We are the political progeny of a long tradition of progressive political thought and action, beginning with Benjamin Franklin, Webster and Washington and other early federalists such as Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and Marshall before the political evils of states' rights and aristocratic and democratic fears had rent asunder the already only tentatively stitched fabric of our Union.

The early federalists' battle for the Constitution involved so much compromise and duplicity with the states rightists and aristocrats, both planters and traders, that the seeds of conflict were sown in our seminal relationships with one another. Although the Constitution produced could be a great guide to great government, its success was designed into it to depend on the political will of the people. It was designedly a sketch of good government, not a detailed blueprint.

Our Constitution contained in itself the potential of vast powers for our government to grow with our nation, which even then Franklin, Webster and Washington had long anticipated might grow across the continent. It contained both an enumeration of very general powers for the legislature, and an allowance of other powers both to act upon them, and to enable the other branches of government to fulfill their roles not just as envisioned, but as might become needful in any as yet un-envisioned future. For this was to be a guide through the ages which could lead their political progeny on as yet uncharted paths.

Thus, realizing all the flaws of the federalist compromises with the states' rightists and the aristocrats, Franklin could still claim to have provided a potentially adequate guide which would depend for its success on the character of the people to determine where it should lead us, and how we should change it in the process. Our political processes render the sketch new and different with every generation both through formal erasures and redesign of the underlying picture, and through the colors cast upon it by our world and the men and women in it.

Almost immediately upon the launching of our ship of state upon the stormy waters of compromise and duplicity (in which our Constitutions' proponents for political purposes persuaded the people that the Constitution granted less potential powers and protections than it actually did, and the opponents almost succeeded in destroying it by raising irrational fears of its extreme potential powers--fears that still abound in the mythology and rhetoric of our reactionary states' rightists), the turbulence of uncleared obstacles threatened to sink us.

Not only had the states' rights planters been allowed to perpetuate the institution of slavery because there was every reason to believe (until the invention of the cotton gin in the new century) that that evil would die a natural death, while our federalist ship of state would never have been launched otherwise. It was a deal with the devil which would come back to burn us in the flames of war.

Absurd National Bank bills by the political supporters of the Federal Party threatened to allow our government to be used for the good of the aristocrats, a "right" expected by the sycophants of the Fat Cats of all generations since, including neo Federal Party, Federalist Club reactionaries of today. (That is the organization which included Mr. Starr and many of the people involved in trying to abuse Congress' powers of impeachment and removal for political purposes in trying to overwhelm the will of the people several years ago to get rid of Clinton. Many were up to their arm-pits in the judicial coup which replaced our last elected President Gore with the dolt, Duh?bya, who they can and do control.

Theories of nullification expressed the fears, suspicions and loss of faith in their fellows fanned by the rhetoric of the French Revolution which moved men like Jefferson and Madison to react to the new Federal Party of Adams and Hamilton with wishful rewrites of the Constitution in their minds and mouths. Such silly theories of nullification and the right to secede (which could have been written into the Constitution if the Confederate enemies of the Constitution had had enough political power) were impotent except in the deranged minds of the Southern States Rights Planters, who later chose to let blood rather than let their delusions be destroyed..

But amidst these and a multitude of other troubles and misrepresentations and mistakes, the roots of our progressive movement grew deep into the hearts, souls, and soil of our land. Webster, Franklin, Washington and Marshall never lost the early federalist faith although their compatriots to left and right turned on one another's (and even their own) throats. Unfortunately the three earlier men were too old to guide our country through the first sectarian storm of contention for control of our destiny. That fell to Adams and Hamilton on one side and Jefferson and Madison on the other. Fortunately, Marshall was in a position to continue the fight for our federalist foundation after its first loss to democrats.

That first war was won by the original enemies of our Constitution (originally led by Henry, Luther, the Lees, etc.) (later) led by renegades such as Jefferson and Madison of the Democratic Republican Party (against the plea of Henry in his last public speech). Adams and Hamilton had lost faith in our citizens, and soon lost in their attempt to abuse the National Bank Bill for the good of their aristocratic supporters. So the Federal Party sought to use government power to thwart the political opposition with Sedition laws (which went beyond justifiable Alien laws) to stifle political opponents.

Through the hurly burly of the demise of the Federal Party, the Democrat-Republicans learned to use the public patronage and powers of the government to enhance their political power. Yet, in spite of the foolish war in 1812, in which our paranoia peaked, the Democrats could not have their way with our country and Constitution because it was shielded from their destruction by the "midnight" appointment of John Marshall as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. This was done in the last days of control by the crumbling Federal Party just before Jefferson became President and his Democrat-Republicans took over and rewrote history.

John Marshall had remained true to Washington's original federalists, and to the extent it was politically possible for over a third of a century, he protected the Constitution against Jefferson's vow to lash the federal government up tight in the corset of strict constructionism. Having been present at the ratification of the Constitution, this man whose lawyerly answers to Patrick Henry's thundering opposition, understood the constitution as Jefferson (parked in Paris during its creation) never had.

As the source of most of the Supreme Judicial reasonings for more than the first third of the 19^th century, Marshall became the de facto teacher of Lincoln. Practically all of Lincoln's real education was spent studying law, primarily law as guided and interpreted by Marshall. The moderate remnants and political progeny of the early federalists eventually reformed into the Whig Party (having coalesced around John Adams son, Quincy, towards the end of the "Era of Good Feelings" of essentially one party rule in this country).

Lincoln, trained by his readings in Marshall's federalist views of Constitutional law and government, naturally fell in among the more progressive populists among the Whigs when he became a Congressman. He opposed the Mexican War. He was to carry on the early federalist progressive traditions when he helped found the Republican Party from the remnants of the more moderate and progressive Whigs.

Lincoln was to become the hero not just of the Union (excluding the "reconstructed" South which unfortunately was not adequately deconstructed before being reconstructed). Lincoln's life and words were destined to enthrall the young and sickly bookworm, Teddy Roosevelt-who eventually crawled out from the chrysalis of his books. Teddy flew from his books a Monarch butterfly, a man of power and beauty in body and intellect, to lead us into the Spanish American War and up San Juan Hill seeking to act out Lincoln's recipe for government then and as President.

TR's incisive intellect was well trained in the progressive views of his childhood hero, Lincoln. Later, he observed:

"I think of Lincoln, shambling, homely, with his strong, sad, deeply furrowed face all the time. I see him in the different rooms and halls. For some reason or other he is to me infinitely the most real of the dead presidents." (To Henry Pritchett, Dec. 14, 1904.)

TR reinvigorated the Republican Party with the power of the early federalists' vision which Lincoln had described as:

"...essentially a Peoples'....struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders--to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all--to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of life. [T]his is the leading object of the government for whose existence we now contend."

That progressive vision of the early federalists permeated TR's thoughts and plans. But soon after leaving office to the care of his friend and successor, Taft, he found that Taft sold out to the sycophants of the now oligarchical Fat Cats, their having given up all but pretences to being even an Aristocracy of ability. That is when TR realized what he stated to all the people in his Bull Moose Manifesto (written for the National Progressive Party by Jane Adams from Chicago's Hull House, one of the great feminists in her day who was also involved in gaining woman's suffrage):

"To the people of the United States..., who through repeated betrayals, realize that today the power of the crooked political bosses and the privileged classes behind them is so strong in the two old party organizations that no helpful movements in the real interests of our country can come out of either;

"Who believe that the time has come for a national progressive movement--a nationwide movement--on non-sectional lines, so that the people may be served in sincerity and truth by an organization unfettered by obligation to conflicting interests.

"TO All IN ACCORD WITH THESE VIEWS, A CALL IS HEREBY ISSUED."

But by hook and by crook, Taft hung on to enough votes cast for the Fat Cats, to keep the people from electing TR again. By the time the New Democrat, Woodrow Wilson had served eight years including through a World War in which TR lost a beloved son, TR was a broken and embittered old man on his death bed. The old Bull Moose had charged his last and the sycophants of the Fat Cats had stolen the Grand Old Party from the progressive views of the Lincoln and TR reflecting the early federalists.

The sycophants of the Fat Cats have since controlled the Republican Party, more lately attracting the racist Dixiecrats and the fundamentalist and other Theocrats to provide ballot box appeal in exchange for allowing them to work their will upon the American People while allowing the Fat Cats to remain parasites upon the people. Only when it looked like the people would not forget that the Fat Cats had sucked the last of the lifeblood from our economy that had led to a devastating world depression and rise of Hitler and a World War, and repeated victories by the liberal Democrats, would the Fat Cats relent and use a political novice, Ike, to front them for President. But as Ike learned the score, he did what he could to resisthis political bosses and managers and left us with a stirring warning against the now global military industrial complex of the Fat Cats.

That was the last gasp of the early federalists, Lincoln's, and TR's political progeny, among the leaders of the Republican Party. Fortunately, however, TR's nephew (by marriage), FDR, had idolized and emulated TR (as TR had Lincoln) and patterned his political career upon TR's progressive populist politics. Like TR, FDR started as an Undersecretary of the Navy, going on to the governorship of New York, and trying (unsuccessfully in his case) to become Vice President. But despite that misstep on the rung to the White House (and an unexpectedly necessary battle for his health that paralleled TR's battle for his own health as an adolescent), FDR eventually gained the Presidency by overcoming the political progeny, reactionary Fat Cat opponents of his uncle's National Progressive Party's "Bull Moose" insurgency.

Unfortunately, the sycophants of the Fat Cats who had come back to life and lies among Republicans during the twenties were resurrected with Nixon. They since have led the people through campaign contributions to Reactionary Republican and New Democrat alike to the people's loss of liberties and loss of hopes for the future of our Union. By colluding for power with the racist Dixiecrats and the fundamentalist and other Theocrats, the sycophants of the Fat Cats have now engineered a coup for Bush that met with no real resistence from the Democratic Party. Both parties are now constantly forsaking the federalists traditions as fostered by Lincoln, TR and FDR.

Finally, we are in a position to appreciate Lincoln's prophecy that led Teddy Roosevelt to begin the war against corporate involvement in politics with the first Campaign Finance Bill:

"I see in the...future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."--Abe Lincoln's timely prophecy, Nov, 12, 1864. Sent on Nov. 21, 1864 in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins (Ref: "The Lincoln Encyclopedia", Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY).

Now we must make impeachment, removal and prosecution of the perpetrators of the coup by which the fat cats stole our election, our immediate priority. But we must keep the denial of all political involvement to to all corporations as our primary objective, until we have delivered the control of our country back to the people and only people are allowed political opinions. Only then can we continue to seek the great progressive goal to lift the yoke of needless suffering from our fellow citizens. But let us remain suffused and enthused by the deep insight of our early federalists forefathers as expressed by Lincoln that:

"...the real issue...that will continue....the eternal struggle between these two principles--right and wrong--throughout the world[,]...two principles that have stood face to face since the beginning of time: and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other is the...right of [parasites]. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself...that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king [or a contract of a global corporation] who [or which] seeks to bestride the people of his [or its] own [or some other] nation and live by the fruits of their labor, or for one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."

This presentation of our ROOTS will celebrate many of the highlights of our fight for freedom from the powers that would enslave us in one way or another!