number of people who read books. “Democracy,” Walter Russell Mead wrote in last Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, “is about self-government, not good government.” The fact that our democracy has been a good government for people over 235 year speaks to the wisdom of the people, not, as Mead wrote, “the pretentions of…a self-regarding elite.”

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Burrowing into Books

John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery:

Selections from the Diary

David Waldstreicher & Matthew Mason

May 24, 2025

 

“But my cause is the cause of my country and of human liberty. It is the

cause of Christian improvement, the fulfilment of the prophecies that the day

shall come when slavery and war shall be banished from the face of the earth.”

                                                                                                The Diaries of John Quincy Adams 1779-1848

                                                                                                November 12, 1842

 

This fascinating history traces the arc of John Quincy Adams’ gradual attitudinal shift toward slavery. He always saw it as evil and alien to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, but he feared the effect of its extinction on the nation. As Lincoln expressed in an August 22, 1862 letter to Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, Adams felt his paramount duty was to preserve the Union. 

 

In 21^st Century United States – even when slave-like conditions still persist in parts of the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and in Uyghur-occupied China – it is easy to forget that slavery has been the norm, not the exception, for most of human history. Allegedly, it was Helen Keller who once wrote: “There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”

 

Adams’ diaries provide a unique perspective on late 18^th Century and first-half 19^th Century American attitudes toward slavery. His diaries began in 1779 when he was twelve and off to France with his father. They continued until 1848 when he died at age eighty. Besides being the nation’s 6^th President, Adams served as ambassador to Russia and Great Britian. He was a U.S. Senator and James Monroe’s Secretary of State. Following his four years as President, he represented Massachusetts for seventeen years in the House of Representatives. This book is limited to those parts of the diary dealing with slavery.

 

Early on, Adams had to set aside his abomination for slavery for his interest in concluding the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1804 and for the acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819, both of which meant both acceptance and expansion of slavery. He saw Britain as hypocritical, in making illegal the slave trade, while still impressing American merchant seamen into their navy during peacetime. He questioned the project to remove free African Americans to West Africa by members of the American Colonization Society, suspicious of motives; while some acted humanely, others were “weak-minded men,” and/or “speculators in [pursuit of] official profits and honors.”

 

On December 27, 1819 Adams wrote of Thomas Jefferson, “one of the great men whom this country has produced.” He added, though, that in his Declaration of Independence Jefferson did “not appear to have been aware that it also laid open a precipice into which the slave-holding planters of this country sooner or later must fall.” On February 24, 1820 he wrote: “Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union…” Yet he supported the Missouri Compromise that same year, which maintained a balance between slave and free states. Of Stratford Canning, British Ambassador to the United States, Adams wrote on June 29, 1822: “He asked if I could conceive of a greater and more atrocious evil than this slave-trade. I said, yes, admitting the right of search by foreign officials of our vessels upon the seas in time of peace.”

 

Adams was fearful that slavery would sever the Union, writing pessimistically on July 30, 1834: “My hopes of the long continuance of this Union are extinct.” On November 10, 1838, he wrote in response to upstate New York abolitionists: “I am not for the immediate abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia or the Territory of Florida; but I am for the abolition of slavery in both.” In March 1841, Adams, at the behest of abolitionists, represented the captives of the Amistad. He won their release to return to their homes in Sierra Leone.

 

On August 10, 1843, Adams wrote: “Before my lamp is burnt out,  I am desirous that my opinions concerning the great movement throughout the civilized world for the abolition of slavery should be explicitly avowed and declared.” While it would be almost twenty years – and fifteen years after John Quincy Adams’ death – before President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,1863, Professors Waldstreicher and Mason have allowed readers to witness Mr. Adams evolving attitude toward the evil of slavery.

"A Cauldron of Challenges"

Yesterday, a grandson, a graduate student in 20^th Century European history, texted me a copy of the front page from the October 1, 1938 New York Times: “Czech Rulers Bow, But Under Protest.” British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had returned to London from meeting Hitler in Munich the previous day, declaring that, in offering Germany Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland he had brought “peace in our time.” My grandson was reminded of that event after President Trump’s urged Ukraine’s President Zelensky to give up Crimea to Russia.   

 

…………………………………………………………

 

While Francis was not my favorite Pope, there is no question that he was a compassionate man, especially to the poor and those unable to care for themselves. However, his allowing China’s Communist Party to select (or approve) Bishops I thought was wrong, but Francis may have concluded that it was the only way the Church could exist in that despotic, secular country. I also have long felt that like so many Socialists, Francis failed to credit capitalism as being the principal (albeit imperfect) force in reducing poverty. One has only to compare life in the Democratic and capitalist West with the Socialist world.

 

Nevertheless, I wish him eternal life, and, having watched the movie Conclave, I eagerly await the results of next month’s Conclave.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“A Cauldron of Challenges”

April 25, 2025

 

“Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

                                                                                                                Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1 (1606)

                                                                                                                William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

 

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

                                                                                                                Attributed to Socrates (c. 469 BC – 399 BC)

 

President Trump has achieved a few goals. Border crossings by illegal migrants have declined by close to ninety percent. Military recruitment is up, with Army recruitment at 15-year highs. DOGE has exposed waste and fraud in many government agencies, and woke ideology is on the run. And, unlike the Biden years, we know who is in charge at the White House. 

 

But in other respects Mr. Trump has been less successful. He is wrong, in my opinion, when he calls for the capitulation of Ukraine, and when he advocates for tariffs – a tax on American consumers. His on-again-off-again tariffs have wreaked havoc with the stock market, weakened the dollar, and caused a pause in the economy. A weak dollar would result in higher interest rates for U.S. Treasuries. While illegal migration poses cultural and dependency risks, globalization and a strong dollar have raised living standards, as the cost of consumables, measured in hours worked, have declined over the decades, due to manufacturing being done where it is most cost efficient, along with technological innovations. Stronger education standards, secure borders, and a tax code that encourages innovation and investment are what is needed, not barriers to free trade. And I fail to understand Mr. Trump’s love affair with cryptocurrencies.

 

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This essay focuses on a few of the challenges we face. (There are, obviously, many others). Shakespeare’s three witches had filled their cauldron with fillets of fenny snakes, eyes of Newts, tongues of dogs, and other such delicacies, but the cauldron of which I write is filled with threats: federal debt and unfunded liabilities at record levels; interest rates that encourage borrowing and discourage savings; public schools that don’t educate; declining birthrates – a world-wide phenomenon; an imperialistic China; a revanchist Russia; a soon-to-be nuclear armed Iran; and, I would argue, an absence of moral judgement. 

 

As a percent of GDP, today’s federal debt exceeds the level reached in 1945 when it peaked at 121.2%. Then, the United States financed a large portion of the Allies needs to fight a global war. Currently, the debt to GDP ratio stands around 122%, and is estimated to rise further, as a projected $1.3 trillion deficit for fiscal 2025 will be added to the current $36.2 trillion in U.S. federal debt. Today, more than half the federal budget is spent on entitlements. None of this debt, of course, includes an estimated $73 trillion in unfunded liabilities, principally from Medicare and Social Security. The reason that deficits continue to increase is simple – we spend more than we take in. Resolution can only lie with higher taxes or reduced spending, or a combination of the two. Reduced spending penalizes recipients of government largesse. Increased taxes inhibit economic growth. Will anyone in Washington address this problem? 

 

Low interest rates encourage consumption and speculation, and they discourage savings. When Treasury rates are only a percent or two above inflation they offer little incentive, apart for foreigners who benefit (or have benefitted) from the strong dollar, which explains why they currently own about one third of all U.S. Treasuries publicly held. If Mr. Trump is successful, in achieving a weaker dollar one can expect foreign investors to fade. If they do, rates will rise, as domestic investors will demand higher returns. 

 

Thomas Jefferson believed that for a society to be self-governed it had to be “educated and free-thinking.” Yet, according to Pacific Research Institute 43% of high school students in the U.S. graduate illiterate and innumerate. A debate between Republicans and Democrats over whether boys can play on girls sports’ teams and use their bathrooms may be worth having, but it should not detract from the fact that not all our children are being taught to read, write and do simple arithmetic. Superintendents and principals need to be able to fire non-performing teachers, without fear of retribution from teachers’ unions.

 

Attention must be paid to the demographic crisis soon to confront us. Total Fertility Rates (TFR) measure the average number of children a woman is expected to bear in her lifetime. A TFR of 2.1 represents replacement rate. For the last fifty years, the TFR in the U.S. has been below replacement. Today, the TFR in the U.S. stands at 1.76. And during the last fifty years, the average age in the U.S. has risen from 27.6 to 38.5, even as the population increased by better than 50%, or about130 million. A little more than a third of that increase reflects legal immigrants. Additionally, current population numbers include illegal migrants. Nevertheless, births in the U.S. outnumbered deaths by approximately 380,000 in 2023. However, declining birthrates and an aging population pose economic and social risks. In the EU the situation is dire. Deaths outnumber births by more than a million, and the TFR for 2024 is estimated to have been 1.4, with the median age having risen from 31.3 to 42.5 over the past fifty years. Birthrates below replacement, with increasing longevity will have economic consequences, yet politicians and the media seem to care little about what could become a monumental challenge. “Attention must be paid,” as Linda Loman says to her husband in Death of a Salesman.

 

Overseas, China dominates the Pacific and is making inroads in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East through its Belt & Road initiatives. Putin’s Russia seems determined to restore its Tsarist boundaries, while Iran and North Korea threaten the peace in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. U.S. defense spending, as a percent of the federal budget, has declined from 24.3% in 1980 to 13.5% in 2024. At the same time interest expense in 1980, when the Ten-Year yielded 11.4%, has risen from 8.8% to 13.2%, even as the yield on the Ten-Year has fallen to 4.2%. World peace demands a militarily strong United States.

 

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If blame for the challenges cited above were allocated fairly among our two political parties, there would be no one to manage government. Playing to the choir and grabbing headlines is more important than debating controversial subjects. If Diogenes were to wander the streets of Washington searching for an honest politician, he would have better luck looking for a Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree on the Tibetan Plateau.

 

Perhaps I exaggerate the threats. We have been in tight spots in the past – obviously during the Civil War, but also in the 1960s, when Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement caused bloody protests, campus shootings and assassinations. Nevertheless, today’s divisiveness is disturbing. We need as President a Lincoln-like figure, an individual capable of uniting the diverse strands of our people, a person with humor and possessed of moral certitude based on the Judeo-Christian heritage on which our nation was built.

 

After all, we are the United States. Surely such an individual must exist…somewhere in this great Country.

"Tariffs and Other Thoughts"

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Tariffs and Other Thoughts”

April 9, 2025

 

“So set aside the folk memory of the Great Depression, and try to look

at tariffs in a non-hysterical way, as a policy with rational political aims.”

                                                                                                                                David Frost (1965-)

                                                                                                                                Former British diplomat & politician

                                                                                                                                The Spectator, 3 April, 2025

 

President Trump bears responsibility for the rout in the world’s equity markets. His tariffs, if used to raise revenues, as he claims, will cause a global recession, or worse. If they are used to negotiate lower tariffs on U.S. exports, which he also claims, they will strengthen the economy and may lead to global free trade. He is right, however, in his complaint that there is much in our politics and culture that has gone wrong over the past several years. We are a country, like much of the West, with a spending problem. Federal debt, as a percent of GDP, is higher than it was in 1945 (121% in 2024 versus 112% in 1945). Both political parties are at fault for excessive spending. As well, there has been a rise in anti-Semitism, fueled, in my opinion, by dislike for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and often masked as anti-Zionism. And, of course, our border was open throughout President Biden’s term in office.

 

In this age of technology, we must focus on ensuring access to needed raw materials. Over the past several years, we have let defense spending lapse, while permitting China unchallenged access to commodities and markets across Africa and South America. We have allowed unfettered (and illegal) migration into our country, and not just for those seeking political refuge from despotic governments, but for criminals and gang members, some of whom brought in fentanyl, a drug that has killed an estimated quarter of a million Americans since 2018. We have seen the Democratic Party take a sharp turn to the left, as it became increasingly patronizing in tone – do as I say, not as I do. The Party has focused on equity, not equal opportunity. In the name of diversity, it has encouraged racial division and allowed identity policies, rather than ability and diligence, to become the standard for admissions into colleges and businesses; it has let universities become beacons of “social justice,” rather than pinnacles of learning where students debate controversial subjects in a respectful and tolerant manner; it has encouraged sports venues to allow males to compete against females. Just last year, the Party knowingly nominated a man for President who was mentally unfit, and now we have a Supreme Court Justice who is unable to define a woman. In all of this, mainstream media has been complicit. 

 

None of us want to return to the past. Each generation builds on the previous. Much of manufacturing, in the 21^st Century, will be done by robots, so bringing industries back to the U.S. will not necessarily bring back jobs. Three hundred years ago, and thousands of years before that, the principal source of wealth was land, and the crops grown and the minerals mined. Wealth gaps were enormous and slaves and serfs who worked the land had little or no freedom. The Industrial Revolution, which began almost two hundred years ago, gave rise to a new group of capitalists – those who were innovative, creative, aspirant and diligent. Income and wealth gaps were still enormous; but new products, from railroads to plumbing, improved lives. And that period saw trade expand beyond borders. Industries, to stay competitive moved production facilities. After World War II, in my home state of New Hampshire, textile mills relocated to southern States, to take advantage of cheaper labor and other economic incentives. While those moves hurt New Hampshire’s economy, lower prices of finished goods benefitted consumers across the nation. 

 

More recently, finance and technology have provided sources of wealth. Life is never fair, and there will always be those who have more than others. But definitions of poverty have been defined upwards. Capitalism has improved lives. Keep in mind, the role of government is not to redistribute wealth or equalize outcomes, but to set rules and regulations, enact and ensure adherence to laws, provide a system of equal justice, and offer access to ladders that lead to opportunities for success, recognizing that the rungs on a ladder go down as well as up. And education represents the first and most important step on that ladder. So, education should be a principal concern of government. Yet, because of the power of teachers’ unions – major supporters of the Democrat Party – education has been neglected, as test scores show.  

 

Mr. Trump’s flaws are legion; they include an over-sized ego (a characteristic common to all politicians) and his preference to surround himself with sycophants (another characteristic common to most politicians). And just as his enemies are blinded with hatred, his acolytes are blinded by devotion. Nevertheless, tariffs, as proposed, are not the answer the Administration claims. In fact, left standing, they will cause more damage to markets and the economy. So, the question is: Will they remain as they are? I don’t know.

 

I want to end, however, on a positive note. The people of the United States recognize the extraordinary luck they have to live in this country. This is the only country in the world founded on the principle that men and women are born free, with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, yes, I recognize our history has not always been just, that injustice is part of our past. But I also recognize the great strides we have made over the years and the acknowledgment of those injustices by leaders in politics, education and business. Overseas, the United States must continue to practice and project the moral standards that have defined our nation for the past 250 years. 

 

Volatility in the stock market is a concern, but it is worth repeating Benjamin Graham’s quote: …that the market, in the short term, can be seen as a “voting machine,” influenced by investor sentiment and emotions, but in the long run it acts as a “weighing machine,” reflecting the value of companies based on their fundamentals. Current volatility, while putting at risk traders with short time horizons, offers opportunity to long term investors seeking value.

 

As for our nation, Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It is true that Founders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison owned slaves, but it is also true that they provided the framework, in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, that permitted America’s moral universe to bend toward a fairer and more inclusive society. And that arc is still bending. History is a continuum. 

 

So, stay positive and stay focused. There is good and bad in all people. We have not yet seen the final act in this play about tariffs. Applause or catcalls should wait.