1. The Law, by Frederic Bastiat

Focus: Philosophy; the role of ‘law’, legalized plunder and natural rights.

The Law is absolutely a must. You will find it on nearly every recommended reading list for Liberty based works. It is short, and can easily be finished in one sitting by an average reader. Taking roughly 1.5 hrs from beginning to end, it is the shortest book on the list. However, don’t be fooled by its relative brevity. Bastiat manages to communicate in this short work what many authors have labored to convey using far more ink and paper.

Free audio book by Mises.org:

2. Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt

Focus: Economics; covers common economic fallacies and basic concepts using easy to understand examples.

Economics In One Lesson was inspired by Frederic Bastiat’s collection Essays on Political Economy. This is yet another book that is often recommended on other lists, largely because of how well Hazlitt communicates economic principles in ways that the average reader can easily understand them. He does not intimidate the reader with unnecessarily complex language.  Using succinct examples, Hazlitt exposes many modern economic fallacies that lead to disastrous consequences.

3. Road to Serfdom, by FA Hayek

Focus: Economics and Philosophy; arguments against central planning, appeals to free markets, personal freedom and limited government.

Being an economist and philosopher, Hayek approaches free market arguments from both perspectives. You will find this book combines the principles learned from the first two recommended works very nicely. Road to Serfdom was a warning against central economic planning that was embraced during the Great Depression. Hayek argued that big government and central planning resulted in the loss of individual Liberty as well as a reduction in wealth creation, both of which are a great loss to society as a whole.

4. How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, by Peter Schiff

Focus: Economics; packed with humorous and witty illustrations describing fundamental economic concepts, such as wealth creation, credit, savings, benefits of trade, and risk.

As you may have noticed, this list focuses a bit more on economics. If you don’t find that economics is your strong-suit do not be intimidated or turned-off. The economic argument for Liberty is perhaps one of the most compelling when making the case. Like the other books on free market economics before, Schiff’s is easy to understand. You will recognize some of the same arguments from Econ in One Lesson, but there is plenty here to make it a worthy addition.

5. The Constitution in Exile, by Andrew P. Napolitano

Focus: US Constitution/law; original intent and case law. Provides some key points illustrating how the Federal government has assumed power by ‘reinterpreting’ the US Constitution.

The Constitution in Exile makes the list because it is a great introduction to the US Constitution. Judge Andrew Napolitano takes the strict constructionist perspective, which was argued by Madison, Jefferson and others. The Constitution in Exile covers a lot of ground in relatively few chapters. It includes examining case law that has been used to twist the intended meaning of several key phrases in the US Constitution, which has invented new Federal powers without proper amendment. Even though this book takes on what can become a very convoluted subject, it is very accessible to any reader.

If you are interested in further reading, see our recommended reading list.

Since government can demand revenue by force, there is no profit/loss system. There is no simple way to determine if the taxpayer is receiving full value for the goods/services received, therefore there is no way to determine if the capital is being used efficiently.

Some argue that there is not any service that government currently provides, whether it be insurance, charity, protection/defense, education, infrastructure, utilities, etc that could not be provided by a market based approach and make the people affected better off than under a coercive system. In any case, this is the economic argument for limited government. Where if any good/service can be provided by the private sector, government should stay out of the business.

Also notice that subsidies (capital taken from people in the form of taxes and given to certain companies or industries) disrupt the ‘profit/loss’ system and make otherwise unproductive companies appear to be productive (profitable) when in fact they destroy wealth. See: Solyndra.

“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.”
– John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919

Inflation has been accepted by many and even promoted by some as a ‘natural phenomenon’, where it is believed that money naturally loses its value over time and prices rise. However, under any serious school of economic thought, no matter what its view on inflation (positive or negative) this is understood to be nonsense. To understand why, you must understand what ‘inflation’ is.  Inflation itself is often misidentified. Inflation in the strict sense is the actual expansion (ie. inflation) of the money supply. All things being equal, when the supply of money increases in relation to total goods/services outstanding, the value of said money decreases. This requires more of the same currency to purchase the same unit of wealth (eg. loaf of bread) as it did before . This pricing effect can be seen in exaggerated form in Zimbabwe, where enormous amounts of paper money were printed, causing the value of the currency to plummet, eventually requiring an arm full of money to purchase every day items as each new increase in denomination (adding zeros to the currency) was not enough to keep up with the rapid decline in the value of the currency.

The process of increasing the money supply destroys savings, among other poverty inducing effects. That is not to say that some do not benefit. However, the beneficiaries of inflation are usually the politically connected.

The following example illustrates how the process of inflation confiscates real wealth.

Suppose you have $100 in your saving account and the market value of wheat is $10 per bushel. The value of your savings account can be translated into real wealth of 10 units of wheat.

Now, suppose the money supply is doubled, but your savings account remains the same. All things being equal, the value of your savings will fall by half. It will require twice as many dollars to acquire the same amount of wealth as before. So, the price of wheat will rise to $20 per unit. This means your savings of $100 can now only purchase 5 units of wheat at the new price.

Where did the other 5 units of wheat go? They were confiscated by $100 of the newly created currency which can now buy them at the new price of $20 per unit. Whoever received some of the newly created money can now buy that other 5 units of wheat you used to be able to purchase.

Notice, the dollar amount in your savings account has not dropped, only the purchasing power. The value of your savings in real terms has been cut in half. Without picking a lock, breaking a window or busting down a door, 5 units of wheat were confiscated from your savings account through the process of inflation.

Typically, the money supply is not increased as rapidly as Zimbabwe, but this wealth confiscation and transfer occurs at any rate of inflation, whether it is 3% or 50%. This is known as the ‘secret’ tax. Many argue it is outright theft.

“Specie [hard money] is the most perfect medium because it will preserve its own level; because, having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die in our hands, and it is the surest resource of reliance in time of war.”
–Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813

“Mr. Ellsworth thought this a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the various experiments which had been made, were now fresh in the public mind and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America. By witholding the power from the new Governt. more friends of influence would be gained to it than by almost any thing else. Paper money can in no case be necessary. Give the Government credit, and other resources will offer. The power may do harm, never good.”
– Notes on motion to strike out ‘and emit bills on the credit of the United States’ from Article 1, section 8. Motion passed, Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, PA August 16, 1787

“Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
– George Washington, Letter to Thomas Jefferson on Aug. 1, 1786

“Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”
–Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1788

“Paper money is unjust…Unconstitutional [as it] affects Rights of property as much as taking away equal value in land.”
– James Madison, Notes for Speech Opposing Paper Money, 1 Nov. 1786

“That paper money has some advantages is admitted. But that its abuses also are inevitable and, by breaking up the measure of value, makes a lottery of all private property, cannot be denied.
–Thomas Jefferson to Josephus B. Stuart, 1817

Many founders believed a country is made great by its people, not its government. A country is made great by its freedom, not having the largest economy or military. Without freedom, none of that matters. By the superficial standard that is promoted by many today, Rome and Egypt were once ‘great’, but in their “greatness” they were not free. A great country is one where the people are left free to prosper or fail on their own accord, who are left free to act so long as they do not injure others. Where ideas are left free to combat one another and not be silenced by force. Where theft is not sanctioned by law. Where each person is truly respected in their equal natural rights. Where association and cooperation are by voluntary consent, not by force. A great country is one that was envisioned, even if imperfectly implemented by the colonists.

When politicians talk about American greatness, ask yourself, what definition of greatness are they talking about, one that is determined by its degree of freedom, or one that is defined by its economic and military might? If America becomes that beacon of freedom again, I hope it is not ‘exceptional’, because I hope it is not the exception. I hope that the people around the world will realize the fruits of freedom, their own right as a people to be free and grasp it for themselves. My hope is that Liberty becomes the standard and not the anomaly. As for my own country, my hope is that it will choose freedom and judge its own greatness by that standard above all others.

“When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.”
– Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788

Throughout years of reading a more comprehensive collection from the period (although likely not even scratching the surface), including speeches, letters and other writings from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry and others, I am constantly amazed how radial their words truly are. They were radicals not just in their day, but also in ours. Many of their sentiments and words are far removed from what is deemed to be acceptable political opinion today. When their ideas are repeated by contemporaries, these individuals are often dismissed as crazy, extreme and fringe. This leaves me to wonder, would America elect the founders again if they were alive today?

The following are some of the more radical quotes from the founders when compared to conventional wisdom:

Patrick Henry

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”
– Patrick Henry, Speech at the Second Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia (23 March 1775)

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.”
– Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788

Thomas Paine

“[A] bystander, not blinded by prejudice nor warped by interest, would declare that taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.”
–Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, 1791

“Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”
– Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

Samuel Adams

“If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
– Samuel Adams, Speech, State House of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1 August 1776)

“A standing Army, however necessary it may be at some times, is always dangerous to the Liberties of the People. Soldiers are apt to consider themselves as a Body distinct from the rest of the Citizens. They have their Arms always in their hands. Their Rules and their Discipline is severe. They soon become attached to their officers and disposed to yield implicit Obedience to their Commands. Such a Power should be watched with a jealous Eye.”
– Samuel Adams, Letter to James Warren (1776)

“All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another.”
– Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1772)

“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, The Rights of the Colonists (1772)

“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.”
– Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1772)

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”
– Samuel Adams, Letter to James Warren (24 October 1780)

John Adams

“Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defence of the country, the over-throw of tyranny, or in private self-defense.”
– John Adams. A DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, at 475, (Philadelphia 1788)

“Be not intimidated…nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.”
– John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
– John Adams, Letter to John Taylor (1814)

John Q. Adams

“Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she [America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
– John Q Adams, as Secretary of State to the U.S. House of Representatives. (4 July 1821)

“But the indissoluble link of union between the people of the several states of this confederated nation, is after all, not in the right, but in the heart. If the day should ever come, (may Heaven avert it,) when the affections of the people of these states shall be alienated from each other; when the fraternal spirit shall give away to cold indifference, or collisions of interest shall fester into hatred, the bands of political association will not long hold together parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies; and far better will it be for the people of the disunited states, to part in friendship from each other, than to be held together by constraint. Then will be the time for reverting to the precedents which occurred at the formation and adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more perfect union, by dissolving that which could no longer bind, and to leave the separated parts to be reunited by the law of political gravitation to the center.”
– John Q Adams, John Q. Adams, THE JUBILEE OF THE CONSTITUTION: A DISCOURSE, April 30, 1789

James Madison

“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended from abroad.”
– James Madison, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1798

“The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
– James Madison, Speech, House of Representatives, during the debate “On the Memorial of the Relief Committee of Baltimore, for the Relief of St. Domingo Refugees” (January 10, 1794)

”Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
– James Madison, “Political Observations” 1795

“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.”
– James Madison, Federalist Papers, #10

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”
– James Madison, Speech before the Virginia State Constitutional Convention, December 1 1829

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce.”
– James Madison, Federalist Papers #45

George Washington

“The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests.
– George Washington, The Farewell Address (17 September 1796)

“We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all maters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.”
–George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1785

“‘Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.”
– George Washington, The Farewell Address (17 September 1796)

“Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.”
– George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)

Thomas Jefferson

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
–Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801

“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”
–Thomas Jefferson to Charles Hammond, 1821

“Our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, 1775

“If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.”
–Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1791

“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.”
– Letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

“The true barriers of our liberty are our State governments; and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by man, is that of which our Revolution and present government found us possessed.”
–Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1811

“Whenever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”
–Thomas Jefferson: Kentucky Resolutions, 1798

“Let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
– Thomas Jefferson, From the Kentucky Resolution of 1798

“On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
– Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Archibald Stuart, Philadelphia, December 23, 1791

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? 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. It is its natural manure.”
– Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787

“The error seems not sufficiently eradicated that the operations of the mind as well as the acts of the body are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit.”
– Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782

“The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”
– Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”
–Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1820

“An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens… Power is not alluring to pure minds and is not with them the primary principle of contest.”
– Thomas Jefferson to John Melish, 1813

“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, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776

“All experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776

Both issues tend to illicit arguments from one side that appeal to morality based upon religious doctrine. The opposing side tends to appeal to individual rights. Where does one draw the line between religious doctrine and individual Liberty? According to the framers, that line was to be drawn by the people of the individual States. What is little known is that the framers did not intend for the US Bill of Rights to be enforced by the Federal government upon the States, to the contrary, it was to be enforced by the States upon the Federal Government, where each state was to be restrained by their respective people according to their respective charter (State Constitution) and included State Declaration of Rights or State Bill of Rights.

Because the US BOR was not originally enforced by the Federal government against the individual States, the various states could (and did) have established churches. Connecticut had an established church until 1818 and Massachusetts until 1833. According to original intent, those who want to enforce morality by law are perfectly within US Constitutional limits to do so at the state/local level. In fact, the early States did this. Each one had anti-sodomy laws at the State level. This of course was influenced by religious doctrine. The framers thought it was best to leave these decisions at the state level, where they can more easily be controlled and changed if the people found them in error. There were some Federal laws that addressed sodomy, but these were confined to Federal jurisdiction, such as military rules and regulations  (Article 1, section 8, clause 14).

The framers understood that the people of America had various ideals. Even if they agreed on some issues, they still left them to be determined by the people of the various states. Local governance was an important principle to the colonists. Where local/state governments are left free to appeal to the various ideals of the people, this allows the people an outlet to govern according to their own ideals without forcing them upon the rest of the United States.

State autonomy according to the 10th amendment should appeal to those on both sides of contentious issues. Allowing the people of various States the freedom to choose how to governing according to their respective ideals allows each side to live under a government that satisfies their principles.

Note: this is an examination of original intent. Also see the incorporation doctrine for more information on 20th century ‘interpretation’.

We have picked our favorite quotes from this short work that summarize it into an even more succinct form. However, we highly recommend you read the original, which only takes about an hour and half to read or two hours to listen to via audio book.

Audio Book (Forward ends 9:37):
.
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”

“By virtue of exchange, one man’s prosperity is beneficial to all others.”

“What, then, is the law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. … since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individual groups. … But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.”

“It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.”

“But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”

“No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate).”

1.) What is the fundamental role of government?

2.) What is the role of the Federal government?

Since the founders realized everyone won’t agree to the answer of the 1st question, they delegated very few and defined powers to the Federal government and left the rest to the people at the local/state level. Where the general government was to only serve the interests of the union at large, including common defense and promoting trade among the states,  the local and state governments were to fulfill the varying ideals of the citizenry.

Established Churches And Local Governance

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were both opponents of established churches at the local and State level, where they both argued against the established church in their State of Virginia which was ended in 1786 after the passage of the “Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom“. However, they conceded that this is still a state issue and not to be directed by the Federal government. Even if they wished other states who had established churches would eventually voluntarily join them in their ideal (Connecticut was the last State to de-establish in 1818), it was their wisdom concerning the nature of power through their study of philosophy and history that lead them to believe this was better for the people of the various states to decide on their own at a more local level, not to be forced upon them by the central government.

This is a very difficult concept for many to accept since the late 1800′s where there was a concerted effort to pull the attention of Americans from their local/state governments and place it with the central government. Our history classes for the past 70+ years have taught US history from a more homogenous stand point, which was not intended, nor has it yielded even the illusion harmony. Instead, it has been attempted to define what it means to be “American” from one standpoint of values, beliefs and ideals. The debate then tends to be over what these “uniform” values, beliefs and ideals are, where many varying factions try to impose their own view; when fundamentally, self-governance should be the emphasis.

The people of various states were intended to have a very broad degree in how they governed accordingly. The people of Virginia may not agree with how things are done in New York or California, but the respective citizens of each state could decide where to live if one place better suited them and their preferred ideals over another.

50 Laboratories of Liberty

There is an ideal of freedom that we all have in our minds. However, this ideal can vary greatly. That is fine so long as we each have an outlet to govern accordingly, which was intended to be the States. Allowing these ideals to compete with one another will most likely yield the best model to be emulated by others.

For those who appeal much more strongly to classical liberalism, they see government’s fundamental role as extremely limited. They believe we have a natural right to do anything we want so long as we don’t interfere with, or directly threaten the rights of other, where the only legitimate function of government is the equal protection of natural rights.

Some have a much more broad ideal of governance and think that government has a role in directing morality and even providing charity, or what they see as the basic necessities of life, including education, food, housing, clothing, healthcare, and even includes government provided retirement.

We each have a definition of Liberty that we would like to see achieved as an ideal, but we should not be under any illusion that using the central government to enforce one ideal over another is the proper way of doing so. We should be willing to accept that others might disagree with our ideals and it is best to allow competing ideals their own area of governance. Under the original construct, this area is their respective state borders. This system has been systematically eroded over the past 100+ years. As a result, these ideals are clashing as more and more power has unnecessarily moved to the central government.

10th Amendment

The 10th amendment of the US Constitution clarifies the boundaries of Federal authority and promotes the concept known as dual-federalism.

“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.”

If we were to carry the founding model forward, we would be de-centralizing government power and respective spheres of authority, not actively promoting a one sized fits all approach to governance.

Visit the Tenth Amendment Center, which is an activism group dedicated to preserving our right to local governance and a Constitutionally limited Federal government.

In the same way, many founders reiterated that the Liberty of the people will always be in contest with the power of government. That the public Liberty will only be maintained by force held by the people themselves.

Thomas Paine said even if government exists in its best state, it is at best a necessary evil. Government is not our friend. It does not love us. It does not want what is best for us by any virtue of its own. Government is a tool, it is a mechanism whereby people can theoretically organize to mutually protect their natural rights. Madison reminded us that the essence of government is power and it will always be liable to abuse. This tendency toward corruption and abuse will always exist. Where some will seek to use this force of government to enhance their own well being at the expense of others. The larger and more powerful the government, the more this threat of corruption is enhanced and the destruction to Liberty by it is increased.

Abuse of power sometimes comes from those who, although well meaning, use the law for a purpose outside of the equal protection of Liberty. Instead, they seek to use the force of law to centrally plan society. They think themselves so enlightened that they can imbed virtue and morality into society by using the force of government. Since government is force, it cannot plan society in this way without committing an injustice itself.

It is not foolish to have a healthy distrust of this type of power and seek to rigidly restrain it. On the contrary, it is foolish to ignore the nature of power and trust government on the basis that it is conferred to those we think are good people.

Public Liberty is not safe where the people simply entrust it to their rulers and abandon the responsibility of securing it on their own. It is not safe where people only posses the spirit of Liberty but lack the principle, which is to understand the most assured protection of their own Liberty is the equal protection of the Liberty of others.

Liberty is not safe where the people ignore the reality that the essence of government is force. Where they relinquish their own responsibility to defend Liberty as they should, and abandon the principle of Liberty itself.

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”
– James Madison, Speech before the Virginia State Constitutional Convention, December 1, 1829
 
 

“Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty?”
– Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788

“Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds. … Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.”
– Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788

“When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.”
– Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788

“The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought.”
– Samuel Adams, Essay, written under the pseudonym “Candidus,” in The Boston Gazette (14 October 1771)
 
 

“The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind.”
– Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 5, March 21, 1778

“Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”
– Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

“Our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, 1775

“The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”
– Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824

“Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.”
– Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819

The American system of government was established as a representative republic under Dual Federalism, where most of the power was retained by the People and State governments. Under this system there was a delicate system of checks and balances to make sure that power was limited and highly decentralized. Most of us are taught about the checks and balances within the central government (three branches), but America under the Constitution was also designed with the State/local governments in mind. These were also supposed to play their role by checking the power of the Federal government. However, the power was understood to be vested ultimately in the people as stated by nearly all State Constitutions in their respective Declaration of Rights.

Section 2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants and at all times amenable to them.
– Virginia Declaration of Rights

This was not realized through direct democracy, which was believed by our framers to be mob rule, where they observed the lessons and failures of direct democracy by civilizations such as Sparta. Instead, they created a Representative Republic.

It was a system of government to be ruled by law, where these laws were made and changed by elected representatives to be held accountable by their relatively small group of constituents. The ratio of citizens to delegates is important, because at some point, as the population grows and representation does not maintain its proper ratio, this system can devolve into an oligarchy, where the many are ruled by a few. At the same time, there is a limit in size to which a legislative body can effectively function.

3 Million to 300 Million

The US Constitution was ratified June 21, 1788, and became law. At that time, the US had 3,000,000 people. The House of Representatives ratio between representatives and people was originally to be 1 representative per 30,000 (Article 1, section 2). The Senate was still elected by their respective State legislators. The House was to be the voice of the people and the Senate, the voice of the States. The smaller group of constituents that each delegate has, the more accountable they are to them. As this group grows, the voice of individuals and even small groups becomes diluted. This compromises the proper balance necessary for self government.

Today, America has approximately 308,000,000 people. The House currently has 435 representatives. This is a ratio of 708,000 people per representative. The Senate has maintained 2 representatives per state (currently 100 members), but it is now popularly elected, so, instead of still being held accountable by a relatively small group of individuals, they directly represent the people of their respective states. State populations range anywhere from 500,000 (Wyoming) to 37,000,000 (California), with an average of 6,000,000. This works out to an average ratio of 3,000,000 people per Senator.

If the current ratios were applied to 1788, the US Congress would have had 4 representatives in the House and 1 Senator for all of the United States. Representation is not practical under this ratio, because the voice of individuals is diluted.

There is a point where representative republics become oligarchies. An argument can be made that we have surpassed that point. It is little wonder why the power of the Federal government continues to grow, seemingly without restraint. There is very little accountability to the people. As the Federal government assumes more powers, this problem is magnified.

Not only did our framers create a government with a much more effective ratio of representatives to people, but the Federal government of their time was much less powerful. The States took on much of the governing responsibility as they were intended under the Constitution. Can we expect the Federal government to be restrained by the Constitution under our current scale? Are the people truly in control?

What can do the Federal government do? The Constitution simplified.

Article 1, section 2

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

(Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.) (The previous sentence in parentheses was modified by the 14th Amendment, section 2.) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.