Sons of Liberty

No 23

September 8, 1995

...Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly 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 long Trains 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 for new Guards for their future Security.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776:

The issue having been broached by the previous releases, and the response which was addressed in Sons of Liberty #22, perhaps further review of the ‘instructions’ which came with the country might be in order. Some might question the word ‘instruction, so let me explain. We are all aware of the Constitution, which is the contract by which we transferred, each of us, our share of the shared authority of the nation, to the government created by that Constitution. In so doing, we cast our lot into the common realm, anticipating faithful compliance by government to their responsibility under the contract.

As has become clear over the past few years, the Constitution has been trampled, shredded and ignored by the very creature which was created by it. We have accepted the premise that government is all powerful, and that we must obey that master -- as has been suggested at the recent ‘hearings’ into the misdeeds of government. We seek methods of redress; we seek justice under the common law; we seek restoration of the republican form of government under the ‘guarantee’; we seek and seek, but we fail to find what we know is there. Surely the Constitution must have some recourse that will allow us to force the government back onto the track to which it was intended. Nowhere, however, in that great document is a remedy found to resolve the problems that we see growing and encroaching more and more every day.

The thought occurred to me a few months ago that we have not ‘replaced’ the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution, rather the Constitution is the natural by-product of the Declaration. So long as the contract is not breached, the Constitution is a viable and valuable document. Should that contract fail, however, there must be a remedy. Surely the Founders, in those few months of preparation, were not able to anticipate all problems nor the advent of the technological age that we now live in. Surely they did not anticipate that human nature would change and the government should be allowed a free hand in controlling our lives.

Unlike the Articles of Confederation, which were superseded by the ratification of the Constitution, the Declaration remains unscathed as a reminder of the only recourse we have against despotism and tyranny. Wisely, those who gave us this great nation also left ‘instructions’, should they ever be necessary to remedy (fix) problems then unanticipated but which might occur in the future. The Declaration was not made obscure, rather it remained as much a part of our heritage as any other document.

In a review of that set of instructions it becomes clear that we are not addressing certain rights such as speech, religion, bearing arms or militia. We are dealing with a much more fundamental concept. The Founders not only preserved the Right, but remind us of the Duty that we have to ourselves and our posterity, to provide for security of those blessings they paid so dearly for. Now. eleven generations later, the burden falls upon us to restore the dignity of man, and his ability to govern himself. Our Duty is clear, and for the sake of our Posterity, Necessary!

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