Chapter 15 THE NEW MODEL

ANOTHER six years of confusion and discouragement followed the surrender of Cornwallis. The leaders of the Revolution were negotiating the peace treaty and trying to hold the Continental Congress together, to keep the states from fighting each other, and to figure out a way to pay something on the French debt before the French army moved in to collect it. During this period, when George Washington had less hope than at Valley Forge, the leaders of the Revolution made one last effort to unite the independent states.

With the state constitutions as their guide, they attempted to write an over-all constitution which would combine the states into a co-operative federation, designed to work on the principles of individual freedom, liberty, and law.

Common men were to run their own affairs. All persons were to have equal power so that each would be free to struggle for his own self-interest, in order to arrive at a satisfactory balance in his relationships with other men.

The problem was not new. It was as old as history, but no one had ever found the answer. The Greeks had been unable to solve it. The Romans had been unable to solve it. Various experiments had been tried, and all had failed.

No one had ever found the solution. But it is doubtful that, in the entire history of mankind, so unusual a group had ever come together for so important a purpose – realistic frontiersmen, practical builders, jurists, statesmen, students of history, analysts of Old World government from the perspective of a New World in the making. Their counterparts are rare in this modern age of specialization and so-called “progressive” education.^*

Democracy was not the answer. The word democracy means rule by the masses, and mass rule means mob rule. As James Madison pointed out in The Federalist:

“A pure democracy … can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will … be felt by a majority … and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party…. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been … found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.”

Obviously, there can be no individual freedom unless the rights of the minority are protected; and in an unrestrained democracy, it’s too easy for the organized pressure groups to infringe on the rights of others.

A Republic

America was to be set up as a republic – which means that the laws would be made and administered by representatives chosen, directly or indirectly, by the people to protect the interests of all the people.

The word republic means rule for the people, and as Isabel Paterson points out:

“A Republic signifies an organization dealing with affairs which concern the public, thus implying that there are also private affairs, a sphere of social and personal life, with which government is not and should not be concerned; it sets a limit to the political power.”^1-a

In the last analysis, any government, regardless of what it may be called, must be one man or a small group of men in power over many men. That being the case, how is it possible to transfer the power of the ruler to each man in the multitude?

The answer is that it is not possible. The only solution lies in the direction of destroying power itself. The only way in which men can remain free and be left in control of their individual energies is to cut the power of government to an irreducible minimum.

But how can that be done without the danger of out-and-out anarchy? The answer is quite simple – once it is found. But until the time of the American Revolution, no one had found it.

The head of a state is a human being; and a human being’s thinking, deciding, acting, and judging are inseparable. But in this new American republic, no top official would ever be permitted to act as a whole human being. The functions of government would be divided into three parts:

1. The first part was to think and decide. It would be called the Congress.

2. The second part was to be responsible for getting action. It would be headed by the chief executive – the President.

3. The third part was to serve as judge or referee and would be known as the Supreme Court.

Each of these three parts was to act as a check on the the other two; and over the three was set a written statement of political principles, intended to be the strongest check on them all. There was to be government by law – with clearly defined rules of the game – rather than government by whim. Thus, the Constitution was to serve as an impersonal restraint upon the fallible human beings who must be allowed to use their fragments of authority over the multitudes of free individuals.

The dangers of dictatorship must be avoided for all time to come. No one person nor small group of persons must ever be permitted to get too much power; and the minority – even down to the last individual citizen – must be protected against oppression by the majority or by any organized pressure group.

Such were the objectives of the American revolutionary leaders, and for months they struggled to draw the blueprints for this new and completely different political structure.

Then they went out and fought for two more years in an effort to get it accepted. With arguments and speeches, with pamphlets and newspapers and books, with appeals to logic and justice and common sense and self-interest, with political deals – with every weapon they had – they fought the demand for monarchy, and they fought the demand for democracy.

The war ended on October 19, 1781. The peace was formally ratified September 3, 1783. But the United States did not come into being until June, 1788, at which time the federal Constitution had been accepted by nine states – but only on the condition that it be amended to include certain specific restrictions and reservations to protect the individual against the improper use of force, and to prevent the central government from encroaching on the rights of the state governments.

Servant, Not Master

In effect, the Ebenezer Foxes said to the revolutionary leaders: “We don’t mind joining in a voluntary federation, with a limited organization to look after the overall problems. But we are not as much interested in the good things that you could do as we are in the bad things that you or your successors might do if there were too much centralized power. It should be clearly understood, once and for all, that we don’t propose to drift back into the same sort of situation which brought on the war. We want no European regimentation on this side of the world!

“The whole idea is to protect the freedom of the individual citizen, not only from outsiders, but from insiders – and especially from men in public office. All up and down the line, it’s got to be government by law, not government by violence. Things must be run according to the rules of the game, not by the whims and fancies of those whom we elect to office. There is no one person nor small group of persons smart enough to run this country – even if we, the citizens, were smart enough to pick the best of the lot.

“The federal government, along with state governments, county governments, and city governments, must be set up as the servant rather than as the master – and it must be kept that way.

“We’re the ones who will have to put up the money, and we will write the ticket. It’s your job to preserve law and order so that we can be free to get our work done. That’s why we are giving you a monopoly of the use of force. We are giving it voluntarily, and it is not to be used in a manner that will interfere with the constructive activities of free citizens.”

The first ten amendments were the “price of ratification.” They guarantee freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious freedom, and the right of trial by jury. In addition, public officials are forbidden to seize or to search a person or his property or his private papers – except under certain definite circumstances prescribed by written law. Private property cannot be taken for public use without just compensation to its owner.^* Cruelty is outlawed once and for all, and any accused person is to be considered innocent until his guilt is proven.

And last, but not least, it became a part of constitutional law that any powers not specifically granted to the Federation automatically remain in the hands of the separate states or in the hands of the people themselves.

Thus, the individual’s life, liberty, and property rights are to be held secure against unjust acts, not only on the part of other individuals, but also on the part of the government itself.

A Misleading Term

These early amendments are known collectively as the “Bill of Rights,” but the name is misleading and tends to confuse a careless mind.

The word rights reflects the feudal concept. It is entirely accurate as used in England because the English “bill of rights” is a statement of certain freedoms which the British government permits its subjects.

But in America, it’s exactly the opposite. Our so-called Bill of Rights is really a statement of prohibitions, and it defines the uses of force that will or will not be granted to public officials. It is based on the principle that human rights are natural rights – born in every human being along with his life – and are inseparable from life itself. People cannot be given that which already belongs to them – and only to them.

Here in America, men in public office were to be the recipients, not the donors, of permission. They were to be the servants, not the masters, of the people.

That is what makes the American concept of constitutional government different from that of the British government or that of any other government that had ever gone before. This difference is the essence, the very foundation, of the revolution. Ours is the only basic innovation in political structure since the beginning of recorded history.

That’s an important point to remember – especially during these hectic times when the Old World “isms,” after a bit of face lifting and relabeling, are being presented in glowing terms as something entirely new and ultramodern. The safety, the freedom, the security, the very life of every American and the future of his children depend upon our understanding the meaning of the real revolution.

A Dream Come True

The ten basic amendments were adopted in December, 1791. The dreams of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison had become a reality.

From the Old World viewpoint, the Constitution had been too weak before the adoption of the amendments, and now it had been made even weaker. Europeans were aghast. They cried out that this new American government would be short-lived and would come to no good end. The Americans had violated all the experience and wisdom of the ages. Older governments refused to recognize the new federation of states. No government could come nearer to anarchy than this and still be a government.^*

Of course, in the traditional sense of the term, it was not a government. It was a reversal of all the pagan precedents. Instead of following in the footsteps of the Old World dictators by setting up the strongest possible government, the revolutionists had taken exactly the opposite course. Their aim was to make the central government just as weak as possible – throwing the responsibility back on the individual citizens, with the state constitutions serving as buffers.

It must be admitted that the Old World skepticism was not without foundation. Even with the strongest form of government, the prospects would not be bright for the new and sparsely settled states sprinkled along the Atlantic coast, between an inland wilderness and a sea dominated by Great Britain’s Navy.

Canada had remained loyal to the King; Spain still held the Floridas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California; France owned most of the territory between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains; Russia was in the extreme Northwest.

^* To be fitted for public office in later life, it was then considered necessary for a boy to be given the education of an English gentleman. Before he was sixteen, the philosophy and history of the entire European past had been pounded into his head. Thus, when he was old enough to begin thinking things out for himself, he had within his own mind a storehouse of knowledge covering thousands of years of human experience. Also, he was drilled in logic and the accurate meaning of words, as essential to straight-thinking and as a protection against the fallacies of fancy rhetoric! (One of these days, I hope to write a book, or at least a pamphlet, on the educational techniques that produced such men as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison – with a special chapter on the Donald Robertson School.)

^* For the first time in history, the right to own property was to be given full legal recognition and was to be extended to the humblest citizen, without reference to class distinction, social position, or status of birth. The moral right of private ownership had lone been recognized by the Christian Church as essential to spiritual freedom. But outside the Church, the idea had gained little headway. As late as 1776, for example, no one in France could own even so much as a pigeon, unless he happened to be a person of “royal birth” – a king, a prince, or a noble.

^* There were dissenters from the European viewpoint, including William Pitt, the English statesman who, after reading the American Constitution, exclaimed that it would be the wonder and admiration of all future generations. And there was Count Aranda who, as Prime Minister of Spain, was trying to bolster its economic affairs and who sounded a note of warning to the Old World monarchies when he said: “This federal republic is born a pygmy. A day will come when it will be a giant, even a colossus.”¹⁴