Chosen Essay Prompt : Essay Option 2: Argue for or against the following assertion: “The New Deal – the culmination of the American national welfare state as it emerged after the Civil War – was an immense betrayal of America’s Founding Fathers and ‘original intent.’ And that’s as it should have been: the world of Lochner, after all, was not that of John Locke. For better or worse, the Enlightenment and its optimism was dead by 1905. Yet the American republic lived on. Indeed, it became a world leader, later a superpower, and today a superempire precisely because it adapted and evolved in a Modern World that was increasingly troubled, unstable, and dangerous. Had early-twentieth century Americans remained true to ‘original intent’ – especially laissez- faire – the American republic would have likely died as the result of radical political upheaval or even Communist revolution. It certainly would not have won the Cold War.”
Was “The New Deal” an Immense Betrayal of America’s Founding Fathers Original Intent?
The New Deal framework, as opposed to the perspectives of pessimists’ was not a betrayal of the “original intent” of the founding father. Indeed, the emergence of the New Deal and elemental intervention to create an American welfare spectrum away from the Laissez- faire doctrines embedded in the American Declaration of Independence was necessary given the economic status of the time. The New Deal was an evolution of ideological principles that Founding Fathers foresaw but did not ingrain in the Constitution, rather not directly, because they understood the essence of change in dire situation like the American Crash of 1929 1 . The founding father understood that the power belonged to the people and in their wisdom allowed for amendment to the constitution based on the prevailing circumstances of the time. Assertions of the role of the state in the control and regulating the business enterprise of private citizens as being minimal only extended to when there were no actual negative repercussions of the economy as witnessed in the 1929 crush. The New Deal allowed the intervention of government to regulate the private enterprises model imagined by the forefathers towards allowing them to control adverse economic impacts caused by a weak corporation status 2 . While the New deal allowed intervention and strict control of the sate on bank and other key financial systems it allowed the operations of corporations to remain autonomous with the oversight of government agencies. For example the oil boom, the companies continued to operate autonomously but under the regulation of the state. 3 In essence, it was a necessary adaptation to the modern world created by the need for the increased role of the government to not just charter associations with common agenda to create value of returns but also regulate their conduct to prevent adverse implication resulting from wrong business decisions in pursuit of their prizes.
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The power of the corporation as imagined by the founding father was in principle guided by the Charter provided by the state 4 . Therefore, by extension the New Deal was a revision of this agreement. While the state intervention remained strictly a last resolution, the New Deal allowed for an active role of the state to mitigate such events that would have devastating impacts on the people. As a gift to the people, the corporation charter allowed entities to formulate such enterprises that served the interests of the people 5 . However, the Civil war led to an exploration of the oil corporations that at first stimulated rapid growth 6 but later became the reason for a devastating crush of the economy mainly due to the failure of an oversight body. The sensation of the “Birth of a Nation” promised reconstruction characterized by freedom of African Americans and economic progress of all citizens. However, the paradox of the absence of guidance and a structure of governing this new change inspired an opposition of the new ideological belief of the threat to white dominance that this paradigm would create in later days.
Prior to the 1929 crush, the Federal Reserve forewarned of the adverse impacts of unregulated speculation by different players in the stock market 7 . It became a nation of stock brokers drunken with the idea of unlawful investment speculation that had very great impact on the welfare of the state economy 8 . The boom of speculation with very limited government control was a big threat to the way that market performed and thus imminently necessitating the need to change dynamics of control and regulation from the laissez- faire principles enshrined in the constitution. The gains of the New Deal that allowed the survival and recovery of the American society from turbulent economic instability would have been impossible and the subsequent victories in global conflicts such as the cold war would have been impossible. Arguably, the new deal allowed the rise of a new American society that adapted to the changes of the Modern world in matters commerce and industrial production in the rising globalization era 9 . After all, the period of the Modernity presented challenges that would otherwise have remained impossible to deal within the earlier constructs of the Founding Fathers laissez- faire economic principles that only allowed the government to remain a mere spectator of the unfolding events affecting the economic welfare of the state 10 . Consistently holding on to the laissez- faire ideological beliefs would have been the reason for the fall of the American Republic in the years that folowe3d after 1905 and more precisely the post-Great Depression era when the global competition for supremacy demanded a shift of perspective.
In the Lochner v. New York , the Supreme court observed the need for limited government control on the level of control that agencies would exercise on individual citizens on the manner of which they would manage their enterprises 11 . Essentially, the court observed the violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments by allowing government limitations on the number of working hours for employees 12 . The “Freedom of Contract” envisioned by the founding fathers prohibited such interventions that would adversely affect the way that individuals operated towards achieving their individual goals and obligations including property 13 . The US labor law allowed the independence of individual activities 14 . In this perspective, as the New Deal began to take shape and the new dimension of state power to overturn the substantive provision of the Lockean Provisos adopted in the Fourth Amendment ( 1868), there was a degree of alterations to this original jurisprudence. Albeit these new dimensions of the New Deal to intervene on labor laws, by extension, this was for the protection of these liberties enshrined in the American traditions 15 .
The corporation or rather the extent of the powers that they enjoyed was only constrained by the lack of a constitutional provision that helped to protect their individual rights 16 . Thus, after the adoption of the Fourth Amendments, most of the corporations pursued legal protection from the state through citing the provisions therein 17 . The resulting impact was a rise of the power and the role corporations that led to a high level of activities with no actual control of the state that as many scholar attested became the precipitate of a weak state 18 . In the years that followed, the freedom of the African Americans remained unimplemented 19 . This paradox undermined the gains of the liberty of the black race and rights to property were only implemented for the benefits of corporations 20 . The abuse of this provision therefore made it necessary for the creation of a new dimension that helped to seal these loopholes that the corporations exploited to undermine state control in line with the changing dynamics of the corporations. The era of Enlightenment and Optimism was short-lived with the changes of the Market crash in 1929 clearly showing why it was important for the intervention of government 21 .
Social Darwinism, deeply rooted in the belief of the essence of the survival of the fittest was detrimental to the progress of the American society. Notably, if the intervention by the New Deal was not put in place to limit the rising power of the corporation the market dynamics would eventually have very negative impacts on the way that society operated 22 . Events such as the March to Congress by Army veterans seeking intervention for compensation would have been avoided 23 . Such was the extent of this class system that made different groups feel alienated 24 .Scopes argument to justify the elimination of these perverse beliefs that science perpetuated the creation of these belief systems that prevented the ascent of money as a means of social exclusion and exploitation.
The crusade for prohibition while in principle allowed for a rapid growth through increased productivity 25 , it curtailed the liberties of individual choices to undertake such personal choices. In the wake of the New Deal these provisions were annulled despite being pre-requisite campaign pledges in the post-1905. Indeed, in the years that followed the New Deal America rose to become a global leader and superpower with subsequent victories that extended to the cold war.
To conclude, the culmination of the American national welfare state in the post-civil war period was not a betrayal of the ‘original intent’ of the constraints of the Founding Fathers but rather an evolutionary process that was necessary to help the Nation redefine its legal jurisprudence to adapt in the Modern era. By 1905, the John Locke and other founding father ideological beliefs, in application to the prevailing circumstances world have been ineffective thus a wider scope to allow for the growth of corporate America. The extent of Government control, unnecessary as it was in the preceding years, increasingly became important as the American corporations influence grew as a result of the Constitutional reforms after the civil war including the Fourth Amendment which became a leeway for corporations 26 . Indeed, in absence of the New Deal, the rise of the American society in the modern world to a super empire would not be a reality. Thus, it was in no way whatsoever an act of betrayal of the Founding Father’s original intent but rather a progressive process within the continuum of their vision of a prosperous American society that culminated in imminent alterations of shifting domestic and global political dynamics.
Bibliography
"A Nation of Drunkards." Prohibition . Directed by K Burns, and L Novick. PBS, 2011.
" “The Dry Crusade." Prohibition . Directed by K Burns, and L Novick. PBS, 2011
"Our Plan." The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power . Directed by W Cran, and S Tepper. 1992.
"The Power and the People." New York: A Documentary Film . Directed by R Burns. New York, NY: PBS, 1999.
"Cosmopolis." New York: A Documentary Film. Directed by R Burns. New York, NY: PBS, 1999.
Kennedy, David M. "What the new deal did." Political Science Quarterly 124, no. 2 (2009): 251+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed April 22, 2020).
Lochner v. New York , 198 U.S. 45, 25 S. Ct. 539, 49 L. Ed. 937 (1905). Top of Form
Novak, William J. "The Myth of the "Weak" American State." The American Historical Review 113, no. 3 (2008): 752-72.
Stevenson, J., Dent, J., Levey, S., Hayhurst, M., Davies, R., British Broadcasting Corporation., Lionheart Television International., ... Films for the Humanities (Firm). (2003). Abolition: Broken promises . Princeton, N.J: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
The Crash of 1929 . Directed by E HOVDE, and M MEYER. PBS, 1990.
The March of the Bonus Army . Directed by R Uth. PBS, 2006.
What Is a Corporation? . Directed by D Smart. Coronet Instructional Films, 1949.
Bottom of Form
1 Kennedy, David M. "What the new deal did." Political Science Quarterly 124, no. 2 (2009): 251+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed April 22, 2020).
2 Kennedy, David M. "What the new deal did." Political Science Quarterly 124, no. 2 (2009): 251+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed April 22, 2020).
3 W. Cran and S. Tepper, "Our Plan," The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power , Directed by W Cran, and S Tepper. 1992.
4 R. Burns, "The Power and the People," New York: A Documentary Film , Directed by R Burns. New York, NY: PBS, 1999.
5 Ibid
6 R. Burns, "The Power and the People," New York: A Documentary Film , Directed by R Burns. New York, NY: PBS, 1999.
7 E. HOVDE and M. MEYER, The Crash of 1929, Directed by E HOVDE, and M MEYER. PBS, 1990.
8 K. Burns and L. Novick, "A Nation of Drunkards," Prohibition , Directed by K Burns, and L Novick. PBS, 2011.
9 "Cosmopolis." New York: A Documentary Film. Directed by R Burns. New York, NY: PBS, 1999.
10 Novak, William J. "The Myth of the "Weak" American State." The American Historical Review 113, no. 3 (2008): 752-72.
11 Lochner v. New York , 198 U.S. 45, 25 S. Ct. 539, 49 L. Ed. 937 (1905).
12 Ibid
13 Ibid
14 Ibid
15 Top of Form
Stevenson, J., Dent, J., Levey, S., Hayhurst, M., Davies, R., British Broadcasting Corporation., Lionheart Television International., ... Films for the Humanities (Firm). (2003). Abolition: Broken promises . Princeton, N.J: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Bottom of Form
16 D. Smart, What Is a Corporation? , Directed by D Smart. Coronet Instructional Films, 1949.
17 Ibid
18 Novak, William J. "The Myth of the "Weak" American State." The American Historical Review 113, no. 3 (2008): 752-72..
19 Top of Form
Stevenson, J., Dent, J., Levey, S., Hayhurst, M., Davies, R., British Broadcasting Corporation., Lionheart Television International., ... Films for the Humanities (Firm). (2003). Abolition: Broken promises . Princeton, N.J: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Bottom of Form
20 Ibid
21 E. HOVDE and M. MEYER, The Crash of 1929 , Directed by E HOVDE, and M MEYER. PBS, 1990.
22 " “The Dry Crusade." Prohibition. Directed by K Burns, and L Novick. PBS, 2011
23 R. Uth, The March of the Bonus Army , Directed by R Uth. PBS, 2006.
24 Ibid
25 K. Burns and L. Novick, "A Nation of Drunkards," Prohibition , Directed by K Burns, and L Novick. PBS, 2011.
26 " “The Dry Crusade." Prohibition . Directed by K Burns, and L Novick. PBS, 2011
