LET FREEDOM RING con't. next column LET FREEDOM RING con't. next column LET FREEDOM RING con't. p. 35 LET FREEDOM RING continued LET FREEDOM RING continued Negative Liberties Are Good! by Wesley May Let me talk about our Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, Father of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. These documents have endured for much longer than any previous document for the Republic as their form of government. A republic is not based on direct democracy. It is a government indirectly controlled through representatives elected by the people. These representatives are constrained under the rule of law (the Constitution and subsequent laws enacted by the people’s representatives). I believe the Republic is the best way ever conceived by the human mind and heart to define and balance a government’s means to extend liberty and freedom to its citizens. In the American colonies, the impetus for liberty and freedom was formalized by Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence which made the case that if it becomes necessary to dissolve existing political bonds (i.e., with “British Crown” and the “State of Great Britain”), the causes should be clearly declared. The Declaration cites 17 direct causes. A self-evident truth is that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator (not the government) with unalienable rights. Governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed, and if those powers become destructive to the endowed rights, the People may alter or abolish that government. Since all attempts for redress were answered by “… every act which may define a Tyrant, who is unfit to be the ruler of a free people,” our Founders dissolved the bond. All signers pledged to each other everything they possessed; “… our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Because of my understanding of what motivated our Founding Fathers to challenge Great Britain, the greatest military power of that era, I do not consider the Constitution to be a “living document.” But, rather, it is an inspired document with a fundamental comprehension of the fallen nature of humanity. Based on James Madison’s careful study and analysis that isolated and identified the pitfalls that doomed previous attempts, we have proven that humanity can define the path to a successful Republic! And that is the ultimate proof of what the patriots refer to as the fountainhead of AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM! Hillsdale College’s online course on the Constitution states it this way: “The Founders believed that the principles in these documents were not simply preferences for their own day, but were truths that the sovereign and moral people of America could always rely on as guides in their pursuit of happiness through ordered liberty.” Since March 1789, when our Constitution went into effect, our Republic has proven to be far preferable to a divine right monarch or a national religion which were the norms for organizing national governments in the late 18th century. And, of course, our Revolution did not spawn the excesses of the Reign of Terror, the by-product of the contemporaneous French Revolution. Our new constitution corrected the faults of its predecessor, the Articles of Confederation, which, for example, did not give the national government the absolutely mandatory authority of governing, the right to levy taxes. President Washington identified the problem as “No money.” So this Constitution granted greater power to the federal government, but still was explicitly limited by the Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution.” This is an important point which has become somewhat confused because President Obama considered the Constitution to be just a “Charter of Negative Liberties.” But in truth, these “Negative Liberties” do not limit us the People in the exercise our constitutional rights. They actually protect our rights! (This is the reason for the title of this paper, Negative Liberties Are Good!) But that protection exists only because of the rule of law that resists a government’s natural tendency to dominate, by denying it the opportunity to constrain our liberty and freedom, which our Founding Fathers conceived as Unalienable Rights, not granted by government, but by our Creator. And this element should be the very first lesson in Government 101. The “Father of the Constitution,” James Madison, made this very clear when he wrote in Federalist No 47: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” So, our Republic is served by Separation of Powers into three branches of government, Executive, Legislative and Judicial. This separation promotes a system of checks and balances! And that is the real blessing of our Constitution … it is based on separating governmental responsibilities so that no single branch has exclusive power over a specific responsibility. I will continue by discussing three considerations that have primordial impact on the efficacy of any government: Virtue (moral dimension of governing) • Informed Citizens • General Welfare. VIRTUE I acknowledge that many may feel uncomfortable with the restrictions that “moral” concepts may place on their actions. Well, so be it! But that doesn’t change the fact our Founding Fathers considered virtue, the communal manifestation of morality, to be the essential trait in citizenship and, most importantly, morality was directed linked as an absolute prerequisite for liberty and freedom. Recall that after the constitutional convention adjourned, Ben Franklin was asked the question, “What type of government did you give us?” Franklin responded without hesitation, “A republic, if you can keep it!” A clear warning that a republic could not be governed by autopilot. It is notable that Eric Metaxas, famed biographer and Keynote speaker at 2012 National Prayer breakfast, titled his latest best-seller, “If You Can Keep It,” with the subtitle “The forgotten promise of American Liberty.” This is a wonderful book for the Reading List of anyone who wants to understand the true nature of American Exceptionalism! Metaxas states that Franklin believed that, “ Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” And his book expands that concept by linking “virtue and freedom” to the point “… that without one, the other is impossible.” Also, Franklin concludes, “‘As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.’ The root of the word ‘vicious’ is ‘vice’ — the word simply means ‘full of vice.'" So Franklin “…is bluntly saying that ‘Freedom requires virtue … and less virtue leads too less freedom.’" If the goal is public virtue, John Adams clarifies its source. “Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.” If Virtue is more a moral concept than a political one, what is the foundation for a moral concept of virtue? Does not the sublime credo of the Golden Rule establish a solid moral foundation in the Gospel of Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”? And also, at the Last Supper, Jesus instructed his disciples in John 13:34, ”A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” In the secular world, the exact same concept is expressed by John Adams, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” INFORMED CITIZENS The following quotation defines concisely the fundamental characteristic of citizens who could prosper responsibly in the Republic created by the Constitutional Convention, “… wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government,” Thomas Jefferson, “The aim of every political Constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust,” James Madison. (Note: that this short quotation actually encompasses all three of the topics in this concluding half of the paper.) As noted previously, Madison wrote in Federalist No. 47, “The accumulation of all powers … in the same hands … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Madison clarifies that it is the concentration of power itself that must be avoided, independent of the specific branch of government, number of personnel involved, or method of gaining the position. Only informed citizens can serve as watch dogs to guard against this perversion of the political process. A final quote of Alexander Hamilton reflects optimism that distribution of virtue and honor among the people is broad enough to ensure a renewable supply of requisite numbers of people of virtue and honor. “The institution of delegated power implies that there is a portion of virtue and honor among mankind which may be a reasonable foundation of confidence.” GENERAL WELFARE: One of the purposes of the Constitution was to establish a limited government that protected individual liberties. Toward that end, the Preamble specifies the purposes for which the Constitution exists. It expresses the underlying Wesley & Jeanne May, visiting Monticello. No. 127 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.27
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