Filed under: Alexander Hamilton

Part I: Government/Chapter 2, P 38-40

The Process Toward Independence

From Authoritarian Rule To a New Government

 

Objections by the original colonies regarding the rule of the British king began when he imposed a series of unjust laws that violated the colonists' rights as British citizens.  The colonists objected most vehemently to taxation without representation.

 

The December 16, 1773, Tea Party:  The Colonists were refusing to pay taxes required by the British Parliament because their representatives had not been allowed to participate in tax enforcement decisions.  If Americans paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them.  On December 16, 1773, when three shipments of tea were in the Boston harbor the crisis came to a head.  The Colonists liked their tea, but in the early evening about 200 descended upon the three ships and dumped the expensive shipments of tea into the harbor waters.  This act was monumental and there could no longer be any misunderstanding about the political will of Americans.

 

In 1774, on September 5, the First Continental Congress came together in Philadelphia with hopes of reaching an agreement with the British king.  Alexander Hamilton expressed the colonists' concern in a published pamphlet:  "The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists of this: in the former state, man is governed by laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or, by his representative.  In the latter he is governed by the will of another.*

 

In 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened May 10.  The goal of the colonies was justice, not independence.  On July 5, 1775, the Continental Congress approved the Olive Branch Petition and appealed "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, Most Gracious Sovereign" for reconciliation.  The English Parliament responded to this appeal on December 22, 1775, with the American Prohibitory Act--a declaration of unrestricted war against the colonists, claiming the right to confiscate their property.  Freedom for Americans at that point becomes a matter of self-defense and necessitated a new republican (republic) government.

http://www.founding.com/timeline/pageID.2462/default.asp

 

*Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum:  The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution (Lawrence, KS:  University of Kansas Press, 1985), 160.

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Fourteen 

 

Life and Happiness are Humanity's Goals

 

"Unalienable rights, that among these are Life,

… and the pursuit of Happiness."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

"Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness…  We claim them from a higher source--from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth.  They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence…  It would be an insult on the Divine Majesty to say that He has given or allowed any man or body of men a right to make me miserable.  If no man or body of men has such a right, I have a right to be happy.  If there can be no happiness without freedom, I have a right to be thus secured" (John Dickinson, reply to a Committee in Barbados, 1766).

 

An American principle: "What then is the American, this new man?  He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds [citizens are sovereigns under God, government officials are the servants]…  What is an American?  The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.  From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury [extreme poverty], and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.  This is an American" (one of several essays, in Letters From an American Farmer, 1782, by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, a French immigrant who became a New York state farmer).

 

Regarding the establishment of a representative Republic, Alexander Hamilton declared, "…the people surrender nothing.  The people simply delegate to government servants as trustees the powers to protect and uphold the values, which the people believe to be inside the envelope of life and liberty for the 'pursuit of Happiness.'  Governments must be prohibited from doing things that undermine the citizens' right to life and self-rule.  The means that are helpful to governance and those which are harmful are countless in number, therefore," Hamilton added, "they have no need of particular reservations [spelled out in the Bill of Rights]."

 

"The consequence is, that happiness of society is the first law of every government.  The people have a right to insist that this rule be observed; and are entitled to demand a moral security that the legislature will observe it.  If they have not the first right, they are slaves; if they have not the second right [moral security], they are, every moment, exposed to slavery" (U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, Lectures, 1790-1791).

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Thirteen 

 

Government Power and Taxes

Must Be Limited For Liberty's Sake

 

"… imposing Taxes on us without our Consent…"

Declaration of Independence

 

 

Low taxes and limited government are indispensable supports for property ownership and liberty.  "He [the king] has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance" (Declaration of Independence).

 

"The public money of this country [citizens' bank, the public treasury] is the toil and labor of the people… reasonable frugality ought to be observed.  And we would recommend particularly, the strictest care and the utmost firmness to prevent all unconstitutional draughts upon the public treasury" (instructions of the town of Braintree, Massachusetts to their legislative representative, 1765).

 

"That Government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety" (James Madison, during the first session of Congress, proposing Bill of Rights amendments to the U.S. Constitution).

 

John Dickinson, presentation to the Pennsylvania Provincial Convention, 1774, "Let these truths be indelibly impressed on our minds--that we cannot be happy, without being free--that we cannot be free, without being secure in our property--that we cannot be secure in our property [without representation that forcefully opposes confiscatory taxes]…  But if when we plow--sow--reap--gather--and thresh--we find, that we plow--sow--reap--gather--and thresh for others, whose pleasure is to be the sole limitation how much they shall take, and how much they shall leave, why should we repeat the unprofitable toil?  Let us [citizens of Pennsylvania and even other colony states be alert] take care of our rights, and we therein take care of our prosperity.  'Slavery is ever preceded by sleep.'" (John Dickinson served as a member of the Continental Congress, Governor of Pennsylvania, a member of the Constitutional Convention and the Delaware Constitutional Convention, 1792).

 

Alexander Hamilton, in The Federalist No. 17, emphasizes that taxes should not be imposed at the federal level that enable the government to do things that go beyond the enumerated powers of the federal government and thereby take money from the people that should be available for state and local government needs (in effect, enabling the enemies of citizen sovereignty to use federal government to overpower representative government of, by, and for the people).  The Tenth Amendment was ratified December 15, 1791.  It restates the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government or prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or to the people.

 

The Federalist No. 10, written by James Madison, condemned taxing the thrifty and financially independent citizens for purposes of leveling (destroying their incentive to prosper financially).  Old European secular controls are "improper" and "wicked."*

*http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=10&page=transcript

 

Government debt that exceeds income cripples nations in the same devastating way that it cripples individuals, families and corporations.  "Indeed, we cannot too often inculcate upon you our desires, that all extraordinary grants and expensive measures may, upon all occasions, as much as possible, be avoided.  The public money of this country is the toil and labor of the people…" (written by representatives of the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, to their legislative representative, Braintree Records 1765-1766).

 

A compact discussion of American principles vital to the family and education can be found in the book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Twelve 

 

Vital to the American Work Ethic,

Property Ownership Must Be Secure

 

"… are entitled to life, liberty and property…"

Declaration, First Continental Congress, 1774

 

"All men… are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

"That all men… have certain inherent rights… namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property" (Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776).

 

"In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will [to work and be responsible]" (The Federalist No. 79, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

Karl Marx (1818-1883) helped turn Soviet Russia into a socialist state.  It collapsed after the death of hundreds of millions of people, some by starvation, others murdered by the government.  According to Marx, capitalism would never work because of the inequities between the rich and poor.  He achieved worldwide support of secular intellectuals for taxing the people and redistributing "each according to his ability, to each according to need" still common today.  The truth is that capitalism, man's ownership of the fruits of his labor, helps both the rich and poor get richer.  The promise of ownership encourages men to overcome the pain of labor and take personal responsibility.

 

Socialism was tried in the Plymouth Colony here in America following extensive food shortages.  Instead of the "rule of man," Governor Bradford turned to the Bible for wisdom and then announced that settlers would have a plot of land, and thereafter be responsible for and entitled to the fruits of their own labor (April, 1623).  Entire families went to work, and hard times changed to a plentiful supply of food.*

*http://www.sail1620.org/history/articles/122-plymouth-jamestown.html

 

"That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where arbitrary restrictions, exemptions, and monopolies deny to part of its citizens that free use of their faculties, and free choice of their occupations, which not only constitute their property in the general sense of the word; but are the means of acquiring property…" (Essay by James Madison, published in the National Gazette, March 29, 1792).

 

Linking the work ethic to the right of property ownership was a monumental break from the world's political history.  The incentive of property ownership is the engine that makes an economy flourish.  It is the increase in value of the products supplied by the worker that leads the buyer to spend his money to own the product.

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Nine

 

Authoritarians In Government Are

a Parasitic and Ever-Present Danger

 

"Taking away our charters, Abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments [constitutions]."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

"They know from experience… beset as they continually are by the wiles of parasites and sycophants [self-seeking] by the snares of the ambitious, the avaricious [greed for money], the desperate; by the artifices of men, who possess their confidence more than they deserve it, and of those who seek to possess, rather than to deserve it" (The Federalist No. 71, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

Two notable efforts by power-hungry authoritarians occurred near the end of the war for independence.  First, army officers were conspiring to take control of Congress; second was an effort to make George Washington king.  Washington squashed both of them abruptly.  After all, Americans had just been through a bloody war with England to get rid of rule by authoritarians, religious and secular.

 

An axiom for detecting the corrupt and evil use of power is to follow the flow of money to politicians in and outside of government.  Chief among tactics for overriding the will of the people is fraudulent election finance law.  The importation of millions of campaign dollars from homosexual and abortion rights advocates from outside a region to be represented, given to those who would make the laws, is destructive of representative government.  The people and representative governments must be protected from the importation of campaign funds from outside the region served by an elected government official.  This is not a violation of free speech.  Failure to do so is a crime against republican (not political party) government.  Such violations call for severe punishment.

 

"For it is a truth which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger, when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion" (The Federalist No. 25, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Two

 

God Is the Source Of Unalienable Rights

 

"All men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Declaration of Independence

 

"We The People Of The State Of Iowa, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government,

by the name of the State of Iowa ..."

Preamble, Constitution of Iowa, adopted in 1846--seventy years

after the Declaration of Independence

 

 

Education that does not emphasize that man's unalienable rights are the gift of God is energizing the secular enemies of the family, self-rule, prosperity and liberty.  Liberty is not man's creation or something radically new to the world, but rights "derived from our Maker," rights "indisputable, unalienable," "inherent," "essential," "divine," and even acknowledged since the Middle Ages by British law (from John Adams' Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law, published in the Boston Gazette, August 12, 1765).

 

"The sacred Rights of mankind are not to be rummaged from among old parchments or musty records.  They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or voided or obscured by mortal power" (Alexander Hamilton in his essay, The Farmer Refuted, 1775).

 

"We further recommend the most clear and explicit assertion and vindication of our rights and liberties to be entered on the public records, that the world may know, in present and all future generations, that we have a clear knowledge and a just sense of them, and, with submission to Divine Providence that we never can be slaves" (John Adams, adopted on October 14, 1765, by the town meeting of Braintree, Massachusetts, and sent to their representatives in the Massachusetts state legislature).

 

 

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The First Amendment is the Most Important Amendment

The most important of all the amendments to our Constitution is the First Amendment:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

 

In the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision, the Supreme Court majority discarded the principle for control of government by law (government limited by laws instituted by citizen sovereigns).  They displaced it with control of government by man (top down authoritarianism).  Quoting Alexander Hamilton:  "Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions, a government of FORCE [changeable decrees by authoritarian man], and a government of LAWS [governments that derive 'their just powers' from the consent of the governed], the first is the definition of despotism--the last Liberty" (Tully Papers, 1794).  These two approaches to governing society have been at war against one another throughout human history.

 

The Everson v. Board of Education decision clearly compromised "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" The judges altered the Constitution at the core of its meaning.  Power-hungry judges and politicians, along with fellow travelers in education, the media and monopoly union bosses, are now working overtime.  They are leveraging the judge-created right that empowers liberals to impose government establishment monopoly in public education, preventing the competition of ideas by moral religions.  The power to impose false renditions of truth upon  captive government classrooms and poison youthful minds is being used to confuse, marginalize and rule new generations.

 

"For many years psychologists and educators have recognized the processes by which thought and behavioral patterns acquired in youth become the basis for adult motivation.  In modern times thoughtful observers have become progressively aware that moral, social, and political concepts implanted during the time of mental immaturity not only participate in the conduct of later life, but, once acquired, such concepts become dominant and often unalterable in the adult" (Story County Grand Jury, in and for the 11th Judicial District of Iowa, 1969).

 

Firstamendment

 

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The Limited Role of Judges

The boundaries of authority that limit the role of judges to settling disputes is mandated by the construct of the Constitution.  Chief Justice John Roberts compares the role of the judges with the role of baseball umpires.  Baseball needs umpires to call balls and strikes, but umpires are never allowed to change the rules in the middle of the game.

 

The umpire illustration is consistent with the Federalist Papers.  They were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay in 1787 and published to encourage the people in the states to ratify the Constitution.  Federalist Paper No. 78 described the judiciary as being the "least dangerous" and "weakest" of the three branches of government because it is the arbitrator of disputes:  "The judiciary… has no influence over either the sword [imposing the penalties advocated by the court] or the purse; no direction either of the strength or the wealth of society, and can take no active resolution whatever.  It may truly be said that to have neither force nor will but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm for efficacy of its judgments."*

 

Defensive actions by one branch of government over another (separation of powers) is intended by the Constitution.  On occasion, the court may settle a dispute involving the other branches of government and law-making Representatives of the people may and should intervene and correct the Supreme Court.  Also, the administrative branch may challenge the courts to change a court's mandate.  The American system is "a Republic--a federation, or combination, of central and state republics--under which: the different governments will control each other…  Within each republic there are two safeguarding features: (a) a division of powers, as well as (b) a system of checks and balances between separate departments [including the judiciary]: hence a double security arises [essential] to the rights of the people" (Federalist, No. 51, by James Madison).

 

Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison stated:  "This original and supreme will [of the people] organizes the government, and assigns, to different departments, their respective powers.  It may either stop here; or establish certain limits not to be transcended by those departments.  The government of the United States is of the latter description.  The powers of the legislature [as well as the judiciary and the administrative] are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the Constitution is written."**  The Marbury v. Madison decision was simply to settle a dispute.  

 

The original purpose of judicial review established by the Marbury v. Madison decision was certainly NOT to empower judges to become unelected legislators or administrators.


Judicial_umpire-toon-290x201

*http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa78.htm

**http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/democrac/9.htm

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Government by Written and Permanent Law: Liberty vs Oppression

"Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions, a government of FORCE [arbitrary and changeable decrees imposed by authoritarians], and a government of LAWS [governments that derive 'their just powers from the consent of the governed']; the first is the definition of despotism--the last Liberty" (Alexander Hamilton, Tully Papers, 1794).

 

In the words of Chief Justice John Roberts:  "Governments in world history have so often abused the power, and people have suffered because of it.  The framers decided they were going to lay down some rules to try to keep that from happening--that's what the Constitution is.  Of all the major written constitutions in history, it is the shortest.  It's not an elaborate code.  They were laying down basic principles that they wanted to endure and it is timeless… our Constitution is different from a lot of others.  Many countries that have constitutions--they're really just political documents."**

 

Corruption is limited when the development of law comes from the people unless, of course, they become estranged from God and the moral certainties of creation's nature.  When this happens the people become vulnerable to exploitation and paternalistic authoritarians.

 

"In questions of power let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

Thomas Jefferson

 

The American Principles One through Fifteen, Chapter 1, in the Restoring Education Central To American Greatness book that we have listed in previous blogs are changeless, practical and appropriate for government "by written and permanent law."  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."

 

George Washington reminded future generations that they cannot neglect the personal responsibility for upholding the moral predicate for law:  "It is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ('keep alive the spirit of Liberty'); as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively directed.*

 

Wethepeopleimage2

 

 

*Chief Justice John Roberts, discussing the role of Constitutional American politics with C-Span host Lamb on August 5, 2006.

**George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, in The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, published by the authority of Congress, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 35, 214-38.

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Finding the Place of Personal Faith in Government

The two classifications of religion, civic and personal, can live openly side by side.  The fact that Americans are free to share their personal religious convictions in public is indispensable.  Different beliefs can then be known, evaluated and decided upon by individuals.  Citizens are to be trusted with this freedom to know and choose.  This is to be respected.

 

The morality in one's personal faith and beliefs about education, government, politics and law are inseparable.  Personal faith is primary, and the nonsectarian American civic religion which is so vital to public education is the composite result.  The purity of America's civic religion that advances individual liberty is totally dependent on religious freedom, which in turn requires freedom from intimidation by government-established ideologues (educators, clergy, etc.).

 

The Founding Fathers were not only avid Creationists; they were members of many different church denominations, and the vast majority of them were, in their personal faith, born-again Christians.*

 

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:

old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

2 Corinthians 5:17

 

For you have been "born again, not of corruptible seed,

but of incorruptible, by the word of God,

which liveth and abideth for ever."

1 Peter 1:23

 

The Founding Fathers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution came from eleven Christian groups that held different views about church ordinances, baptism, communion, church polity, discipline, worship and so on.  Alexander Hamilton said in an essay published soon after the Constitutional Convention adjourned: "For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which, without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."**  Madison expressed the same belief in The Federalist No. 37.

 

"Hast thou not known?  Hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  [There is] no searching of his understanding.  He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength."

Isaiah 10:28-29

 

Colonial churches were clearly Biblical.  Schools such as Harvard and the local public grade schools were Bible-based and evangelical.  Noah Webster (1758-1843), a contributor to the Constitution and widely acknowledged as the most influential educator for over a hundred years, unabashedly proclaimed his conversion to Christ during a campus revival at Yale.***

 

Webster, who was skilled in six languages, published the American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828.  In 1833, he said, "It is extremely important to our nation, in a political as well as religious view, that all possible authority and influence should be given to the scriptures, for these furnish the best principles of civil liberty and the most effectual support of republican [meaning republic] government."

 

Public school students must be taught to understand and appreciate the importance of the all-encompassing concept of an impartial, nonsectarian God of creation's nature.  This is America's civic religion.  Inculcation, however, in the personal faith relating to worship and a denomination's specific religious doctrine must not be allowed to become a function of government education.

 

64167_338209979564091_133149703403454_1001074_1990975054_n

 

 

*http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html

**http://www.zeios.com/OurRepublic/Author/22

***http://www.yalestandard.com/tidbits/voices-of-yales-past/

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Note:  In the Judeo-Christian Bible, we learn of the personal faith shared by many different Christian denominations:  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).

 

Justice and grace meet at the cross of Calvary, where the price of sin was paid by Christ, Who loves us more than we love ourselves (see also Romans 5:8-9; 10:9-13 for more context of the phrase "born again").  When individuals acknowledge their need for forgiveness and humbly accept God's gift of salvation from the penalty of sin, a divine God-to-man cooperative becomes a reality.

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

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