The
Constitution: Liberties of the People and Powers of Government, Part
1
Jacob G. Hornberger
The most
radical experiment in history is the Constitution of the United States
of America. Throughout history, people had accepted the commonly held
notion that government's powers over the citizenry were supreme. In
1787, however, for the first time ever, the American people announced
to the world that the liberties of the people were supreme and that
the powers of government were limited. Governments throughout the world
were startled, stunned, and appalled at such an audacious suggestion.
To understand
fully the thinking that formed the Constitution, however, it is necessary
to go back 11 years -- to the Declaration of Independence, which Thomas
Jefferson wrote in 1776. The revolutionary nature of the thoughts expressed
in that document would later be reflected in the Constitution.
Keep in
mind that prior to July 4, 1776, there was no United States of America
and there were no Americans. The people living in New York, Massachusetts,
Virginia, and the other colonies in the New World were Englishmen. The
British government was their government, just as the U.S. government
today is the government of the American people. These were British citizens
living abroad on lands under the jurisdiction of the English crown.
In other words, men such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben
Franklin, and Samuel Adams were as British as you and I are American.
Thus, on
July 4, 1776, in the eyes of their own government officials, those men
were not heroes. By taking up arms against their own government officials
and waging war against British soldiers, the Founding Fathers were traitors
to their own government. If the revolution had failed, they would have
been hanged.
To catch
a glimpse of what the revolutionaries faced, imagine today that one-third
of the American people, fed up with high taxes, excessive regulations,
arbitrary confiscations of property, and unjust killings of citizens,
took up arms against their own government and began ambushing and killing
U.S. troops. How many federal government officials would view these
revolutionaries as heroes? How many would suggest that statues and monuments
be built in their honor?
The government
would do whatever was necessary to smash the insurrection and the names
of the insurrectionists would be remembered, if at all, in shame in
every history book in every public school across America. But if the
revolutionaries won, the monuments and statues would be erected, and
they would go down in history as great heroes.
Not all
the British colonists took up arms and tried to kill their own governmental
officials. It has been estimated that one-third joined the revolution,
one-third sided with their government, and one-third stayed neutral
during the war. But the only reason that the Founding Fathers are as
revered as they are is that they ultimately won the military battles
against the troops of their own government. They are patriots, not traitors,
because they were victorious.
The revolutionary
nature of what happened on July 4, however, was not the courage that
our Founding Fathers displayed in taking on what was arguably the most
powerful government on earth. Instead, the real revolution was reflected
by the ideas that Jefferson expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
It has been said that as far as the colonists were concerned, Jefferson
did not express anything new or novel but rather the widely held sentiments
of the populace.
The
Origin of Rights
Throughout
history, people believed that their rights came from government. The
king had the power to conscript them and send them into war to fight
for him and his government, even in faraway lands. The king had the
power to confiscate their property and holdings. The king had the power
to arrest and incarcerate them. Sometimes a king was kind and other
times not. But everyone accepted the notion that the king could do with
him as he wished. After all, he was the king, and they were his subjects.
In one
fell swoop, Jefferson and the English colonists rejected that long-held
notion. Jefferson said that rights preexist government and that government
was simply a servant whose purpose was the protection of those preexisting
rights.
This was
a revolutionary notion and not one with which kings and governments
would be enamored.
Where do
the people's rights come from? Jefferson said that they come from man's
Creator. In other words, my life was not created by government. It came
into existence independent of government. I don't have to be beholden
or thankful to government for the fact that I exist.
As Jefferson
pointed out, life is indeed one of these preexisting rights of man.
Others include liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By using the word
"among," Jefferson was indicating that man's fundamental rights were
not limited to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" but included
others as well. He had taken the phrase from the English philosopher
John Locke, who had described "life, liberty, and property" as fundamental,
God-given rights.
But what
do they mean? They mean that your life is your life. You were born with
certain talents, abilities, handicaps, and disabilities. As Roger Williams
pointed out many years ago in his remarkable book, You Are Extraordinary,
everything about you is different from everybody else. Not just fingeprints.
Also hair texture, skin color, voice, personality, face, and figure.
Even the shape of your kidneys is different from everyone else's.
You use
your talents as a way to sustain your life. If you are a person with
farming abilities, you grow food that you can eat. But if you are a
person with singing talents, you don't grow your food; instead you sing
in return for pay and use the proceeds to buy excess food from the farmer.
Thus, liberty
entails the right to live your life the way you choose (as long as your
conduct is peaceful), the right to use your talents and abilities to
engage in enterprise freely ("free enterprise"), the right to engage
in mutually beneficial trades with others ("freedom of trade"), and
the right to accumulate the fruits of those trades ("property").
Do kings
or other government officials have the right to regulate or control
these activities? Under what moral authority? These are fundamental
rights that preexist kings or governments. Governmental officials have
no more right to regulate or control these activities than they have
to control how many children a family is to have.
Why
Government?
So, why
do we need government then? Why not simply do away with kings, princes,
princesses, presidents, parliaments, congresses, bureaucracies, and
the like? (Stop cheering!) Because as Jefferson points out in the Declaration,
governments are necessary to secure the exercise of the fundamental
rights of man.
Secure
it from what? From violent, anti-social people who would deny other
people their rights to live their lives as they choose. In other words,
suppose there is a society of peaceful people, all of whom are engaging
in free enterprise, entering into trades with one another, and accumulating
wealth. Standards of living are slowly increasing for everyone in society.
So far, no problems.
But all
of a sudden, along comes a person who murders someone and steals his
property. How does society protect itself from the murderers, rapists,
robbers, trespassers, and other violent people? Government is instituted
for the primary purpose of protecting people from those who would initiate
force against others.
What happens,
however, if government itself becomes more destructive than what the
situation would be in the absence of government? In other words, let's
say that in the absence of government, thieves would steal about 10
percent of people's property and murderers would kill 1 percent of the
populace. What happens if a corrupt element takes control over the reins
of government and uses governmental force to steal 40 percent of people's
property and kill 2 percent of the populace?
Jefferson
provided the answer to this problem in the Declaration of Independence.
He said that when this happens, it is the right of people to alter or
abolish their government, even if force is necessary, and institute
new government designed to protect, not destroy, the preexisting rights
of the people.
Here are
the exact words that Thomas Jefferson used to express these revolutionary
thoughts in the Declaration of Independence:
"We
hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness --
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any
Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right
of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers
in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety
and Happiness."
Eleven
years later, after the Revolution had been won by the colonists, the
revolutionary principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence
were the backdrop for the formation of the most radical political experiment
in history -- the Constitution of the United States of America.
Jacob
Hornberger is a dedicated Libertarian and founder and president
of The Future of
Freedom Foundation, an educational foundation that advances
the libertarian philosophy by providing an uncompromising moral and
economic case for individual liberty, free markets, private property,
and limited government.
(The
Constitution: Liberties of the People and Powers of Government
Copyright©2000 Jacob Hornberger)
