“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.” Declaration of Independence.
As reflected in the Declaration of Independence, and other writings of the period, the Founders believed that rights came from God, not the government. The Founders didn’t believe that governments bestowed rights, nor did they believe governments were an agent to protect rights.
When
the Constitutional Convention convened in 1787, the delegates had to figure out
how to protect rights and personal liberty from an oppressive government. They
knew that rights were fragile. They can be suppressed by force, gradually
eroded, or simply lost through neglect.
The
original Constitution didn’t include a Bill of Rights. The delegates didn’t
believe one was necessary. In their mind, rights were not protected by words,
but by limiting governmental power. Montesquieu and Hume advocated separation
of power into three equal branches, with each branch having potent checks on
all of the other branches. Although this was a well-established theory at the
time, no national government was designed along these principles, and existing
state constitutions gave overwhelming advantage to the legislature. Delegates to the convention believed that if
they could architect a system consistent with the separation of powers
doctrine, give the national government only enumerated powers, and effectively
set up the states as checks on the national government, then the national
government wouldn’t be able to trample rights or intrude into peoples’ lives.
Before
the Constitution could become the supreme law of the land, it had to be debated
and ratified by conventions of the people. The conventions debates—and the media opinion pieces—were
at different points thoughtful and raucous, but they were always contentious. Success
was never assured. One of the Anti-federalist arguments that gained support was
that the Constitution was flawed because a Bill of Rights was missing. Although
not a legal condition of ratification, several conventions approved the
Constitution based on a promise that a Bill of Rights would be added. The First
Congress proposed, and the states ratified ten amendments to the Constitution
which we now call the Bill of Rights.
A
bill is a list, but the Bill of Rights is not a catalog of government guaranteed
rights. These ten amendments remained consistent with the Founding principles.
Read the first eight amendments. They are filled with phrases like Congress
shall make no law, shall not be infringed, shall not be violated,
nor be deprived, shall not be required. These are not rights generously bestowed by government, they are
directives from We the People to the government—orders to stay
away from our natural rights.
If
the first eight weren’t clear enough, our Founders added two more amendments.
9th:
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed
to deny or disparage others retained by
the people.”
10th:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Rights
cannot be abridged unless government possesses unchecked power. Our American
heritage is to fear concentrated power, so those who wish to seek control have
convinced many that it is the government that grants and guarantees rights. They
are in essence saying that there is nothing to fear here—the government makes you free and it can
even enlarge your freedoms.
Except
that this has never been true in the history of the world. Oppression always
come from government. To protect our rights, we need to:
1. Re-instill the Founders fear of overly powerful
government
2. Once again make the states an effective
check on the national government
3. Reestablish the Constitutional checks
between the branches
4. Restrict the national government to its
enumerated powers.
Last,
but most important, we must insist that the people in government do not pretend
to bestow rights and largess to remain in power.
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