A Bicentennial Question; C. Carson

CLARENCE B. CARSON A Bicentennial Question: An Ascendant or Setting Sun? As the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia drew to a close in 1787, James Madison noted some concluding remarks by the elder statesman of the gathering, Ben jamin Franklin. His observations had to do with a sun painted 011 the back of the chair of the presiding officer. Franklin declared that Painters have found it difficult to di~tinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have, said he, often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was ris ing or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun. Dr. Carson has written and taught extensively, specializing in American intellectual history. His· most recent book, The Rebirth of Liberty ( 1973), covers the founding of the American Republic from 1760 to 1800.

A painter of course, can distin guish between an ascendant and a setting sun. However, for those of us attempting to assess the state of the republic of the United States on the two hundredth anniversary of its founding, it is not easy to lo cate the position of our sun. The signs are mixed, and the sun is ob scured by a cover of clouds. There are many indications that these United States are in the as cendant. Certainly, the wealth of Americans is great as is attested to by their homes, their automobiles, their appliances, their weekend and vacation paraphernalia, and the food they consume. The great abun dance in the land can be viewed in the innumerable markets within easy access of almost any inhabi t ant of the country: the supermar kets with their array of food and drink, the department stores with 67 68 THE FREEMAN Februar'y their astonishing variety "of goods, the gleaming automobiles for sale in the lots, and the specialty stores which cater to almost every whim and taste. Public buildings are usu ally massive and nearly always in a good state of repair. Superhigh ways crisscross the land to link the people together, as do television networks, railroads, airlines, and two-lane highways which have long since become commonplace.· Engi neers manipulate tiny computers to set in motion giant construc tion equipment to build more still of what is wanted to dwell in, work in, look at, or use in some fashion.

A disinterested observer surveying this immense material achievement would surely be moved to declare that the American sun is in the as cendant. Nor should it be thought that the reaches of the mind and spirit have been neglected in the United States. Although it is not possible by alluding to outward signs to give any measure of the quality of what is provided, there is much to show that wealth and attention have been lavished upon intellec tual and spiritual matters. Of books, records, libraries, schools, colleges, universities, churches, seminaries, newspapers, maga zines, seminars, theaters, and audi toriums there are a plenitude. Clergymen, professors, musicians, writers, commentators, critics, evangelists, painters, architects, and lawyers abound. Missions of one sort or another to other parts of the world attest to some degree to the ascendancy of the United States. Not Clearly Marked But the signs are mixed, as I said; some point to ascendancy, others to descent, decline,· to a set ting sun. One such sign is the fiscal operations of our governments. De spi te the huge take in taxes, the debt of the United States govern ment, already grown astronomical, continues to mount. Our politicians do not have the courage to balance the budget, reduce expenses, or set aside funds for the retirement of the debt; indeed, few appear to reckon the debt as a problem. Many states and municipalities totter un der the heavy burden of bonded indebtedness. The huge debt, both public and private, is kept afloat largely by massive infusions of pa per money which results in a con tinuous deterioration of the value of the dollar.

Back of this mounting indebted ness accompanied by the decline in the value of the dollar is a related development which is its cause. It is the proliferating government programs of aid, subsidy, and wel fare. Most of these programs have started modestly and then begun to balloon in fairly short order. The 1976 A BICENTENNIAL QUESTION 69 Medicare program cost somewhat over $3 billion in 1967, its first full year. Advance estimates of the cost in 1975 are just under $14 billion. So it has been, in program after program. The advance commit ments of the Federal government have reached the point that it is difficult to conceive how the budget could be balanced, much less that the debt should be funded. It is not my intention, however, to enter .upon a lengthy recital of the assets and liabilities of either their government or~he American people. Whatever the merits of such assessments, they are regular ly made by the Bureau of the Bud get and wrestled with, however in effectively, by the President and Congress. And certainly, it is not to the purpose here to construct lists of American virtues and vices from which to draV\r conclusions about where we are headed. Those with a taste for American virtues and vices, particularly the vices, can find accounts aplenty, if the daily newspaper does not entirely dull the appetite for more.

Whether the American sun is in the ascendant or is setting cannot be determined by totting up what someone or other believes are our virtues and vices, entering them in separate columns, and dra'wing conclusions about which predomi nate. The question must be answer ed, if it can be-answered even tentatively, .in terms of deep-seated trends and where they aretending. Unbalanced budgets, deficit spend ing, and inflation are long-term trends, but back of them and lying at their roots are others which need to .be explored. Between Hope and Despair To discern these, it helps to re call what it was that led Franklin to conclude that the painting was of a rising sun. His remarks were prompted, of course, by the approv al which the Convention had given to their handiwork of the last sev eral months, the United States Constitution. If Franklin intended any effect from his words - and he probably did, for he was a skilled diplomat with many years of prac tice in calculating the effect of what he said with great care - it was to say to those who heard him to get on with the business of getting this Constitution ratified and put into operation.

But his words conveyed more than that. They summed up the al ternating hope and despair which he and others must have felt about developments in America in the pre ceding dozen years or so. Against great odds, odds lengthened by the ineffectiveness of their govern ments, they had achieved independ ence from Britain. Not only were they confronted all along the way by the danger of breaking up into 70 THE FREEMAN February factions and ,camps; but also, once victory was won, they were little nearer to achieving real unity. The Constitution promised a govern ment which could bring the states into union. The Constitution provided for more than an energetic govern ment which would bring about a United States, however; if it worked as intended, it would pro vide for Americans something rare, much sought after but seldom achieved. The United States Con stitution promised limited govern ment and free men. It promised to bind those who governed to the performance of their appointed tasks and thus to loose the energies of Americans to go about their con tructive activities. If it accom plished this, there should be little doubt that the American sun was rising.

How unlikely that this promise should be fulfilled is not sufficient ly appreciated. The story· of most governments in the course of 'Yhat we know of history is more sordid than not. It is the story of unleash ed power, of tyrants, of oligarchies, of Caesars, of arbitrary kings, of absolute monarchs, and of dicta tors. It is the story of the plunder ing of peoples by robber barons, of ubiquitous tax collectors eating out their substance, of contests for power erupting in assassinations, intrigues, rebellions, and wars. It has been all too often the story of rulers riding roughshod over the populace while they were oppressed and bound. Limitations on Power There have been, of course, gov ernments which provided greater measures of justice than this would suggest, rulers who were contained to allow considerable freedom for the people, and monarchs who were held in check by constitutions. But these latter 'have been rare enough to make the promise of limited gov ernment and free men something out of the ordinary if it could be fulfilled.

Perhaps "promise" is not the right word. The United States Con stitution does not just promise lim, ited government and free men; in fact, no such statement is to be found in the document. The Pre amble does state that one of its pur poses is "to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos terity," but the body of the docu ment is taken up with arrange ments for the exercise of power, who should exercise it, and "what powers were to be exercised at all. From what the Founders produced we can deduce that they thought promises would be nothing more than rhetorical flourishes. The Con stitution at that point did not even contain a bill of rights. What they attempted to do was to build into 1976 A BICENTENNIAL QUESTION 71 the structure of the government the limitations which would free men. The main way they attempted to do this was by an intricate disper sion and balance of powers. The powers of government were dis persed among the three branches of the Federal government and be tween the Federal and state gov ernments. (Of course, the United States Constitution does not grant powers to the states, though it pro hibits them from exercising cer tainpowers; the powers of state governments derive from their own constitutions.) Three Branches The Constitution says, "All leg islative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States .... " "The executive Power shall be vested in a Presi dent of the United States of Amer ica." "The Judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." The main purpose of the separation, balance, and dis persion of power was not only, to prevent its concentration but also to limit its exercise; each branch and government might be expected to guard its own· powers and pre rogatives by preventing the growth in the powers of the others. The underlying idea was to invoke hu man nature in the continuous struggle to limit government.

Benjamin Franklin's prophecy of a rising sun was correct. Under the auspices of the new constitu tion, the United States did expand and grow. Americans, their ener gies loosed by it, did press on across the Appalachians, push their way to the Mississippi, surge across the great plains, pick their way through the Rockies, and es tablish themselves on the Pacific. Those who were at first denied the full benefits of liberty were in the course of time freed. Americans built on a scale hitherto unimag ined : they hacked their way through forests to make farms, built roads, canals, railroads, bridges, factories, and cities. The production of the United States became one of the wonders of the world to which others sought the secret. In time, they were so pro ductive that the Europe which had once succored them would turn to America for sustenance. The United States became a power among the powers of the world and wielded great influence in world affairs.

The rise of America followed upon the establishment of indi vidual liberty, upon allowing the individual scope for exercise of his abilities for the benefit of him self and others with whom he 72 THE FREEMAN February worked, traded, discoursed, played, and prayed. The pertinent Bicen tennial question is this: Do those same conditions still prevail in these United States? Is individual liberty still the keystone of the American government arch? George Washington could say with assurance in' his Farewell Address, "Interwoven as is the love of lib erty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment." Would the state ment be true if it were made to day, and what does it portend if not? Now it is doubtful that the question of whether Americans love liberty today as they were said to do in 1797 could. be an swered directly. The individual in America is attached to many val ues, and we may hope that one of those values is liberty. T'he chances are good that if someone were to attempt to answer the question for today he would take a poll of a selected group of Americans. Those polled would· probably be asked to rank liberty with other values which would be named. The re sults might have some interest, but their reliability would be most doubtful. So much would depend upon how the questions were posed; what we would most likely get would tell us more about the pollsters than the polled.

At any rate, there is a much better way to get at what people believe. By their fruits you shall know them, Scripture says, and that is certainly much more to the point than what people say or think they believe. The thrust of political activity for a good many y·ears now has not been in the direction of maintaining or ex tending individual liberty. Rather, it has been in the direction of cen tralizing power in the Federal government, the empowering of groups, the imposing of controls, increases in taxes, and the political determina tion of more and more questions. A Tenuous Balance The semblance of a balance of power remains in the structure of our governments, but if the heav ens were as out of kilter as this "balance," the law of gravity would not suffice to keep the stars on an orderly course. In the first place, there is today a gross im balance between the powers of the Federal and the state govern ments. The sway of the Federal government is such that states de pend increasingly for revenues upon the government of the un ion, contrive their programs to fit the Federal formulas, and seek in creasing aid while clinging to the remnants of fiscal and legal inde pendence. The states are today 1976 A BICENTENNIAL QUESTION 73 little more than puppets, moving in whatever way they are manipu lated by the government in Wash ington.

In the second place, the balance within the Federal government among the branches has been greatly altered. There never was a perfect balance among the branches in the sense of each of them having equal power. The makers of the Constitution gave considerably more weight in deci sion making to the Congress than to the President or Supreme Court. (Within the Congress, how ever, the weight of· the House and the Senate was made about as nearly equal as might be.) Con gress was given the power not only to make the laws, appropriate money, and declare war, but also a share in appointive powers and authority to impeach and remove members of other branches as well as that of governing themselves. In the twentieth century, how ever, the weight has shifted away from Congress, if not technically then in actuality. From the early 1930's to the mid 1960's the pow ers of the President were vastly augmented. In effect, the Presi dent usually initiated legislation, conceived .programs for the gov ernment and administered them, conducted the increasing involve ment in world affairs - dispatched armies, disposed of foreign aid, and carried on extensive personal diplomacy with the leaders of other nations - and was every where understood to be at the apex of power in the United States.

Since the mid 1960's, however, indications are that the office of the presidency has declined in power and influence. It began dur ing the last years of the Johnson administration, continued through the Nixon years, may have been accelerated by the disgrace of Nixon, and has not abated with the coming of President Ford. The trend doe's not thus far signal a restoration of a balance of power, however. The executive branch continues to grow in numbers and powers accorded it; but it is the growth of a body while the head shrinks. Most likely, it was Nix on's inept wrestling to gain con trol over the executive branch which may now be beyond admin istering that was his undoing. The Supreme Court Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has assumed unprecedented powers in recent years. The Warren Court, as it came to be called, solidified this trend in the 1960's by its ac tivist decisions. Under the sway of a mass of decisions, the Fed eral courts became not only the final arbiter of the meaning of the Constitution but also the only 74 THE FREEMAN February arbiter. Congressmen are heard to say that we cannot know whether this or that measure is in keeping with the Constitution until there is a court ruling on the matter.

This is a serious abrogation of the duties of a Congressman and a contribution to the unbalancing of POw'ers. Congressmen are sworn to up hold and defend the Constitution. Their first line of defense of the Constitution is to enact no laws believed to be in conflict with its provisions. This is made more seri ous by the presumption of the courts in favor of the constitu tionality of acts of Congress signed into law by the President. Be that as it may, the Federal courts have assumed e.xtensive powers over American schools and unusual powers to determine the legal rules under which we live. There is·· yet another develop ment, however, which more seri ously effects the balance of power than, the others, if that is possible, and has changed the posture of our .government. It is the accele rated growth of the bureaucracy and its expansion into more and more areas of our lives. Some have referred to the bureaucracy as a fourth branch of the government.

T'he intent of the characterization may be good, but it fails adequate lyto describe the development. The bureaucracy is not just another branch of the government, it comes nearer to heing another govern ment. It is as if we now have over us the state, Federal, and bureau cratic government .. There is hy perbole in this way of looking at the matter, but not as much as might be supposed. Growth of Bureaucracy The separate bureaucratic gov ernment phenomenon is best ex emplified by the "independent" boards and commissions, such as, Federal Communications Commis sion, Civil Aeronautics Board, In terstate Commerce Commission, Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, National Labor Rela tions Board, and so on. They are called independent because they are creatures of Congress and do not fall under the administrative authority of the chief executive. They may he thought of as sep arate governments because they perform all three functions of gov ernment; they legislate, adminis ter, and enforce the laws which they devise. The constitutional separation of powers is abridged, and power is concentrated in single bodies.

These and other bureaus now produce 10 times as many rules or, more accurately, laws as does Con gress. This lawmaking power has become so obtrusive that there is now before Congress a bill to sus1976 A BICENTENNIAL QUESTION 75 pend the operation of some of the bureaucratic legislation until Con gress has had the opportunity to examine it. Congress, which has all the constitutional authority to legislate, would gain a veto power over bureaucratic acts - a notion sufficiently strange to provoke mirth if not tears. Bureaucratic control, however, is not a fit subject for mirthmak ing; it is serious, often dead seri ous. Bureaus now hold life and death powers over virtually all ac tivities in America. Whether one wishes to build a church, operate a printing press, produce a car, buy a house, buy and sell widgets, hire or fire, he finds one or more or many bureaucrats athwart his path. They license,certify, ap prove or disapprove, inspect, class ify, lay down rules, hold hearings, compile dossiers, make rulings, re strict, restrain, and confine. They are ubiquitous and omnipotent and often behave as if they were om niscient.

Judging by these developments, a reversal has been and is taking place. The constitutional principle was, as stated, a limited govern ment and free men. The trends ex amined show government being loosed and men being limited and confined. The concentration of power in the Federal government, the growth of the executive branch, the assertion of power by the Federal courts, and the proliferation of the bureaucracy have been a letting loose of government from its constitutional confinement. The one being confined by the sway of this power is the individual. What do these things portend for America? Is the sun in the ascendant or is it setting? At the rate things are going, the sun is setting for individual lib erty in America. There are those who claim that what is being reg ulated and controlled is only the economy. Such claims are entirely specious; the economy is an ab straction to which government controls cannot be applied. It is people who are regulated and con trolled. Moreover, it is not pos sible to regulate people in the eco nomic aspect of their lives and leave them otherwise free.

Economic Factors There is no aspect of our lives that is not hinged in some way to the economic. Everywhere that we are and everything that we do in volves the use of property; whether asleep or awake, whether eating or fasting, whether reading or looking at television, whether walking or riding, it is all upon or with property. Every transac tion we engage in, whether buying a newspaper or book, whether con tributing to the church or buying a house,. whether traveling to Eu76 THE FREEMAN February rope or visiting Colonial Williams burg, is economic in nature. In 'deed, there is no angle from which to control ourli ves that can begin to equal the economic. The spread of economic controls, or the con trol of business, as it is sometimes called, signals the decline of indi vidual liberty. Government control signals, too~ the setting of the sun for Amer ica. There is no knowing how long a people can survive ever-tighten ing controls. For a very long time, no doubt. But they do so at the ex pense of prosperity, of economic growth, of that vitality which makes for greatness of a people and a nation. Controls make it ever more difficult to adj ust to chang ing circumstances and conditions.

There is good reason to believe that the United States is already visibly suffering from the rigidity of an economy made so by bureau cratic controls. Repeated efforts to revive the economy by massive jolts of government power by in flatingfails in its object. It fails because the problem is not mone tary in origin, though the attempt to solve it in this way certainly aggravates the problem. The prob lem arises, in the main, from in flexibility, rigidity, and restric tions which stand in the way of making the needed adj ustments. The long wait for bureaucratic approval and inspection before changes can be made hampers businesses. We would probably have Alaskan oil today rather than at some date in' the future if en vironmentalistshad not intempe rately delayed the drilling and laying of pipelines. A people who will tolerate such interference with their lives can expect that their lives will become harder and harder.

Time to Reconsider The American sun may appear to be in the ascendant, but there is strong reason to believe that it has entered upon its descent. It is especially appropriate in' this Bi centennial season· to think back upon and ponder these things. Anyone who cares to know may rediscover those principles which reassured Franklin that he was looking upon a rising sun. Those who care to do so may review as well the histories of peoples who have not been so fortunate as to start their national careers on the foundation of great political prin ciples. When they have thus stud ied history, they may well wish to restore :those' principles to their former place. It will be no easy matter to do so. Governments are not easily in duced to relinquish the powers they have obtained and are used to exercising. Politicians and bureau crats do not relish yielding up their authority over our lives.

1976 A BICENTENNIAL QUESTION 77 Only a resolute populace deter mined to assert itself and claim its rights can prevail against them. Only those who have that love of liberty intertwined with every ligament of their hearts could be expected to make the effort. There is one 'hopeful thought. The rotation of' the earth on its axis which produces the rising and setting of the sun is a natural phenomenon, something we can only observe but notcontroI. The sun having risen, continues up ward to its. zenith, commences to descend, and must inevitably set. It is not so with-peoples and with nations. It is within their power to change the course, even to re verse it, to restore principles, to be revived and revitalized. When liberty gives way to fuIlfledged op pression it is most likely lost for a long time, but liberty threatened can be more readily recovered. It would be good indeed if we could use the occasion of our na tional Bicentennial not to pay trib ute to the dead but to rediscover and reinstitute those great prin ciples which characterized the American Revolution - principles which could be made to live again in America. ~ IDEAS ON LIBERTY My Freedom Depends on Yours IN ORDER for the highest ideas and ideals of nlankind to prevail generally, it seems obvious that a condition of peace and freedom is required-a' soci~ty wherein no person molests any other per son; a society wherein no person prevents any other person from developing his creative potentialities to the fullest extent of his understanding and ability.

This desirable state of affairs will not occur all at once. It will $row only as freedom is und~rstood and as faith in it is restored. If one person decides today to practice freedom, the evolutionary process in human relationships will move forward one more step. That is the only possible path to freedom - a peaceful change in thought and understanding and action among individual persons. Anyone can begin the practice of freedom whenever he chooses to do so. DEAN RUSSELL PAUL L. POIROT A MiNERALALERT HAVE WE WITHDRAWN so much land from mineral exploration and development as to seriously affect the long-term mineral position of our country? That is the key ques tion explored by Gary Bennethum and L. Courtland Lee, young pro fessionals in the Department of the Interior, in an article "Is Our Account Overdrawn?" in the Sep tember 1975 issue of the Mining "- Congress Journal. President of the American Min ing Congress, J . Allen Overton, Jr., introduces the article: Bit by bit, acre by acre, vast tracts of the public lands of the United States are being withdrawn from entry for mineral exploration. The various federal bureaus and agen cies have sharply accelerated this withdra wal process since 1968, with out coordination and without regard for the cumulative effect on future production of metals and nlinerals from domestic sources.