The Principles of Liberty: Principle 17

The 28 Principles of Liberty: Principle 17

“A System of Checks and Balances Should be Adopted to Prevent the Abuse of Power”

After John Adams had sold the people on the separation of powers, it must have been shocking to him to see that they wanted to make the separation so complete that it would have made the system unworkable.

The individuals who took a puritanical view opposed the adoption of the Constitution because they wanted the separation complete and absolute. They missed the most important part, and that was that they were to be separate in their functions, but subject to the checks and balances of the other two departments in case it became abusive in performing those functions.

James Madison spent 5 of the Federalist Papers numbers, 47 to 51, explaining why the separation of powers should not be absolute, but should make allowances for a built-in system of checks and balances. He conceded that keeping the three departments separated was fundamental to the preservation of liberty.

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

The purpose of checks and balances is a constitutional control in the hands of each department of government to prevent any usurpation of power by another department or abusive administration of the power granted to it.

The failure to use the checks and balances effectively has resulted in allowing the judiciary to create new laws by pretending to be merely interpreting old laws. Failure to use checks and balances has also allowed the President to make thousands of new laws, instead of congress, by issuing executive orders. It has allowed the federal government to invade the reserved rights of the states on a massive scale. It has allowed the legislature to impose taxes on the people never contemplated by the Founders, or the Constitution. Each department of the government has the responsibility to rise up and protect its prerogatives by exercising the checks and balances which have been provided, and even more so, the people have the responsibility to be the watchmen over their representatives and elect ONLY those that will function within Constitutional boundaries.

James Madison said, “As the people are the only legitimate foundation of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter under which the power of the several branches of government is derived, it seems strictly consonant to the republican theory to recur to the same original authority whenever an one of the departments may commit encroachment on the chartered authorities of the others.”

How do the people protect themselves? Madison sought many different avenues and found that the only protection was within the machinery of checks and balances provided in the Constitution as written.

The three departments are independent, yet reliant on each other to fulfill their functions, so they are mutually dependent. Their resulting system was far more complex then Montesquieu. Here are their provisions:

1. The House of Representatives serves as a check on the Senate since no statue can become a law without their approval.

2. The Senate also serves as the check on the House of Representatives since no statue can become a law without its approval.

3. A President can restrain them both by using his veto to send back a bill not meeting his approval.

4. The Congress has on the other hand, a check on the President by being able to pass a bill over his veto with a 2/3 majority of each house.

5. The legislature also has a further check on the President through its power of discrimination in appropriating funds for the operation of the executive branch.

6. The President must have the approval of the Senate in filing important offices of the executive branch.

7. The President must also have the approval of the Senate before any treaties with foreign nations can go into effect.

8. The Congress has the authority to conduct investigations of the executive branch to determine whether or not funds are being properly expended and the laws enforced.

9. The President has a certain amount of political influence on the legislature by letting it be known that he will not support the reelection of those who oppose his program.

10. The executive branch also has further check on the Congress by using its discretionary powers in establishing military bases, building dams, improving navigable rivers, and building interstate highways so as to favor those areas from which the President feels he is getting support by their representatives.

11. The judiciary has a check on the legislature through its authority to review all laws and determine their constitutionality.

12. The Congress, on the other hand, has a restraining power over the judiciary by having the constitutional authority to restrict the extent of its jurisdiction.

13. The Congress also has the power to impeach any of the judges who are guilty of treason, high crimes or misdemeanors.

14. The President also has a check on the judiciary by having the power to nominate new judges subject to the approval of the senate.

15. The Congress has further restraining power over the judiciary by having the control of appropriations for the operation of the federal court system.

16. The Congress is able to initiate amendments to the Constitution which, if approved by three-fourths of the states, could seriously effect the operation of both the executive and judicial branches.

17. The Congress, by joint resolution, can terminate certain powers granted to the President such as war powers without his consent.

18. The people have a check on their congressmen every two years, on their President every four years, and on their Senators every six years.

The Founders Device for Peaceful Self-Repair

In other nations that copied our constitution, they forgot to incorporate adequate checks and balances. Instead, when a usurper takes over, they must use an army and result to machine guns and bombs to get them out. What the founders wished to achieve in the Constitution of 1787 was machinery for the peaceful means of self-repair when the system when out of balance.

During Watergate, this peaceful process was used. The Congress threatened to impeach, and the President who used his high office for purposes that were outside his scope of authority and the ramifications of legal conduct, he resigned. There was no command of the army to allow him to stay in power; it was a quiet and peaceful transition. This was the primary purpose of the United States Constitution, to have a peaceful means in order to repair distortions of power. While it requires more patience then the use of force, its outcome is much more certain.

Man, Freedom, and Government

The 28 Principles of Liberty- Principle #7

The 28 Principles of Liberty- Principle #7

"The Proper role of Government is to Protect Equal Rights, Not Provide Equal Things."

During the days of the Founders in Europe, it was popular for people to proclaim that the role of government was to take from the 'haves' and give to the 'have nots' so that all might be truly 'equal'. However, the founders knew that this proposition contained a major fallacy.

People cannot delegate to government the power to do anything that they could not do themselves. We have the right to protect our life and property, therefore, we have the ability to delegate our protection to government through a police force, which would protect the lives and property of all the people. Let's suppose that there is a kind-hearted man that saw that one neighbor had two cars, while another neighbor had none. What would happen if the kind man went to the neighbor with two cars, took one, and then generously gave it to the neighbor that had none? He would be arrested for theft of course! No matter how genuinely he cared about his neighbor with none, he has no right to steal from the neighbor with abundance and give it to another. The neighbor with abundance still has the right to their property. Of course, the prosperous neighbor could choose to donate the care to the neighbor in need, but it would be his decision, and not that of the kind hearted neighbor who wanted to rob from the rich to give to the poor.



Governments can sometimes commit 'legal' crimes. Let's say that the kind-hearted man asks the mayor and city council to give one of the cars from the prosperous neighbor to the man with none, does that make it anymore right? Of course not! And it is worse, because now, not only did the man lose his property, but now he also lost his right to appeal because the government did it. The Founders warned that anytime a government is allowed to start taking the possessions of others to start equalizing the distribution of goods, then the government thereafter will have been given the power to take away the right to enjoy life, liberty and property from ANY of the people.

Those who receive from this idea generally think that this is a just system. But what happens when government starts taking also from those that are poor? Then they will claim their right to their property, but the government will then say,"Now we decide who has rights in things." When the government was given the power to rob from the rich and give to the poor it immediately nullifies the principle of guaranteed equal rights, it opens the floodgates for government to meddle with everyone's rights.

When Communists seized power in Hungary, the peasants were delighted at first when the government seized the large farms from their owners, and then gave it to the peasants. But then later, the government seized 3/4 of the peasant land to create government communal farms, of course the peasants screamed about their property rights, but it was too late. If they continued to protest, they lost their liberty and in several instances their lives.

The Founders made sure that we could protect our freedom to prosper by protecting the rights of ALL people. There was no penalty for getting rich. The people would not be locked into the poverty level as they had in other nations. There would be some that would have more than others, but the entire nation could prosper. It was believed that man had an instinct to succeed and by having the freedom to prosper, the whole people would prosper together. People were encouraged to store up and save for a time when things were not prosperous, or to help their neighbors when they hit on rough times. Hard work, thrift and frugality were the key words for the American Ethic.

The Founders made these European theories unconstitutional. America became the most prosperous and most educated nation in the world, and consequently, the most generous. Samuel Adams said, "The utopian schemes of leveling (redistribution of wealth), and a community of goods (central ownership of all the means of production and distribution), are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the Crown. (These ideas) are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government, unconstitutional."

Yet, there are still those who insist that compassion for the poor requires the Federal Government becoming involved and taking from the 'haves' and giving to the 'have nots'. Benjamin Franklin had been one of the 'have nots' and having experienced these welfare programs of 'counter-productive compassion', he wrote an entire essay on the subject. He called the programs a great evil in not only the way in which it operates, but also because it encourages idleness.

Franklin wrote: "To relieve the misfortune of our fellow creatures is concurring with the deity; it is godlike; but, if we provide encouragement for laziness, and supports for folly, may we not be found fighting against the order of God and Nature, which perhaps has appointed want and misery as the proper punishments for, and caution against, as well as necessary consequences of, Idleness and extravagance? Whenever we attempt to amend the scheme of Providence, and to interfere with the government of the world, we had need be very circumspect, lest we do more harm then good."

The Founders all had deep feelings about helping the poor and less fortunate, but they had guidelines, a calculated compassion:

1. Do not help the needy completely, simply help them help themselves.
2. Give the poor the satisfaction of earned achievement instead of rewarding without achievement.
3. Allow the poor to climb the 'appreciation ladder', from tents to cabins, cabins to cottages, cottages to comfortable homes.
4. Where emergency help is provided, do not prolong it to where it becomes habitual.
5. Strictly enforce fixed responsibility. First the individual is responsible for himself, the second level is the family, then the church, next the community, finally the country and in a disaster or emergency, the state. Under no circumstances is the Federal Government to become involved in welfare. The Founders felt that this would corrupt the government and the poor. There is NO constitutional authority for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare.

The Founders did this to protect the people from abuse by an overly-aggressive government.
Which brings us to the next principle.

The 28 Principles of Liberty are adapted from w. Cleon Skousen's Book "The 5000 year Leap". Charity Angel's official site is www.CharityAngel.com These articles in their entirety can be found at www.28principlesofliberty.blogspot.com

The 28 Principles of Liberty -Principle #6

The 28 Principles of Liberty

Principle #6

All Men Are Created Equal

When we read the statement “All Mankind are Created Equal”, what do we think that it means? We know that we are all born into different lifestyles, have different talents and abilities, and different opportunities, so what did the Founder’s mean by that statement? There are only three ways that mankind can be equal, and they are to be treated as equals in the sight of God, in the sight of the law, and in the protection of their rights. Some people, like Jean Jacques Rousseau, get a little confused and think that this means that men should be equal in all things. John Adam’s called this type of thinking a “gross fraud”.

While our country has not had a perfect history in defending the rights of all, that is what the Founder’s intended. The breakdown really occurs with minorities. Minorities in any country feel like they are the outsiders and they want to be the insiders. What is interesting about America is that every group in this nation was once a minority. After the major influx of immigrants to the U.S., it was only two or three generations before the immigrants became first-class citizens.

After the Constitution was adopted in 1789, there were four amendments added to make sure that everyone could enjoy equal rights. These were the thirteenth, the fourteenth, the fifteenth, and the Nineteenth.

The Founders distinguished between equal rights and they recognized that society should seek to provide equal opportunities but not expect equal results, provide for equal rights, but not equal things; provide equal protection but not equal status; provide equal education opportunities but not equal grades. The founder’s believed that the moment that we tried to force people to have everything equally would be the moment that we lose our liberty.

This article was adapted by Charity Angel from W. Cleon Skousen’s book “The 5000 Year Leap”. (The same book recommended by Glenn Beck).

This series can also be found at www.LDSFreemen.com, The Free-Patriot Press, and printed in the Cape Fair Missouri Newspaper.

More on Glenn Beck:

Glenn Beck's request "The first thing you could do, please, is get the 5,000 Year Leap. Over my book or anything else, get the 5,000 Year Leap."

• It's the book Ronald Reagan wanted taught in high schools and Ted Kennedy stopped it from happening.

• When you read these principles, your mouth will fall open. You'll read it and you'll be -- the scales will fall off your eyes on who we are.

• You'll be able to know what makes it possible for 6% of humanity living under our free economy to produce 1/2 of the Earth's developed wealth every single year.

• It's the virtues and the principles that our founders believed in, that took us and pushed us and made us -- allowed us to take a 5,000 year leap from the dark into the sunshine.

• Help those people who have been deceived or misinformed find the truth.

Glenn Beck Recommends this Book! Best Book About the US Constitution

READ THIS BOOK!!!!

Our Grave Responsibility

Principles of Liberty -Principle #5

"All Things Were Created by God, Therefore upon Him All Mankind are Equally Dependent, and to Him They are Equally Responsible."

The Founders vigorously affirm throughout their writings that the foundation of all reality is the existence of the Creator who is the designer of all things in nature and the promulgator of all the laws that govern nature.

The Founders were in harmony with John Locke who said that a person who calls himself an 'atheist' is merely confessing that he has never dealt with the issue of the Creator's existence. Therefore Locke would say that an Atheist is out of touch with the most important and fundamental reality.

John Locke insists that everyone can know that there is a divine Creator. With Descartes each person can say "Cogito ergo sum'. With God, each person can say, "I AM!" Further more, each person knows that he is something. And something cannot be produced by nothing. Therefore what brought man and everything else into existence had to be something. In order for all of this organizing and arranging to be as such that it is, the Organizer would have to be all-knowing. The something would therefore have to be superior to everything which had resulted from this effort.

Locke taught that the Creator must be a cogitative being since man is cogitative. And that a non-cogitative being like a rock could never have produced a cogitative being like a man. Locke also taught that the Creator would reflect a sense of right and wrong, and a sense of indignation for violation of the law.

The American Founding Fathers agreed with Locke. They considered this truth as the most fundamental premise underlying ALL self-evident truth.

The Founding Fathers also relied on the writings of William Blackstone when it came to their foundation on God's revealed law. He stated that the will of God which is expressed in the orderly nature of the universe is called "the law of nature' and there are laws for human nature just as surely as they exist for the rest of the universe.

The Founders looked at the Creator as both intelligent and benevolent, and anxious and able to respond to people's petitions when they are deserving of needed blessings and engaged in a good cause.

Charles Bracelen Flood discovered in his research that during the Revolutionary War that there were at least sixty-seven desperate moments that George Washington acknowledged that he would have suffered disaster had not the hand of God intervened in behalf of the struggle for Independence. James Madison also acknowledged the hand of God during the Constitutional Convention.

We can now see that the Founders were quite sincere when they adopted the motto "In God we trust." And it is also now clear why they required all witnesses who testify to take an oath and swear before God that they will tell the truth.

In closing, a note from Tocqueville "A presiding judge remarked that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction (in law, that which gives binding force) of all testimony in a court of justice; and that he knew of no case in a Christian country where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief."

(The 28 Principles of Liberty are adapted from the book "The 5000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen. This article is also published at www.Myspace.com/angelsings www.LDSFreemen.com and the Cape Fair Cryer newspaper in Missouri.)

The 28 Principles of Liberty -Principle #4

Principle 4 "Without Religion the Government of a Free People Cannot be Maintained."

Many people today fail to realize the importance that the Founding Fathers felt religion played in the structure of the American Civilization that they hoped would emerge as the first free people of modern times. They felt that religion would be as important to us today, as it was to them then.

In 1787, the same year that the Constitution was written and approved by congress, they passed the Northwest Ordinance, which emphasized the essential need to teach religion and Morality in schools. Here is how they worded it:

"Article 3: religion, Morality, and Knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encourage."

George Washington, in his farewell address said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion...Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."

In order to avoid divisive religious teachings, Jefferson wrote a bill for Establishing Elementary Schools in Virginia that made religion a unifying cultural adhesive. It stated, "No religious reading, instruction, or exercise shall be prescribed or practiced inconsistent with any religious sect or denomination." So, the religious tenets in public schools would have been what was universally accepted by all faiths and fundamental in their premises.

Benjamin Franklin gave five fundamental points to be taught in the schools.
1. There is a Creator who made all things and mankind should recognize and worship Him.
2. The Creator revealed a moral code of behavior for happy living that distinguishes right from wrong.
3. The Creator will hold us accountable for how we treat each other.
4. All mankind live beyond this life.
5. In the next life mankind are judged for their conduct in this one.

The Founders often referred to these five fundamentals as the religion of America. Samuel Adams said that is group of basic beliefs constitute 'the religion of America and is the religion of all mankind." John Adams called these tenets the general principles on which the American Civilization was founded. America became great, because America was good. When America is no longer good then we can expect that the nation will cease to be great.

(The 28 Principles of Liberty are adapted from the book "The 5000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen. This article is also published at www.Myspace.com/angelsings www.LDSFreemen.com and the Cape Fair Cryer newspaper in Missouri.)

28 Principles of Liberty Principle 2- Public Virtue

Between 1775 and 1776 there were many heated debates between the colonies on the topic of morality. These debates focused on whether or not the people were adequately virtuous and moral enough to govern themselves. Self-government, referred to as ‘republicanism’, was dependent upon a pure and unselfish people to operate successfully.

Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.’ George Washington also stated that the American Constitution could only survive as long as there remained virtue in the people.

What then is public virtue? It is human character and service that adheres to the golden rule. Even though the people hungered after independence, they feared that they were not good enough to make it work. By the spring of 1776, there were thousands of confident voices throughout the land proclaiming that there was enough public virtue to make the republican principles work successfully. This movement was catapulted forwarded by the writings of Thomas Paine, specifically his best seller “Common Sense.”

Many became aware of their lack of public virtue due to their non-involvement in the affairs of government. This accelerated the revolution because, as the people enjoyed a better life due to the changes that they made, they felt that they needed to hurry and cut their nation off from the corrupting influence of Britain. One American wrote, ‘Elegance, luxury and effeminacy begin to be established.’ David Ramsey declared that if Americans had not revolted ‘our frugality, industry, and simplicity of manners, would have been lost in an imitation of British extravagance, idleness and false refinements.’

Samuel Adams said, ‘The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall be both deserve and enjoy it. While, on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.’


There is a key to preserving a virtuous nation, and our founders knew it. It is called Principle #3


(The 28 Principles of Liberty are adapted from the book "The 5000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen. This article is also published at www.Myspace.com/angelsings www.LDSFreemen.com and the Cape Fair Cryer newspaper in Missouri.)

Voices of Warning: Our Awful Situation

I am posting these 4 videos to help educate everyone as rapidly as possible to what many have tried to warn us about. Latter-day Saints have the advantage of The Book of Mormon and what it teaches us to do when we Awaken to our Awful Situation. See Ether Chapter 8. We are to repent and preach the gospel, and Alma said, try the virtue of the word of God to bring the people to repentance. We must change our ways in order to protect our liberty.









Some ways that we can repent. Turn to God and acknowledge that it is He that grants us our liberty. Trust in Him rather then the arm of flesh. Repent for being apathetic, and get involved in the defense of your liberty by studying the Constitution, paying attention to what your Representatives, Congressmen, and Senators are doing. Stand for correct principles, do not allow liberty to be infringed on. Lend your voice, vote, attend caucuses, conventions, legislative hearings, and consider running for office. Warn your neighbors. Live a virtuous life, seek to be righteous, for it is righteousness that exalteth a nation.

The founders and the people at the time of The Declaration of Independence knew that it required a good, virtuous and religious people to have a truly free society. We need to return to the goodness that America had, take a forthright stand for morality, higher standards and the commandments of God. This is the only way that we will be able to have our liberty protected.