The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World Page 11

  The power given to the government to take from the rich automatically cancelled out the principle of "guaranteed equal rights." It opened the floodgate for the government to meddle with everybody's rights, particularly property rights.

  A Lesson from Communism

  When the Communists seized power in Hungary, the peasants were delighted with the "justice" of having the large farms confiscated from their owners and given to the peasants. Later the Communist leaders seized three-fourths of the peasant land and took it back to set up government communal farms. Immediately the peasants howled in protest about their property "rights."

  Those who protested too loudly or too long soon found that they not only lost their land, but also their liberty. If they continued to protest, they lost their lives.

  Equal Rights Doctrine Protects the Freedom to Prosper

  The American Founders took a different approach. Their policy was to guarantee the equal protection of all the people's rights and thus insure that all would have the freedom to prosper. There was to be no special penalty for getting rich. The French philosophers cried out in protest, "But then some of the people will become very rich!" "Indeed they will," the Founders might have responded -- "the more the better."

  In fact, it was soon discovered that the new industrial age required large quantities of private funds in order to build factories, purchase complicated machinery and tools, and provide millions of jobs which had never existed before.

  The Founders felt that America would become a nation dominated by a prosperous middle class with a few people becoming rich. As for the poor, the important thing was to insure the freedom to prosper so that no one would be locked into the poverty level the way people have been in all other parts of the world.

  Making the Whole Nation Prosperous

  It was realized, of course, that some would prosper more than others. That is inevitable as long as there is liberty. Some would prosper because of talent, some because of good fortune, some because of an inheritance, but most would prosper because of hard work.

  The entire American concept of "freedom to prosper" was based on the belief that man's instinctive will to succeed in a climate of liberty would result in the whole people prospering together. It was thought that even the poor could lift themselves through education and individual effort to become independent and self-sufficient.

  The idea was to maximize prosperity, minimize poverty, and make the whole nation rich. Where people suffered the loss of their crops or became unemployed, the more fortunate were to help. And those who were enjoying "good times" were encouraged to save up in store for the misfortunes which seem to come to everybody someday. Hard work, frugality, thrift, and compassion became the key words in the American ethic.

  Why the Founders Made European Theories Unconstitutional

  What happened in America under these principles was remarkable in every way. Within a short time the Americans, as a people, were on the way to becoming the most prosperous and best-educated nation in the world (which was amazing to de Tocqueville when he arrived in 1831). They were also the freest people in the world. Eventually, the world found that they were also the most generous people on earth. And all this was not because they were Americans. The Founders believed these same principles would work for any nation. The key was using the government to protect equal rights, not to provide equal things. As previously mentioned, Samuel Adams said the ideas of a welfare state were made unconstitutional:

  "The utopian schemes of leveling [redistribution of the wealth], and a community of goods [central ownership of all the means of production and distribution], are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional." 118

  Nevertheless, the Founders Had a Deep Concern

  for the Poor and Needy

  As mentioned earlier, disciples of the collectivist Left in the Founders' day as well as our own have insisted that compassion for the poor requires that the Federal government become involved in taking from the "haves" and giving to the "have nots." Benjamin Franklin had been one of the "have nots," and after living several years in England where he saw government welfare programs in operation, he had considerable to say about these public charities of counterproductive compassion.

  Franklin wrote a whole essay on the subject and told one of his friends, "I have long been of your opinion, that your legal provision for the poor [in England] is a very great evil, operating as it does to the encouragement of idleness. We have followed your example, and begin now to see our error, and, I hope, shall reform it." 119

  A survey of Franklin's views on counter-productive compassion might be summarized as follows:

  1. Compassion which gives a drunk the means to increase his drunkenness is counter-productive. 120

  2. Compassion which breeds debilitating dependency and weakness is counter-productive. 121

  3. Compassion which blunts the desire or necessity to work for a living is counter-productive. 122

  4. Compassion which smothers the instinct to strive and excel is counter-productive. 123

  Nevertheless, the Founders recognized that it is a mandate of God to help the poor and underprivileged. It is interesting how they said this should be done.

  The Founders' Formula for "Calculated" Compassion

  Franklin wrote:

  "To relieve the misfortunes of our fellow creatures is concurring with the Deity; it is godlike; but, if we provide encouragement for laziness, and supports for folly, may we not be found fighting against the order of God and Nature, which perhaps has appointed want and misery as the proper punishments for, and cautions against, as well as necessary consequences of, idleness and extravagance? Whenever we attempt to amend the scheme of Providence, and to interfere with the government of the world, we had need be very circumspect, lest we do more harm than good." 124

  Nearly all of the Founders seem to have acquired deep convictions that assisting those in need had to be done through means which might be called "calculated" compassion. Highlights from their writings suggest the following:

  1. Do not help the needy completely. Merely help them to help themselves.

  2. Give the poor the satisfaction of "earned achievement" instead of rewarding them without achievement.

  3. Allow the poor to climb the "appreciation ladder" -- from tents to cabins, cabins to cottages, cottages to comfortable houses.

  4. Where emergency help is provided, do not prolong it to the point where it becomes habitual.

  5. Strictly enforce the scale of "fixed responsibility." The first and foremost level of responsibility is with the individual himself; the second level is the family; then the church; next the community; finally the county, and, in a disaster or emergency, the state. Under no circumstances is the federal government to become involved in public welfare. The Founders felt it would corrupt the government and also the poor. No Constitutional authority exists for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare.

  Motives of the Founders

  By excluding the national government from intervening in the local affairs of the people, the Founders felt they were protecting the unalienable rights of the people from abuse by an over-aggressive government. But just what are "unalienable" rights? This brings us to our next principle.

  Eighth Principle: Men are endowed by their Creator

  with certain unalienable rights.

  Endowed by the Creator ...

  The Founders did not believe that the basic rights of mankind originated from any social compact, king, emperor, or governmental authority. Those rights, they believed, came directly and exclusively from God. Therefore, they were to be maintained sacred and inviolate, John Locke said it this way:

  "The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which ... teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions; for
men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by His order and about His business; they are His property....

  "And, being furnished with like faculties, sharing all in one community of Nature, there cannot be supposed any such subordination among us that may authorize us to destroy one another." 125

  When Is a Right Unalienable?

  The Founders Did Not List All of the Unalienable Rights

  Many Founders Used Similar Language Emphasizing "Unalienable Rights"

  Property Rights Essential to the Pursuit of Happiness

  Three Great Natural Rights

  State Constitutions

  All Rights Founded on the Protection of Life

  When Is a Right Unalienable?

  The substantive nature of those rights which are inherent in all mankind was described by William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:

  "Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture." 126

  In other words, we may do something ourselves to forfeit the unalienable rights endowed by the Creator, but no one else can take those rights from us without being subject to God's justice. This is what makes certain rights unalienable. They are inherent rights given to us by the Creator. That is why they are called natural rights.

  We also have certain other rights called vested rights which are created by the community, state, or nation for our protection or well-being. However, these can be changed any time the lawmakers feel like it.

  An example of a vested right would be the right to go hunting during certain seasons. Or the right to travel on the public highway. Notice that the government can change both of these "rights" or prohibit them altogether. The region could be declared off-limits for hunting. The highway could be closed.

  But the government could not pass a law to destroy all babies under the age of two, or lock up everybody with blonde hair. In the one case it would be destroying the unalienable right to life, and in the other case it would be destroying the unalienable right to liberty. A person can lose his liberty through his own misbehavior, but not because he has blonde hair!

  The Founders Did Not List All of the Unalienable Rights

  When the Founders adopted the Declaration of Independence, they emphasized in phrases very similar to those of Blackstone that God has endowed all mankind "with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

  Let us identify some of the unalienable or natural rights which the Founders knew existed but did not enumerate in the Declaration of Independence:

  The right of self-government.

  The right to bear arms for self-defense.

  The right to own, develop, and dispose of property.

  The right to make personal choices.

  The right of free conscience.

  The right to choose a profession.

  The right to choose a mate.

  The right to beget one's kind.

  The right to assemble.

  The right to petition.

  The right to free speech.

  The right to a free press.

  The right to enjoy the fruits of one's labors.

  The right to improve one's position through barter and sale.

  The right to contrive and invent.

  The right to explore the natural resources of the earth.

  The right to privacy.

  The right to provide personal security.

  The right to provide nature's necessities -- air, food, water, clothing, and shelter.

  The right to a fair trial.

  The right of free association.

  The right to contract.

  Many Founders Used Similar Language Emphasizing "Unalienable Rights"

  It was very common among the Founders to express their sentiments concerning man's unalienable rights in almost the same language as Jefferson. Here are the words of the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted by the Virginia assembly June 12, 1776 (before the Declaration of Independence!):

  "All men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." 127

  Notice that the words of the Declaration of Independence are very similar when it says, "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."

  Property Rights Essential to the Pursuit of Happiness

  Some scholars have wondered just what Jefferson mean by "the pursuit of happiness," but the meaning of this phrase was well understood when it was written. Perhaps John Adams said it even more clearly:

  "All men are born free and independent, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness." 128

  Three Great Natural Rights

  Of course, the concept of unalienable rights was by no means exclusive to the American Founders. It was well understood by English defenders of the common law. Eleven years before the Declaration of Independence, Sir William Blackstone had written this concerning the natural rights of man:

  "And these [great natural rights] may be reduced to three principal or primary articles: the right of personal security; the right of personal liberty; and the right of private property; because as there is no other known method of compulsion, or of abridging man's natural free will, but by an infringement or diminution of one or other of these important rights, the preservation of these, inviolate, may justly be said to include the preservation of our civil immunities in their largest and most extensive sense." 129

  State Constitutions

  The protection of these rights was later carried over into the constitutions of the various states. Here is how the Constitution of Pennsylvania stated it:

  "Article I, Section 1. All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property and reputation, and of pursuing their own happiness." 130

  All Rights Founded on the Protection of Life

  Over a century ago, Frederic Bastiat, who was trying to preserve freedom in France, wrote that man's unalienable rights are actually those which relate to life itself and that the preservation of those rights is primarily a matter of self-preservation. He wrote:

  "We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life--physical, intellectual, and moral life. But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. The process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course.

  "Life, faculties, production -- in other words, individuality, liberty, property -- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.

  "Life, libe
rty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws [for the protection of them] in the first place." 131

  But on what basis are the unalienable rights of mankind to be protected? This brings us to the principle which is a corollary to the one we have just discussed.

  Ninth Principle: To protect man's rights, God has revealed

  certain principles of divine law.

  Rights, though endowed by God as unalienable prerogatives, could not remain unalienable unless they were protected as enforceable rights under a code of divinely proclaimed law.

  William Blackstone pointed out that the Creator is not only omnipotent (all-powerful),