They read Aristotle’s Essays on Politics and James Hampton’s translation of The General History of Polybius. They also scoured Plato’s Republic and Laws for principles important to freedom.
They read the legal commentaries by Sir Edward Coke, the essays of Francis Bacon, and could borrow copies of Rapin’s five-volume History of England from many of Colonial America’s libraries.
They researched the essays of Richard Hooker, and the challenges of social contracts between citizen and state in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. They studied Montagu’s Rise and Fall of Ancient Republics and Oliver Goldsmith’s The Roman History.
They reviewed Algernon Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government that got the man beheaded by Charles II in 1683. They absorbed the insights from the Scottish economist David Hume—and more.
Three Grand Conclusions
It is evident from their reading and writings that the Founders knew their history—European, American, Roman, Greek and Biblical. From their combined accumulation of study, knowledge and experience they came to three important conclusions about self-government.
First, they saw the absolute need for national virtue. People not practicing basic principles of decency such as that which Jesus taught were not able to govern themselves or their nations—and were always overthrown by outside forces after the decay was sufficiently severe.
They realized the futility of a pure democracy—that it always degenerated into mob rule. They saw the clear need for a representative form of government as the key prerequisite to self-rule.
Lastly, the protection of real property and individual rights was the best inoculation against the rise of tyranny. Property and unalienable rights are the magic ingredients of a life fully lived in freedom. Toppling the Seven Pillars of Socialism
When the Founding Fathers affixed their signatures to the new Constitution, they put into play the greatest power for good the world had ever known. It was infused with the wisdom of the ages, steeped in the principles of Biblical law, and calculated to stand unremittingly for the good of all. With only 4,429 carefully ordered words, backed by an educated constituency with strong national virtue, the Founding Generation did what no other tyrant, monarch or dictator had ever before done: they established permanent freedom and prosperity, and chained down its enemies forever.
It was the miracle that stopped socialism.
* * *
274 1979 Constitution of Iran, Article 1.
275 1978 Constitution of Spain, Section 16:3.
276 1944 Constitution of Iceland, Section VI, Article 62.
277 Isaiah 51:1, KJV
278 See Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. No. 457 (1892)
279 John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution—The Faith of Our Founding Fathers, Baker Book House Company, 1987.
280 See Library of Congress, “Religion and the Founders of the American Republic.”
281 The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts, 1648; see Eidsmoe, p. 28.
282 Ibid., Eidsmoe, p. 22
283 See a fascinating analysis of the Founding Fathers’ books in Forrest McDonald’s Founding Father’s Library: A Bibliographical Essay, first published in Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought, vol. 1 no. 1, January 1978. See also, Donald S. Lutz, “Top 40 Authors” cited by the Founders, at www.libertyfund.org.
284 Jack Lynch, Literacy in Early America, Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Winter 2011.
285 F. W. Grubb, German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709-1914, Volume 53 of Routledge Explorations in Economic History, Routledge, 2013, p. 107.
Chapter 40: Abolishing Pillar #1, “The Ruler”
Because the first pillar of socialism is the strongest, it required the most work to abolish. That’s why the Founders carefully wove layers of protections to strike an excellent balance between power and freedom.
In order to remove the despotism of “all power in the ruler,” the Founders put two brilliant devices into the Constitution.
•Dilute: The first device controls the ruling body by spreading far and wide the political power among all the people.
•Define: The second device specifies exactly what that ruling body can do—and then it is chained down with laws, checks and balances.
How is Power Spread Out?
The idea of diluting power has ancient roots. Polybius (Greece, 204-122 B.C.) proposed a mixed constitution with political power shared among “the many.” He envisioned the ruler being assigned the executive duties of the government. The interests of the nobility or the “established order” would be represented in the Senate. The general population would be represented in the popular Assembly.
Polybius’ insight led to the idea of a single government made of three separate powers, each accountable and dependent on the other two. It was a great idea that unfortunately died when Polybius died.
About 1,900 years later, it was given new life by Baron Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755) as America’s now-famous Separation of Powers with self-protecting checks and balances. Thomas Jefferson explained why these ideas were so effective for retaining freedom:
“The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one,” Jefferson wrote, “but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions he is competent to [perform best]. Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward [township] direct the interests within itself.
“It is by dividing and subdividing these republics,” Jefferson continued, “from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm by himself; by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.”
Jefferson then asks, “What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate.”286
The results of Separation of Powers were ingenious. It was a three-headed American eagle—executive, legislative, judicial—each watching the others for bad behavior. Here’s how they laid it out:
A.EXECUTIVE: This is the president with strong but well-defined powers.
B.LEGISLATIVE: The law-making body was divided into two houses, each watched closely by the other.
The House: Today there are 435 congressmen equally divided according to population among the many states—the larger the state, the more representatives. Today, each congressman represents about 732,000 people.287
The Senate: This “upper house” has two representatives for each state. The Founders gave the state legislatures the responsibility for hiring and firing their two senators. This made the senator beholden to the legislature on a regular basis. This control was demolished in 1913 with the 17th Amendment (discussed later).
C.JUDICIARY: The Supreme Court is to test the validity of new laws in light of the principles of freedom as contained in the Constitution. They are not to interpret or twist the Constitution to meet “changing times,” although that happens all the time.
The lower courts are empowered to resolve all issues unless something is specifically identified for scrutiny at a higher level.
D.CHECKS AND BALANCES: The three branches of government stand together and support each other, but guard their responsibilities carefully. If one branch tries to step across the line, the other two branches have power to push it back.
E.THE STATE LEGISLATURES: Here’s where neighbors vote for neighbors. A
state legislator is the first and most easily reached representative of the people. These people carry concerns in their districts to the state level where they can be discussed and solved. It it remains unsettled the concern can be elevated to the federal level through the two senators.
F.THE PEOPLE: The right to elect representatives begins with the individual voter who must be left alone and free to ponder, consider, and make a choice.
Tying Down the Power
The next problem the Founders faced was how to make sure the power remained under control of the people and not the other way around. Thomas Jefferson said Americans should view government power with jealousy and suspicion, not confidence. Americans may love their leaders, he observed, but that is no excuse to release them from careful control. The power is the people’s, not the government’s.
“Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence,” Jefferson wrote in 1798. “In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
What Are the Chains on the President?
The Founders wanted a leader with enough power to act with vigor but not escape accountability. If he acted foolishly, they wanted very real and legal punishments available.
The president’s job description is written up in Article 2. This section makes it clear the president was not given power to make laws like a king, or to issue edicts on a personal whim.
They gave him six responsibilities:
1—Chief of State
2—Commander in Chief
3—Executive over the whole executive branch of government
4—Chief diplomat in foreign affairs
5—Chief architect for needed legislation
6—Conscience of the nation in granting pardons and reprieves.
The Founders opposed political parties. They saw their corrupting influence in Europe and tried very hard to prevent it in America. The system they proposed did a much better job at vetting a presidential candidate. It shut the door on hype and hyperbole, and required candid, face-to-face contact by those who did the actual voting. From that came understanding, promises, commitments, and explanations. It was called the Electoral College. See Article 2.1.
The length of term was hotly debated. The Founders wanted the terms long enough so the president wouldn’t be wasting all his time fighting for re-election when there was so little time to get the work done. Seven years was deemed too long, three was too short, so they settled on four.
The Founders decided a president should be rewarded for good service with the chance to be reelected. The elections acted as referendums on the president’s capacity to govern well. (Article 2.1)
What Are the Chains on Congress?
The Founders opposed how Europe wasted the labors of the people with massive welfare projects. In Article 1, they gave the House and Senate power to take care of the nation’s general welfare, but drastically shortened the list of things they could do.
What is “Welfare”?
Noah Webster’s dictionary of 1828 defined welfare in the days of the Founders as “exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government.”288 This had nothing to do with food stamps, Social Security or Medicare, as claimed by tax-hungry bureaucrats in later years.
What is “General Welfare”?
The intent of “general welfare” was clearly a restriction, not a free-for-all blank check. Madison defended that specific list of do’s and don’ts as necessary to prevent runaway taxation and spending. In Federalist No. 41 he said the list in Article 1.8 was exactly that, a limitation on the kinds of projects for which the government could tax:
“For what purpose could the enumeration [a numbered list] of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power?”
Immediately, Congress tried to twist and turn the restrictions and definitions of welfare. They used the opening paragraph of Article 1.8 as the excuse—words, they said, that authorized them to care for the “general welfare.” In defense, Madison said that paragraph was an introduction only, and what followed was the actual authority:
“Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars. But the idea of an enumeration of particulars which neither explain nor qualify the general meaning, can have no other effect than to confound and mislead, is an absurdity, ...” (Federalist No. 41)
Madison called it an absurd misconstruction to believe that “general welfare” amounted to an “unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare....” (Federalist No. 41). Hamilton said the same thing:
“This specification of particulars evidently excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd, as well as useless, if a general authority was intended....” (Federalist No. 83)
Jefferson said that if “general welfare” truly meant any taxation for any purpose, “it would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please.”289
Unfortunately, those early controls were abolished by aggressive presidents, congresses, and a willing Supreme Court. In the beginning, however, the chains were brilliantly applied, well-crafted, and would have kept America out of the trouble it’s in today.
Rule by Law, Not “Whim”
The House puts forth reasons to raise money for various needs of the country. The Senate may agree or suggest changes. Extracting a tax had to be equal for everyone, and not graduated as it is today (Article 1.2.3). The use of those taxes is highly restricted—a laundry list of acceptable expenses is written right into Article 1.8.
“The Congress shall have power to ...”
BORROW: borrow money on the credit of the U.S., and ...
COMMERCE: regulate State and Foreign commerce
CITIZENSHIP: establish uniform rules of citizenship
FAILURES: establish laws regarding bankruptcies
COINAGE: coin money and establish its value
STANDARDS: fix standards of weights and measures
PUNISHMENTS: set the punishment for counterfeiters
MAIL: establish post offices and postal roads, but not, Madison said, “a power to construct roads and canals.” That job is the responsibility of the states.290
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: promote science and art by protecting copyrights
COURTS: organize a court system beneath the Supreme Court
FELONIES: set the punishment of certain felony crimes
WAR: declare war and set certain rules
DEFENSE: raise an army and a navy
RULES OF WAR: to set rules of military engagement
MILITIA: to call forth a militia for national security concerns
INTERNAL STRIFE: to organize, arm and set rules for militia in cooperation with the states
SEAT OF GOVERNMENT: to exercise legislative authority over Washington, D.C.
...and the power to make all laws necessary to carry out these responsibilities.
Extra Chains Just to Make Sure
After the list of 17 permissions, the Constitution lays out eight limits on Congress as outlined in Article I.9.
ANTI-SLAVERY: Congress may not interfere with importation of slaves for 20 years after the Constitution was ratified, but after that time (1808) it could terminate the slave trade. Congress could impose a $10 tax for each immigrant or slave. This was meant to make the importation of slaves more c
ostly.
HABEAS CORPUS: Congress may not keep a person in jail without cause (writ of habeas corpus). And, that person must be considered innocent (not a criminal) without a trial and conviction.
EX POST FACTO: Congress may not pass laws after an act has occurred that makes that act illegal.
EQUAL TAXES: Congress may not extract taxes unequally. Congress may not extract direct taxes unequally. These are taxes the business can’t cover by raising prices on the goods it sells.
COMMERCE: Congress may not tax articles that the states export to foreign countries.
TAXES & FEES: Congress may not give one shipping port an advantage over others by taxing them unequally. Congress may not force ships and boats traveling from one port to another to pay fees or get permission—this was designed to ensure freedom of the coastal seas.
RAIDING THE TREASURY: Congress may not take any funds from the Treasury unless the expenditure has been approved by the people’s elected representatives. Congress must publish all receipts and expenditures.
SPOILS SYSTEM: Congress may not create an upper class, an aristocracy, nobility or privileged class. Members of Congress, and any other office holder in the U.S. government, may not accept gifts or titles of nobility, from foreign governments or agencies.
Keeping control of these enumerated powers and preventing them from expanding to become all-inclusive was the Founders’ goal.
“If Congress can apply money indefinitely to the general welfare,” Madison told Congress, “and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion ... education ... schools ... roads ... In short, everything from the highest object of State legislation, down to the most minute object of policy.”291 As most Americans painfully realize, that’s what happened.
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