Regular readers will already know that any mention of early American history almost always produces a swift snarl from my e-pal, 'Dearieme' ('DM'), aimed at the unfortunate head of the late President Thomas Jefferson. Now what this distinguished former president has ever done, or been the cause of something being done, to 'DM' I do not know. Alas, in my ignorance of early American history I know next to nothing about Jefferson except that he was part of a group of men imbued with good British, not European, philosophy which acted as a basis for their Constitution. Yes, I know there are some minor quibbles concerning his opposition to slavery which went, so to speak, hand-in-skirt with an affair with one of his black slaves but, hey, we're all chaps here - er, well, with the exception of Andra - and sometimes a chap has to do what a chap has to do, and all that sort of thing. According to Wiki, whilst Jefferson kept slaves he treated them exceedingly well and certainly no worse than white tenant farmers. Anyway, always trying to be helpful I would like to try and draw 'DM's concentration away from Jefferson and onto another and much greater hypocrite, the truly ghastly President Wilson. In this I am aided by Prof. Paul A. Rahe writing in The National Review.
Wilson, of course, is held in veneration by today's Democrat party stalwarts, not least, President Obama. Wilson is generally reckoned to have laid the foundation for a socialist state and using it as a base for attacking and subverting the Constitution, a practice later re-enforced by Roosevelt, tried and failed by Carter, but today, renewed with vigor by Obama. Of course, today's Democrat party draws huge support from minority groups, especially blacks, and the virulent use of 'racism' slurs against their opponenets hs proved to be very effective.
Thus there is considerable irony to be relished when one is reminded by Prof. Rahe that April 11th was the one hundreth anniversary of the bill which was rammed through Congress by Wilson and which specified the segregation of whites and blacks in the American civil service:
Wilson, our first professorial president, was a case in point. He was the
very model of a modern Progressive, and he was recognized as such. He prided
himself on having pioneered the new science of rational administration, and he
shared the conviction, dominant among his brethren, that African-Americans were
racially inferior to whites. With the dictates of Social Darwinism and the
eugenics movement in mind, in 1907, he campaigned in Indiana for the compulsory
sterilization of criminals and the mentally retarded; and in 1911, while
governor of New Jersey, he proudly signed into law just such a bill.
Prior to the segregation of the civil service in 1913, appointments had been
made solely on merit as indicated by the candidate’s performance on the
civil-service examination. Thereafter, racial discrimination became the norm.
Photographs came to be required at the time of application, and
African-Americans knew they would not be hired. The existing work force was
segregated. Many African-Americans were dismissed. In the postal service, others
were transferred to the dead-letter office, where they had no contact with the
general public. Those who continued to work in municipal post offices labored
behind screens — out of sight and out of mind. When the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People and the National Independent Political League
objected to the new policy, Wilson — a Presbyterian elder who was nothing if not
high-minded — vigorously defended it, arguing that segregation was in the
interest of African-Americans. For 35 years, segregation in the civil service
would be public policy. It was only after Adolf Hitler gave eugenics and
“scientific racism” a bad name that segregation came to seem objectionable.
The only thing that stands between the liberty of the American people and their sometimes swivel-eyed leaders is the Constitution. Obama's efforts to circumscribe it are in a direct line from his predecessor Pres. Wilson.
