Posted on 08/15/2016 8:20:22 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
Is it wiser to be alive and a coward, or risk our lives to defend the truth of liberty?
THE FIRST AMENDMENT ENUMERATES the right of the people peaceably to assemble. Originally, the text combined assembly with the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. During the session of the House of Representatives on August 15, 1789 during which the representatives present discussed the proposed amendment, Mr. Sedgwick of Massachusetts questioned the connection, arguing the right to assemble must be preserved regardless of the reason for assembly.
The congressional record reads: “The right is of so trivial a nature. He supposes it no more essential than whether a man has a right to wear his hat or not; but let me observe to him that such rights have been opposed, and a man has been obliged to pull off his hat when he appeared before the face of authority; people have also been prevented from assembling together on their lawful occasions, therefore it is well to guard against such stretches of authority, by inserting the privilege in the declaration of rights. If the people could be deprived of the power of assembling under any pretext whatsoever, they might be deprived of every other privilege contained in the clause.”
Basic natural rights such as freedom are God-given principles. The numerous applications and implementations of freedom such as freedom of association are validated by a process of reduction to basic natural rights.
“The liberal left not only wants to eliminate free association, they want to force unwanted association.”
And that about sums it up.
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