Okay, at last I get to post this! By the way, good morning guys! I love Saturdays.........
The Tripoli Treaty.
The Tripoli treaty came into being because after the Revolutonary War had ended and Britan had pulled out their ships and went home, pirates from the Barbary Coast begin to attack American ships and plunder them, take hostages and then demand a ransom for the captives. Kinda like Somalia now.... So, the Americans decided they needed to enter into a treaty with the pirates to make them stop. TADA! The Tripoli treaty. The person who was in charge of taking it to all the nations that needed to sign it was a guy by the name of Joel Barlow, a known anti christian who had helped Thomas Paine publish a book called the "The Age of Reason" that argues against christian doctrine. This is important so stay with me....
The nations that needed to sign it were mostly muslim nations, so the original document was written in arabic, there is also an italian copy. So, off it goes, carried by Joel, to Morocco, Algeria, Tropli and Tunis. It was signed in Tripoli, certified at Algeries and approved in Lisbon. So after 7 to 8 months of travel it was brought to the states, translated by Joel to english and sent to congress. Neither congress nor Adams felt like they could cancel the terms by then, and on the very first day it hit the congressional floor (which was the very first day anyone saw it since it left) it was ratafied. (The pirates had to be stopped after all). Admendment 11 and all.......
In 1931 the United States hired Hunter Miller to analyze all of the treaties that America had ever entered into, and figure out what they meant to America today (1931). When he reached the Tripoli treaty his words were this......."Barlow's translation is at the very best a poor attempt at a paraphrase or summery of the sense of the arabic. Oh, and admendment 11 is not in the arabic or italian verson."
Hmmmmm........
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3 comments:
Regardless of what was in the Arabic original, what is important for our nation is the fact the text signed by John Adams and ratified by congress unanimously in 1797. As I understand the legality of the matter, anything ratified by congress and signed by the president is law.
Perhaps you should clarify by what you meant by I "live in a Christian nation"?
I'll bite...
To be a part of Western Civilation is to live in a Christian culture and social order. To separate one from the other is not rationaly possable.
I'll snap back...
Well, sure, I'd said as much in my "Where I Stand" post. We are shaped by our environment. We can either accept that or attempt to change it for the better. :) However, usually when someone says "Christian nation" they mean something more restrictive than "a nation that happens to have a lot of Christians in it presently and in the past."
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