Where Do Rights

Where Do Rights Come From?

by David L. Miner

In the last issue of the Republic Report, we discussed a Constitutional republic, and the Constitution that created it. We saw that our Constitution was designed to limit the federal government. We saw that all rights not explicitly listed are still rights belonging to We The People. And we saw that all powers not explicitly delegated to the federal government are explicitly kept from the federal government.

In the last issue, we looked briefly at laws. In this issue, we will explore the question of rights.

Where do rights come from? When our Founding Fathers considered the beginnings of this nation, they faced that question. After many hours of deep discussion, they considered something that perhaps never before was considered. All through history, it was accepted as fact that rights were granted by those in power to those being ruled. Some governments went to great lengths to guarantee the rights granted to the individuals. Sadly, some governments never worried about that at all. But rights were always believed to rest with the government. Until our Founding Fathers, that is!

What was this unique concept that dawned on our Founding Fathers? We see the answer in America's Declaration Of Independence. Beginning in the second paragraph, we read:

"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."

All rights come from God, and all rights rest in mankind. What a concept!

The government doesn't have rights! The government doesn't pass out rights to the People! The government has no authority but that authority delegated to it by those with rights!

No other government in history has the same concepts behind it. No other nation was born into such freedom. No other people had authority over their government like Americans have over our government.

The Founding Fathers decided to create the freest nation in history. They decided to create a government based on delegated authority, NOT based on inherent authority. America is the Land of the Free, not the Land of the Ruled! Our government has no authority but that authority which We The People delegated to it more than 200 years ago.

The document which spells out exactly what authority has been delegated to the federal government is the Constitution for the United States of America. This Constitution grants no rights. It recognizes existing rights or it grants privileges, but it cannot grant rights. It has no authority to grant rights. And the government cannot grant itself authority to do anything. Either We The People have delegated authority to it, or else the federal government has no authority over that issue at all. It is that simple!

So how can we explain the current federal government, with all its laws and agencies and spending programs? There can only be one explanation: the federal government has usurped (wrongfully taken) authority where it had no authority. It has exceeded its lawful limitations. The government has stepped outside its Constitution and has no intention of returning. It has abandoned its only legitimate authority and is living under a false and assumed authority.

Our federal government is no longer "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Those words are a powerful indictment of our federal government. As we consider those words, we should also consider what our Founding Fathers had to say about any government which has stepped outside its moral limitations. The next few lines from our Declaration of Independence, immediately following the lines above, are as follows:

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."