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THOSE UNALIENABLE RIGHTS
Fiedor Report On the News #303 ^
| 2-23-03
| Doug Fiedor
Posted on 02/22/2003 10:39:59 AM PST by forest
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"The Bible" and "Blackstone's Commentaries on The Law" were best sellers in Colonial times. In the Declaration of Independence Jefferson borrowed from "Absolute Rights of Individuals" which Blackstone describes as being our right to life, liberty and property. Jefferson took the editorial liberty of changing "property" to "pursuit of happiness," knowing full well that all Colonial Americans would understand exactly what was meant.
We Americans have lost the concept of true freedom because we no longer know exactly what our rights are.
The protection of Life, Liberty and Property -- our natural, absolute and unalienable rights -- became the underlying reason our country was formed. But we must constantly defend them.
The central government was designed to be minimal.
1
posted on
02/22/2003 10:40:01 AM PST
by
forest
To: forest
Our Founding Fathers called these absolute rights "unalienable" -- incapable of being given up, taken away, or transferred to another. That is very important. Many people flat out refuse to understand this. They want to believe that these rights can be given up, taken way or transferred to another by a majority vote, or because some law making body says so. And some want to use the "States Rights" argument to support their claim. Unfortunately, this principle applies to all levels of government.
2
posted on
02/22/2003 10:46:35 AM PST
by
FreeTally
To: forest
Jefferson didn't change "property" to "pursuit of happiness", Ben Franklin did.
To: FreeTally
And some want to use the "States Rights" argument to support their claim.Yes. Unfortunately this was the instrument to enslave blacks and later protect "Jim Crow" laws. Too bad. "States Rights" could have been an excellent tool to keep the Federal Gov't. in check.
4
posted on
02/22/2003 11:05:37 AM PST
by
elbucko
To: forest
And then came the War On Terror........in perpetuity
5
posted on
02/22/2003 11:15:23 AM PST
by
joesnuffy
To: forest; 4ConservativeJustices; billbears
the protection of Life, Liberty and Property -- our natural, absolute and unalienable rights -- became the underlying reason our country was formedThose ARE our GOD-given rights, given to this nation to free the world. America has a reason it exists.
6
posted on
02/22/2003 11:51:46 AM PST
by
Ff--150
(My God shall supply all your need)
To: elbucko
As far as I understand it, there has never been any such thing as "state's rights".
Only people have rights and states (or States) have powers. Take a read of the Constitution and you will not see a mention of rights held by government, only powers.
7
posted on
02/22/2003 12:05:45 PM PST
by
Abcdefg
To: freedomcrusader
Jefferson didn't change "property" to "pursuit of happiness", Ben Franklin did.You beat me to it. Jefferson was so incensed by the changes the committees implemented, that when he wrote copies of the final version of the DoI, he wrote his original draft, with all the additions/corrections included.
8
posted on
02/22/2003 12:10:39 PM PST
by
4CJ
(Be nice to liberals, medicate them to the point of unconsciousness.)
To: Ff--150
Those ARE our GOD-given rights, given to this nation to free the world. America has a reason it exists.Of course! And those rights are protected by the Constitution, or they were, until the courts upheld the right of illegtimate confiscation (my county earns a staggering sum from "seizures"). And I question how free we can be, with a US code that would take a lifetime to read and understand.
9
posted on
02/22/2003 12:21:04 PM PST
by
4CJ
(Be nice to liberals, medicate them to the point of unconsciousness.)
To: joesnuffy
And then came the War On Terror........in perpetuity So how would you handle the threat of terrorism? Inquiring minds want to know.
To: Abcdefg
As far as I understand it, there has never been any such thing as "state's rights". Only people have rights and states (or States) have powers. Take a read of the Constitution and you will not see a mention of rights held by government, only powers. Webster's current definition of the word "right" includes "something that is due anybody by legal claim". So by definition, all rights are not unalienable. Also, all unalienable rights are not due by legal claim.
Anyway, using current defintions, the term "states rights" is correct.
To: All
"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."Of course, the Declaration of Independence does say this. But one must ask are men truly created equal? And if they are only equal before God and the Law but not as too innate heritable ability then does this not imply the Declaration has made a simple, empirical falsehood in claiming equality?
Of course they had Bibles. But God has been worshipped for thousands of years without anyone finding a political system that guaranteed unalienable political rights. The Bible, I remind you, does not mention Lockian social contracts or democracy. Indeed, I am looking forward to the Kindom of God.
America is a nation. The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is not law. The Constitution of the United States is law. Office holders, including military officers, swear an allegiance to the Constitution not the ideals of the Declaration.
IMHO, America is only half ideologically driven. The other half is a people with a history before the Declaration and a history until such time as God decides. The type of our government evolved out of our experience and the experience of generations past (including Great Britain)and is only a part of our endowment that includes religious, ethical, historical and unrecorded experiences as a people.
In a word, I don't think we are an ideology but a nation; hence, it does not surprise me that other nations have great difficulty accepting both or values and political system.
To: forest
Back in the days of the Founding Fathers, every family was said to have two well studied books in their library. The most important best seller around 1775, of course, was "The Bible." The second best seller in the Colonies was "Blackstone's Commentaries on The Law," then a new three volume set on English common law. That kind of explains it all.
To: shrinkermd
Of course, the Declaration of Independence does say this. But one must ask are men truly created equal? And if they are only equal before God and the Law but not as too innate heritable ability then does this not imply the Declaration has made a simple, empirical falsehood in claiming equality? The context of "all men are created equal" in the Declaration was unalienable rights. Heritable ability is not an unalienable right.
To: Roscoe; yall
LIFE -- The Right of Personal Security: "This right consists of a person's legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health and his reputation." Herein can also be found your right of self defense.
LIBERTY -- The Right of Personal Liberty: "This consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, of moving one's person to whatever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by course of law." We find this right protected, to a limited extent, within the body of our Constitution, and further guaranteed within the Bill of Rights.
PROPERTY -- The Right of Private Property: "This is the third absolute right, and consists in the free use, enjoyment and disposal by a man of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution, save only by the laws of the land."
------- "Bureaucrats are not about to relinquish their control over us without a lot of kicking and screaming."
__________________________________
Lets ask FR's head bureaucratic expert, roscoe, -- how long he thinks it may take before sanity is restored..
Roscoe? -- Do you think there is any chance your peers will ~ever~ come to their senses?
15
posted on
02/22/2003 5:33:28 PM PST
by
tpaine
To: Abcdefg
Only people have rights and states (or States) have powers.Really?
"Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government. They receive it with their being from the hand of nature. Individuals exercise it by their single will; collections of men by that of their majority; for the law of the majority is the natural law of every society of men." --Thomas Jefferson "That every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes, by force of the term, a right to employ all the means requisite and fairly applicable to the attainment of the ends of such power, and which are not precluded by restrictions and exceptions specified in the Constitution, or not immoral, or not contrary to the essential ends of political society." -- Alexander Hamilton
"But the constitution of the United States has not left the right of Congress to employ the necessary means, for the execution of the powers conferred on the government, to general reasoning. To its enumeration of powers is added that of making 'all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution, in the government of the United States, or in any department thereof.' " -- United States Supreme Court, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
I guess someone forgot to tell the Founding Fathers.
16
posted on
02/22/2003 5:48:51 PM PST
by
Roscoe
To: 4ConservativeJustices
"And I question how free we can be, with a US code that would take a lifetime to read and understand."
In short, we can never be free with such a code because even if you could read it you could never in ten lifetimes understand it. A complete search and cross reference would probably reveal that certain laws cannot be obeyed without violating other laws, such a code makes a mockery of the word freedom. As I have said before it is only the sheer impossibility of fully enforcing the laws that allows the illusion of freedom to persist.
Our rights to "life, liberty and property" are mentioned twice in the constitution, in both instances followed by the modifying line, -- "without due process of law."
The first reference, in the 5th amendment, is in straight-foward regard to rights under criminal law. - The 14ths however, must be read with an understanding of its purpose at the time of its ratification.
Southern states were violating ALL of the BOR's in the treatment of former slaves.
- Thus the clause:
--" nor shall any state deprive any person of,
LIFE [-- The Right of Personal Security: "This right consists of a person's legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health and his reputation." Herein can also be found your right of self defense.]
LIBERTY [-- The Right of Personal Liberty: "This consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, of moving one's person to whatever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by course of law." We find this right protected, to a limited extent, within the body of our Constitution, and further guaranteed within the Bill of Rights.]
or PROPERTY [-- The Right of Private Property: "This is the third absolute right, and consists in the free use, enjoyment and disposal by a man of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution, save only by the laws of the land."],
without due process of [constitutional] law.
18
posted on
02/22/2003 6:40:59 PM PST
by
tpaine
To: Roscoe
"Only people have rights and states (or States) have powers."
Really?
I guess someone forgot to tell the Founding Fathers.
-roscoe-
Yea, 'really' roscoe.
- "Majority rules" only works for law that first complies with our basic constitutional rights.
As luck would have it, there weren't any of your bureaucratic peers around to otherwise corrupt the founders.
19
posted on
02/22/2003 6:53:26 PM PST
by
tpaine
To: tpaine
20
posted on
02/22/2003 6:57:14 PM PST
by
Roscoe
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