What the Founding Fathers knew...and why our Constitution is different

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?--Patrick Henry The American Right to Revolt Against Tyranny: Part C—Founders & John Locke

By Kelly OConnell  Sunday, August 18, 2013 The Founding Fathers were in favor of the right to revolt against tyranny. This is obvious despite widespread current attempts by progressives to suggest armed revolt and the 2nd Amendment would be opposed by the Founders today. But how logical would be the notion that Americans could own guns, but not use them to defend themselves? Or that Americans could arm to defend their lives and liberties, but only against invaders—not against tyrants? Of course, such a position is transparent nonsense. In fact, the American Revolution itself is the most eloquent testimony illustrating the right to bear arms against government subjugation imaginable. Consider the definition of Tyranny in Locke’s Second Treatise on Government: BOOK II, CHAPTER 18: Of Tyranny §  199. As usurpation is the exercise of power which another hath a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to; and this is making use of the power any one has in his hands, not for the good of those who are under it, but for his own private, separate advantage. When the governor, however entitled, makes not the law, but his will, the rule, and his commands and actions are not directed to the preservation of the properties of his people, but the satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge, covetousness, or any other irregular passion. The Founders certainly brooked no defense of tyranny. Obviously, they were brave enough to stand up to England and principled enough to create a democratic constitutional republic where there had been a kingdom. But have we in America lost our ability to oppose demagogues, bullies and tyrants? I. John Locke: Philosopher of Liberty John Locke is perhaps the most influential mind of the modern age, and his ideas formed much of the content of the Declaration and Constitution. The Online Library of Liberty gives this short bio: John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher who is considered to be one of the first philosophers of the Enlightenment and the father of classical liberalism. In his major work Two Treatises of Government Locke rejects the idea of the divine right of kings, supports the idea of natural rights (especially of property), and argues for a limited constitutional government which would protect individual rights. Locke’s attitude on the right to resist tyranny is sophisticated and nuanced. According to Julian H. Franklin in John Locke and the Theory of Sovereignty, Locke did not consider all acts of tyranny to be worthy of resistance. Individual acts could be treated as such. But if a government or leader began to undermine the people, the people must resist. Franklin writes, For Locke, however, a distinction must be drawn between isolated acts of tyranny—or occasional abuses of executive authority that do not disrupt the law in general—and a calculated design to subvert law and public liberty as such. In the first case the use of force against a king is either deflected by law, or else is effectively debarred in practice. Where recourse to appeal is still available the use of force is always premature… Locke, nevertheless is consistent on the central point. Revolution is appropriate where a people is confronted with a calculated design to subvert its constitution and reduce it to a state of servitude. The king, by repudiating the law in general, now forfeits not only the immunity that law confers but all the authority derived from it. The consequence is entire dissolution of the government and a state of war between the king and the community. Locke describes in section XIII of the Treatise when a ruler could be removed—when he stops representing the people, and therefore loses all his authority. Sec. 151….But when he quits this representation, this public will, and acts by his own private will, he degrades himself, and is but a single private person without power, and without will, that has any right to obedience; the members owing no obedience but to the public will of the society. II. Declaration: Why the Founders Chose War When John Adams and his friend Thomas Jefferson were old, and reminiscing upon the causes of the Revolution, Adams stated that it began in 1760, the year George became king of England, according to Dumas Malone in The Story of the Declaration of Independence. Yet the problem appears to have been more deeply rooted, and merely exposed by George. In fact, Colonists had an interesting mixture of factors which predisposed these hardy folks to revolution. They had the knowledge of the rights, privileges and immunities of a freeborn Englishman. It was an unprecedented amount of self-government and freedom so far from the crown. So when King George began to act like a tyrant, the settlers noticed immediately. To boil down the problem, England wanted more revenue from the colonies. And they used a heavy hand to extract the extra income. This exacerbated the fears of the colonists who resented the intrusion of a domineering overseas government. They also worried about their economic vitality, which seemed to be shrinking everyday. Preeminent American Revolution history Bernard Bailyn studied pamphlets of the times which revealed this view: The most important idea was a strain of anti-authoritarian, Whig opposition political thought originally stemming from the English Civil War and resulting Commonwealth in the 1640s-1650s. Some dominant themes of this ideology included the corruption of politics that led to a conspiracy against the balance of government. This ideological grounding centered on the fundamental broader struggle between Power vs. Liberty, which were in a constant state of opposition throughout history. Later American colonists increasingly saw their own struggles with England as fitting within this grander historical narrative and that they were the last, best bastions of hope for defending a uniquely English tradition of liberty. III. Founding Fathers on Resisting Tyranny: Verified Quotes The following are quotes which richly illustrate the Founding Fathers knowledge and respect for the idea of the right to revolt against tyranny. A. George Washington (from Freemencapitalists) “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.” “It is a wonder to me there should be found a single monarch who does not realize that his own glory and felicity must depend on the prosperity and happiness of his people. How easy is it for a sovereign to do that which shall not only immortalize his name, but attract the blessings of millions.” (To the Marquis de Lafayette, Fitzpatrick 29: 524; 1788) B. Thomas Jefferson (from monticello.org) 1774 July. (A Summary View of the Rights of British America) “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” 1775 June 26-July 6. (Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms) “Our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty.” 1776 July 4. (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.” 1787 Nov. 13. (to W. S. Smith) “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.” 1789 Mar. 24. (to Joseph Willard) “We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring [young men] the precious blessing of liberty. Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free.” 1791 Dec. 23. (to Archibald Stuart) “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” 1811 Mar. 28. (to William Duane) “The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought, for so dear a state to sacrifice every attachment and every enmity.” 1820 Dec. 26. (to Marquis de Lafayette) “The disease of liberty is catching; those armies will take it in the south, carry it thence to their own country, spread there the infection of revolution and representative government, and raise its people from the prone condition of brutes to the erect altitude of man.” 1820 Oct. 20. (to Richard Rush) “The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.” 1826 Jun. 24. (to Roger Weightman) “The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” C. James Madison (from Constitution.org) A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country. All men having power ought to be mistrusted. As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty. Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. Such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty. The Constitution of the United States was created by the people of the United States composing the respective states, who alone had the right. The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad. The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. The proposed Constitution is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both. We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties. What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? D. Patrick Henry patrickhenrycenter From the May 29, 1765 Caesar-Brutus Speech “Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third‚Äî” [Cries of “Treason! Treason!”] “George the Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.” From the March 23, 1775 Liberty or Death Speech “It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!” “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” From the June, 1788 Virginia Convention on the Ratification of the Constitution, including the Shall Liberty or Empire be Sought? Speech “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” “The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.” From Henry’s Final Speech, March 4, 1799 “United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” Conclusion Americans have a long-established right to resist tyranny. Our country was formed from a similar struggle. But are there enough educated, brave and principled Americans who can agree with President Jefferson when he states—Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God?