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The Constitution: Liberties of the People and Powers of
Government, Part 1
by Jacob G. Hornberger, August
2000
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.
Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of
Freedom Foundation.
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