The Proper Role of Government Essay #1
Rising among the top concerns within my community are two costly issues pertaining to the protection of personal property; both from a tax payer and a liberty stand point. The first is the issue of whether or not the community should burden itself with a new bond, in order to construct a new elementary school, replacing the older existing school. The second is an effort to revise the current county building codes.
I have been asked to write on the constitutionality of these two issues. The problem with these requests, is that the U.S. Constitution was written to manage the inter-state and foreign governmental affairs. These two issues are of local concern and therefore do not fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Constitution. However, there is another founding document I shall reference.
The Declaration of Independence
Within the opening remarks of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson lays out the case of the American Colonists for the act of revolution, to be be judged, not by their fellow colonists, but by the peoples of the world. Jefferson boldly declares, above all other reasons about to be put forth, that their justification was primarily based on the following principles, with these famous words:
“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.”
And
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
But what is Jefferson trying to tell us, and how does it relate to either a school bond measure, or county building codes? To understand this relationship I will deconstruct these two statements.
Self-evident
A Self-evident truth is one so obvious to the body of man, that no further justification is warranted. For example, it is self-evident, man requires air to live. Borrowing a phrase from the preceding paragraph to that quoted, these are universal truths, passed down to man from “Nature’s God” and no further justification need be provided.
To be endowed
According to Websters 1828 dictionary,
To be endowed is to be furnished with a portion of estate. As applied here we are specifically furnished with a portion of estate from our Creator, namely Nature’s God’s.
And estate, In law, means the interest, or quantity of interest, a man has in lands, tenements, or other effects. Estates are real or personal. Real estate consists in lands or freeholds, which descent to heirs; personal estate consists in chattels or movables, which go to executors and administrators. There are also estates for life, for years, at will, etc.
In this case, it is a portion of that personal estate possessed by God, granted unto us, his “heirs” or children.
Unalienable Rights
Finally, an unalienable right is one that cannot be alienated or transferred. You cannot abandon or give up this right, it is part of your very existence. For the purpose of this Decoration, Jefferson proclaims that chiefest among all self-evident, divinely endowed, and unalienable rights are, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
In this statement, Jefferson is demonstrating his vast education by pulling from an earlier political philosopher and theologian, one to whom much of the civilized world would already be familiar with, John Locke.
In Locke’s second Treatise on Government, he lays out the conditions under which a body of people shall be justified for revolution, namely in protection of these three specific self-evident, divinely endowed, and unalienable rights. But Locke uses a slightly different wording, “Life, Liberty, and Personal Property.”
The Pursuit of Happiness
It is vital that the reader understand why Jefferson chose to change the word Property to the Pursuit of Happiness. Taken out of historical context, it would be easy to preclude property in exchange for happiness. In his first draft, Thomas Jefferson attempted to pin the sin of slavery on the head of King George III. However, fearing this would alienate the southern states, the committee of Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams, choose to remove any mention of slavery.
Personal Property
However, knowing that the word property, without any other reference to the condemnation of slavry would empower the south in the future, to anchor any further question on slavery to this declaration, they expanded Property to all endeavors pertaining to the “Pursuit of Happiness.” Thus it becomes obvious that the self-evident, divinely endowed, and unalienable right to property was not replaced, but expanded upon. These inspired men realized that personal property was necessary to the formation of a free society, but also recognized that there was more to be gained, and that they could accomplish their goals in greater measure, while still providing a foundation for a future without slavery.
Our Founding Fathers understood that without Private Property, there is no Liberty. And it was for the protection of this and the other two rights, Life and Liberty, that governments are created. In other words, there is no other just reason for a government that is unable or unwilling to protect these rights, and under such circumstances the people are justified, nay required by Nature’s God to overthrow that government and put in it’s place one that can and will protect these rights.
Labor
What is Personal Property? At it’s simplest level it is the manifestation of one’s labor or the exercise of one’s free agency. Consider the following from Frédéric Bastiat:
“Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources. This process is the origin of property.
But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder.
Plunder
Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain — and since labor is pain in itself — it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.
When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor.
It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work. All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder.
But, generally, the law is made by one man or one class of men. And since law cannot operate without the sanction and support of a dominating force, this force must be entrusted to those who make the laws.
This fact, combined with the fatal tendency that exists in the heart of man to satisfy his wants with the least possible effort, explains the almost universal perversion of the law. Thus it is easy to understand how law, instead of checking injustice, becomes the invincible weapon of injustice. It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.”
The Legislative body
Consider, in the above statement, that a legislative body is not limited to a federal or even a state government. Legislative bodies are any body politic empowered on behalf of the majority to create laws. In this manner, a city council or county commissioners may constitute a legislative body. Furthermore, during a popular election, the majority of votes, may also constitute a legislative body. Therefore, in this latter example, the plunder committed, may be committed by the majority on the minority of a community. Here-in lies the inherent dangers of a Democracy, and why our Founders sought to establish a Republic instead. Benjamin Franklin once described Democracy as two wolves and a sheep voting on what was for dinner and a republic was a well armed sheep.
Public Debt and Building Codes
Now back to the two measures in question. The first is a desire by some to build a new school. To do so, they can either voluntarily raise the funds themselves or invoke government and the power of the law to plunder the property of their neighbors. An additional injustice is also revealed as individuals are found financially unable to satisfy the initial public demand (property tax increase). Subsequently, they loose that very property which the measure imposed the first legalized plunder, and now an additional plunder is applied to acquire the land itself.
The second is a county that desires, in the name of public safety, to put restrictions on the use of one’s private property, this is masked by the simplified requirement to gain permission from the government prior to performing any labor, and is enforced by the power of the law.
Independent of any risk to the general public, if you fail to gain legal approval (file for a permit), even though the labor performed had no impact on public safety, you are still found in violation of the law. Thus in order to more easily impose the will of the legislative body, the law primarily focuses on whether or not permission was received before the labor was performed and not against the actual restriction, imposed to support the health and safety of the community. Failure to comply invokes that same power to legally plunder your labor. This time, in the form of penalties and ultimately, the potential denial of Liberty through imprisonment. This issue is even more unjust when the issue regarding the regulation in question is for something other than public safety.
Conclusion
It comes down to the choice, will we live in a society that values Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, including the right to be secure in our Personal Property, or will we live under a tyrannical mob?
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