The other day, just as I sat down to lunch, one of my co-workers, who was sitting at the table, blurted out, “Boy, I bet the founding fathers are rolling in their graves.” I was tempted to play devil’s advocate, and ask him what made him say that, but I thought better of it. However, his comment stuck with me throughout the remainder of the day. I kept thinking of the many reasons that would cause our founders to roll in their graves.

One reason might be due to the policy of the person who currently occupies the Oval Office. Or possibly it could be due to the fact that our government isn’t quite what they envisioned when they drafted the Constitution.

Both of those reasons are sufficient to cause our founders to roll over in their graves, but I think if our founders have rolled over in their graves, the reason may be due to something that not many people are willing to accept.

It is my personal belief that the reason is rooted in shame. I believe that our founders are deeply ashamed of us, their posterity, for allowing the government they created to become this monster that assumes powers it was never intended they possess, and at the same time stripping the people of their God-given rights.

People seem unwilling to accept the fact that our founders entrusted us, the people of this country, with the responsibility of watching over our government. It was our sacred duty to ensure that it stayed within the limits imposed upon it by the Constitution.

George Washington once declared, “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

Sadly, many people today are of the belief that the Constitution no longer holds any relevance. They are of the opinion that since things have changed in the two hundred plus years since it was ratified, the Constitution is open to broader interpretation.

However, Henry Clay stated something entirely different, “The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity-unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.”

It was for that very reason that Samuel Adams said, “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. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”

Amidst conflicting opinions on the size and scope of the federal government, our founding fathers were able to draft a Constitution which created a government just the right size to manage the general affairs of the Union, while at the same time designed to safeguard our rights.

On the last day of the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin presented a speech from which I quote, “Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such… From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does…”

Even so, there were still those who felt that the Constitution had certain flaws which still posed threats to our liberty. Among them was Richard Henry Lee, who, in a letter to George Mason, wrote the following, “This constitution has a great many excellent Regulations in it and if it could be reasonably amended would be a fine System. As it is, I think ’tis past doubt, that if it should be established, either a tyranny will result from it, or it will be prevented by a Civil war.”

It took 72 years, but a civil war did break out when the Southern States attempted to secede from the Union. Almost prophetically George Mason described what might cause a civil war when he wrote his Objections to the Constitution of Government, “By requiring a Majority to make all commercial & Navigation Laws, the five Southern States (whose Produce & Circumstances are totally different from that of the eight Northern & Eastern States) may be ruined…”

No matter what you have been taught, the Civil War was not about slavery. It happened because the Southern States wanted out of the Union and the federal government was not going to allow that to happen. Yet the Declaration of Independence clearly states, “That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

That is exactly what took place during the civil war. The South was suffering due to the policies of the federal government. Therefore they decided to withdraw from the Union and to institute new government which would effect their safety and happiness. The federal government declared war with them to prevent them from doing so, and in the process declared that the rights of the states were inferior when it came to the will of the federal government.

It was not about slavery, as Abraham Lincoln himself stated, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

In defeating the South, the federal government asserted that it is sovereign, and that the states, and the people themselves, face its wrath if they attempt to assert their own sovereignty. Since that turning point in history, Lee’s prediction that our system of government would end in a tyranny has steadily been coming true.

If people would only take some time and read the writings of our founders they would realize that they are ignorant as to the purpose of their government, but they have been woefully negligent when it comes to their responsibility to keep a watchful eye trained upon it.

Thomas Jefferson told us as much when he said, “It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.”

Not only have we fallen back, but the government we have today is far more oppressive than that of King George. This change did not occur suddenly, or by way of a violent usurpation of powers. No, the steps taken to get us to this point were small, incremental, yet nevertheless designed to place us under the thumb of a tyrannical government.

To explain how this could come to pass, imagine for a moment that you are standing in San Francisco. You decide that you are going to walk in a straight line from where you are standing all the way to the east coast. Your destination would be somewhere in northern Virginia, quite close to our nation’s capital, Washington D.C.

As you begin your journey, you don’t notice that you are straying off course. You may inadvertently take a step to the left or to the right. Each step might seem insignificant, but by the time you reach the east coast you just might find yourself in Miami, or in Boston instead of Virginia.

Such has been the journey of this nation. With each unconstitutional law our government has passed we have strayed slightly off course. Each time we failed to heed the advice given us by our founders has caused us to lose our bearings. Now what we have is a government that regulates, restricts, and taxes almost every aspect of our lives. What is even sadder is that this government, often by popular demand of the people, has been stripping us of the very rights our founders sought to secure for us. I just cannot understand why people would willingly ask their government to pass laws that limits their freedom. Even if people plead ignorance, the fact remains that their ignorance, or apathy is reducing them to slavery.

Once again I would like to provide a story to explain how easily it has been for our government to accomplish this. This story explains one method of catching wild pigs. To begin you lay out some food for them to eat. At first the pigs are wary and won’t come near it. After awhile they become used to it and begin feeding upon it.

Once they have become accustomed to the food, you put up a fence behind the food. Once again the pigs become wary, but they have become used to the free food and soon they learn to ignore the fence.

Next you put up another fence along one side of the food. Again the pigs are wary, but since the first fence did them no harm, they soon learn to ignore it as well. Then you put up a third fence on the other side.

Soon the pigs are eating with three fences surrounding them. Finally, you put up a final fence, this one with a gate. The pigs learn to enter through the gate so they can feed, as they have come to not fear the fence. Once the pigs are all inside, you close the gate, trapping them.

The food in this story represents all the benefits, the programs our government provides that make our lives easier, safer, and more enjoyable. We barely notice the fences going up which are our rights being slowly taken from us by the same government that is providing us all these wonderful programs.

Thomas Jefferson once told us, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

I could go on for days about why I think our country is in such sad shape. However, I do not need to. Samuel Adams explained it much better than I could ever hope to, “[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

Our nation is corrupt, not only morally, but we have corrupted the principles upon which it was founded. We no longer have a limited government, but a government which we look to for assistance to solve all our problems. We look to our government for safety and security, yet forget the words of Ben Franklin, who said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

There are those of us who have seen the signs, the fences going up if you will. We have been raising our voices in alarm, but for the most part we have been ignored. Our government, the media, and even our fellow countrymen have even taken to ridiculing us. We are called terrorists, extremists, the fringe element, and a host of less pleasant names.

Yet all we want is for our country to return to the principles upon which it was founded. Those of us who have read the Constitution, and understand its intent, are saddened, and more than a bit angry, that our fellow countrymen have forsaken those principles.

Jefferson once said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” Well, people have remained silent, for way too long. Yet it appears that they may be beginning to take notice of the things that they have allowed their government to do to this country, and to their liberty.

The recent Tea Parties across this nation are a sign that people are getting mad. The question remains to be answered, how mad are they? Are these Tea Parties just a means of blowing off steam, or are the people willing to keep the pressure on their government, and do what is needed to make the changes this country needs?

Thomas Jefferson told us about this spirit of resistance, “And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Are we as a nation that mad yet? Have we finally noticed the fences going up around us? I guess we’ll find out, one way or the other. My prayer is that we find out before the gate slams shut on America. Possibly if we do wake up in time to save this once great nation, our founders will finally be able to rest peacefully in their graves.

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