Freedom-Fighters Forum

The Constitutional Broadside
V2 N3 A PUBLICATION OF THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY COUNCIL
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

CONSTITUTIONAL PLANNING AND CONTROL

There are two opposing concepts about how persons or property should be controlled: by the individual or by the state.

The personal liberty concept holds that each individual is free by nature to control himself. The slavery concept teaches that an elite few are better able to plan for the welfare of the many; that the many should be subjected to the control of others who think themselves qualified to lead.

CONSTITUTIONALITY VS UN-CONSTITUTIONALITY

Thinking people are aware that there is a life and death struggle between these two concepts. The battle shows up in every facet of our lives. However, some are unaware of the contest and unable to grasp the significance of the struggle.

Many otherwise bright people prefer to ignore the contest. They have little personal interest in anything beyond the gratification of their own appetites and passions. The intelligently informed ask such timely questions as these:

What is the nature of ownership? Does ownership confer rights of control: Is private ownership of personal property, or a land, an outmoded concept? Should individuals be able to have final control of land through the principle of private ownership? Is private ownership and control of property a personal right? Is that right vital to liberty of the individual?

Is any law which provides for the control of property by any person or agency of government other than the owner, constitutional?

Should all segments of government in our Nation, including the sovereign states, be subjected to the final control of the federal government people?

The greatest contest of this century, and of the 21^st Century now rushing upon us, is and will be a battle between these two concepts or principles:

FREEDOM TO CONTROL SELF or FREEDOM FROM SELF CONTROL

PERSONAL AGENCY VS EXTERNAL FORCE

If the virtues of a self-reliant course are so easily apparent, why do so many millions clamor for social guarantees of personal economic security?

Could it be for want of having the foundation principles of liberty stated clearly enough in terms of elemental simplicity?

Let’s take a few moments and consider some of the basic principles of personal freedom expressed in primary terms.

All voluntary human action is self-directed reaction to internal stimulus. It is reaction to one’s own thought and feeling.

This truth is so elementary it seems almost foolish to mention it. On the other hand, the principle is so basic and fundamental to all personal rights, it must not be forgotten. It is the very foundation fact of personal liberty.

It is true that external force can be applied to a human body so as to move the person against his own will. A stronger person can subdue a weaker one. An army can coerce an individual.

A tyrant, who has the backing of enough force, can assault a person. The assault can be either mental or physical. Fear or the emotion of anger can cause a person to make choices he might not otherwise make under peaceful conditions.

When the chips are down, however, a human body will not function unless it is directed by its own mind to act. If the inner man says “Go.” the body will react if it has the power and the freedom to move.

PERSONAL POWER

The only power that can make the human mind function is the power, or energy if you will, that a person gets from the food he eats. You might say that the natural elements he ingests provide him energy or power that operates his computer and activates his man-power.

Some believe that supernatural power or energy may be imparted directly to the mind or to the body from outside the person. This may well be so. But the daily power of locomotion, of self-movement and motivation, of the body or mind, is obtained by ingestion. So many calories of food energy taken into the body will give a certain power to movement and growth. Nobody is stronger or more powerful, than his intake of energy will allow him to be.

Each person either uses or wastes his own power. He can neither obtain from nor give to another one iota of power.

I can perform only on my own strength. You perform on yours. I can’t give you any of my power, and you can’t trade me any of yours.

We may both exert our own power at the same time and apply our force simultaneously on a given project, but neither can deliver his force to another.

Again, this may seem so obvious that it is ridiculous to mention it. But still again, it is the truth, usually overlooked by most, that underlies that fact that rights are personal and they cannot be given to or taken from another.

Each person is his own self. He is individually operated by his own power and energy in accordance with his own rights and his own a agency.

GOVERNMENT POWER

We talk a lot about “government power” In one sense there is no such thing; not really.

Government power is no more than the collective force of all who unite their efforts in society.

No man can delegate any of his personal power to another. All that can happen is persons who have internal power and rights may function in cooperation with each other.

Government power is the net sum of all the powers of each person that comprise the government, both of citizens and of citizens who are also officials who serve in government.

All government power is locked within the individual citizens. There is no other power in a nation; no collective “higher power” that over-rides the individual power and rights of the citizens.

The people, by their thought and effort are the sole source or means of producing wealth. If they do not convert nature’s treasure of energy sources, whether of food energy, solar energy, water power from gravity, thermal energy, fossil fuel, or nuclear power, into humanly usable wealth, man will live in poverty or die of starvation.

The sole function of government is to allow individuals to work effectively without friction or danger to each other as they use their minds and bodies to produce joy and wealth.

DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY

To repeat, no man can delegate his personal power to another. His power to function remains forever within himself. How he uses that power is his sole responsibility.

Persons delegate authority, not power.

One person can authorize another to represent him in an action performed by the other. He can authorize another to cast a vote, or make a decision, in his behalf. He can give his power of attorney to his representative so that his agent will function with all the authority of the principal who gave the authority.

But the power to function must remain within the person who originates that power. The agent can do no more than his own personal power allows him to do as he exercises authority for another. If he exceeds that authority, his acts are then on his own responsibility and do not bind the principal. For instance, if the government agent personally exceeds the authority granted to him by constitutional law, he is liable for damages done to others by his actions.

When a delegation of authority is given, the recipient of that which is transferred, the authority to act, can use his own power, and no more, in behalf of the principal who gave the delegation of authority. The results that are obtained by the agent, or the contracts that he makes by properly delegated authority, are as binding on the principal as if made by himself.

He who delegates authority can secure a promise from his agent, and bind his agent, and bind his agent to perform as agreed. Or he can give his representative the authority to make any decision or binding contract the agent chooses to make and by which the principal will be bound just as if the principal had performed in his own behalf by his own personal power.

LIMITATIONS UPON THE DELEGATOR

The principal cannot give, or delegate, anything that is not his own.

Each person “owns” his personal agency. It is a gift from God. It cannot be taken away from him and he may not use his own power to take from someone else that which belongs to the other.

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

All rights are inherent, from God, in the individual. The individual cannot give to the government anything that is not his own. He cannot delegate authority or privileges that are not inherent within him.

If natural rights, or natural law, prohibits a person from doing something himself, he cannot authorize his representatives to do it either. A citizen may not control more than he owns without having a delegation of authority from the owner.

Ask yourself this simple question: May I authorize any person to enter the home of a neighbor and remove property belonging to that neighbor?

The fact that an individual might be a city councilman, a county commissioner, a state or federal legislator, a mayor, governor, or president, makes no difference whatever. I cannot give to government any authority which is not mine as an individual.

PERSONAL RIGHTS

The rights to life, liberty and ownership of property are inherent within the individual. Every person has such rights naturally and automatically from God and such rights cannot be given by one person to another.

All persons have equal natural rights.

If a person obtains ownership of property by means that are in harmony with the laws of God, that property so obtained is his own. He has personal rights in that property.

The person has within himself the sole right to use his property as he sees fit so long as he does not harm others by his use. No one else has rights of control over his property.

The right to dispose of property is also an inherent natural right.

Equality of natural rights, possessed by all people, simply means that one person has just as much right to his own life as the other person has to his. Each person has an equal right to his own property.

The right to own property does not mean that all people are entitled to the same amount of property. Ownership, as a right, has nothing to do with the quantity of property owned.

The laws of acquisition of property are very different from the right to own property. One may acquire property by the means of gift, discovery, manufacture, or trade, but never by theft or plunder. The Lord said, “Thou shalt not steal anything that is thy neighbors”

PROPERTY RIGHTS

You often hear socialists say, “Human rights are more important than property rights”

Property has no rights. If a person owns property, he has the right to control and use that property. The term “property rights” is simply bad semantics. Its true meaning is better stated in the words, human rights in property.

THE PROPER FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT

The proper function of government in the United States of America is to give equal protection to all citizens from trespass or molestation by those who won’t control themselves, whether domestic or foreign.

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of our land. It is an organized statement of the basic principles of law and conducts that structure and provides for every facet of our civic life.

The Constitution recognizes that rights of the individual are inherent, inviolable and personal. These inalienable rights, by their very nature, cannot be exercised by anyone else in behalf of the individual. They must be exercised personally by the individual citizen. No one can live your life, eat your food for you, or do your loving for you. The Constitution, and the government that it authorized, is the result of the joint efforts of the individual citizens of the country. The only power it has is the personal power of the individuals who comprise the nation. The Constitution states the rules of the game of civic life. The game must be played out in all its aspects by the conduct of the citizens themselves. If they restrain themselves and confine themselves to obeying ethical rules of conduct, the body politic functions with great harmony and justice. If the citizens are out-laws, or anarchists, the legal skeleton that is government is no more than an idle concept, having no life, no function, and no purpose.

THE ROLE OF THE CITIZEN

The function of the citizens who people the states formed by our Constitutions is to protect their inherent, inalienable rights to life, liberty and property. We have not only the God-given right, but the God-given duty and obligation to protect these rights and to insure conditions of government that will pass them on to our children.

We have personally the right to use any weapons necessary to protect ourselves and our liberties.

However, it would be rather ludicrous to have a military tank parked in the driveway or to walk down the street carrying a bazooka, a machine-gun or a hand grenade. It is both inconvenient and undesirable for most citizens to wear a Colt on the hip or carry a Derringer in a hand-bag.

Rather than to subject ourselves individually to these inconveniences, we have set up a structure of government and authorized our representatives therein to take organized and concerted action to defend us from those who refuse to be peaceful.

POLICE POWER

All citizens collectively form our Posse Comitatus. They are the power of our nation. Each individual possesses naturally, along with his inalienable rights, the inescapable obligation and duty of coming to the aid of other individuals and of the whole country in times of danger from out-law forces.

The Common-Law of Old England, out of which our nation evolved, provides for this Posse Comitatus. It is to be on call at all times through the County Sheriff. He has the authority to call up and to deputize any citizen, or all citizens, of the county at any time when they are needed to protect the county. If the sheriff is corrupt, the citizens retain the authority to remove him from office and form a new posse under a new sheriff.

In addition to the Posse Comitatus, as our nation evolved, the people created other police forces that are on regular duty and assignment to protect the citizenry. Some of the notions of law that control these other forces have been adopted from Civil Law countries that are built on the Roman Law concept of the force of the community. Both of these concepts, the common Law and the Civil Law, contain concepts of law that were first given by God to old Israel and later known as Hebrew and Jewish Law.

Our city police, state police, federal marshals, FBI, and a host of other offices of various classes, all derive their authority from both the common law and the from the civil law concept of the police power of the state. The state militia concept, which is akin to and an adaptation from the Posse Comitatus has come to be a state directed voluntary “army” power that is under the direction of the governor of the state unless taken over by the federal army powers. The regular army, under direction of the President has the primary function of protecting the whole country from foreign foes.

Out of the notion of police power of all units of government has come other extension of regulatory activity by other agents of government.

Zoning ordinances set up by cities, counties, and more recently, by state law have come into fashion as a means of controlling the personal activities of individual property owners on their own property. All of these “community control” projects are developments or abuses, of the so-called POLICE POWER OF THE STATE. It is on this “base of authority” that the Supreme Court has relied to justify holding zoning ordinances per se to be Constitutional. All zoning activity falls back on “police power” for its alleged authority.

During the last few years there has been a nationwide movement having great force and power because of the number of its adherents who are clamoring for more and more “police power” to be exercised by the federal government over the states and counties in the name of “ecology” and “progress.”

Federal Land Use Acts are being proposed in Congress. Threats, bribery, and propaganda, from Federal Revenue Sharing advocates are moving to compel legislatures to approve federal control of all land, both public and private, through state Land Use Acts. These activities all bear the same imprints and call for more and more governmental domination over private property rights of the individual owners.

Total government control of all property is the final aim of socialism and communism.

The first principle of communistic control over the people is expressed in the Communist Manifesto in these words “The abolition of property in land and the application of all rents (income) from land to public purposes.”

THE DANGERS OF UNLIMITED POLICE POWER

All men are subjective. They think their own thoughts and no others. They respond only to their own feelings. They know their own desires and they can only guess at the desires or rights of others. Each person is most apt to do what seems to him, from his own point of view, to be the most profitable thing for him to do. This is an aspect of so-called human nature that cannot be safely ignored.

Lord Action once said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

All policemen, all zoning commissioners, all agents of government, bureaucrats all, are human beings and subject to human foibles.

Nothing in all history has been proven true, or more dangerous, than to allow men, any men, to have absolute power over other men.

Equally valid, is the truism that subjective men who become rulers are almost certain to turn into do-gooders who believe sincerely that their own notions of the common good are the best possible notions and the only ones that should be obeyed.

In this principle you have the most important fact ever learned about the dangers of run-a-way government.

The danger of allowing anyone to exercise unlimited police power, the power of coercion, over the citizenry cannot possibly be overstated.

The greatest need for men, all men, today is to obey the laws and ordinance of the God of Heaven. Next after that, there is nothing before Americans today that is half so important as to rise up in national indignation and reestablish the original Constitutional restrictions upon government power.

Government is necessary for the happiness of man. Unlimited government will guarantee the enslavement of man. Take your choice – and the choice is simple:

Maximum freedom under limited government, or slavery by means of total government. There is no “middle of the road”.

Each individual must make his own choice. Believe it or not, your personal choice does make a vast difference as to how free your country will be at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

LICENSE TO STEAL

Congress has become a nesting place for thieves and the predators are the nicest people in town.

A new kind of lobbyist has been hatched in our time and the vultures are devouring the carcass. They have a voracious appetite and they take great pride in their ability to eat your bread.

The old-style lobbyist represented narrow-interest groups. The new breed gathers at the trough to represent broad groups interested in, for example, health, education, cities, the environment, or consumer protection.

These forces have a major impact on the budget. Among the most skillful of the new lobbyists is Charles Lee, who operates the Committee for Full Funding of Education Programs. Lee has become a legend on Capitol Hill for his ability to marshall vast forces of power behind the campaign to get more, and more, and more for his employers.

Lee’s strategy is simple: “Whoever makes the greatest impact on Congress gets the most money.” He says, “We all have a license to steal as much as we can from the Treasury. Who ever makes the greatest impact on the appropriation process gets the most money. But you need a way of coming through the noises of other pleaders.”

“That noise must be made by the people back home. We get the “best” people back home to get on the phone to their Congressman and cry the loudest. Under such pressure, “even champion conservatives will work their tail off for you. [The lobbyist and his friends]” (Fortune Magazine, February 1973, p 106)