What did the Founding Fathers really think about corporations and their rights?

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

Article found at trueslant.com

I would love to post more than the four paragraphs we're allowed.

http://trueslant.com/rickungar/2010/01/22/what-did-the-founding-fathers-really-think-about-corporations-and-their-rights/


All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in the Constitution or Confederation, not from a want of honor or virtue so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”
–John Adams, at the Constitutional Convention (1787)

Does this sound like a man who intended to give corporations, a legal fiction whose life exists only on paper, the right to free and unfettered speech?

<snip>

Clearly, the Founders did not think much of these corporate entities and the corruption they produced in parliament. Still, it never occurred to the Founding Fathers to directly address corporations in America when they wrote the Constitution. While we can only speculate, it is not hard to understand why this would be the case. The Constitution speaks to control of government by the people…for the people…and of the people. Why would it even occur to the Founders that a corporation would ever be perceived as one of ‘the people’? History makes clear that they viewed these entities as forces that preyed on people (see The Boston Tea Party.) Indeed, but for a legal determination made in a perverse Supreme Court holding in 1886, who would rationally see a legal entity as a person? Is a trust a ‘person’? Does it eat, breathe, etc.?

<snip>

Do any of those attributes and limitations apply to people? Neither the Constitution nor laws of any governmental entity ever limited our lifetimes to a set period of time, never required that we trade in only one business or commodity, never attempted to limit our ability to buy shares in a variety of companies and never limited how much property we can own, or for what purposes.

Clearly, the society created by The Constitution did not see people as the same as corporations or vice-versa.

But here’s the biggie. Back in the early days of the nation, most states had rules on the books making any political contribution by a corporation a criminal offence.

<snip>

For the rest of the article, please follow the link above.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

1. And it’s not just the Founders.

Since we rarely go wrong when listening to the words of Abraham Lincoln, here is what he had to say-

"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."

[dbonds]

3. Great quote - every kid should memorize that instead of Gettysburg Address

That quote should be made famous.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Not much.

[Selatius]

4. This isn't conservatism we're dealing with anymore. We need to stop deluding ourselves on this.

We need to recognize that we're dealing with fascism. We're dealing with the totalitarian element that exists in our society, indeed in any society. We need to recognize the problem for what it is. Otherwise, we will never find a cure.

[chimpymustgo]

5. Good point.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

6. Adding to your point

Last night we had dinner with friends, talk, as usual came around to politics.
My wife and I are in the minority being progressives, the others very conservative.
Most of the time, even after reading and rereading "Cracking The Code" by Thom Hartmann,
our views are dismissed as so much drivel.

Not last night.

Dave, a former small business owner, sat spellbound at the discussion of
the SCOTUS decision. Now from a very conservative, Republican viewpoint, this man went on to
rail about the ramifications this could have for us a nation and as humans or "natural citizens".

He mentioned that this may be just the start to the "human rights" that Corporate America would want.

The specifics really don't matter, most were idle speculation.(?) But the thought of this highly conservative
person getting his dander up and agreeing with a progressive viewpoint on the dangers of the SCOTUS decision,
is enlightening. We read the arguments od the Justices - for and against. He agreed with the dissent.

This decision does go beyond Con/Lib/Prog, arguments. It is not Dems v. Repubs.

This is Human v. Corporation.