Where
Do Rights Come From?
By
David L. Miner
In the last essay, we
discussed the Constitution for
the United States of America. We saw that the Constitution created
America, and we saw that virtually all our elected representatives
totally ignore the Constitution except when it serves their own
agendas. In the last issue, we looked briefly at the source of laws.
In this issue, we will explore the source of rights.
Where do rights come
from? When our Founding Fathers considered the initial beginnings of
this nation, they faced that question. After many hours of deep
discussion, they considered something that perhaps never before was
considered. All through history, it was accepted as fact that rights
were granted by
those
in power to
those
being ruled. Some governments went to great lengths to guarantee the
rights granted to the individuals. Sadly, some governments never
worried about that at all. But rights were always believed to rest
with the government. Until our Founding Fathers, that is!
What was this unique
concept that dawned on our Founding Fathers? We see the answer in
America’s Declaration Of Independence. If we begin looking in the
second paragraph, 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. That to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed.”
All
rights come from God, and all rights rest in mankind.
What a novel concept! The government doesn’t have rights! The
government doesn’t pass out rights to the People! The government
has no authority but that authority delegated to it by those with
rights!
No other government in
history has the same concepts behind it. No other nation was born
into such freedom. No other people had authority over their
government like Americans have over our government.
The Founding Fathers
decided to create the freest nation in history. They decided to
create a government based on delegated authority, NOT based on
inherent authority. America is the Land of the Free, not the Land of
the Ruled! Our government has no authority but that authority which
We The
People delegated
to it more than 240 years ago.
The Document which
spells out exactly what authority has been delegated to the federal
government is the Constitution for
the United States of America. If you read it, you will see that the
Constitution grants no rights. It recognizes existing rights (or it
ignores them!) or it grants privileges, but it cannot grant rights.
It has no authority to grant rights. And the government cannot grant
itself authority to do anything. Either We
The People have
delegated authority to it, or else the federal government has no
authority over that issue at all. It is that simple!
The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people. [Article
10, U.S. Constitution]
So how can we explain
the current federal government, with all its laws and agencies and
spending programs? There can only be one explanation: the federal
government has usurped (wrongfully taken) authority where it had no
authority. It has exceeded its legal limitations. The government has
stepped outside its Constitution and has no intention of returning.
It has abandoned its only legitimate authority and is living under a
false and assumed authority.
Our federal government
is no longer “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
The next few lines from our Declaration of Independence, immediately
following the lines quoted above, are as follows:
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or
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.”
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