Freedom in One Lesson

72.

Reflections on America’s
Founding Documents

Politicians and opinion makers frequently refer to America’s founding documents and what they mean today; however, the abyss between the policies their interpretations favor and those favored by the documents themselves demonstrates an incredible ability to miss the essential things that are there and to see what isn’t there.

Leonard Read offers a welcome alternative to such misinterpretations and consequent policy mistakes. In particular, in his 1976 book Comes the Dawn (Read 1976a), three chapters—“The Heritage We Owe Our Children,” “The Role of Differences,” and “ Two Directions at Once”—offer insight into what made America unique in the history of liberty.

From “The Heritage We Owe Our Children”:

A few men who did look into “the law of liberty” bequeathed to present-day Americans a unique heritage. They were the authors of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. In what respect were these political documents unique? First, they unseated government as the endower of men’s rights. . . . Second, they more severely limited government than ever before—for the first time in history, hardly any organized coercion standing against the release of creative energy. Result? The greatest outburst of creative energy ever known, simply because the millions were free to act creatively as they pleased. Political power diminished and dispersed beyond the ready grasp of authoritarians who would run our lives. That was the American miracle! . . .

. . . If we would retain and strengthen that heritage bequeathed to us, we must bequeath it to our children. . . .

. . . Our politico-economic sires were familiar with the tyranny—authoritarianism—from which they found escape. . . . We, in our times . . . have little to go by except a dwindling hearsay. . . .

. . . A vast majority of this later generation are inclined to take the American miracle as much for granted as the air we breathe. . . .

What steps are required, then, for a return to liberty by the millions who have innocently gone along with “leaders” of the Command Society? . . .

. . . The initial step is to grasp the very essence of Americanism: “. . . that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty.” This . . . for the first time in the history of nations, casts government out of that role. . . . Our heritage stems from this glorious triumph of human liberty—everyone free to act creatively as he chooses. . . .

The next step is to recognize the real meaning of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. . . .

For the true significance, reread the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and note that there are 45 “no’s” and “not’s” circumscribing governmental power. Reduced to a sentence, they decree: “Government, keep your coercive fingers out of these activities; we reserve these—all of them—to ourselves as free and self-responsible citizens!” . . .

An agency of society to invoke a common justice and to keep the peace is a social necessity. Its role is to codify the taboos—injustices—and punish any trespass on individual rights. . . . But to expect that coercive force so delegated will be or even can be self-limiting is utterly absurd. . . . This carelessness is fatal to a good society. Why? Our hoped-for protector turned plunderer, as we are witnessing.

There is one remedy, and one only: Eternal vigilance on the part of the citizenry is the price of liberty. How be vigilant? Master the “no’s” and “not’s” set forth in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and insist with all the reason one can muster that the taboos limiting runaway power be strictly observed. If we would bequeath to our children that which our Founding Fathers bequeathed to us, this is the price. . . .

. . . Our Founding Fathers saw eye to eye on despotism and declared their independence of it. May we follow in their footsteps!

From “ Two Directions at Once”:

The Constitution and Bill of Rights confirmed and aimed to perpetuate a novel theory of a servant government of strictly limited powers. In the decades that followed, citizens did not turn to government for succor, for government was so limited that it had nothing on hand to dispense, nor did it then have the power to take from some and give to others. In the absence of any political nursemaid, there developed a remarkable self-reliance among the people. Further, government was limited to defending life and the honest fruits of men’s labors; it was not empowered to inhibit the creative actions of citizens. As a consequence, there was a freeing of creative human energy. In short, here was political liberty, the like of which had never existed elsewhere. Self-reliant men and women, freed from predators and freed from restraints on their creativity, brought into existence what is loosely referred to as “the American heritage.”

Americans, however, began to take the blessings of liberty for granted. Unprecedented well-being came to be regarded as an act of nature; progress seemed as inevitable as the sun’s appearance in the morning. That the practice of difficult human virtues and political wisdom lay at the root of this new-world miracle was forgotten or, more likely, never learned by new generations . . . unaware of the rationale on which their magnificent edifice was erected. The intellectual and moral foundation weakened and the limitations on government were relaxed. Disaster—in the form of a return to the old-world pattern of sovereign state and servant people—was only a matter of time.

. . . Most citizens, enjoying the forward thrust that was possible under limited governmental structures, came to believe that the ever-increasing governmental intervention they subsequently voted was responsible for their prosperity and well-being. Today, they fail to see that the genuine bounties in their situation are but the result of an earlier momentum precisely as they fail to recognize the bogus aspects of present “prosperity.” Self-reliance and freed energies have made for such wealth that they can, for a time at least, take government pap without apparent immediate injury. And many believe the pap to be the cause of their vitality.

. . . The crack in American constitutional theory certainly was not observed when it first occurred. . . .

We accepted a communistic doctrine when we adopted the Sixteenth Amendment . . . so it was natural that socialism in all its forms would follow in due course. One could hardly expect a people to embrace this plank from the Communist Manifesto and at the same time have any strong misgivings about other socialistic theories and practices. . . .

. . . What the socialistic system is: It is the opposite of the free market or willing exchange economy. It is forced, unwilling, coerced exchange. It rests on the suppression of creative human energy. It is the substitution of authoritarianism for market phenomena.

To commandeer, that’s it! Webster defines “commandeer” “to take arbitrary possession of; to commandeer men or goods.”. . . . The honest fruits of our labors are commandeered. . . . No one can possibly name all the commandeering by our thousands of governments. However, this we can deduce: One’s earnings or capital would be employed otherwise if free choice rather than commandeering prevailed. Keep in mind that the very essence of ownership is control; that which I do not control, I do not own! The political order that features commandeering can be appropriately termed, “The Command Society.”

Freedom loses ground because of our taking-for-granted attitudes, our lethargy, our unawareness. But . . . our freedom is conditioned on our understanding of its nature and purpose.

From “The Role of Differences”:

I side with the English poet, William Cowper:

Tis liberty alone that gives the flower

Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume,

And we are weeds without it. All constraint

Except what wisdom lays on evil men

Is evil.

Briefly, all constraint against the freedom of any individual to act creatively as he chooses is evil. . . .

. . . A new Constitution . . . would be but a reflection or echoing of the preponderant leadership thinking of our time. As a consequence, it would resemble the Communist Manifesto! . . .

. . . Whatever shows forth on today’s political horizon reflects our preponderant leadership thinking. The Declaration, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were a reflection of the leadership thinking two centuries ago. Not perfect, but history’s best—by far! Note that these documents are no more than scraps of paper today, because our leadership thinking is too corrupt to sustain such wisdom.

Let our thinking improve until those in public office no longer vie with each other as to the good they can do for us with our money. Improve our thinking . . . and they will contend with each other to advance free market, private ownership, limited government ideas and ideals. . . .

The mess we observe today is but the effect of hanging onto yesterday’s poor thinking. . . .

. . . Every socialistic cliche serves as a steppingstone toward making a better case for freedom. . . .

Liberty . . . will not grace a people who are slumping into apathy, who quit thinking for selves, or who let prosperity—a by-product of liberty—go to their heads. Merely scrutinize what’s going on. . . .

What then must we learn? To perceive and to adhere to the virtue—integrity, statesmanship, moral exemplarity on a higher plane than has ever been known.

Americans today do not live in the world of limited government created by our founders and founding documents but in a world of unlimited government restricted only by a few favored constitutional rights still defended by the Supreme Court. Leonard Read reminds us how truly stupendous was the human growth and creativity unleashed by history’s greatest demotion of government from its authoritarian control over individual lives. But he also reminds us how much we have regressed. History’s freest society has largely become a command society because we have rapidly expanded the areas in which we are commanded or commandeered. Recovering Read’s wisdom is now more important than ever.