July

Declaration of Independence 413 July 4, 1776. The Constitution of the United States 418 Submitted September 17, 1787. Declared in effect, March 4, 1789. The First Ten Amendments 429 The Bill of Rights, in force Decernber15, 1791. Washington's Farewell Address 431 Wise counsel to those who woul<j follow the path of liberty. Constitutional GovernmentAdditional Readings 446 Anyonewishingto communicatewith authorsmay send first-classmail in care of THE FREEMANfor forwarding.

FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y. 10533 Tel: (914) 591-7230 Leonard E. Read, President Managing Editor: Paul L. Poirot Production Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Contributing Editors: Robert G. Anderson Bettina Bien Greaves Edmund A. Opitz (Book Reviews) Roger Ream Brian Summers THE FREEMAN is published monthly by the Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., a non political, nonprofit, educational champion of pri vate property, the free market, the profit and ioss system, and limited government. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through donations. Total expenses aver age $18.00 a year per person on the mailing list. Donations are invited in any amount. THE FREEMAN is available to any interested person in the United States for the asking. For foreign delivery, a donation is required sufficient to cover direct mailing cost of $5.00 a year. Copyright, 1981. The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Printed in U.S.A.

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Curbing Competition RussellShannon Is competition a good thing? Adam Smith thought so. Back in 1776 Smith prescribed heavy doses of competition, believing it to be the best means to satisfy consumers' vast and varied wants. In some quarters today, however, people approach competition with a distinct air of distaste. For example, in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, a spate of readers' letters decried the inclination, sometimes found among sports par ticipants, to win at any cost.! The famous remark of a well-known coach-ttWinning isn't everything; it's the only thing" -quickly springs to mind. For some athletes, achiev ing points on a scoreboard may be come a passion that consumes. By the same token, some students who fail to learn their ABC's, their multiplication tables, and their chemical valences may stoop to any thing to get a good grade. If only the Russell Shannon is a professor in the Department of Economics, College of Industrial Management and Textile SCience,Clemson University.

ingenuity devoted to cheating had been applied to learning! But consider that lament. Notice its implication: competition clearly has a noble edge. Students and ath letes can-and usually do-compete by honing their skills. Likewise, in our economy, the competitive drive leads to more production, lower prices, and novel products. The com petitive thrust of American industry has endowed us with a veritable cor nucopia of attractive goods and ser vices. If people overlook the many bene fits of competition and try to stifle it, they may end up making matters worse. Examples are abundant: Consider the effects of OPEC, the infamous foreign oil cartel. By join ing together in a common effort, the member nations cut competition. As a result, they also managed to raise the price of oil to extraordinary lev els-as any American motorist can tell you! Is·that really admirable? Such cartels are generally forbid den in the U.S. by our antitrust laws.

388 THE FREEMAN July Yet we have many means of circum venting their restrictions. In some cases producers try to limit or even prohibit foreign imports. Be cause American auto manufacturers find it hard to compete with Japa nese models, they want Japan's pro ducers to reduce their exports. That is, they want to curb competition. The result will be higher prices and less choice for American car buyers. Is that really beneficial? Another common device for curb ing competition is the government regulatory agency. Examples in clude the ICC (for railroads and trucks), the CAB (for airlines), the FCC (for radio and TV stations), and the FDA (for the drug industry). In each case, the agency may have been set up to protect consumers. But what consumers actually got was less choice and higher prices. What's more, under regulation competition usually takes on new forms. When airlines could not com pete by reducing rates, they resorted to champagne breakfasts for their customers and fancy frocks for their stewardesses. Most passengers would probably have preferred to spend less on their transportation in order to have more to spend at their desti nation.

Nor are programs aimed at curb ing competition offered only by gov ernment at the federal level. In New York City (and elsewhere)· in order to drive a cab, you must buy a license. There, in the land of ((freeen terprise" and in the very shadow of the Statue of Liberty, fewer than 12,000 people can obtain taxi licen ses. But that limit does not deter competition: in their desire to drive cabs, people have driven the price of licenses over $60,OOO!2 Of course, government is not al ways involved in efforts to curb com petition. What happens when labor unions negotiate wage increases with management? They implicitly deny any laborers who would be quite happy to work for less the opportu nity to do SO!3 The motives behind efforts to curb competition vary. Sometimes they are high minded. Environmental ists, deploring the destruction of natural beauty by developers and others who want to cut down timber and build homes, seek to have vast areas set aside and kept in their pristine state. But to what extent is protecting trees preferable to using them to provide human housing?· Is it fair for environmentalists to deny others the right to compete for their share of nature's resources?

In other instances, the attempt to limit competition emanates from motives that are detestable. Accord ing to recent reports from the Texas Gulf Coast, the Ku Klux Klan has rallied residents to drive off Viet namese fishermen-poor immi grants who have earnestly sought to make an honest living. The Klan's 1981 CURBING COMPETITION 389 purported aim was to reduce com petition in the local fishing indus try. 4 Sad to say, this is but one of the more blatant efforts of groups which seek to deprive blacks, women, Jews, immigrants, gays, and other minor ities of job opportunities-all the while claiming shamelessly to be standard bearers for «patriotism" and cCmora lity"!5 No matter what the motive or the mechanism, it would seem that ef forts to squelch competition can be just as destructive as competition it self. Attacking the excesses of the competitive drive often provides people an excuse to arrogate for themselves the right to diminish op portunities for others.

Competition is a common ingre dient of our human nature and pre dicament. The question is not whether we will compete, but how? This question was addressed by John Underwood in the Sports Illustrated article which inspired the letters mentioned previously. Underwood quotes former Heis man trophy winner Pete Dawkins as saying, CCto win by cheating, by an umpire error, or by an unfair stroke of fate is not really to win at all." Then Underwood goes on to provide an example of truly selfless compet ition. In the 1964 Winter Olympics, the British bobsled team suddenly found itself desperately in need of a bolt. The Italian bobsled team gen erously offered to provide one-and then the British went on to win the gold medal. 6 Isn't that the sort of example that should inspire us all? In the end, shouldn't we always try to compete by putting forth our own best ef fort-that is, by behaving in a way that dignifies, rather than demeans or denies, our humanity? • -FOOTNOTESlOne correspondent wrote: "I have long be lieved that losing can be as powerful a teach ing tool as winning can." Sports Illustrated, March 9, 1981, p. 82.

2 Joe Mysak, ftTraffickingin Taxis," Barron's, February 23, 1981, pp. 12, 16, 18. The behavior described here has generated interest in what economists call "rent-seeking." For further discussion, see A. O. Krueger, "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," Amer ican Economic Review, LXIV (June 1974), 291-303; also the chapter on Rent Seeking in Richard B. McKenzie and Gordon Tullock, The New World of Economics (3rded.; Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1981), pp. 242-59. 3 "Just as a legal minimum wage excludes some people from employment opportunities, so a high wage secured by union contract (per haps under the threat of a strike, or total with drawal of labor services) excludes those who would be willing to work for less." Paul Heyne, The Economic Way of Thinking (3rd ed.; Chi cago: Science Research Associates, 1980), p. 238. 4 A UPI dispatch to this effect from Santa Fe, 'lexas, was published under the title !CVietnam ese Feel Hatred of the Klan" in the Greenville News, February 16, 1981, p. 5B.

5 For examples of a rash of recent attacks on Jews, see ttAgain, Anti-Semitism," Newsweek, February 16, 1981, pp. 38, 41. 6 John Underwood, "A Game Plan for Amer ica," Sports Illustrated, February 23, 1981, p. 80.

Clarence B. carson "Who's in Control of the Countly?" IN the hours immediately following the shooting of President Reagan the TV anchor man on the channel I was watching raised a persistent question. He asked it not once but several times. ttWho's in control of the country?" The question was even more pointedly raised at the time the President was being operated on and presumably anesthetized. At a news conference presided over by Secretary of State Alexander Haig reporters pressed for an answer to the question of who was in charge. Secretary Haig finally observed, la conically, that he was in control in the absence of Vice President Bush, who was not yet in Washington. A considerable effort was made by newsmen to turn this into a Haig flap, but not much came of it. Dr. carson has written and taught extensively, spe cializing in American intellectual history. He is the au thor of several books and a frequent contributor to The Freeman and other scholarly Journals.

He Is President of the Center for Individual and Fam ily Enterprise, Inc., and may be contacted for further Information at Route 1, Box 13, wadley, Alabama36276. 'lQO There was a legitimate question, of course, as to who would make the decision in the event that some ac tion needed to be taken which would ordinarily require the approval of the President. Mr. Reagan was surely incapacitated for making decisions of state at the time, and probably would remain so for several hours, perhaps longer. Happily, no occa sion arose for any momentous deci sion of state to be made during this interval. But if it had, we were as sured that the senior officials in the administration who could have made it were either assembled for that purpose or in .touch with one an other. However, my concern here is not with the legitimate question as to who would exercise his powers dur ing the temporary incapacity of a President. It is the form and manner of the raising of the question by the anchor man that concerns me. He asked repeatedly, ttWho's in control of the country?" There is an unwar"WHO'S IN CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY?" 391 ranted assumption-a planted as sumption, if you will-in the ques tion. The assumption is that when Mr. Reagan is well he is in control of the country. (There is no reason to suppose that Mr. Reagan is guilty of any such presumption; thus, I name him only because he was the person about whom the question was raised.) This is such a gross misun derstanding ·of the situation and carries with it so many dangerous implications that it is worthwhile to pursue some of its ramifications.

Granted, the anchor man may have been under stress when he asked the question. The President and several of those around him had been shot and their condition was as yet un certain. It was a dramatic situation, and one in which the news was oc curring while it was being telecast, not digested in·advance as occurs in regular newscasts. That this partic ular anchor man felt the stress and was at times even distressed was ap parent from his manner. He was short-tempered sometimes as he an swered telephones, listened to and read reports, and attempted to get confirmation of items that came to him. But for two reasons, the· question should not be dismissed as merely a product of stress. In the first place, the question was not a product of the stress in any obvious way. There was presented no information which indicated that the ((country was out of controL" There was no evidence of chaos, domestic insurrection, or por tending foreign invasion. The ques tion was reflective, was advanced during quieter moments, and was imposed by the newscaster. There is good reason to believe that if it had been merely a case of careless phrasing he would have corrected himself, because he took great care with his presentation of facts, and corrected himself several times. Sec ondly, the idea of the President being in control of the country did not sur face for the first time in this news cast. It has been around in a variety of forms for a good many years now.

There was every indication that the anchor man believed he was posing the question in its usual and accept able form. Control of the Government a Complex.Matter The first time the anchor man posed the question I made a mental note that he had made a mistake in the formulation of it. What he should have asked, I thought, was ((Who's in control of the government?" That was what he really meant, I thought. On reflection, I can see that even that more modest way of framing the question involves considerable exaggeration and leads to misun derstandings. Actually, no single person is in control of the govern ments in the United States. Even if the question were rephrased to ask 392 THE FREEMAN July who is in control of the Federal gov ernment it would be misleading. The President is not in control of the Federal government. He is, nomi nally at least, in control of the exec utive branch of the Federal govern ment. Beyond that, he has some powers touching upon the legisla tive and judicial branches, but these hardly extend to ((control."

Actually, authority over and re sponsibility for-hence, control of governmental activities is dispersed into many hands in this country. There is not only the separation of powers into three branches at the national level, not only the division of powers between the states and the national level of government, not only the assignment of many powers to local governments by the states, but also a host of elected and ap pointed officials at all levels who have constitutionally or legisla tively derived powers. No One Person in Charge Perhaps, a simple question and answer will reveal the travesty in volved in even the assumption that one man is in control of the govern ment. Here is such a question: Who is·in control of the traffic signals in the town near to me? In the first place, the police are undoubtedly in charge of some phases of their oper ation. They may turn them off and on, alter the timing, override them by placing a policeman at an intersection, and so on. The mayor and council not only exercise authority over the police but also may make certain decisions about traffic sig nals. They will ordinarily decide which intersections may have a traffic signal, what type of signal it will be, and, perhaps, how and when .

it will be employed. If a state or United States highway is involved, the state highway department may have a hand in determining if, when, and where traffic signals may be in stalled. In no sense that I can con ceive of could it be said that the President is in control of local traffic signals. The same ca~ be said for virtually all the operations of gov ernment at the state level. More over, most operations of government at the Federal level are remote from the control of the President, even those to which his decision-making powers extend. But I understand the anchor man to have been asking a much broader and more inclusive question than who is in control of the govern ment(s), namely, ((Who's in control of the country?" By my understand ing, Hthe country" includes every thing within certain geographical boundaries, i.e., the land and all the structures thereon, the waters, the people, the animals, the plants, and all that personal property which is legally defined as chattels. It is not my contention, of course, that the word is not sometimes used in more 1981 "WHO'S IN CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY?" 393 limited or figurative senses.·ln ordi nary speech, for example, we speak of the country in contrast to the city, as in ((country living." Or, we sing, ((My Country 'tis of Thee," which is a poetic way of expressing. our at tachment to it, not a means of as serting an exclusive claim upon it.

Rather, my point is that by! casting the question in the form that he did, by stating it prosaically, and by fail ing to qualify it, the anchor man in vited the broadest and most inclu sive construction of the word. Even the Controlof Private PropertyIs Tenuous Who is in control of ((the country," then? Let me begin my answer to this complex question at the local and personal level. It happens that I own 3.3 acres, more or less, of the country, as attested by deeds duly recorded. On the day in question, March 30, 1981, so far as anyone could be said to be in control of that portion of the country, I was, along with my helpmate of a goodly num ber of years standing. The only po tential contestants to this claim, so far as I am aware, are: (1) a local bank which has a mortgage cover ing part of the property; (2) a yellow tomcat of uncertain lineage· who, if my suspicions are correct, believes himself to be the proprietor and us the tenants brought there to serve him; and (3) the residual claims of the state should we fail to pay the taxes or die intestate without heirs.

Since the taxes have been paid, the mortgage payment is up to date, we are alive, and the cat is among those animals over whom, according to Scripture, man is given dominion, our practical control over this small portion of the United States is for the moment secure and uncontested. Even so, my control over this property and its inhabitants and in truders is tenuous at best. I do not mean such limitations on my control as arise from the right of way access to my house of electric and tele phone wires and the pole located on my property to convey them. Nor does it bother me much that the electric company owns the meter and the telephone company the tele phones. The real limits of my control are posed by the plant and.. animal life which abound. Theoretically, I could control the plant life, and I make a half-hearted attempt to do so for part of it from time to time. The truth is, however, that on much of the land, trees come up and grow, unbidden, and they are joined in their activity by assorted weeds, vines, bushes, flowers, and what have you. But that I could assert much control over the animals which live on and wander about my property IS by no means clear. How does one exercise control over deer, wild turkeys, snakes, ter rapins, rabbits, birds, beetles, ants, bugs, and all the creeping, crawling, 394 THE FREEMAN July and flying things that put in appear ances from time to time? I welcome many of these and tolerate the rest as best I can most of the time.

Millions of Individuals What I am getting at is this. Much of the country is not under any body's control to any considerable extent. All of it, is owned in some fashion by somebody or other and is within the jurisdiction of one or more governments. Millions of individu als and families and thousands of organizations exercise more, or 'less control over the country. By and large, they control it as they will and can, but each separate from the other and rarely in ,concert with anyone. The answer to the question, then, is that no one, nor any concert of persons, is in control of the coun try; millions of people exercise greater or lesser control over that portion which is theirs by ownership or assignment. They were exercis ing that control when President Reagan was shot, while he was an esthetized, and, hopefully, will con tinue to do so when he is well. Much of the above is common knowledge, I suppose, and needs only to be recalled to be accepted. Even so, there is something of value in calling to mind that there is much that is under the control of no per son, that ownership and control are widely dispersed in this country, and that we are limited beings. For myself, I believe that life is immeasur ably enriched by that about us which is under no one's control.

I stand in awe and wonder at the seashore and am renewed in spirit to see the waves continually coming in to break upon the beach and re cede under no man's command. The squirrels which scamper across our yard to get the chestnuts we have left provide more pleasure than if they came and went on my call. I delight more in the random coming and going of the great variety of birds that find sustenance on my place than I ever could if I had them in cages. These things remind me that there is an order which persists and endures, despite man's feeble attempts at control, and provides in timations of a harmony that is not of man's making. That would be a good place to con clude my answer. It is upbeat, pleas ant, and the last sentences have something of the ring of a ,perora tion. Unfortunately, however, to end it there would be to ignore serious political tendencies and develop ments which underlie the assump tion which gave rise to the question in the first place. It is unlikely that anyone would ask repeatedly, and in a context of high seriousness, ~~Who's in control of the country?", if he did not believe someone should be. And the question certainly did not arise in an historical void. Indeed, the movement of ideas and the thrust of 1981 "WHO'S IN CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY?" 395 action has been preparing the way for the question for three quarters of a century at least. These develop ments need to be explored and their significance examined.

The assumption is, of course, that someone should be in control of the country. It bespeaks a passion for having everything and everyone un der some sort of central control, a passion that has been gaining sway for most. of this century, or longer. The notion that undergirds.this pas sion for control is that without such central human control chaos, disor der, cupidity, and confusion will take place. A Passionfor Control This passion for control has been most pronounced in the economic realm: control of banking, control of the railroads, control of ((trusts," control of prices, control of electric ity, control of the stock market, con trois· of farm products, control of hours of work, control of wages, con trol of drugs, control of hospitals, control of interstate transport, and so on and on. But it has tended to invade every realm of activity: for mal education, the practice ofmedi cine, international relations (e. g., the formation of the League of Na tions and United Nations), environ mental controls, pollution controls, and such like.

The main thrust of this passion for control has been the centralization of power in the Federal govern ment and its concentration in the executive branch. It is this develop ment which gives such logic as it has to the question, ((Who's in con trol of the country?" when the Pres ident is temporarily incapacitated. What this conjures up in my mind is a scenario in which the Oval Office is equipped with a huge console which has wires running to every place in the country . When the Pres ident flips one switch it sets off a designated kind of activity in the country. When he flips other switches other kinds of activity can and do take place. Presumably, the Presi dent alone knows the combination to the console, and when he is inca pacitated, either chaos or inactivity may become universal. In any case, the question conveys to me a concep tion of .concentrated and unlimited government.

This conception of the presidency, however it may be visualized, is dangerous for the safety and well being of presidents. It is ironic that the same anchor man who raised the question also lamented the fact, sev eral times, that yet another attempt had been made on the life ofa Pres ident. Apparently, it did not occur to him that by implying that the Pres ident is normally in control of the country he was continuing to set the stage for such attempts. After all, if the President were in control of the country, what better target could be 396 THE FREEMAN July selected for dramatizing a cause, ex pressing one's hatred for America, or even for the revolutionary con quest of the country? I have already madec1ear, I hope, that the President is not in control of the country. Even so, the central ization and concentration of power that has taken place has been in that direction. The United States government was founded as a lim ited government, even a strictly limited government. The thrust to extend the control of the Federal government is in the direction of un limited governments.

ConstitutionalLimits The United States government was limited in the following ways and according to these principles. The most basic limits are in the Consti tution itself. To have a constitu tional government is synonymous with having limited government, at least to Americans, for the Consti tution specifies limits. The powers of the central government are enumer ated. Certain powers are specifically denied to the United States. All powers not enumerated are reserved to the states or to the people respec tively. All legislative power con veyed is vested in the Congress; the judicial power is vested in the Su preme Court and such inferior courts as are established by law; and the executive power is vested in the President and the officers who serve under him. This division into three branches conforms to the doctrine of the separation of powers and has long been considered a fundamental principle of limited government.

Actually, the three branches are intertwined. The Congress not only makes the laws but also participates in some executive decisions. For ex ample, the Senate must concur in major presidential appointments be fore they have legal standing. All executive action depends upon mon ies which must first be appropriated by Congress. Federal judges are ap pointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The power to enforce court orders lies in the executive branch which controls the military forces and marshals. This intertwining has led to questions both as to the extent of the separation of powers and of the independence of the branches. Clearly, the branches are not en tirely separate from one another, nor are they wholly independent in their operations. But much of the limita tion upon them lies in· the fact that they are intertwined. The Senate, for example, limits the President by its potential negative vote over his appointments. The President can limit the legislature by way of the veto. The courts can refuse to apply unconstitutional laws, and so forth.

The Constitution limits the states as well. They are prohibited to do certain things, such as, make any1981 "WHO'S IN CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY?" 397 thing other than gold or silver legal tender, and their jurisdiction is lim ited as well. States are required to have republican governments, and they too operate under constitutions which limit them in their. actions. County and city (town, village, bor ough, or what not) governments are creatures of the states, and hence are limited by them in what they can do. Other Restraints and Limits There are many other limitations on·the powers of the various·govern ments. They are all bound to ob serve the laws in dealing with the inhabitants. There· are prescribed procedures to he complied with be fore life, liberty, or property may be taken away. Elected officials are limited by the necessity of having to stand for election from time to time.

Jaines Madison argued in The Fed eralist # 10 that the· broad expanse of the country, the numerous inter ests contained within it, and terri torial· dispersion of each interest would make it difficult, if not impos sible, for anyone interest or combi nation of interests to gain control of the government. In short, the very contentions for power that would ex ist would tend to limit the reach of governments. Quite often that has been the case. Even so, many of the limits that once held governments in check have been evaded, trespassed, and in considerable measure overcome. The main developments have been the subordination of the states and the concentration of power in Washing ton. This change has been accom plished in many ways: the extension of the regulation of.interstate com merce provision to include virtually every kind of trade and commerce, the assumption of authority over la bor relations, the taking of control over banking and the money supply, and the intrusion of the Federal courts into such areas as law en forcement in general. The main de vice, however, for subordination of state and local governments has been by way of grants for programs to these entities. State control over lo cal governments has been greatly impaired as local undertakings have been subsidized in one way or an other by Federal grants. Much ofthe state control over education has come under the authority of the Federal courts. Revenue sharing, in the last decade, has greatly accelerated all these processes.

The main point, however, is the expansion of governmental control over the lives of the populace en tailed in these developments. The case for tcstates' rights," as such, concerns me here only so far as it is a part of the case for limited govern ment. Control over the lives of the citizens by a state government would be no more desirable than control by the central government. But such 398 THE FREEMAN control is inherently limited in the federal system. A state cannot raise an army and wage war, for example, because not only is it prohibited by the Constitution but it would not likely be tolerated by the central government. Moreover, any state which expands its controls in com parison with those prevailing in other states would invite the exodus of the oppressed populace, and states like the means to prevent this. FreedomwithoutControls Which brings us to the final, and central, point of this essay. Govern mental control over the lives of the people is violative of their rights and liberties. Freedom is the anti thesis of governmental control. The birds which fly onto and light on my property are free precisely because I do not control them. The squirrels that scamper about my place in search of nuts are free because I do not control them. True, human free dom has other dimensions than such as animals may enjoy; it is more confined in the physical realm than theirs and has mental and spiritual dimensions unknown to them. But in both cases control is antithetical to it. Undoubtedly, our activities are bounded by the property and other rights of others, and we may be com mitted by contract in certain ways to others, but these, rightly under stood and acted upon, are limits, not controls.

UWho's in control of the country?" is a question with totalitarian im plications. I do not know that the anchor man who asked it either meant any such thing or understood it in that way. Most likely, he did not. But words are independent of the intent of the speaker, once spo ken. Thus, if anyone is in control of the country, his powers over it must be without limit. It follows, too, that the inhabitants are not free. The as sumptions underlying our un guarded expressions inform our deeds. They are a key to the direc tion in which we are inclined to go, just as they have become assump tions because we have already taken that heading. We tend to become what we believe especially when the belief has become so imbedded in our thought that we are no longer aware of it. It is surely high time to bring the government of the United States under control, to limit and restrain it to its historic and constitutional role. There are signs that President Reagan is committed to accomplish ing that goal. The relevant question, the one that occurred to me in those first fearful moments after I had heard that he was shot, was this: ttWho will control the government?"

As for ttWho's in control of the coun try?", all who value freedom will re lish the hope that those who live there are in control of themselves and their lives. i How MANY TIMES have we stood be fore a fine painting and heard a viewer say, ((That artist certainly has talent. But I can't even draw a straight line!" Well, there probably was a time when the artist also could not tteven draw a straight line." But between that time and the comple tion of that fine painting, he drew a great many straight lines, also curved lines, light lines, dark lines, every conceivable kind of line. He exploited his particular interest and aptitudes to the fullest in the at tempt to develop his talent. Few days probably passed when he did not de vote some time or effort to improv ing his talent. Nobody dashes off a masterpiece on a whim between breakfast and Mr. Hood, a businessman in Meredith, New Hamp shire, formerly served in the State Legislature.

Robert E. Hood Talent an early lunch. To draw even a sim ple leaf well, a painter will produce more leaves than a tree. He learns to ttsee" a leaf as the average person cannot. The price of talent is high indeed, a price few of us are willing to pay. I don't accept the popular, mystical concept with its implica tion that talent is inborn in the genes of a fortunate few, that it is an in nate ttseed," that must inevitably burst forth as excellence in some particular field. I refuse to believe that one either has talent, or one doesn't, and that there is no use in trying. Talent, as I define it, is the complex of abilities people will de velop in a climate of freedom when they are not hampered in pursuing their personal goals.. Talent is the outcome of six prerequisites: (1) physical aptitudes, (2) intellectual 400 THE FREEMAN July capacity, (3) environmental influ ences, (4) perseverance or drive, (5) mental perception or approach and (6) interest. Let us consider each in turn.

Physical aptitude is perhaps the least important of the six pre requisites. Let it be sufficient to say that body size, weight, structural detail, and the like can be factors. If one's voice has all the charm of a rusty wheel on a gravel path, one is ill-advised to pursue a singing ca reer. A person who stands 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 93 pounds, will not likely excel in professional contact sports. Physical limitations exist, though even they may largely be overcome by perseverance in the development of the other five pre requisites. Intellectual capacity is to some extent Hgiven," but perhaps not nearly to the extent that people be lieve. We are obviously not all born with equal intellectual capacity. That is fortunate indeed. If we all aspired to become profound philosophers, we would surely all be very hungry phi losophers. Those of us born without superior intellectual capacity should not try to emulate Einstein. We must realistically recognize our intellec'7 tuallimitations with regard to brain power, but without stifling the de velopment of our own potential.

Much of what is considered limited, innate intellectual ability is merely due to lack of interest, drive or per severance. Environmental influences may encourage or discourage the devel opment of talent. Consider two per sons· of equal intellectual capacity, one raised by illiterate parents in a dismal shack where the only goals in life are minimal survival and lei sure, the other raised by educated parents in a well kept home, sur rounded by books, music, suitable playthings and an atmosphere of in tellectual curiosity. The talents de veloped as reflections of these envi ronmental influences would seem obvious. But they will not always be precisely those anticipated. Envi ronmental influences may be ex pressed indirectly or by devious routes. A brief encounter as a child with a particular toy, book or idea may lie dormant only to stimulate an interest many years later. The seeds of interest and perseverance in the pursuit of talent, which are usually planted in our formative years, may even be spurred by op posite examples.

By maturity, our physical apti tudes, intellectual capacity and en vironmental influences are pretty much established. Concern with them then should be primarily to maintain and upgrade them to the best of our ability. It is here that the 1981 TALENT 401 fourth prerequisite for ((talent"- perseverance or drive--comes into play. In spite of the fact that most people seem to believe one either has talent or one doesn't, I maintain that the potential for talent abides in most of us. To digress for a mo ment, I distinguish talent from ((ge nius." I define genius as that very rare combination of superior physi cal and intellectual capacity, com bined with a profound interest in a specialized, narrow field,·which per mits some few especially endowed persons to accomplish prodigious amounts, occasionally at a very early age. They are the innovators and pace setters in their areas of special ization. But even the development or fulfillment of ((genius" requires perseverance. As Thomas Edison pointed out, genius is ((one percent inspiration and ninety-nine· percent perspiration." Olympic contenders persevere with supreme. dedication to a self-imposed regime in order to attain a specific goal. Those of us who are not so one-goal oriented, however, should not let. the prodi gious accomplishments of a true ge nius discourage us from persevering to develop whatever potential tal ents we may have in one or several fields.

Mental perception or approach is perhaps the most indefinite of the prerequisites for developing talent. But it is no less important. What William James said of genius, that it was ((little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way," might also b~ said of talent. As a matter of fact, it is ((the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way" which sets· those persons, who best succeed in developing their talents, apart from almost anyone else. Most of us are creatures of tradition and habit, victims of a self-imposed le thargic state of mind. We tend to ac cept the obvious or the plausible without asking ((Why." Few of us question the reasons for our actions. We all know, or are ca pable of knowing, much more than we realize. We tend to be blinded, to our own disadvantage, by the ob vious, by Uwhat is seen." Few of us recognize Uwhat is not seen." The nineteenth century French econo mist and philosopher, Frederic Bas tiat, illustrated this point in a short piece, uThe Broken Window." He de scribed a young hoodlum who broke a window. All observers, with one accord, considered the financial boon this would mean to the glass indus try. Blinded by Uwhat is seen," they failed to consider ((what is not seen,"

the owner's forgone purchase of a new pair of shoes because he must pay the glazier. The mental percep tion which enables one to think things through, to consider more than Uwhat is seen," to integrate available knowledge, to approach problems in new and different ways, 402 THE FREEMAN July is an attribute of talent that is de rived from the combination of in born, innate characteristics plus ap plication and perseverance. We all perceive things with the same sense organs. But many of us fail to integrate our observations. We are like cameras or tape re corders, absorbing and reproducing visual and verbal images, precisely as observed, but failing to integrate, analyze or interpret them. The de velopment of talent requires an ap proach of mental awareness or intel lectual curiosity, so as to integrate perceptions and concepts. It calls for trying to analyze ((what is not seen," for looking at things uin an unhabi tual way."

The talented painter perceives a landscape far differently than most of us. The novice who is seeking to develop his talent must not only perfect his physical aptitude, ex pand his intellectual capacity, but also develop. the uunhabitual" per ception of an artist. The talented musician listens to a symphony and perceives nuances and subtleties of composition, while most of us just hear a melody. The talented actor perceives in the performances of his comrades every movement, facial expression and voice inflection, in tegrating them into his own store of knowledge, while the rest of us just enjoy the play. A talented writer has spent years reading, writing, study ing and practicing that skill, with that same intense quality of special ized perception and integration. Mark Twain once observed,. ((the difference between the right word and the almost right word is really a large matter-'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." One of the finest pieces of American writing is the Declara tion of Independence. One has only to view a copy of Jefferson's original manuscript, with its corrections and alterations, to know that even in most inspired moments a well writ ten essay is the result of persever ance. Words seldom flow in an un interrupted stream of perfection. The wri ter must call on his store of knowledge, gleaned previously from all he has read, written, thought, judged and assimilated into his total consciousness. His talent rests on the quality of his mental warehouse, his faculty of perception,his ability to create with it, and his willingness to persevere.N one of these remains static for any individual.

The sixth prerequisite for talent is interest. Interest is at the same time both a prerequisite of the other five and a product of the other five. It is in one sense ~(given" and it is also the outcome of innate apti tudes, environment, concentration and perseverance. Interest, what ever its source, is what helps spur us on to persevere, and to concen trate with a sort of tunnel vision on 1981 TALENT 403 a special field. It is interest that makes us want to keep on expand ing ability, perception, and talent. The foundation of talent in any field is the sum of past accomplish ments and of all of today's knowl edge and wisdom. In each genera tion those who develop their talents add a few more bricks to this struc ture of intellectual, artistic and technological heritage. But unlike a building, this construct is never fin ished. The potential of free men for the development oftalent would seem almost infinite. The higher we build., the wider the view. The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know. True though this·may be, it by no means implies futility in the learning process, for the more we learn, the more we find we are ca pable of learning. The more we per severe in trying to develop our tal ents, the more perceptive we becomlB and the broader are the horizons we see.

We all have interests. We all have a certain amount of intellectual cu riosity. We are all capable of putting forth some physical and mental ef fort. Hence we all have the potential for talent in something-be it the trades, sales, teaching, science, art, and so on, or some combination of these. Talent is most emphatically not a gift; it is an achievement! Joy and satisfaction are to be found in expanding knowledge, developing talent and accomplishing more. By cultivating a free society in which ambition is encouraged and this mental attitude can flourish we will find that, with the application of ef fort and perseverance, talent will be within our grasp. If we are free to pursue our own peaceful interests, we may expect to contribute some thing to posterity by adding a brick or two to the structure of intellec tual, artistic and technical heritage that will be available to those who follow. i IDEAS ON LIBERTY Freedom and Maturity THE QUEST for freedom is not simply a thing added on, as dictators and bureaucrats seem to assumLe,or even one of the luxuries of integrity. It is part and parcel of the stuff of which human life is made, built in through a hundred million years of evolution, a million years of pre history, thousands of years of history. When the circumstances of a man's life deprive him of freedom, they also deprive him of sanity and maturity for which he was born. Without freedom he cannot build up and toughen those inner resources which give him the flexibility and initiative so necessary for the give and take of life.

STEPHEN B. MILES, JR.

A REVI·EWER'SNOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN The NewRight IDEAS,said the late Richard Weaver, have consequences. But, when it comes to working their way through society, it normally takes at least a generation for ideas to flower in ef fective action. Richard A. Viguerie, who runs a most successful computerized direct mail solicitation company, is an ac tion man. He figures his time has now come. The main emphasis of his book, The New Right: We~re Ready to Lead (Caroline House, 186 pp., $8.95), which has an introduction by Moral Majoritarian Rev. Jerry Fal well, is on the art of piecing together an action-dominated coalition to win elections and undo the past half century of bad lawmaking. Yet it is the mark of Viguerie's intelligence that he mentions Richard Weaver quite early in the book. 404 Viguerie is history-minded as well as action-dominated. It is a good combination, for it provides reassur ance that the actions of the so-called New Right will be soberly consid ered, both for pacing and for place ment in a scheme of priorities. The New Right is hungry for a lot of things, such as action on the nsocial issues" of abortion, prayer in the schools and ((pro-family" legislation, but it isn't asking the President or Congress to derail the big issues of inflation, taxation, the money sup ply and the need to confront Soviet expansion, which have obvious pri ority if we are to continue at all as a free society.

I like Mr. Viguerie's book because it tells a lot of new things about the current organization of conservative and libertarian groups in WashingTHE NEW RIGHT 405 ton and around the country without ignoring their historic antecedents. In telling the story of his. own gene sis Viguerie shows how the New Right evolved out of the Old Right. He began by taking a job with Young Americans for Freedom in the early Nineteen Sixties, working with Marvin Liebman on money-raising. He called on people like oil man J. Howard Pew, former New Jersey governor Charles Edison and Cap tain Eddie Rickenbacker for contri butions' and found them affably dis posed. But, as a shy person, he did not feel comfortable in asking for money directly. He started writing letters instead, and so discovered his true metier. He has been at it ever since. Libertarianand Conservative Foundationsof the New Right The early contacts with Bill Rusher, Bill Buckley and Marvin Liebman in New York gave Vi guerie, who began his political life as an Eisenhower supporter in Texas, some ideas about the nascent con servative movement. In an appreci ative chapter called ~~The Founda tions of the New Right" Viguerie pays homage to a whole host of early libertarians and conservatives, frorn Human Events publisher Frank Hanighen and National Review edi tor Bill Buckley to Russell Kirk, Frank Meyer, Frank Chodorov, Whittaker Chambers, Milton Friedlman, Stanton Evans, Congressman Walter Judd and others.

His ideas were well in order be fore he realized that his mission in life was to take libertarianism and conservatism out ofthe talking stage. There were coalitions to be made that would transform the Goldwater minority of 1964 into the Reagan majority of 1980. But first there must come a mastery of techniques mak ing use of the communication mar vels of the electronic age, beginning with the computer, the Xerox ma chine, radio and TV itself. Viguerie began his direct mail business in 1965 in the most labori ous way, with one employee and a contributor list of 12,500 names. He got 'the list by going to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, who had on file the names and addresses of everybody who had given $50 or more to the Goldwater campaign. The law would not permit anyone to make a photo copy of the list, so Vi guerie started writing names and addresses down by hand. After a couple of weeks during which his fingers became numb he hired sev eral women to finish the job for him.

Without this list, he says, he wouldn't be in business today. Curiously, Senator George Mc Govern beat Viguerie to the punch in realizing the potency of direct mail. But McGovern had other things to do where Viguerie could spend eighty hours a week on his spe406 THE FREEMAN July cialty. The first big Viguerie fees came from a direct mail campaign to raise enough money to pay Alabama Governor George Wallace's political debts. Wallace seemed .more Popul ist than conservative to Viguerie, who was still looking for an activist movement on which to spend his en thusiasm along with the money he had already earned. The search for a second genera tion of conservatives-the true New Rightled Viguerie to people whose names are still not widely known to readers of the so-called Establish ment press. This second generation includes Paul Weyrich, Howard Phillips, Terry Dolan, Lee Edwards, Morton Blackwell, Alan Gottlieb, Reed Larson, Edwin Feulner, Dan Popeo, Lew Uhler and David Den holm. Weyrich heads the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, Dolan is the energizing spirit of NCPAC, or ((Nicpac" which is short for the National Conservative Polit ical Action Committee. Reed Larson is the indefatigable boss of the Right to Work Committee.

Common InterestsLead to a WinningCombination Together, the New Rightists be gan to meet for informal luncheons. They had four things in common. The first was a belief in technical ability-direct mail and mass me dia manipulation. The second was a willingness to work for each other's ideas without discrimination. The third was a conviction that philoso phy must always come before party. And the fourth was an unquencha ble optimism that a Fabianism-in reverse campaign would ultimately turn America away from collectivist delusions. Using direct mail in unprece dented fashion, the New Right has run off an impressive list of victo ries. Viguerie and his friends couldn't stop the treaty that gave away the Panama Canal. But the ·campaign they fought to keep the canal brought .Ronald Reagan back into public con sciousness in a way that made his 1980 presidential nomination inevi table. Terry Dolan's NCPAC wrote 10,000 leading Republicans urging them to tell Senator Howard Baker that a pro-treaty vote would end his presidential hopes. Howard Phillips' Conservative Caucus· mailed three million letters on the canal issue.

This stirring of the waters was in strumental in creating majorities that have changed the whole com plexion of the United States Senate. The first-time Senatorial winners for the New Right came in 1978, when Gordon Humphrey beat longtime incumbent Tom McIntyre in New Hampshire, Bill Armstrong won in Colorado, John Warner in Virginia and Alan Simpson in Wyoming. In 1980 came even more impressive victories, with New Right candi dates ousting McGovern, Frank 1981 OTHER BOOKS 407 Church, Birch Bayh and other old wheel horses of the Left. Coalition building by direct mail communication is at the bottom of the Viguerie success. When the Rev erend Jerry Falwell brought his Moral Majority to Viguerie's side, it assured Reagan of his election. Now Viguerie is worried by Reagan's failure to appoint more New Right ists to high office. The failure won't make any practical difference: The Left has run out of galvanizing ideas, and Reagan will insist on his oV\rn tax and budget cutting· program.s.

The important thing for Viguerie and the New Right is that they are ten years ahead of the Left in orga nizational ability-and in the pos session of key mailing lists. GOLD, PEACE, AND PROSPERITY: THE BIRTH OF A NEW CURRENCY by Congressman Ron Paul (The Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, Inc., ~O. Box 1776, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566),1981 55 pages - $5.00 paperback Reviewed by Roger Ream EFFORTS to restore a gold standard are gaining momentum. The 1984 prohibition of the private ownership of gold was repealed in 1974. Three years later, gold clause contracts were legalized. In 1979, a bill to re voke the Treasury's power to seize privately held gold passed in the House of Representatives. And, in 1980, both Houses of Congress ap proved an amendment to establish a gold commission, which will exam ine the role of gold in monetary af fairs. The sponsor of the successful gold commission amendment was Con gressman Ron Paul of Texas. He is one of the leaders of the effort to es tablish a redeemable gold dollar and will serve on the commission along with public and private sector rep resentatives. In an effort to clarify the issues involved and add some historical insights to the current de bate, Congressman Paul has written a booklet that is clear, elemental, and enlightening. As he demon strates' ((The consequences of mone tary destruction are complex, but the solution is not."

Congressman Paul outlines the steps that must be taken to move from a government fiat money sys tem which is headed toward disas ter, to a system of honest, free mar ket money. He also refutes some of the commonlyraised objectionsto a gold standard. One such assertion is that there is not enough gold to re turn to a 100% redeemable-in-gold dollar. Dr. Paul quotes Professor Hans Sennholz: (1n a free market economy it is utterly irrelevant what the total stock of money should be. Any given quantity renders the full services and yields the maximum 408 THE FREEMAN utility of a medium of exchange .... When the stock is relatively large, the purchasing power of individual units of money will be relatively small. Conversely, when the stock is small, the purchasing power of the individual units will be relatively large. No wealth can be created and no economic growth can be achieved by changing the quantity of the me dium of exchange. It is so obvious and yet so obscured by the specious reasoning of special interest spokes men that the printing of another ton of paper money does not create new wealth."

Inflation is an increase in the quantity of money. It is legalized theft by a means similar to counter feiting. A small increase in the quantity of money, even if intended to just match the increase in produc tivity or the economic growth rate ~~inevitably introduces malinvest ment as those getting the new money put it to uses that only later reces sions show to have been unproduc tive." Free market competition in money gives the people, not the pol iticians, power over the monetary system. It is ~~a free people's ulti mate protection from spendthrift and untrustworthy government." As this booklet makes clear, ~~[t]he road to monetary destruction has been long and circuitous, but we are coming to the end of it. Sixty-seven years of central banking have brought us to the edge of depression and hyperinflation. . .. [However, the] alternative to today's monetary fraud and tomorrow's chaos is read ily available to us.... The spirit of freedom, and the desire for honest money, still run strongly among our people."

History provides many examples of governments of all types destroy ing the monetary unit through un controlled inflation. History also teaches that the only means yet dis covered to harness the natural ten dency of governments to debase the currency is a monetary system which is backed by a commodity. Over the centuries, countless societies have selected gold as that commodity. However, the particular commodity chosen is of little importance pro vided the decision is the result of an unhampered market process. Congressman Paul's efforts to fur ther the consideration of a new cur rency are crucial beca use as this booklet reveals, freedom cannot long exist without honest money. i Paul L. Poirot THE RENEWAL OF LIBERTY TODAv's more immediate problems of high taxes, inflation, regulations and controls all come under the one cornmon heading of government interven tion. So, what is one to do to regain or restore lost freedom of choice and action?

Actions vary, of course, tending more and more toward open revolt: a refusal to file any tax return at all or else incomplete or fraudulent report ing; black_market and underground transactions; tax shelters and loop holes; above all, the flagrant tactics of terror and violence so much in the daily news. The problem is not the same for any two of us, and the solution most suitable to one may not please another. We are individuals. But in a sense we are all in the same boat. We are members of a trading economy, greatly dependent upon one another. And it is not that simple or easy to pull out and go it alone in anarchistic fashionin what a majority generally per ceives as antisocial behavior. Today's situation is somewhat like that faced by the American colonists in the late 1700s in their break with England. So it well behooves us to review the principles of limited government and of human rights identified and upheld in such historic documents as the Virginia Bill of Rights, adopted June 12, 1776. Shortly thereafter, on July 4, came the historic Declaration of Independence with its revolutionary ideas on liberty and the ensuing battlefield confrontation.

The problem then, and perhaps the problem always, is not to abolish government entirely, but to curb its tyrannous aspects. Independence from Britain called for governmental reorganization, first under the Articles of Confederation in 1777, to be updated and replaced by the Constitution of 1787 and especially the first ten anlendments or the Bill of Rights adopted December 15,1791. Perhaps most helpful of all today is the wise counsel offered in George Washington's Farewell Address of September 17, 1796. The experiences at the founding of the American republic afford guidance sorely needed in our search for a renewal of liberty in our time. 409 VIRGINIA BILL OF RIGHTS ArticleI Bill of Rights A declaration of rights made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention; which rights do pertain to them and their. posterity, as the basis and foundation of government.

1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any com pact, deprive or divest their poster ity; namely the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of ac quiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. 2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the peopIe; that magistrates are their trust ees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. 3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common bene fit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of gov ernment, that is best which is capa ble of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the dan ger of maladministration; and that VIRGINIA BILL OF RIGHTS 411 when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these pur poses, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to·reform, a.l ter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of publick services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the of fices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary. 5. That the legislative and execu tive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judli ciary; and that the members of the two first may be restrained fro:m oppression, by feeling and partici pating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be re duced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections, in which all or any part of the former members to be again eligible or ineligible, as the laws shall direct. 6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the peo ple in assembly ought to be free; and that all men having sufficient evi dence of permanent common inter est with, and attachment to the community, have the right of sufGeorge Mason (1725-1792) Revolutionary leatkr, autlwr of Virginia Declamtion ofRights, delegateto Constitu tionnl Conwntion.

Courtesy, Independence National HistoriJ:al Fbrk. frage, and cannot be taxed or de prived of their property for publick uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like man ner, assented for the public good. 7. That all power of suspending laws or the execution of laws by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is in jurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.

412 THE FREEMAN 8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury, of his vi cinage' without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evi dence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty ,except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers. 9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines im posed, nor cruel and unusual pun ishments inflicted. 10. That general warrants, whereby an officeror messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not be granted.

11. That in controversies respect ing propertY,and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. 12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of lib erty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natu ral, and safe defence of a free State; that standing armies in time of peace should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the mil itary should be under strict subor dination to and governed by the civil power. 14. That the people have a right to uniform government; and, there fore, that no government separate from or independent of the govern ment of Virginia ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof. 15. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be pre served to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to funda mental principles.

16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the man ner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to prac tise Christian forbearance, love.,and charity towards each other. -Adopted June 12,1776 DECLARATION OF~ INI)EPENDENCE In Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume. among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God enti tle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to beself-e~v ident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Cre ator 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, That whenever any Form of Government becomes de structive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such prin ciples and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long es tablished should not be changed for light and transient causes; and ac cordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more -disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolish ing the forms to which they are ac customed. But when a long train of 413 414 THE FREEMAN July abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under ab solute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Gov ernment, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the neces sity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Govern ment. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of re peated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establish ment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and press ing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large dis tricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Rep resentation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and for midable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom fortable, and distant from the depos itory of their Public Records, for the TOOmas Jefferson, member of th£ Commit tee of Congress woo lIDS charged with the actual writing of th£ Declamtwn. sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, af ter such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legisla tive Powers, incapable of Annihila tion, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State re maining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has. endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; re1981 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 415 Public reading oftJreDeclaration oflrukperukTl£e, Boston. fusing to pass otherS to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropria. tions of Lands. He has obstructed the Adminis tration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Ju diciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure oftheir offices, and the amount and pay ment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of Ne,~ Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the Mil itary independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknow ledged by our laws; giving his As sent to their Acts of pretended Leg islation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the. world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 416 THE FREEMAN July For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarg ing its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instru ment for introducing the same ab solute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legisla tures, and declaring themselves in vested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Pro tection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, rav aged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our peo ple. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, des olation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized na tion. He has constrained our fellow Cit izens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrec tions amongst us, and has endea voured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule· of war fare, is an undistinguished destruc tion of all ages, sexes and condi tions.

In every stage of these Oppres sions We have Petitioned for Re dress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been an swered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may de fine a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People. Nor have We been wanting in at tention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdic tion over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigra tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kin dred to disavow these usurpations; which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the ne cessity, which denounces our Sepa ration, and hold them, as we hold 1981 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 417 the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representa tives of the United States of Amer ica, in General Congress, Assem bled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and de clare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Inde pendent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protec tion of Divine Providence, we mu tually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock New Hampshire Pennsylvania Virginia Josiah Bartlett' Robt. Morris George Wythe Wm. Whipple Benjamin Rush Richard Henry Lee Matthew Thornton Benj. Franklin Th. Jefferson John Morton Benj. Harrison Rhode Island Geo. Clymler Ths. Nelson, Jr. Step. Hopkins Jas. Smith Francis Lightfoot Lee William Ellery Geo. Taylor Carter Braxton James Wilson Connecticut Geo. Ross North Carolina Roger Sherman Wm. Hooper Sam'el Huntington Massachusetts Bay Joseph Hewes Wm. Williams Sam!. Adams John Penn Oliver Wolcott John Adams Robt. Treat Paine South Carolina New York Elbridge Gerry Edward Rutledge Wm. Floyd Thos. Heyward, Junr. Phil. Livingston Delaware Thomas Lynch, Junr. Frans. Lewis Caesar Rodney Arthur Middleton Lewis Morris Geo. Read Tho. M'Kean Geor.gia New Jersey Button Gwinnett Richd. Stockton Maryland Lyman Hall Jno. Witherspoon Samuel Chase Geo. Walton Fras. Hopkinson Wm.Paca John Hart Thos. Stone Abra. Clark Charles Carroll of Carrollton CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (1787) [Preamble] We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Bless ings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I Section 1. All legislative Powers herein. granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Section 2. The House of Represen tatives shall be composed of Mem bers chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Elec tors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. 418 No person shall be a Representa tive who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be cho sen. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the sev eral States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of Free persons, including THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U.S. 419 those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Per sons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of· ten Years, in such ·Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representa tives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitied to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Vir ginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. The House ofRepresentatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Offi cers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, cho sen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence ofthe first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expi ration of the second year, of the sec ond Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one-third may be cho·sen ev ery second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, ·or other wise, during the Recess of the Leg islature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Ap pointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Sen ate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States. The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation.

420 THE FREEMAN July When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: and no Person shall be con victed without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Cases of Impeach ment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqual ification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party con victed shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, accord ing to Law. Section 4. The Times, Places and manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Con gress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. ,The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Mon day in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

Section 5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Mem bers, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be autho rized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House·may provide. Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those Present, be en tered on the Journal. Neither House, during the Ses sion of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section 6. The Senators and Rep resentatives shall receive a Com pensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Trea son, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been 1981 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U.S. 421 created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding. any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amend~ ments as on other Bills. Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have origi~ nated, who shall enter the Objec tions at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with theOb jections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Re~ turn, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representa~ tives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Represen tatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. Section8. The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Du~ ties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Im posts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with for eign Nations, and among the sev eral States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix 422 THE FREEMAN July the Standard of Weights and Mea sures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Sci ence and useful Arts, by securing for limi ted Times to Authors and In ventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discover ies; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law ofNa tions; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Govern ment and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of train ing the Militia according to the dis cipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of partic ular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arse nals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;-And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Pow ers, and all other Powers vested by this Consti tution in the Govern ment of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section 9. The Migration or Im portation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohib ited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Per son. The Privilege of the Writ of Ha beas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or 1981 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U.S. 423 Invasion the public Safety may re·· quire it. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. No Capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Ves·, sels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and· Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Officeof Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. Section 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Con federation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Pay ment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Con tracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Con sent of the Congress, lay any Im posts or Duties on Imports or Ex ports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspec tion Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall. be. for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject· to the Revision and Control of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Con sent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into' any Agreement or Compact with an other State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Dan ger as will not admit of delay. Article II Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature. thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Sena424 THE FREEMAN July tors and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Repre sentative, or Person holding an Of fice of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Per sons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the Presi dent of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Represen tatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number .of Electors ap pointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse, by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the list, the said House shall in like manner chuse the Pres ident. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a M;ember or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice.

In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice-President. The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. In Case of the Removal of the President from Office,or ofhis Death, Resignation or Inability to dis charge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Con gress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resigna tion or Inability, both of the Presi dent and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as Presi1981 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U.S. 425 dent, and such Officer shall act ac cordingly, until the Disability be re moved, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall· have been elected, and he shall not re ceive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them. Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the fol lowing Oath or Affirmation:- ((I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, pre serve, protect and defend the Con stitution of the United States." Section 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the prin cipal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject re lating to the Duties of their· respec tive Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Sen ate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present con cur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassa dors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all ot}:ler Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may hap pen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next ses sion. Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Informa tion of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully ex ecuted, and shall commission all the Officers of the United States.

426 / THE FREEMAN July Section 4. The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Officeon Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemean ors. Article III Section 1. The Judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such in ferior Courts as' the Congress may from time to time ordain and estab lish. The Judges, both of the su preme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times,. receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished dur ing their Continuance in Office. Section 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Eq uity, arising under this Constitu tion, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;-to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;-to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;-to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;-to Contro versies between two or more States;-between a State and Citi zens of another State;- between Citizens of different States,-be tween Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of dif ferent States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

In all Cases affecting Ambassa dors' other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before men tioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Con gress shall make. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in ad hering to their Enemies, 'giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfei ture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

1981 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U.S. 427 Article IV Section 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State· to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. Section 2. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all 'Privi leges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. A person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. No person held to Service or La bour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Reg ulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Section 3. New States may be ad mitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the J uris diction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Ter ritory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so con strued as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any partic ular State. Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Gov ernment, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Ap plication of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domes tic Violence.

Article V The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it neces sary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Appli cation of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Pur poses, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no 428 THE FREEMAN Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be de prived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. Article VI All Debts contracted and Engage ments entered into, before the Adop tion of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States un der this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to. the Contrary notwithstanding. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members Ratification: of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualifi cation to any Office or public Trust under the United States. Article VII The Ratification of the Conven tions of nine States, shall be suffi cient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

Done in Convention by the Unani mous Consent ofthe States present the Seventeenth Day of Septem ber in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Indepen dence of the United States of America the Twelfth IN WIT NESS whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, GO: Washington-Presidt. and deputy from Virginia Attest William Jackson Secretary Delaware Pennsylvania New Jersey Georgia Connecticut Massachusetts Maryland December 7, 1787 December 12, 1787 December 18, 1787 January 2,1788 January 9,1788 February 6, 1788 April 28, 1788 South Carolina New Hampshire Virginia New York North Carolina Rhode Island May 23,1788 June 21, 1788 June 25, 1788 July 26, 1788 November 21, 1789 May 29,1790 FIRST TEN AMENDMENTS (Article I) Congress shall make no law re specting an establishment of reli gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

(Article II) A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be in fringed. (Article III) No Soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. (Article IV) The right of the people to be se cure in their persons, houses, pa pers, and effects, against unreason able searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, sup ported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Aon 430 (Article V) THE FREEMAN (Article VII) No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in ac tual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be sub ject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any Criminal Case to be a witness against him self, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

(Article VI) In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an im partial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be con fronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re examined, in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. (Article VIII) Excessive bail shall not be re quired, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. (Article IX) The enumeration in the Constitu tion, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage oth ers retained by the people.

(Article X) The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are .reserved to the States respec tively, or to the people. -Adopted December 15, 1791 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS Friends and Fellow-Citizens: The period for a new election ofa citizen to administer the Executive Government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed iIi designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now ap prise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken with out a strict regard to all the consid erations appertaining to the rela tion which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which si lence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no de ficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of andcontinu ance hitherto in the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of in clination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much ear lier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to· return to that retire ment from which I had been reluc tantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this previous to the last election had even led to the pre431 432 THE FREEMAN July paration of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations and the unanimous advice of per sons entitled to my confidence im pelled me to abandon the idea. I re joice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of incli nation incompatible with the senti ment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that in the present circumstances of our country you will not disapprove my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust I will only say that I have, with good inten tions, contributed toward the orga nization and administration of the Government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the out set of the inferiority of my qualifi cations, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyesofoth ers, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years ad monishes me more and more that the· shade of retirement is as neces sary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my ser vices they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

A Prayerof Gratitude In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my political life my feel ings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which lowe to my be loved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, and for the op portunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attach ment by services faithful and perse vering, though in usefulness un equal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remem bered to your praise and as an in structive example in our annals that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direc tion, were liable to mislead; amidst appearances sometimes dubious; vi cissitudes of fortune often discour aging; in situations in which not un frequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts and a guaranty of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly pen etrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave as a strong 1981 WASHINGTON'S .FAREWELL ADDRESS 433 incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you thE~ choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affec·· tion may be perpetual; that the freE~ Constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly main·· tained; that its administration in every department maybe stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine:, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so carefull a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation· which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me on an oc casion. like the present to offer to your solemn contemplation and to -recommend to your frequent review some sentiments which are the re sult of much reflection, of no incon siderable observation, and which appear to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a peo ple. These will be offered to you with the more freedom as you can only see in them the disinterested warn ings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget as an encouragement to it your indul gent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occa sion. 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.

In Union Lies Strength The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your pros perity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and ftom different quarters much 434 THE FREEMAN July pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth, as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of inter nal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) di rected' it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individ ual happiness; that you should cher ish a cordial, habitual, and immov able attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxi ety;, discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and in dignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alien ate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every induce ment of sympathy and interest. Cit izens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patri otism more than any appellation de rived from local discrimination~. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together. The indepen dence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, suffer ings, and successes. But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly out weighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding· and .preserving the union of the whole.

The North, in an unrestrained in tercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common gov ernment, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enter prise and precious materials of man ufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the same agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its com merce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it' finds its particular navi gation invigorated; and while it con tributes. in different ways to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks for ward to the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like inter course with the West, already finds, 1981 WASHINGTON'S F~AREWELL ADDRESS 435 and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or man ufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation.

Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own sepa rate strength or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. HarmoniousInterests While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined can not fail to find in the united mass of means and ef forts· greater strength, greater re source, proportionably greater secu rity from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations, and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rivalships alone would be suffi cient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and im bitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those over grown military establishments which, under any form of govern ment, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as par ticularly hostile to republican lib erty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak a per suasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the union as a pri mary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are autho rized to hope that a proper organi zation of the whole, with the auxil iary agency of governments for· the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and f1:111 experiment. With such powerful and obviou.smo tives. to union affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracti cability, there will always be reason 436 THE FREEMAN July to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. DivisiveIssuesAvoided In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union it occurs as matter· of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geo graphical discriminations-r-N orth ern and Southern, Atlantic and Western-whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local in terests and views. One of the expe dients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to mis represent the opinions and aims of other districts. You can not shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresenta tions; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affec tion. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a usefulles son on this head. They have seen in the negotiation by the Executive and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Gov ernment and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi. They have been witnesses to the· formation of two treaties-that with Great Brit ain and that with Spain-which se cure to them everything they could desire in respect to our foreign rela tions toward confirming their pros perity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these ad vantages on the union by which they were procured? Will they not hence forth be deaf .to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens?

To the efficacy and permanency of your union a government for. the whole is indispensable. No alli ances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute. They must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have exper ienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a Con stitution of Government better cal culated than your former for an in timate union and for the efficacious management of your common con cerns. This Government, the off spring of our own choice, uninflu enced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature delibera tion, completely free in its princi pIes, in the distribution of its pow ers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a pro vision for its own amendment, has a 1981 WASHINGTON'S li'AREWELL ADDRESS 437 just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its author ity, compliance with its laws, acqui escence in its measures,· are duties enjoined by the fundamental max ims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time ex ists till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole •people is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish govern ment presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

Special Interests and Factions All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and as sociations, under whatever plausi ble character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enter prising minority of the community, and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mir ror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and whole some plans, digested by common counsels and modified by mutual in terests. However combinations or associ ations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines by· which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Toward the preservation of your Government and the permanency of your present happy state, it is req uisite not only that you steadily dis countenance irregular opposition to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alter ations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to under mine what can not be directly over thrown. In all the changes to which you maybe invited remember that time and habit are at least as nec essary to fix the true character of governments as of other human in stitutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing consti438 THE FREEMAN July tution of a country; that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hy pothesis and opinion exposes to per petual change, from the endless va riety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember especially that for the ef ficient management of your common interests in a country so extensive as ours a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the per fect security of liberty is indispens able. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enter prises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tran quil enjoyment of the rights of per son and property.

The Spirit of Party I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful .effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is in separable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under dif ferent shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or re pressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rank ness and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and per manent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually in cline the minds of men to seek secu rity and repose in the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposi tion to the purposes of his own ele vation on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an ex tremity of this kind (which never theless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealou sies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against an other; foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, 1981 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 439 which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the chan nels of party passion. Thus the pol icy and the will of one country are subjected to the· policy and will of another. Dangerousin a Free Country There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the govern ment, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in gov ernments of a monarchical cast pa triotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be en couraged. From their natural ten dency it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose; and there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A-fire not to be quenched, it demands a uni form vigilance to prevent its burst ing into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those in trusted with its administration to confine themselves within their re spective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the pow ers of one department to encroach Mt. Vernon, Washington's home upon another. The spirit of en croachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which pre dominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of recip rocal checks in the exercise of polit ical power, by dividing and distrib uting it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the· others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and un der our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected 440 THE FREEMAN July by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly over balance in permanent evil any par tial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

Religionand Morality Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispens able supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politi cian, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of inves tigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the suppo sition that morality can be main tained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of pecu liar structure, reason and experi ence both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in ex clusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule in deed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon at tempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an ob ject of primary importance, institu tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlight ened. As a very important source of strength and security, cherish pub lic credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possi ble, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently pre vent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accu mulation of debt, not only by shun ning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which un avoidable wars have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon post erity the burthen which we our selves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your rep resentatives; but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. To 1981 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 441 facilitate to them the performance of their duty it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have reve nue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and un pleasant; that the intrinsic embar rassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the Government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

Observe good faith and justice to ward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct. And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no dis tant period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and be nevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would richly re pay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felic ity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? InternationqlPolicy In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and pas sionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings to ward all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward an other an habitual hatred or an ha bitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and in tractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur.

Hence frequent collisions, obsti nate, envenomed, and bloody. con tests. The nation prompted by ill will and resentment sometimes im pels to war the government contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes partici pates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason 'would reject. At other times it makes the animosity of the nation subser vient to projects of hostility, insti gated by pride, ambition, and other 442 THE FREEMAN July sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the vic tim. So, likewise, a passionate attach ment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympa thy for the favorite nation, facilitat ing the illusion of an· imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and in fusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a par ticipation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate in ducement or justification. It leads also to· concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the na tion making the concessions by un necessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by excit ing jealousy, ill will, and a disposi tion to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the in terests of their own country without odium, sometimes even with popu larity, gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatua tion.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways,. such attach ments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and indepen dent patriot. How many opportuni ties do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opin ion, to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak toward a great a.nd powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influ ence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican gov ernment. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it be comes the instrument of the very in fluence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive par tialityfor one foreign nation and ex cessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influ ence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the fa vorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their in terests.

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in ex tending our commercial relations to 1981 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 443 have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Avoid PoliticalAlliance Europe has a set of primary inter ests which to us have none or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our .concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes.· of her politics or the ordinary combina tions and collisions of her friend ships or enmities. Our detached and distant situa tion invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient govern ment, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously re spected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, ri valship, interest, humor, or caprice? The Simple Rules of Trade It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim· no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be o~served in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. Taking care always to keep our selves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alli ances for extraordinary emergen cies.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by pol icy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand, nei ther seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forc ing nothing; establishing with pow ers so disposed, in order to give trade 444 THE FREEMAN July a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the Government to support them, con ventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied as ex perience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from an other; that it must pay with a por tion of its independence for what ever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nomi nal favors, and yet of being re proached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to dis card.

Suggestionsto Guide PeacefulNationalAffairs In offering to you, my country men, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend I dare not hope they will make the strong and last ing impression I could wish-that they will control the usual current of the passions or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of na tions. But if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occa sional good-that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs offoreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism-this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated. How far in the discharge of my of ficial duties I have been guided by the principles which have been de lineated the public records and other evidences of my conduct must wit ness to you and to the world. To my self, the assurance of my own con science is that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe my proclamation of the 22nd of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your ap proving voice and by. that of your representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, unin fluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could ob tain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circum stances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and in terest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined as far as should depend upon me to main1981 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 445 tain it with moderation, persever ance, and firmness. The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct it is not necessary on this occasion to de tail. I will only observe that, accord ing to my understanding of the mat ter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.

The duty of holding a neutral con duct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity to ward other nations. An Independent Nation The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and ma ture its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consis tency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors.

Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence, and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults. of incompe tent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his pro genitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise my self to realize without allljYthe sweet enjoyment of partaking in the midst of my fellow-citizens the benign in fluence of good laws under a free government-the ever-favorite ob ject of my heart, and the happy re 'lVard,as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

-September 17, 1796 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT Additional Readings Among the books published by The Foundation for Economic Educa tion or stocked for resale from other publishers, the following are especially commended for further study of the principles underlying the Constitution. FREDERICBASTIAT The Law The law, it has been said, is nothing more than the will of tyrants. So it has been many times in history. But just laws depend upon a law which underlies the law passed by legislatures or declared by rulers. It is a law which provides the framew~rk of liberty. Emancipation from the doleful theories of the compulsive state awaits discerning readers of this brief treatise. CLARENCEB. CARSON The American Tradition Is the libertarian position incompatible with conservatism? Some where, perhaps, but in the United States, NO! This becomes clear in this careful and illuminating work on the American tradition. In the United States, a great tradition took shape that was protective of and in harmony with liberty. This book describes, too, how the tradition has been distorted and is being undermined.

The Rebirth of Liberty Liberty has been all too often stillborn in the revolutions of our era. The promises of freedom were but deceitful allure from would-be ty rants. One revolution was different, however; it was the American Revolution. How the promise was turned into reality is the subject of this contemporary study of the great men and events of that revolt by Americans from English rule. JOHN CHAMBERLAIN The Roots of Capitalism The connection between economic thought and practice is a vital one. In similar manner, the precondition of private property to the effec tive use of capital is essential. Chamberlain has woven these and other threads together to tell the modern story of freedom and produc tion.

CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT--ADDITIONAL READINGS 447 w. M. CURTISS The Tariff Idea No notion has been more persistently held in our era than the one that obstacles ought to be placed in the way of goods entering a country. Even today auto stickers proclaim ((Every foreign car imported cost 10 jobs for Americans." W. M. Curtiss has exposed this fallacy in this brief, easy-to-read -and hard-to-put-down booklet. The case for freedom is clearly and forcefully made. GOTTFRIEDDIETZE The Federalist: A Classic on Federalism and Free Government It is generally conceded that The Federalist was the greatest Ameri can contribution to political thought. It follows that a clear under standing of these papers and the thought of the men who wrote them is vital both to thinking about politics and to an understanding of the United States Constitution. Professor Dietze has provided invaluable aids to doing this in his seminal work on The Federalist.

VERNA M. HALL The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States was founded upon the concep tion of a Higher Law. The Higher Law concept is itself founded in the belief in the laws of God. Verna Hall has collected and arranged in a single volume the evidences of the Christian foundation of our Con stitution. ALEXANDERHAMILTON,JOHN JAY-ANDJAMESMADISON The Federalist Serious students of government, and particularly American govern ment, may well begin with these papers written by John Jay, Alex ander Hamilton, and James Madison. It is the most brilliant justifi cation and explanation of the· Constitution that has been made. The principles of effective government and liberty are set forth in this great work! CLARENCEMANION The Key to Peace Those who think that the American way can somehow be evoked by a vague and general term such as ((DenlOcracy"should be especially 448 THE' FREEMAN interested in this booklet. With great economy, Clarence Manion cov ers the key ideas in the Declaration of Independence and describes the basic institutions and practices. It reawakens pride in America and respect for the heritage.

LUDWIGVON MISES Planned Chaos The destruction of liberty in America as elsewhere has been accom plished both by private violence and by the near irresistible force of the modern state. This ~~easy, bloodless and nonviolent" transition to socialism is the subject of Planned Chaos. Professor Mises tells why the popularity of this policy is not a safe test of its soundness, why it fails in its avowed purposes, and what it does to nations which pursue it. LEONARDE. READ Anything That's Peaceful If Leonard Read simply announced that he favored anything that was peaceful, what man of good will could disagree with him? But he does not leave it there. He goes on to name and demonstrate that a great many things we are doing do not make for peace. He shows that the peacemakers are greatly outnumbered by the aggressors. The core of his philosophy is set forth· in this book. GEORGECHARLES ROCHE III American Federalism What is the essence of the· American ·system of government? Is it a centralized democracy?Maya majority rightfully do whatever it pleases?

What roles do the states play in our system? In this succinct study, George Roche covers the past, the present, and offers some thoughts for the future of federalism. Copies of ttA Literature of Freedom" catalogue and order form are available on request: The Foundationfor EconomicEducation,Inc. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York 10533 the Freeman VOL. 31, NO.8 • AUGUST 1981 Time to Abolish the FED? Elgin Groseclose 451 Turn back to the market as the regulator of the money supply. Why Right Does Not Triumph Ridgway K. Foley, Jr. 456 Seven stumbling blocks examined--and ways around them. The Seen vs. the Unseen: A Modern Example John Semmens 467 How conservation measures by-pass the market, and backfire. Zoning: A Tragic Public Policy Walter Block 470 Why government zoning should be abolished in favor of market deter minations. What Causes Wealth? Roger Ream 478 Poverty persists where the processes of production are unknown.