Wednesday, March 16, 2005
A parliament at war
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's first freely elected parliament in half a century began its opening session Wednesday after a series of explosions targeted the gathering. The opening marked a major milestone on the road to forming a new government in a country still beset by violence.
Link.
I am writing this post in the Starbucks on Nassau Street in Princeton, sitting in a chair that faces Princeton University. The University's oldest building, Nassau Hall, dominates the picture window. In the summer of 1783 the Continental Congress was meeting in Nassau Hall when it received news that the peace treaty had been signed between the now United States and Great Britain, granting our independence. Why was it there?
[T]he Continental Congress, having fled mutinous troops in Philadelphia, sat [in Nassau Hall] from July to November of 1783, presumably on most occasions in the library located on the second floor at the front and center of the building. It was during this session that the Congress, its members including six alumni of Nassau Hall, received notification that the peace treaty giving final recognition to the nation's independence had been signed. Among the dignitaries present for part or all of the session, the chief was General Washington, who on August 26 accepted in person the congratulations of the Congress "on the success of a war" in which he had "acted so conspicuous a part."
On the eve of victory, the Continental Congress had to flee the seat of its government for a farming village two days distant because American troops were in mutiny. This indignity came after Yorktown, and probably after peace terms had actually been agreed to in Europe. This would not be the last armed uprising against the new government of the United States.
Building a democracy from tyranny -- even a tyranny as fundamentally benign as that of George III -- is hard work. If you are a Western supporter of Arab democracy, be reassured that the Iraqis are moving with astonishing speed by historical standards. If you Iraqi, you should know that the first parliamentarians of the oldest democracies on Earth met and legislated at risk for their own lives.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Mar 16, 10:36:00 AM:
GREAT POST! Get it off to the Professor at once!
Sissy
sisu
By 
Sluggo, at
Wed Mar 16, 11:48:00 AM:
An outstanding post and a much needed dose of perspective. It's good to remember, also, that at every crisis point in our history there were significant elements -- Royalists in 1776, Copperheads in 1861, America Firsters in 1941 -- who were not on the side of freedom and democratization. The neo-Copperheads of today will one day be a footnote.
By , at
Wed Dec 27, 08:27:00 PM:
good site
http://www.Furniturs.com.in/
By , at
Wed Dec 27, 08:29:00 PM:
good site
http://www.Furniturs.com.in/
