Remembering What the Declaration of Independence is Not

When we celebrate the Fourth of July, we are celebrating one of the most important political documents in the history of the world. The Declaration is a statement to the world -- the people of the world was the audience -- about the very nature of government and its relationship to men. Sometimes we appreciate what this document was, but perhaps we need even more to appreciate what it was not.

It was not a poll-driven summation of current opinion. The men who gathered in Philadelphia did respect each other's talents and knowledge, but the document they signed was not not driven by the latest Gallup or Zogby poll results. What was right and true was not dependent upon popular opinion.

The signers did not even seek a vote of the people. No referendum was necessary for the Declaration of Independence and it might well have failed in some of the colonies. The "will of the people," so precious to demagogues, did not determine what was right and true. The people can fall for Hitler, adore Obama, and be enchanted by silly or wicked men. The purpose of government, as the Declaration clearly states, is to secure liberty and not to implement that dubious, inconstant sentiment "the will of the people."

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence represented the absolute opposite of "interest group politics" so slavishly worshipped in political science departments. They pledged their lives, their wealth, their liberty, and their honor -- everything -- on a toss of the dice. Often, even if the revolution won, these men personally lost. The game was not about them, their economic interest, or their political ambition. They won if America became a new order of liberty in the world. Interest politics would have led them all to make peace with the Crown. Moral principles led them to what Churchill would later call "blood, toil, sweat, and tears."

The brave men in Philadelphia were engaging in unconstitutional action. Britain had a constitution, albeit a largely unwritten one, and Jefferson knew that he was defying our equivalent of the Supreme Court. He and his colleagues defied the moral power of a system which no longer treasured liberty above advantage or caprice. Rulers making decisions which did not really affect them, living thousands of miles from their subjects, lacked the moral authority to wield law.

Moral authority was the heart of the Declaration as well. It lacked a separation of church and state and instead there was a unity of God and government. All men were created equal by God. That is the foundational point of the Declaration from which all else flows like the spring of liberty. If all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, politics is clear and simple. If that is true, then -- of course! -- protecting these inalienable rights is the only reason that governments are instituted among men. These were truths which, in the magical pen of Jefferson, the brave authors and signers held to be "self-evident." There is a Creator. He made us. He made us, specifically, free in body and in conscience. We are not sheep or some sort of oddly self-domesticated animals. We are creatures in the image of a Creator, unique in reality, and given the power to choose.

The men who wrote and signed the Declaration are all dead, long, long, dead -- they never expected otherwise. If we met their ghosts today, they would not ask about our technological marvels or our global economy or our medical breakthroughs or space travel. If we told them about our partisan debates or the new King in Washington, they might cringe like a father over an addled child.

But when speaking of what they wrote in 1776 -- signing their own death warrants, in some respects -- they might ask us this: "We did not mean to confuse you. That is why the words we chose were so clear. You are free creatures of God. Government is your creature, your chattel, your tool -- nothing more. We studied history long before we wrote our brief statement of liberty. You own government or rather the spirit of free men owns government. You fret about ‘stuff.' Why? We are all dead now, as we knew we would be. But we chose to die free, following our consciences - that is the only real choice in life. What confused you?" The principle of liberty is easy. All it requires is courage and honor.

Source: American Thinker

PUTTING ILLEGAL ALIENS AHEAD OF RETURNING VETERANS

Happy Independence Day.

Would the signers of the Declaration of Independence have thought it principled for the majority of U.S. politicians today to refuse to give even returning U.S. military veterans preference over illegal aliens for jobs?

Hardly.

IMAGINE GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE

You see, strangely enough, our Founders believed in something called a national community. (They CREATED the national community!) Government was to be BY and OF the members of that national community. But it also was to be FOR the members. EVERYTHING about our current immigration policies ignores any special treatment or consideration for the members of our own community.

These immigration policies serve the interests of the few against the many -- they serve the powerful and rich against the weak and poor.

PUTTING ILLEGAL ALIENS AHEAD OF RETURNING VETERANS

The high-immigration lobbies and their allies in Congress, in the White House and in most state legislatures have taken an extremely ANTI-4TH-OF-JULY approach to our current jobs depression. Official unemployment has now hit 9.5%. But all parts of the federal government and all but a few states have refused to require E-Verify to keep a dwindling number of U.S. jobs available for our fellow citizens.

Thus, I read today about the very sad lot of so many returning National Guardsmen who are returning to an economy that has no job for them. Yet, more than 8 million illegal aliens currently hold U.S. jobs. Wouldn't it make sense to require all employers to use E-Verify to open up those jobs for our returning military -- and so many others of our fellow citizens trying to survive economically?

Only 12 state legislatures have required E-Verify at least to some extent to protect jobs for veterans and other Americans. In 38 states, though, the illegal aliens with jobs have priority.

CORE PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE DECLARATION MAKE THIS OUR HOLIDAY

Perhaps no holiday is more fitted to those of us in the immigration-reduction movement than the 4th of July. For what was the signing of the Declaration of Independence about if not the defining of a new national community and the insistence that the government exists primarily to protect and provide for the quality of life of the members of that community?

There is a tendency to celebrate the individual liberty made possible by our form of government without recognizing the role of community which implies rights and responsibilities toward each other.

Government was said to exist based on the consent of the governed. The inalienable right of individuals to choose their own government was based on theories of natural rights, especially as propounded by the British philospher John Locke.

Our Founders had long believed in natural rights. But in the Declaration of Independence, they had reached a consensus that natural rights were inextricably tied to nationhood. We were a separate people from all other peoples. Unless individuals were part of a national community, there was seen to be little chance that they could achieve their natural rights. For all kinds of geographic, economic and cultural reasons, it was no longer practicable for the colonists to be a true part of the British national community. We had to have our own community if we were to have our individual rights.

Historian Ralph Ketcham concluded that the principles of the Founders were that:

. . . the legitimate powers of government were derived from the people, that government existed to promote the happiness and safety of the people . . .

Happiness.

What kind of happiness do our 15 million unemployed Americans derive from government policies that continue to import some 138,000 foreign workers a month (not counting illegal aliens)?

HIGH-IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES NOT SO SURE ABOUT NATIONAL COMMUNITY

But I have come to see that many high-immigration advocates do not really believe in the national community that the Signers of 1776 created.

We at NumbersUSA earnestly do believe in it. We would never put illegal aliens ahead of returning veterans, for example. We see radical immigration numbers and slovenly enforcement of immigration laws as a grave threat to the members of our national community.

We disagree with the majority of politicians, with the President, with the former President, and with most newspaper editorial boards that huge numbers of citizens of OTHER national communities have just as much right to the jobs, the infrastructure and the land in the United States as do those who are citizens of THIS national community.

Don't interpret me too narrowly. I believe -- as did the Signers of 1776 and John Locke -- in the national communities of peoples across the world. It is in their own national communities that they have the possibilities of fulfillment of their natural rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is in their ability to define the membership of their community and to maintain governments of, by and for those communities that any real improvements in quality of life are possible around the world. That is the global spirit of July 4, 1776.

Open borders and second-class status for members of our own community is not the Spirit of 1776.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA

Source: NumbersUSA

Declare YOUR Independence

"It [the Declaration of Independence] is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and independence forever." - Daniel Webster, in an August 2, 1826 eulogy to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams; both had died on July 4th.

Subject: Does the government have your consent on this July 4th?

Every Election Day tens of millions of Americans consent to be governed, at least in theory. The politicians constantly point back to the election as justification for the things they do. But is this really valid? What about all the people who now feel betrayed by the office-holder? What about all the people who...

* voted for the lesser evil or
* voted for candidates that lost or
* would have voted for "none of the above" if the option had been available or
* didn't vote at all because they didn't want to endorse or encourage any of the candidates?

Do elections really confer consent? We don't think so.

What does confer consent? Silence.

If we don't inform our elected representatives that we object to their policies, then we shouldn't be surprised if they assume their election to high office implies consent to their actions.

Those who mostly favor what our government is doing can celebrate July 4th content in the knowledge that they're getting what they want. But what about the rest of us?

A case can be made that the transgressions of our government today are vastly greater than those against which the Founders rebelled on July 4, 1776. If we applaud what they did then, we should be willing to emulate at least to a certain, peaceful extent.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence...

"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."

Jefferson and the other Founders withdrew their consent and listed their reasons for doing so. Shouldn't we do the same on this July 4th, and on every July 4th for as long as our government violates our inalienable rights?

You can peacefully state your discontent using a special, temporary campaign on DownsizeDC.org's Educate the Powerful System. That campaign is titled, "Does the government have your consent on this July 4th?"

Please use your personal comments to tell your Representatives in Congress that you don't approve of the job they're doing. Let them know that you're tired of them expanding the government's size, power, and expense far, far beyond what the Constitution provides.

Then, please encourage others to join you in making their Declaration. We'll be pulling this campaign down in a few days, and getting back to the grind of fighting legislation.

And if you're moved by this campaign, please Digg it on our blog.

If you've never used Digg before, registration is easy and free. Each Digg helps spread the word about DownsizeDC.org. That means a bigger army. And a bigger army means YOUR voice is better heard. You can join Digg here.

Thank you for being a part of the rapidly growing Downsize DC Army,

Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S. It took just 59 days to grow our subscriber base, our army, from 25,000 to 26,000. Can we expand by the next 1,000 subscribers in 58 days or less? Well, we're already 17% of the way there with 26,177 subscribers, and it's only been three days.

John Adams said that July 4th, 1776 "...will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore."

We heartily agree with Adams, and wish you an enjoyable holiday. But the battle for liberty and smaller, Constitutional government remains un-won. So please use opportunities that may arise with family and friends, to tell them about DownsizeDC.org. I'm going to be doing that at two Tea Parties.

Source: DownsizeDC.Org

"Legislate whatever you want; I will not obey...."

As you probably are aware, this Saturday is July 4th, Independence Day. As you may also know, on the afternoon of this July 4th, I'll be one of four speakers at Independence Mall, in downtown Philadelphia, at the "Tea Party" event there. My topic will be "You're Not the Boss of Me!" and this article is a sort of introduction to that rant.

The Declaration of Independence basically amounted to a bunch of guys telling their king, "You're not the boss of us anymore." The Declaration was an act of treason, written by a bunch of tax cheats and lawbreakers. It wasn't merely some people whining or petitioning the government to do something different. In fact, the Declaration describes how they had already tried that, and it hadn't worked. So they resorted to open disobedience. And it wasn't just one protest or demonstration, to make a point or try to convince their masters to change; it was a declaration that they were completely and permanently denying the right of the standing regime to rule them at all, ever again. And that's a pretty darn radical thing to do.

For all the parades, fireworks, picnics, and other events which will happen on July 4th to celebrate "Independence Day," how many Americans today do you think are capable of even contemplating the possibility of engaging in "illegal" resistance against "authority"? Not many.

What would the equivalent of the Declaration of Independence look like today? Well, we would have a lot more to complain about than the colonists did, with far higher taxes, far more intrusive regulation, and a much higher level of oppression all around. But what would the conclusion be? It wouldn't be, "So you better change those laws!" It would be more like this:

"Dear Federal Government, you're fired! We're not paying your taxes anymore, not obeying your laws ever again, and from now on we will resist your thugs when you try to enforce your will on us."

How many Americans would dare to even think such a thing, much less say it out loud, or write it down and send it to the feds? Very few, indeed. The truth is, the spirit of resistance is all but dead in this country. Even among those in the pro-freedom movement, the vast majority of efforts revolve around begging the masters to be nice, petitioning for or against this or that legislation, arguing over which politician should run our lives and take our money.

"Write your congressman and tell him to oppose ... "
"Promise to vote against any candidate who doesn't support ... "
"Sign this petition, to push legislation which will ... "

I have a better idea. How about if a few million of us send one message--and only one message--to those pretending to be our "representatives," those who claim to have the right to rule us. That message should be this: "Legislate whatever you want; I will not obey. And when you send your thugs to punish me, I will resist." That is the message of the Declaration of Independence. But on this July 4th, how many Americans do you think would even dare to think such a thing--even quietly and to themselves?

What this country needs is not a change in legislation, or a change of parties or candidates. It doesn't need another election, or another protest or demonstration, or another group lobbying the government for this or that. What it needs is a people with a fundamentally different mindset. What it needs is a population capable of saying, "You're not the boss of us!" But nothing the people ever hear from the mainstream media, or from those in government, or from the talking heads and political pundits, will ever endorse such an attitude. On the contrary, the only message you'll ever hear in the papers, on the radio or on the TV, from academia or from the government, will boil down to this: "You can whine and complain about what the government is doing to you, and you can beg your masters to change, but you must never disobey!"

As long as obedience to authority is taught as the highest principle--and it absolutely is almost everywhere in the country--this will be a nation of pathetic slaves perpetually yet fruitlessly whining at their sadistic, power-happy masters. Maybe this country should be something better than that.

If you're one of the few who would like to hear a drastically different message--one that is not premised on the assumption that we all have an obligation to bow to those who claim to be our masters--then be at Fifth and Market in downtown Philadelphia on the afternoon of July 4th. (The talks start at 3:00, and my rant might be first, so make sure you're there before that.) And while you're at it, bring along some obedient, unthinking flag-wavers, to see if they can handle some real advocacy of freedom. Let's see how they respond when their indoctrination as obedient subjects collides with the concept of true liberty.

Or, if you can't make it to Philly on the Fourth (or even if you can), order a few copies of "The Iron Web," and start "corrupting" the people you know by exposing them to the radical idea that they own themselves, and that they don't need the permission of tyrants in order to be free. Yes, understanding freedom requires a dramatic shift in mindset from the statist conformism that now plagues this country. On the other hand, it's getting downright embarrassing watching all the robbed, regulated and restricted American slaves wildly cheering about how free they are.

Source: Freedom's Phoenix