Free Republic

Sovereignty: Use it or lose it. Sovereignty unattended is sovereignty lost, and We the People have precious little of it left. I challenge anyone to argue that our sovereignty isn’t slipping away. Oh, it is ultimately still ours, and we can always reclaim it through revolution, but the outcome of revolution is far dicier than the minimal risk of holding an Article V COS. What is certain is government officials and institutions are exercising sovereign powers never granted. Through quiet acceptance of rogue federal court decisions and the regulatory and administrative states, We the People silently abandon that which is...

History abounds with good things to emulate and horrid things to avoid. The first thing to emulate in free government is to assume everyone in it is a rogue, a knave, and is willing to ruin the nation for personal gain. To ignore high criminals in government is to invite national ruin.Like constitutional patriots today frustrated with the lack of accountability of Deep State operatives from Obama on down through the DOJ and FBI for high crimes and felonies against the sovereign people, so too did Algernon Sidney (1622-1683) admonish a system in which the king’s magistrates often abused the...

“Civil war,” wrote Algernon Sidney, “is a disease, but tyranny is the death of the state.” The aftermath of war extends beyond physical destruction. Not just PTSD in individuals, but rarely does war leave the combatant societies unaffected. The victors of our 1861-1865 conflict imposed their will on an upended South, and subsequently opened their arms and welcomed back the vanquished on condition that they incorporate the 14th Amendment into their state constitutions. Big changes. But, upon curing the disease, the division over slavery, the US grew to new heights in prosperity. During the war, and less well-known, government for...

History is replete with good things to emulate and horrid things to avoid. The first thing to emulate in free government is to assume everyone in it is a rogue, a knave, and is willing to ruin the nation for personal gain. To ignore high criminals in government is to invite national ruin. Like constitutional patriots today frustrated with the lack of accountability of Deep State operatives from Obama on down through the DOJ and FBI for high crimes and felonies against the sovereign people, so too did Algernon Sidney (1622-1683) admonish a system in which the king’s magistrates often...

When governors take their nation down an obvious path to tyranny, the governed have the right and duty to apply the best remedies as they see fit. Among America’s founding generation, Algernon Sidney (1623-1683) was a favorite radical, when, almost a hundred years after publication, his Discourses Concerning Government were regarded as the textbook to the American Revolution. Standing athwart Stuart tyranny, he paid for his opinions with his life. Sidney denied Divine Right, of sovereignty in one man. Authority to rule is derived from the people for the purposes of their own safety and happiness. He further observed that...

If there is one aspect of the crisis that Convention of States supporters and opponents can agree on, it is that our governing institutions have been corrupted from their constitutional purposes to “ . . . form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty . . . “ Where the two sides differ is what to do about it. Regular readers know of my admiration for the late Stuart-era martyr for free government, Algernon Sidney. The fundamental thread of his voluminous Discourses Concerning...

A common post to FR involves the question, “Is America a Christian nation?” It’s a bit vague, but if the question is refined to “Is our form of government based on Biblical principles,” the answer has to be a resounding YES. I base my response largely on my continuing study of Algernon Sidney, a late 17th century English statesman, soldier, author, polemicist. His manuscript, Discourses Concerning Government (published 1698) relied on Scripture to dispute the Divine Right of Kings and absolute government in any form. Without exactly saying so, he argued that republican, free government was the only form that...

(Source, Charles F. Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams [1851] Vol. 6, p. 3-4)There have been three periods in the history of England, in which the principles of government have been anxiously studied, and very valuable productions published, which, at this day, if they are not wholly forgotten in their native country, are perhaps more frequently read abroad than at home.The first of these periods was that of the Reformation, as early as the writings of Machiavel himself, who is called the great restorer of the true politics.  The "Shorte Treatise of Politick Power, and of the True Obedience...