We Have a President for a Reason.

[elleng]

A History Lesson for the Republicans Who Wrote to Iran

THE letter that 47 Senate Republicans addressed to Iranian leaders this week, warning them about making a nuclear deal with President Obama, came as a surprise to many Americans. But it would not have surprised our earliest forefathers. After all, it was not uncommon, in the years immediately following the American Revolution, for individual Americans to negotiate directly with representatives of foreign governments.

Many then doubted that the United States would hold onto its western settlements and remain a single country. In 1786, Congressman James White of North Carolina told the Spanish diplomatic envoy Diego de Gardoqui that if the United States made a treaty with Spain that did not guarantee Americans access to the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans, far western North Carolina might declare independence and swear an oath of allegiance to Spain. In the spring of 1788, a group from Tennessee and Kentucky, seeking an alliance with the Creek Indians, also declared themselves willing to break away from the United States and become Spanish subjects.

Other Americans independently committed forces to foreign wars. In 1793, the French emissary, Edmond-Charles Genet, recruited citizens in South Carolina to raise forces to fight with the French against Britain and Spain. In 1797, Senator William Blount of Tennessee plotted to invade Spanish Florida with help from the British.

But these attempted negotiations taught Americans and foreigners alike that a decentralized system of foreign relations did not work. . .

As long as congressmen, state officials and private individuals presumed they had the right to negotiate with foreigners, no foreign government could trust that anyone claiming to speak for the United States actually did.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/opinion/a-history-lesson-for-the-republicans-who-wrote-to-iran.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region

[jaysunb]

1. Excellent history lesson. n/t

[Hekate]

2. KnR

[hopemountain]

3. united we stand

divided we fall.

didn't they learn this as kids with popsicle sticks? arrogance has taken over rather than respect for physics & history.

[elleng]

4. MANY of us learned it as kids,

but you know what they've been doing to education in 'recent' years. History? Not so much.

Remember Lynne Cheney's history book? http://www.amazon.com/America-Patriotic-Primer-Lynne-Cheney/dp/0689851928

[JDPriestly]

5. K&R.

[bvf]

6. Excellent post, thanks. n/t.

[nxylas]

7. "America was so much better before European socialists corrupted her from her original ideals"

Teabagger answer to everything. The date of this corruption appears to shift. Usually it's 1913 or 1865, but in this case, it appears to be July 5th, 1776.

[WillyT]

8. Huge K & R !!! - Thank You !!!