Our Founding Principles: The Beginning of the American "Experiment" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Individuals live in communities. They join together for general advantages, such as hiring police to watch their common property or other public services. (Note that individuals themselves have the right to property and therefore, the right to protect their property. They then transfer some of that right to law enforcement for a general or common function. It is easy to understand, then, how government becomes established). Communities form for general advantages and not for particular individuals to benefit at the expense of others. A by-product of this is that rules must be established to impose limits on individual behavior and to establish order. All rules in one way or another serve to limit freedom of action. However, when rules are applied generally, and in furtherance of benevolence and right reason, they limit or deter malevolent actions and thereby expand liberty for all. As James Madison said: " 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. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."

    Unfortunately, when rules become too numerous and detailed, they can destroy liberty just as surely and effectively as having no rules. And the tendency is certainly in the direction of too many rules. We see that today. Traditionally the obsession within societies has been the horrors of disorder. With theft, robbery, murder, carjackings, rape, riot, and mayhem becoming commonplace in too many communities, the loss of liberty has been seen as the unavoidable cost of maintaining order.

    3. Individual Sovereignty - Certain fundamental rights are inherent in man. As our Founders reasoned: 'How can we give consent to others - local government, state government, etc - to make rules for us if we don't have the original power to make rules for ourselves?" They therefore concluded that individuals indeed have such natural rights that only individual sovereignty could morally defend. If the primary object of government is to secure the rights of man in Life, Liberty, and Property (John Locke), then the premise is that the individual has the sovereign right to such. It was the sovereign people ("We the People") who created the United States under the Constitution.

    4. State Sovereignty - The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which an independent state is governed and from which all specific political powers are derived; the intentional independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign interference. Sovereignty is the power of a state to do everything necessary to govern itself, such as making, executing, and applying laws; imposing and collecting taxes; making war and peace; and forming treaties or engaging in commerce with foreign nations. [The Free Dictionary]

    5. Federalism - Most of the delegates to the convention were reluctant to form a national government that would take power from the states. At the same time, they recognized a need for a stronger national government that would provide defense against foreign aggressors and resolve disputes between the states; therefore, they instituted a government structure called federalism that assigned specific powers to the national government and left all remaining powers with the states. The system drafted at the Convention and adopted and ratified by the States (after the addition of the Bill of Rights, and specifically here, the Tenth Amendment) left the bulk of jurisdictional power to the individual states.

    6. Limited Government - The careful drafting of the Constitution reflected the Framers' intent to limit the ability of the federal government to exercise any more power than the citizens (aka, the States) agreed to give it. With the powers of government strictly limited, citizens could be free to pursue their individual visions of happiness. The Founding Fathers shared Thomas Jefferson's vision for the new nation - unburdened individual liberty, personal responsibility, and limited government. According to Jefferson's own Declaration of Independence, the main purpose of government is to secure the rights of its citizens to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." As the Founders believed, a small government with limited powers would be best to safeguard its citizens' liberties over a government with unlimited powers because the latter would have the tendency to misuse those powers. The Founders wanted to prevent any opportunity for government tyranny and oppression. They wanted the people to be the master and the government to be the servant. The government was to serve the people. As Patrick Henry warned: "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests?" It's simply our duty as Americans and as guardians of the very safeguards of Democracy and Freedom to know our History. The American people are the final check in our system of checks and balances. It is only with an educated populace that we can perform this great task.


    7. Rule of Law - Our nation was set up as a republic rather than a true democracy. It is a Constitutional republic because the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the land. It is a nation of laws and not a nation of men. The Constitution and all laws made in pursuance and in compliance with it control the governing process and not mob mentality. With a republican form of government, there is a degree of insulation between the people (who might try to rule in a frenzied mob style) and government rule. A republican form of government has a very different purpose and an entirely different form, or system, of government than a pure democracy. Its purpose is to control rule-making. More specifically, its purpose is to control the majority and to prevent it from oppressing minority groups. It is designed to protect the individual's (EVERY individual's) God-given, unalienable rights and the liberties of people in general. Our particular republican form of government has a separation of power because our Founders understood the inherent weakness and depravity of man. They knew that people are basically weak, sinful and corruptible, and will pit one men against another other, making it difficult to pass laws and make changes that are fair to everyone. As James Madison noted in The Federalist Papers (Federalist No. 55): "As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government (that of a Republic) presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form."

   Consider the possibility of having no rules. Rather than the Rule of Law we would have the Rule of Force. Everyone would be free to do whatever he wanted as long as he possessed the power or ability (including ability to buy or bribe) to force his will on others. This would include the ability to bribe or financially acquire power. In this setting, people would be forced to compete by using unrestrained brute strength or financial advantage and there would be no freedom in the meaningful sense of "independence of the arbitrary will of another." (F. A. Hayek) If one person had enough physical power he could force others to work for him without compensation, to be his slave. But, in this scenario, without laws that protect man equally, the master today has no assurance that he will not be someone else's slave tomorrow.

    8. Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances - The Separation of Powers doctrine was inspired by John Locke and implemented in the Constitution by the Framers to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist and to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful. Separation of Powers ensures that each branch operates within Constitutional limits and doesn't become destructive of Constitutional aims. Based on their experience, the framers shied away from giving any branch of the new government too much power. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power between the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches and is known as the system of Checks and Balances. Each of these branches has certain powers, and each of these powers is limited, or checked, by another branch.
6. Free Markets - The Founders embraced the economic philosophy put forth by Adam Smith (in his book Wealth of Nations published in 1776) which is the capitalism system we have today. Smith wrote that the most efficient economic system is driven by supply and demand and by pure competition. Smith believed that the "free market" system would work most effectively in the absence of government interference. Such a laissez-faire (a term popularized by Wealth of Nations meaning "leave alone" or "allow to be") policy would, in his opinion, encourage the most efficient operation of private and commercial enterprises. He was not against government involvement in public projects too large for private investment, but rather objected to its meddling in the market mechanism. He also held that individuals acting in their own self-interest would naturally seek out economic activities that provided the greatest financial rewards. Smith was convinced that this self-interest would in turn maximize the economic well-being of society as a whole. Finally, he argued that true wealth did not lay in gold but rather in the productive capacity of all people, who are properly motivated (rewards of risk--taking and investment) and through hard work and worth ethic, each seeking to benefit from his or her own labors.


    The bottom line is that the Constitution was crafted with two very important principles in mind - that the individual states retain as much sovereign power as possible and that our government have only limited and clearly-defined responsibilities and limited authority. The majority of power was to remain in the hands of the local population. The principles of federalism, limited and clearly-enumerated powers, separation of powers, and checks and balances are all important Constitutionally-imposed limits on the power of government, which was the vision of our Founders (especially Jefferson). The principles of Federalism and limited government were the foundation of our system of government to ensure that the federal government would not become large, would not become intrusive, would not become powerful, and would not encroach on the rights of the states to maintain their own character and to solve their own problems. This was the clear intent in the drafting of our Constitution.

    The first task before the Founders was establishing the foundation on which we derive our basic and most fundamental freedoms. They embraced the "Natural Law" philosophy proposed by Marcus Tullius Cicero of ancient Rome and of later (English) philosophers such as John Locke, Sir William Blackstone, and Thomas Hooker, and even of Jesus himself. It is worth looking at Cicero's concept of "Natural Law." Cicero came to be enlightened one day while he was walking and trying to imagine what an ideal Rome would be like. As the foremost lawyer of his day, he was concerned with law. He wondered where laws came from. He came to conclude that law, that which distinguishes good from bad and which discourages and punishes the latter, did not originate from man alone. That is, law was not a matter of written statutes but was a matter deeply and fundamentally ingrained in the human spirit. Cicero's reasoned as follows:

    1). There is an order to the universe: Creator - Universe - People - Governments. There is a Creator who created the universe then created people. People, in turn, form into communities, and in order to keep their communities ordered, they establish local governments. Finally, local governments give rise to central governments.
    2). Humans, like the Earth and the universe itself, were created by a higher power (a Creator; a God)
    3). This higher power which created the universe also endowed humans with a bit of its own divinity (that is, He gave us the powers of speech, intelligent thought, reason, and wisdom).
    4). As a result of this "spark of divinity," humans are and should be (forever) linked to their Creator and should honor this relationship.
    5). Because humans share reason with this higher power, and because this higher power is presumed to be benevolent, it follows that humans, when employing reason correctly, will also be benevolent.
    6). Reason and benevolence (termed "right reason") is therefore the foundation of law. When this is applied in a society, it is JUSTICE.
    7). Natural Law is timeless; It is valid for all nations for all times.
    8). It operates best when men are virtuous and honorable. It fails when men are greedy and depraved.

    As Cicero explained in his many writings (which were read by our Founders), law is whatever promotes good and forbids evil. What corrupts good law are the age-old human failings of wealth, greed, desire for status, lust, and other inconsequentials outside of virtue and honor.


    In short, according to Cicero, the only intelligent approach to government, justice and human relations is in terms of the laws which the Supreme Creator had already established. The Founders took from Cicero an idea that was revolutionary in terms of a governing a body and that idea was that the glue which binds human beings together in any commonwealth of a just society is love - love of God, love of God's great law of justice, and love of one's fellow man - which provides the desire to promote true justice among mankind. In order to eliminate depravity of society it was necessary to respect this natural order and to love God, oneself, and one another. If man could do this, then his ability to reason and rule would be done justly and in a benevolent manner, and he would therefore be guided "right reason."

    In other words, Natural Law, the bedrock principle of our founding documents, states that our rights come from God and not from any government. John Locke took the concept of Natural Law one step further and applied it to government. According to Locke, people (not rulers or governments) are sovereign. Individuals have sovereign rights which no government can take away. As such, government is morally obliged to serve people, namely by protecting life, liberty, and property, and to do so with limited powers and applying the principle of checks and balances so as to be sure to government remained honest and focused or beholden to its goals. This is the bedrock principle of Locke's view of government. He explained that natural law tradition could be observed with the ancient Jews and that rulers, when properly constrained, would legitimately serve justly because there are moral laws that apply to everyone.

    As Locke wrote in the two volumes of his Treatise on Government (1689 and 1690), private property is absolutely essential for liberty. He referred not only to real property but also to intellectual property. "Every man has a property in his own person. This no body has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his," he wrote. Locke believed people legitimately turn common property into private property by mixing their labor with it, their intellect, their personality, their ambition, their business skills (and other intangible human qualities) and improving it. In other words, he believed that property is a series of transformations. Man has a property right in himself and his skills which is then transformed into money or bartering power, which is then eventually transformed into private property (real and chattel).

    It is from the thinking of men like Cicero, as well as the teachings of the Bible, and including the teachings of Jesus himself, that the Founders had the vision to ground our fundamental freedoms in Natural Law. It is easy to see how strongly our Founders were influenced by Cicero's writings. Our nation wasn't influenced by atheist principles, but rather by principles grounded in a belief in God. The Declaration of Independence proudly proclaims that we as a nation believe in a Creator who has endowed us with our fundamental rights. Let us note that while our Constitution establishes and defines our government, it is the Declaration of Independence which establishes our nation's value system.

    While the concept of Natural Law has clearly been around for a long time, the Declaration of Independence was the first to embody it in a national document. The US Constitution is the first constitution to be based on this principle and to embrace Locke's philosophy that because people have sovereign rights and not rulers or government, government is therefore morally obliged to serve the people by protecting their life, liberty, and property. To the extent that our government protects individual rights, government operates legitimately. However, when it fails to protect such rights or when it imposes upon them, it becomes an illegitimate ruler over what would otherwise be free people. Governments who do not acknowledge this supreme order of rights have no duty to recognize them.

    The next task before the Founders was what kind of system to create. They knew what kinds of liberties had to be secured and protected, but what was the best system to protect them ?


    The Founders understood that throughout history, people have been ruled by systems that range anywhere from King's Rule (tyranny) at one far end to complete Anarchy at the other far end (which is the absence of law). The Founders recognized the bad in both. Tyranny was oppressive and people alone, without laws, would become a mob and would resort to the lowest forms of human behavior. Consequently, they wanted to establish a system of "People's Law," which is someplace halfway between King's Rule and Anarchy - halfway between tyranny and mob rule. Under "People's Law, the government is kept under the control of the people and political power is maintained at the balanced center with enough government to maintain security, justice and good order, but not enough government to abuse the people and intrude in their lives. "People's Law" is in the middle between "Ruler's Law" (King, or other tyrant is the rules; tyranny) and "Anarchy (where there is no law at all). They embraced the system of "People's Law," which derived from the Israelites and Anglo-Saxon common law and includes the concepts of government by consensus, natural or God-given rights for the people, power dispersed among the people, individual responsibility, rights being unalienable, a system of justice including reparations for wrongs, and a system to solve problems on the level on which they were created. The Founders, especially Thomas Jefferson, admired the institutes of freedom under "People's Law." In fact, our system was strongly influenced after the system of government and the rules established by Moses after the Israelites were freed from their bondage in Egypt.

    In the Federalist Papers, No. 9, Alexander Hamilton refers to the "sensations of horror and disgust" which arise when a person studies the histories of those nations that are always "in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy." The Founders' task was to somehow solve the enigma of the human tendency to rush headlong from anarchy to tyranny - the very thing which later happened in the French Revolution. How could the American people be constitutionally structured so that they would take a fixed position at the balanced center of the political spectrum and forever maintain a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," which would not perish from the earth?