What is the fundamental character of
America? Why have so many millions of people wanted to live in America?
For nearly 400 years our prosperity and
liberty have been the envy of much of the world. But prosperity is
inseparable from our liberty. Take away freedom of speech, association,
religion and "the pursuit of happiness," and our country would
be neither free nor prosperous. And Liberty is inseparable from good
character. John
Adams said:
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with
human passions unbridled by morality
and religion. . . . Our
constitution was made only for a moral
and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any
other. It is religion and morality alone which can establish the
principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of
a free constitution is pure virtue.
Unique among modern nations, the United
States was literally conceived
in liberty. The guiding philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, George
Washington, Benjamin Franklin, George Mason and our other Founders was the
inalienable rights of the individual. As the Declaration of
Independence states,
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 – That to secure these Rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the
Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it . . . .
America's Founders had experienced
horrible demonstrations of the power of unlimited government: destructive
taxation, forcible invasions of homes by government agents, interference
with free trade, government spying on citizens, corruption and debasement
of the legal system, imprisonment and murder of dissenters, and government
destruction of churches. To avoid these evils, our Constitution and Bill
of Rights (the first ten Amendments) were created, as strict
limitations on the power of government.
The Bill of Rights protects freedom of
speech, press, religion, and assembly. It guarantees our right to keep and
bear arms. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. It
guarantees due process in a court of law, a speedy hearing, and trial by
jury. It prohibits excessive bail, fines and punishment. Most important,
the Bill of Rights guarantees that rights not explicitly granted
to the government, are reserved to us as individuals.
The genius of our Constitution and Bill
of Rights is that they limit the power of government, not the
freedom of individuals. Our government was only to be a moral
policeman, stopping force and fraud whenever possible, and otherwise
leaving citizens alone to live their lives in peace. Today, over 200 years
after its passage, the Bill of Rights remains the supreme law of the land,
and neither Congress, nor the Supreme Court, nor the President have the moral
or legal right to ignore it.
Sadly, government now has strayed very
far from the original vision of limited powers. Today there is no aspect
of our lives - public or private - that government regards as exempt from
its jurisdiction and control. Government now seizes over half our incomes
in taxes; regulates every aspect of trade and commerce; censors books,
movies and art; seizes our business records and bank accounts; confiscates
our guns; taps our telephones and reads our mail and electronic messages;
dictates wages and working conditions; regulates our sex lives; and
imposes fines and imprisonment with little regard for due process or
justice.
The vision of government as the servant
of the people, rather than their master, has been lost.
Here is how the Bill of Rights is being
destroyed:
AMENDMENT I
Congress shall make no law respecting the
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.
The great events of the American
Revolution were plotted in Churches. The King and Parliament were
denounced from pulpits for their violation of God-given rights. The
delegates of several states met to ratify the Constitution in Churches. The
sermon was the most powerful agent for political change. Today the IRS
dictates to churches what they can preach about. Any criticism of the
government could result in loss of "tax-exempt status." Churches
today have been neutralized, and are politically irrelevant.
America's most fundamental charters
attribute our liberties to God. A Supreme Court Justice admitted:
Religion was once deemed to be a function of the public school
system. The Northwest Ordinance, which antedated the First
Amendment, provided in Article III that Religion, morality, and
knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of
mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be
encouraged.
Today students are not permitted to
engage in voluntary public corporate prayer in government-run schools.
They are not allowed to see a copy of
the Ten Commandments on a classroom wall. Schools which teach that
America's values of liberty and justice are the best in the world are
subjected to lawsuits and told that any curriculum which declares that
America is better than a socialist dictatorship is "illegal."
In the name of "national
security", government employees have been censored for life. To combat
pornography, federal and state governments have imprisoned musicians,
seized the entire contents of bookstores and video rental outlets, and
have even prosecuted museums and art galleries. To "fight
crime," hundreds of communities have enacted curfews and
"anti-loitering" laws. Children who refuse to attend government
schools can be imprisoned along with their parents. Freedom of speech,
press, religion, and assembly are under siege.
Our right to vote
and petition our government is increasingly subjected to computer systems
in which the ease of manipulating our votes vastly exceeds anyone's
ability to detect the fraud.
AMENDMENT II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary
for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms shall not be infringed.
Our right to bear arms
is being gradually destroyed as the federal government, the states, and
communities enact ever more repressive "gun control"
legislation. Law-abiding citizens buy guns to prevent crime, while
law-breakers buy guns to commit crimes. Laws against guns are laws
against the law-abiding, because law-breakers will ignore those laws. Gun
control laws raise crime rates every time they are passed, to the benefit
of law-breakers. California made criminals of over 700,000 of its citizens
with the stroke of a pen by banning many popular semi-automatic rifles.
Washington D.C. has strict control laws and snipers and murderers galore.
To fight government and criminal violence, Americans need the means to
defend themselves more than ever, yet we are being legally disarmed.
AMENDMENT III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be
quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of
war, but in a manner prescribed by law.
Government does not need to quarter real
live troops in your home if it can place your entire home under electronic
surveillance. With cameras at every street intersection, it's no longer
difficult to imagine a video camera on your front lawn, placing your home
under 24-hour government surveillance. In Puerto Rico, National Guard
troops have been permanently stationed in 54 apartment buildings.
Government also destroys our privacy by wire-tapping our telephones,
seizing business records and keeping extensive files on most citizens.
AMENDMENT IV
The right of the people to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall
issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or
things to be seized.
Recent Supreme Court decisions have given
the police nearly unlimited power to search houses, businesses and cars -
in many cases without a warrant. In Florida, courts have refused to stop
police from boarding buses, blocking exits and searching passengers. RICO
laws and "anti-drug" laws have given government the power to seize
all the assets of an individual or company without indictment or
trial. Strip-searching persons arrested for even minor traffic violations
is becoming more and more common. Courts and legislatures now consider
virtually any government search and seizure "reasonable."
AMENDMENT V
No person shall be held to answer for a
capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or
indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval
forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or
public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in
jeopardy of life or limb;
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against
himself, nor deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law;
nor shall private property be taken for public use without just
compensation.
The Founding Fathers believed that no one
should be indicted without a hearing. Today the IRS can seize your bank
account, the FBI can take your computer, the Coast Guard can take your
boat, and welfare authorities can take away your children, without any
hearing or indictment by a Grand Jury. Increasingly, fundamental legal
restraints on the power of government agencies are being abandoned.
When local juries refuse to convict their
neighbors for violating unjust state and local laws, government
prosecutors will launch a second prosecution under identical federal laws,
in violation of the right to be free from "double jeopardy."
Private
property is routinely seized by the government without compensation,
often in the interests of "environmentalism."
Federal, state, and local government property already accounts for 42
percent of the total land area of the United States.
AMENDMENT VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury
of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed;
which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be
informed of the nature and the cause of the accusation; to be confronted
with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses in his favor, and to have assistance of counsel for his
defense.
The United States has adopted the
totalitarian practice of imprisoning defendants for long periods before
trial. As a growing list of personal behavior and technical errors are
criminalized, the court system is being impossibly over-loaded. It now
takes years before most serious cases ever get to trial. The growing power
of prosecutors, and government seizure of attorneys' fees, are destroying
the ability of those accused to defend themselves.
AMENDMENT VII
In Suits of common law, where the value in
controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury
shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise
re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the
rules of the common law.
Less than 3% of criminal defendants now
get a trial. Pre-trial detention is growing and some people have been
imprisoned for over two years without trial. In direct violation of the
Constitution, the Supreme Court has ruled that you don't even have to be
given a jury trial if you face less than six months in prison. And if you
have a dispute with the IRS, EPA or any of a dozen other regulatory
agencies, your case will usually be heard by an administrative law judge
employed by the same agency you are disputing. Judges routinely deny the
traditional right of jurors to judge the law, as well as the facts of a
case, and vote their conscience. Judges and prosecutors exclude any juror
who won't agree to convict in advance, stacking juries to ensure
convictions. These are precisely the sorts of abuses our Bill of Rights
was designed to prevent.
AMENDMENT VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
By calling penalties "civil"
rather than "criminal," government can seize all of your assets
without trial or any other form of legal proceeding. Bail has been
abolished for virtually all federal crimes, including crimes that didn't
even exist as recently as ten years ago, such as
"money-laundering" and "structuring." Punishments are
becoming increasingly harsh. Teenagers are getting years or decades in
prison for minor drug offenses. Businessmen are receiving long prison
sentences for technical violations of incomprehensible tax laws and
securities regulations. Ordinary citizens are being imprisoned for
possession of banned literature, guns, and even medicines.
AMENDMENT IX
The enumeration in the Constitution of
certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights were
intended as strict restrictions on government power. Those powers not
explicitly granted to government were retained by the individual. Today
the Constitution has been stood on its head. Courts are now saying
anything the government wants to do is permissible, unless explicitly
prohibited by the Constitution. Government now has nearly unlimited power,
and the American people are losing control of their own lives, property,
and destinies.
AMENDMENT X
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.
Power has shifted from the individual to
the states, and from the states to the federal government. Federal aid to
states has meant federal control of the states. By including the entire
economy under the Constitution's "interstate commerce" clause,
the Supreme Court has given the US Government control over every aspect of
society.
Your freedom is
in danger. When government violates its own laws, it becomes
the enemy of justice and freedom, rather than their protector. It is still
possible to stop our descent into tyranny, but time is running out. To
preserve our freedom we must passionately defend our moral and legal
rights - by speaking out, educating others, and supporting pro-freedom
groups - and demand enforcement of the highest law of the land, the Bill
of Rights.
Another version of this essay by Jarret B.
Wollstein can be found here.
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