Rights in The Constitution

Rights in The Constitution

What is the American Dream?

What We Will Cover: • Definitions of Rights • The Founders’ View on Rights • - What is the origin of rights? • - Who possesses these rights? • - Why do rights matter? • The Actual Words of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution in Regards to Rights • Modern Day Confusion of Rights • What We Can Do About It

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary Right: (adjective) “Accordant to the standard of truth and justice or the will of God. That alone is right in the sight of God, which is consonant to his will or law; this being the only perfect standard of truth and justice.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary Right: (adjective) “Accordant to the standard of truth and justice or the will of God. That alone is right in the sight of God, which is consonant to his will or law; this being the only perfect standard of truth and justice. In social and political affairs, that is right which is consonant to the laws and customs of a country, provided these laws and customs are not repugnant to the laws of God.”

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary Right: (noun) “Just claim; immunity; privilege. All men have a right to the secure enjoyment of life, personal safety, liberty and property. ” Defended/demanded justifiably by force Freedom that complies with natural law - Freedom to . . . - Freedom from . . .

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis; a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?” Thomas Jefferson

“Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another... It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.” Thomas Paine

“Each of us has a natural right - from God - to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two.” Frederic Bastiat

“It seems to me that the rights of the state can be nothing but the regularizing of pre-existent personal rights. For my part, I cannot conceive a collective right that does not have its foundation in an individual right or presuppose it. Hence, to know whether the state is legitimately invested with a right, we must ask whether the individual has that right in virtue of his nature and in the absence of all government.”. Frederic Bastiat

“If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right --its reason for existing, its lawfulness -- is based on individual right.” Frederic Bastiat

“(We) rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.” James Madison

“Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. Thomas Jefferson

“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. Thomas Jefferson

“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

“ . . . freedom is not, as we are told, liberty for every man to do what he [desires] (for who could be free when every other man’s humour might domineer over him?). [Freedom is] a liberty to dispose, and order as he [desires], his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be subject to the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.” John Locke

“ . . . the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others, which cannot be where there is no law.” John Locke

“With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens - a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” Thomas Jefferson

“The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.” Thomas Jefferson

The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self evident,

The Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal

The Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator

The Declaration of Independence “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,

The Declaration of Independence “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

The Declaration of Independence “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,

The Declaration of Independence “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

The Declaration of Independence “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.

The Declaration of Independence “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,

The Declaration of Independence “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”

“Before the formation of this Constitution . . . this Declaration of Independence was received and ratified by all the States in the Union and has never been disannuled.” Samuel Adams

Article VII The ratification of the conventions of nine states, shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same. done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the TwelfthIn witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

The Declaration of Independence “ . . . [T]he [Constitution] is but the body and the letter of which the [Declaration of Independence] is the thought and the spirit, and it is always safe to read the letter of the constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. No duty rests more imperatively upon the courts than the enforcement of those constitutional provisions intended to secure that equality of rights which is the foundation of free government.”

“The Declaration of Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment.” Warren Burger

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Benjamin Franklin

“Limited” Government Article I, Section 4, Clause 2 “The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year . . .”

“That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves. If we are directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we will soon want for bread.” Thomas Jefferson

The Preamble to The Constitution of the United States “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Preamble to the Bill of Rights “The conventions of a number of 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:

“I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?” Alexander Hamilton

U.S. Constitution Amendment IX “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

U.S. Constitution Amendment I “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

“The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they found hospitals, prisons, and schools. Alexis de Tocqueville

“If it is proposed to inculcate some truth or to foster some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society. Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.” Alexis de Tocqueville

U.S. Constitution Amendment X “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,

U.S. Constitution Amendment X “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,

U.S. Constitution Amendment X “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.”

As an individual, I have the unquestionable, God-given right to be: Free from . . . Free to . . . Coercion Use force to defend these freedoms Invasion To pursue my own version of happiness Injury/Death Confiscation As long as I don’t infringe on the individual rights of another.

Rights in The Constitution