(1976) The R Document (18 page)

‘All right, Mr Collins,’ the makeup man said, removing the bib, ‘you’re ready to go.’

Go where? He got out of the chair. ‘Thanks,’ he said.

In the hall, he found Monica Evans, and he followed her quickly into the vast television studio.

They emerged from behind a row of scenic flats into a bright square of lights. There were three bulky cameras, two of them being moved. Technicians were bustling about. Attention was focused on a small platform that had been dressed as a private-library set, with three swivel chairs grouped around a massive table. Two men were conversing on the platform.

‘Let me introduce you to Brant Vanbrugh, the moderator, and Tony Pierce,’ said the producer.

Although Collins had never met Pierce face-to-face before, he recognized him at once from his newspaper pictures and previous television appearances. Seeing Pierce in person was a disappointment. Collins wanted a villain, and what he saw instead was a disarming and winning human being. Pierce had sandy hair and a freckled, open young-middle-aged face, one alive with enthusiasm. He was trim, springy, five feet ten, in a custom-tailored single-breasted suit.

Collins’ heart sank. He had hoped not only for a villain but for an enemy, and now the only enemy he could find was no one other than himself.

Monica Evans brought him forward and effected the introductions.

‘I’m glad to meet you at last, Mr Collins,’ Pierce said. ‘The little I know about you is from what I’ve read and from your son, Josh. He’s quite a boy.’

‘He speaks highly of you,’ said Collins, miserably certain that Pierce was eyeing him to discover how such a father could have produced such a son.

‘Gentlemen,’ the moderator interrupted, ‘I’m afraid we don’t have much time.’ He was a brisk young man, deceptively resembling a juvenile lead, but with the mind (Collins had seen the show before) of a steel trap. Ambitious, Collins

thought. Then he thought, Look who’s talking.

Vanbrugh led them to their respective chairs on either side of him. As someone fastened the small microphone around Collins’ neck, he heard Vanbrugh addressing them again.

‘We’ll be taping in two minutes. This edition of Search for Truth will air coast-to-coast on prime time tonight. What you do here goes on as is. No editing. There’ll be two commercial breaks. Here’s the format. I’ll open with the proposition to be discussed: “Should California ratify the 35th Amendment?” I’ll do the introductory material on the 35th. I’ll tell what it is, and where it stands today. The camera will be tight on me. Then the camera will pull back to reveal you, Mr Collins. I’ll introduce you to the audience as the United States Attorney General and give some of your credentials. Then the camera will cut to Mr Pierce and me, and I’ll introduce you, Mr Pierce, as a former FBI Special Agent, a practicing attorney, and head of the lobby opposing the 35th Amendment and backing the Bill of Rights. Then I’ll call on you, Mr Collins. You’ll have about two minutes to make an opening statement. I’d suggest you concentrate on why you are supporting the 35th Amendment. I imagine you’ll want to paint a strong picture of the criminal landscape in America today, and argue that drastic measures are required to preserve our society. Next, your turn, Mr Pierce. You can have your two-minute opener. Don’t debate Mr Collins yet. Just state your views on why you oppose the Amendment. After that we’ll play it by ear. You can start your debate. Interruptions are okay, but don’t step on each other’s lines.’ He looked off. ‘We’re about to start. When the red light goes on above the middle camera, we’re taping. Good luck, gentlemen, and let’s keep it lively.’

The red light above the middle camera began to shine.

Feeling ill and fuzzy-headed, Collins only half-listened to Vanbrugh’s opening remarks.

He heard his name and knew he was being introduced. He summoned up a sickly smile for the camera.

Next, he heard Tony Pierce’s name. He glanced past the moderator. Pierce’s open, freckled face was grave.

He heard his own name again, and the question.

From a distance, he heard himself speaking. ‘At no time since the Civil War have our democratic institutions been so seriously threatened as they are today. Violence has become commonplace. Back in 1975, ten out of every 100,000 Americans died by murder. Today, twenty-two out of ever 100,000 Americans die by murder. Some years ago, three mathematicians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after making a study of the increasing crime rate, concluded, “An urban American boy born in 1974 is more likely to die by murder than an American soldier in World War II was to die in combat.” Today, this cruel possibility has doubled. It was out of a need to stop this upward spiral of violence, including murder, that the concept of the 35th Amendment was born.’

Laboriously, he continued until he saw the fifteen-second card, and with relief he concluded his opening statement.

Now he heard Tony Pierce speaking, every sentence a blow, and he winced inside and tried not to listen.

Two minutes more, and he knew the debate had begun. He heard Pierce speaking once more. ‘Human beings have struggled for freedom - for freedom from tyranny - for at least 2,500 years. Now, overnight, if the 35th Amendment is passed, that struggle will end in America. Overnight, at the whim of the Director of the FBI and his Committee on National Safety, the Bill of Rights could be suspended indefinitely -‘

‘Not indefinitely,’ Collins interrupted. ‘Only in an emergency, and only for a short time, perhaps a few months.’

That’s what they said in India in 1962,’ said Pierce. ‘They had an emergency and they suspended their Bill of Rights. It remained suspended for six years. Then they suspended it again in 1975. Who can guarantee that won’t happen here? And if it does happen, it means the end of our free way of life. We have proof of that. Such a thing has happened before in the United States, and it has always meant disaster.’

‘What are you saying, Mr Pierce?’ Vanbrugh interjected. ‘Are you saying the Bill of Rights has been suspended before in our history?’

‘Unofficially it has, yes. Our Bill of Rights has been unofficially suspended, or overlooked, or ignored, numerous times in our past, and when this has happened, we have suffered deeply.’

‘Can you cite any specific example?’ asked the moderator.

‘Certainly,’ said Pierce. ‘In 1798, after the French Revolution, the United States feared the infiltration of radical French conspirators who might want to overthrow our Government. In an atmosphere of hysteria, Congress ignored the Bill of Rights and passed the Alien and Sedition Laws. Hundreds of people were arrested. Editors who wrote against these laws were clapped into jail. Ordinary citizens who spoke out against President John Adams were also thrown into jail. Because Thomas Jefferson campaigned against this madness, this suspension of the Bill of Rights, people were brought to their senses and Jefferson was elected President.

‘Other examples abound. During the Qvil War, writs of habeas corpus were ignored, and civil trials gave way to military trials. After World War I, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer invoked the Red Menace and went on a witch-hunt that led to the arrest, without the use of warrants, of 3,500 people and the deportation of 700 aliens. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes characterized these arrests as one of “the worst practices of tyranny”. With the beginning of World War II, American citizens who happened to be of Japanese descent were deprived of their property and confined to detention camps. Not long after, in 1954 to be exact, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy rashly accused 205 persons employed in the U.S. State Department of being members of the Communist party, thus instigating his own Red Scare. McCarthy, a reckless, publicity-hungry demagogue and hopeless drunkard, smeared and destroyed countless innocent Americans by labeling dissent and non-comformity as treason. In the end, through his excesses, he destroyed himself before the nation during the thirty-six days of the Army-McCarthy hearings.

‘More recently, the Organized Crime Control Act of 1969, the dream child of President Richard M. Nixon and Attorney General John N. Mitchell, effectively suspended

the Bill of Rights by providing for preventive detention of accused criminals, no-knock entry of private homes, limits on the rights of the accused to see evidence illegally obtained against them, and electronic eavesdropping for forty-eight hours without warrants and for a longer period with warrants. Commenting on the Organized Crime Control Act, Senator Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina called it “a garbage pail of some of the most repressive, nearsighted, intolerant, unfair, and vindictive legislation that the Senate has ever been presented… . This bill might better be entitled “a bill to repeal the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th Amendments to the Constitution.”’ ‘Yet democracy survived,’ said Collins. ‘Barely, barely, Mr Collins. And one day it may not survive such assaults on our liberty. As Charles Peguy once observed, tyranny is always better organized than freedom. If all those horrors I’ve mentioned were committed with a Bill of Rights in effect, imagine what will happen without a Bill of Rights, after the 35th Amendment is ratified. Mr Collins, our Constitution, with its Bill of Rights, has survived longer than any other written Constitution on earth. Let’s not destroy it with our own hands.’

‘Mr Pierce,’ said Collins, ‘you speak of our Constitution as if it had been chiseled in stone or handed down from heaven - as something inflexible, not subject to change. As a matter of fact, our Constitution today is merely a product of compromise. Before it was signed, there were many versions of it, it was many things, and it can still be many things -‘

‘That’s not the point, Mr Collins,’ Pierce interrupted. ‘The point -‘

Vanbrugh quickly came between them. ‘One second, gentlemen. I’d like Attorney General Collins to expand on what he was starting to say. You were saying, Mr Collins, there were many versions of the Constitution -‘ ‘And the Bill of Rights, also,’ added Collins. ‘ - before a final version was signed. I find that interesting. Many members of our audience may not realize that. Do you want to explain?’ ‘I’d be glad to. I’m only trying to prove that we aren’t

tampering with the Constitution when we try to change it. I’m only saying it was many things when it began, and it can still be many things. That’s why we have amendments. The word amendment derives from the Latin word emendare -meaning to correct a defect or modify something for the better.’

‘But those different versions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights?’ Vanbrugh prompted again.

‘Yes. Well, as you may know, a group of fifty-five men from twelve states met from May until September of 1787 in the Pennsylvania State House - which is called Independence Hall today - to draw up a Constitution that would bind thirteen individual states into a nation. The average age of these men was forty-three. Perhaps patriotism and survival were not the only incentives for these delegates. Half of them owned public securities. If they could write a Constitution that would form a new government, their securities would rise in value. At any rate, if you think the Presidency, as we have it in the Constitution today, is sacred, consider the fact that Alexander Hamilton wanted a President appointed for life. Edmund Randolph and George Mason wanted three men to serve as President at the same time, while Benjamin Franklin suggested that a council rule the United States. The Convention voted five times in favor of having the President appointed by Congress. It was the delegation from Virginia that first suggested a single “national executive”. They did not even call him President. It was Randolph who opposed this kind of one-man office, describing it as “the fetus of monarchy”.’ Collins glanced at the moderator. ‘Do I have time for more?’

‘Please go on,’ Vanbrugh urged him.

‘Perhaps many people think that the creation of the Senate, as outlined in the Constitution, is also sacred. Not so in the beginning. Some members of the Convention wanted the various state legislatures to appoint Senators. Hamilton wanted the Senators appointed for life. James Madison suggested Senators serve nine-year terms. When it was agreed Senators should be elected by the people, some delegates meant elected by people who were property holders and therefore stable. It was John Jay who said, “The

people who own the country ought to govern it.” In the end, a compromise was reached. The state legislatures could vote for Senators, and the Senators would serve six-year terms. Not until 1913 did the 17th Amendment change this, giving all citizens the right to select Senators. As for the Bill of Rights, there was no Bill of Rights - none at all - when the Constitution was signed. Most of the Founding Fathers felt the Constitution itself was a Bill of Rights, and no amendments had to be added. I repeat, the wisest men in America felt no Bill of Rights was necessary at the time. In the light of our past, I don’t see what injury we can do our Constitution in the present century by appending to it a 35th Amendment which would merely temporarily suspend the Bill of Rights if necessary to preserve our country.’

‘Mr Vanbrugh?’ It was Tony Pierce trying to be heard. ‘May I respond to the Attorney General’s version of American history?’

‘Your turn, Mr Pierce,’ said the moderator.

‘Mr Collins,’ said Pierce, ‘despite everything you’ve said, we do have a Bill of Rights today. How did we get it? You omitted mentioning that. We got it because the people wanted it, because the people felt the Constitutional Convention had been wrong in leaving it out. The various states wanted people’s rights and states’ rights spelled out, they wanted this before they would ratify the Constitution. Patrick Henry of Virginia suggested twenty amendments, among them the first ten later adopted. Massachusetts wanted the ten amendments. Other states did. When the First Congress met in 1791, Madison proposed twelve amendments. Congress agreed on ten, and sent them to the thirteen states for ratification. They were ratified and the Bill of Rights became effective in December of 1791.’

‘You’re implying all the states wanted a Bill of Rights,’ said Collins, ‘and that’s simply not true. Three of the original thirteen states refused to ratify the Bill of Rights. In fact, they didn’t do so until 1939, a century and a half later.’