A Patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

The writings of our nation’s founding fathers are full of similar comments as the above quote by Edward Abbey. They all felt, as did Samuel Adams, that, “The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”

Often people peruse over our nations historical documents without actually paying attention to the words being used. The founders were quite meticulous with their choices of words, each word was chosen carefully to express a particular meaning.

For instance, from the Declaration of Independence we read, “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.” 

We hold these truths to be self-evident means that these are things that were commonly accepted and needed no explanation. Those truths were that all men are created equal and that their Creator endowed, (provide somebody or something with desirable qualities, abilities, or characteristics) us with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The key word here is unalienable, which means, “The state of a thing or right which cannot be sold.” Bouviers Law Dictionary, 1856 edition, states, “That natural rights of life and liberty are UNALIENABLE.” Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, states, unalienable means, “incapable of being alienated, that is, sold and transferred.”

People today are under the misguided assumption that it is their government which grants them their rights. They confuse the term unalienable with inalienable, which means, “Rights which are not capable of being surrendered or transferred without the consent of the one possessing such rights.” Morrison v. State, Mo. App., 252 S.W.2d 97,101

Our founders felt that our rights were unalienable, they cannot be surrendered or transferred. Returning to the Declaration of Independence, we read, “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Government was not created to grant us rights, it was created to protect those rights which we already had prior to its creation. And, since our rights are unalienable, they cannot, no matter how many people are in favor of their doing so, take those rights away from us.

Samuel Adams once wrote, “The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.”

Samuel Adams cousin, and our nations second President, John Adams stated, “You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the universe.”

I think I have provided enough proof that it was the general belief that our rights were ours to keep, that they were a natural state of affairs, rights that our government held no power, or authority to infringe, (restrict or encroach upon).

At the time our Constitution was being ratified it was felt by many that it granted our new government too much power, that our rights once again would be in jeopardy by those who would hold the reigns of power.

Therefore they refused to ratify unless a Bill of Rights were added, to declare certain rights as being off limits from governmental infringement. As does our Constitution, the Bill of Rights also contains a Preamble. The Preamble to the Bill of Rights states, “THE Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added:”

It wasn’t enough that it was commonly accepted that our rights came from God, and that no legislative authority held the power to take them from us, they wanted that belief put in writing.

Therefore, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution are ‘… further declaratory and restrictive clauses.’ These ten Amendments were restrictions put into place upon our government, they were things that under no circumstances would they be allowed to do.

Over the course of our nation’s history, we the people have forgotten these principles. Words no longer hold the same meaning as they did when these founding documents were written.

Thomas Jefferson foresaw this when he wrote, “Time indeed changes manners and notions, and so far we must expect institutions to bend to them. But time produces also corruption of principles, and against this it is the duty of good citizens to be ever on the watch…”

Even so, over the course of time our rights have been infringed upon. There are those who believe that all we have to do is elect the right person to office, a true conservative, and that things will magically go back to being the way they were intended by our founders.

First of all, we had that chance this past election. We had not one, but two chances to elect a true conservative who promised to govern according to the Constitution. Both Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin were candidates who understood, and promised to govern strictly in accordance with the Constitution. Neither of them got any support by their parties, or enough of the people to stand a chance.

Even if they had been elected, it is doubtful that they could have found it possible to restore all our rights that have been taken from us by years of governmental abuse of power.

There are those of us who have waited patiently for our government to change its ways and stop their unconstitutional infringement of our rights. Just as did our founders, with their petitions to the King, we have written our elected representatives, seeking redress for their abuses of power.

And just as our founders were ignored, so have our concerns been disregarded. Such were the abuses of power which led our founders to declare, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”

Daniel Webster once wrote, “The inherent right in the people to reform their government, I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is to resist unconstitutional laws without overturning the government.”

Alexander Hamilton went even further in Federalist Paper No. 28, “If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government…The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair.”

Do not misunderstand me, I am not calling for people to rush to the streets with guns blazing. However, eventually each of us will have to make a decision. There will come a time when we have to decide whether to stand up and fight for our rights, or to live as slaves.

As an example of what I am trying to get across, say you hear someone break into your house during the night. You hear them rummaging around looking for something worthy of stealing. As they come closer to your room you have two options. A) you can dial 911 and pray the police arrive in time to save you from possible harm, or B) you can dial 911 and then arm yourself and protect your property, and possibly your life.

Those who await our government to mend their ways, or who seek a candidate to unite conservatives together I liken to the person who dials 911 and awaits the police, unwilling to take matters into their own hands.

I, on the other hand am more inclined to choose option B, I will continue to petition my government for redress, I will continue to stand behind candidates who promise to uphold the Constitution, but I will no longer tolerate any more infringements upon my rights.

There is an outstanding article written by Mike Vanderboegh on his Sipsey Street Irregulars webpage. It is entitled, Casus Belli: The meaning of “Not one more inch.” It can be found at http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/09/casus-belli-meaning-of-not-one-more.html

On June 8, 1783 George Washington wrote a Circular to the States, in which he said, “At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be intirely their own.”

It is therefore up to each individual who lives in this country to decide, are they going to allow their government to continue to take away the rights that God has given us, or are we going to grow a spine and stand up for them.

To quote the words made famous by Patrick Henry, “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and says “OH SHIT!!…. HE’S AWAKE!!”

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com. Visit Neal’s Blog at http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal