Interesting Take on the History of the Constitution

[Robert Sheridan]

They don't know about WWII.

They think Nazis are funny.

How should they know about Barbary pirates, for goodness sake?

rs
sfls
On Apr 20, 2007, at 6:18 AM, Griffin, Stephen M wrote:

>
>
> C’mon now, everybody knows about the Barbary pirates, don’t they?
>
> After all, “To the shores of Tripoli”?  Aren’t there some war  
> powers cases here?
>
>
>
> Although when I described these facts to my students earlier this  
> semester, they thought it humorous and told me, “pirates are funny.”
>
>
>
> Steve Griffin
>
> Tulane Law School
>
>
>
> From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu [mailto:conlawprof- 
> bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of DavidEBernstein at aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 9:04 PM
> To: Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> Subject: Interesting Take on the History of the Constitution
>
>
>
> From Michael Oren, author of Power, Faith and Fantasy, a book about  
> U.S. involvement in the Middle East:
>
>
>
> While working on the book, Oren encountered several unknown  
> episodes "that knocked me off my chair." One has to do with the  
> Americans' first war in the Middle East and its influence on the  
> U.S. Constitution. Oren describes at length the Barbary Wars  
> between the U.S. and the rulers of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and  
> Libya around the turn of the 19th century. The Barbary Wars were  
> mainly a struggle for control of trade routes. After U.S.  
> independence in 1776, American ships lost the protection of the  
> British navy, the strongest in the world, becoming easy prey for  
> pirates. The problem was greatest in the Straits of Gibraltar, as  
> U.S. ships made their way to the eastern Mediterranean. The North  
> African rulers viewed the region as being under their control and  
> demanded payment for safe passage.
>
> These were the early days of the young democracy, the dramatic  
> decade between independence and the formulation of the U.S.  
> Constitution. The founding fathers - Washington, Jefferson and  
> Madison - were busy with the question of whether to pay up or  
> instead create a strong military force to defend American interests  
> in the region. Oren believes the threat to U.S. economic interests  
> in the Middle East was very influential in the decision to  
> strengthen the central government and in fact to create the United  
> States of America as it is today.
>
> "In that decade," Oren says, "there were very prolonged debates in  
> the 13 states about the constitution that was being formulated.  
> When I opened the protocols of every single state, I found a wealth  
> of material. Preoccupation with this question was a significant  
> catalyst in the decision to establish the strong federal government  
> we see today. The assumption was that without a strong and stable  
> federal administration, the U.S. would not have the resources  
> necessary for setting up a strong fleet. It was clear that each  
> would not be able to build battleships on its own.
>
> "This feeling was very strong in a state like Massachusetts, in  
> which maritime commerce was a crucial economic component, but  
> similar opinions were also heard in the South. This is how  
> Williamson from North Carolina, for example, wondered out loud:  
> 'What will prevent Algerian pirates from landing on American shores  
> and taking American citizens as slaves?'
>
> "In the end, the Americans played a complicated game. In some  
> instances, they paid the ransom demanded of them, sometimes while  
> biting their tongues and forgoing national pride. Only in the 19th  
> century did they feel strong enough to threaten them with military  
> force and put an end to this episode. But from my point of view, it  
> was a real revelation to find out that the Middle Eastern threat  
> had had such an influence on the American Constitution and the  
> structure of the U.S as we see it today."
>
>
>
> David E. Bernstein
> Professor
> George Mason University School of Law
> http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste
>
>
>
>
> See what's free at AOL.com.
>
> _______________________________________________
> To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see  
> http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof
>
> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed  
> as private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages  
> that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members  
> can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/pipermail/conlawprof/attachments/20070420/cef475a5/attachment.html