At the end of the Constitutional Convention, several of the delegates refused to sign the Constitution without some kind of list of unalienable rights included. George Washington and others had to give personal assurances that if the states would accept the Constitution as presented to them, Congress would accept suggestions to improve it—including a Bill of Rights. Eventually, the states submitted 189 amendments. James Madison boiled them down to 17. Congress approved 12, and the states ratified 10—today’s Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Their stated purpose is laid out in the preamble, “... the States ... expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added ...,” and thereby provided these 27 protections of individual rights:
1.RELIGION: Congress may not interfere in the free exercise of religion.
2.SPEECH & PRESS: Congress may not interfere in the free exercise of speech and the press.
3.ASSEMBLY: Congress may not interfere in the right of the people to peaceably assemble.
4.PETITION: Congress may not interfere in the right of the people to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
5.ARMS: The people may possess arms without interference from the government.
6.SOLDIERS: The people will not be forced to house the military except as the people’s representatives describe it according to law.
7.PRIVACY: The people have the right to the privacy of their homes, their businesses, and all their private papers and effects.
8.SEARCH AND SEIZURE: The people have the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
9.WARRANTS: The people may not be arrested without a properly issued warrant.
10.ACCUSED: People accused of a felony do not need to answer for it unless a formal charge is brought against them that has been heard by a grand jury and formal charges issued.
11.MILITARY CRIME: Military personnel charged with crimes may be tried by a civilian court except during times of war.
12.DOUBLE JEOPARDY: An individual passing through the criminal trial process is free of any additional prosecution for that same crime.
13.SELF-INCRIMINATION: People may not be forced to testify against themselves in court unless they freely choose to do so.
14.DUE PROCESS: People may not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.
15.PROPERTY: Private property may not be taken without just compensation.
16.TRIALS: The accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy, fair and public trial in the state and district where the crime was committed.
17.ARBITRARY EXCUSES: The accused has the right to have explained the nature of the crime of which he is accused.
18.WITNESSES: The accused has the right to confront witnesses brought against him.
19.POVERTY: The accused will be provided the means to obtain witnesses in his favor using the compulsory powers of the court.
20.DEFENSE: The accused has the right to a defense attorney whether he can afford it or not.
21.CIVIL CASES: The accused in a civil case has the same right to trial by jury as does an accused in a criminal case, provided the suit involves $20 or more.
22.APPEALS: The facts of a case may not be altered, added to, or adjusted during the appeal process.
23.BAIL: The accused of a bailable crime will be released without providing a bail that would be considered excessive and unreasonable.
24.FINES: The convicted has the right to penalties that are reasonable and not excessive.
25.PUNISHMENT: The convicted will not suffer cruel or unusual punishment.
26.ALL RIGHTS NOT MENTIONED ... Americans may claim any and all rights that belong to them whether or not they are listed in the Constitution.
27.ALL POWERS NOT DELEGATED ... Americans and their sovereign states retain all powers not delegated to the federal government.
It’s All About Rights
The important distinction between the U.S. Constitution and other forms of government is that natural rights are not presumed to be invented by government, but instead are declared pre-existing and therefore receive protection by the government. The great modern clash between socialistic governments and freedom always points back to this fundamental part of human creation. Cicero said it best:
“The animal which we call man, endowed with foresight and quick intelligence, complex, keen, possessing memory, full of reason and prudence, has been given a certain distinguished status by the Supreme God who created him; for his is the only one among so many different kinds and varieties of living beings who has a share in reason and thought, while all the rest are deprived of it. But what is more divine, I will not say in man only, but in all heaven and earth, than reason? And reason, when it is full grown and perfected, is rightly called wisdom. Therefore, since there is nothing better than reason, and since it exists both in man and God, the first common possession of man and God is reason.
“But those who have reason in common must also have right reason in common. And since right reason is law we must believe that men have Law also in common with the gods. Further, those who share law must also share Justice; and those who share these are to be regarded as members of the same commonwealth. If indeed they obey the same authorities and powers, this is true in a far greater degree; but as a matter of fact they do obey this celestial system, the divine mind, and the God of transcendent power. Hence we must now conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.”308
Cicero Also Wrote:
“True law is right reason in agreement with nature. It is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting.”309
“God ... is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge. ...Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment.”310
Socialism Abolished
The miracle that stopped socialism was brilliantly crafted—and it worked. All seven pillars of socialism were handily dealt with. The Founders knew this would continue only if the people wanted it, and only if the Constitution remained intact, understood, jealously protected, and supported. Here’s what it achieved—
No Ruler: The executive was locked down so he couldn’t become a king and declare edicts on a whim. So long as Congress and the Court could reign him in, the president had little authority except to manage the government with the support of the other two branches.
No Caste: Classes and castes could not develop among the populous because the Constitution gave individuals a raw chance at freedom, and the responsibility to bear the full weight of their own choices, their own industry, and their own ability to make opportunities where none existed.
When a people knows their salvation rests in their own hands, history proves they are more apt to labor their way out of difficulties. The American system promoted that to everyone’s advantage.
No Things in Common: ‘Things in common’ was outlawed by both the culture of self-sufficiency and independence, and the Constitution. Taking a handout was once considered humbling proof of a person falling on hard times, or worse, palpable proof of laziness. But failure also allowed other processes to unfold in positive ways: innovation, compassion, creativity, etc., that rose to the challenge.
The Constitution wisely prevented government entitlements from developing—those misguided safety nets that eat up the labors of the people, encourage dependency, and ultimately destroy economies and cultures.
Minimal Regulation: The sluggish drag on prosperity that over-regulation creates was carefully guarded against. Government was denied the power to shadow every human action and manipulate it toward some national goal.
Small and well-managed government allows men and women to be responsible for themselves—it sets free that pioneering s
pirit that broke the land in Jamestown, Plymouth, Oregon, Utah, the prairie, the mountains, the continents, the moon, Mars and outer space. The best government is small government, and America’s resulting prosperity, ingenuity and capability proved that adage true.
Balanced Force: Political force was held to the minimum necessary to meet national goals. The proper role of government was caged with chains and guards so it remained the servant of the people instead of vice-a-versa. As a result, prosperity exploded into fantastic realms of creative progress that went far beyond anyone’s expectation or imagination.
Free Flowing Information: The free flow of information promotes prosperity; it is the key to wealth. With a free press, free association, and a money based on the sound value of precious metals, the flow of information lifted the American body and soul to heights of achievement and satisfaction unlike ever before in history.
Natural Rights: The Founders built their model government on the simple premise that a national government should have no more rights than those of any individual. The individuals may delegate rights, but the government may not take them or grant unto itself any new rights.
Upon that simple formula was the greatest nation in the history of the world scratched out of the prairie sod and coastal swamps to become a land littered with light, growth, and peace. It was indeed the miracle that stopped socialism.
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306 For the complete list see The Making of America, by W. Cleon Skousen, 1985.
307 The Federalist Papers, No. 84: Hamilton.
308 Alan O. Ebenstein, Great Political Thinkers, p. 134.
309 Ibid., p. 133.
310 Ibid.
Chapter 47: Founding Fathers Speak on Socialism
Socialism is unconstitutional.
The Founders did everything they could to preserve choice and make socialism, communism and any other scheme of leveling, clearly and unquestionably unconstitutional.
Socialism is Unconstitutional
Sam Adams: “The Utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods, are as visionary and impractical as those ideas which vest all property in the Crown ... [these ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government, unconstitutional.”311
Socialism is Theft
Thomas Jefferson: “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”312
Socialism Erases Property Rights
John Adams: “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”313
Socialism Destroys Profit
Thomas Jefferson: “A wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”314
Socialism Stops Progress
Thomas Jefferson: “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”315
Article 1.8 Prevents Socialism
Thomas Jefferson: “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.”316
James Madison: “With respect to the words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”317
Socialism Benefits Only a Few
James Madison: In 1794, Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees coming to America. James Madison objected, saying, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that Article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”318
Socialism is Forced Welfare
James Madison: “The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”319
Socialism Begins With Easy Money
Benjamin Franklin: “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”320
Socialism Centralizes Power
James Madison: “An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.”321
Socialism Destroys “Power By the People”
James Madison: “Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.”322
Thomas Jefferson: “When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”323
Socialism Always Becomes Tyranny
James Madison: “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.” 324
Socialism Left Unchecked Creates Tyranny
James Madison: “There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” 325
Socialism Traps People Into Welfare
Benjamin Franklin: “I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.”326
Freedom ends with Socialism
Thomas Jefferson: “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.“327
Only War Will Dislodge Socialism
John Adams: “A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”328
Centralization of Power Leads to Socialism
Thomas Jefferson: “Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and over-look all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens, and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite the public agents to corruption, plunder and waste. And I do verily believe, that if the principle were to prevail, of a common law being in force in the United States ..., it would become the most corrupt government on earth....
“What an augmentation of the field of jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building and office-hunting would be produced by an assumption of all the State powers into the hands of the General Government. The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves, and united
as to everything respecting foreign nations. Let the General Government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our General Government may be reduced to a very simple organization and a very unexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants.”329
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311 Sam Adams to Massachusetts’s agent in London, 1768.
312 Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816.
313 John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787.
314 Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801.
315 Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, November 29, 1802.
316 Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, June 16, 1817.
317 James Madison to James Robertson, April 20, 1825.
318 James Madison, 4 Annals of Congress 179, 1794.
319 James Madison speech at the House of Representatives, January 10, 1794.
320 Attributed to Benjamin Franklin; similar quote also attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler.
321 James Madison, Federalist No. 58, February 20, 1788.
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