In the early days of the American Republic—when respect for individual freedom and private property rights existed—it did not matter who was elected to office because most citizens of the United States of America read the Constitution and understood that the powers of Congress were defined and limited. As a result of this limited power, the early Americans expected that no matter who was in political office, they could NOT impact the day-to-day activities of the people.
During this period of respect for freedom and private property rights, most of the citizens were farmers. In some counties, when it was time to elect Congressional Representatives, the farmers/neighbors would approach another neighbor and ask him to take his turn as a congressman; and, while he was gone, they would look after the farm for him.
As Ben Franklin (1706-1790) proclaimed,
“In America, salaries, where indispensable, are extremely low, but much of public business is done gratis. The honor of serving the public ably and faithfully is deemed sufficient. Public spirit really exists [in America] and has great effects. . .”
Dr. Franklin’s home state, Pennsylvania, had the following provision in their State Constitution:
As every freeman, to preserve his independence, (if he has not a sufficient estate) ought to have some profession, calling, trade, or farm, whereby he may honestly subsist, there can be no necessity for, nor use in, establishing offices of profit; the usual effects of which are dependence and servility, unbecoming freemen, in the possessors and expectants; faction, contention, corruption, and disorder among the people. Wherefore, whenever an office, through increase of fees or otherwise, becomes so profitable, as to occasion many to apply for it, the profits ought to be lessened by the legislature.”
In 1798, Calder v. Bull, Justice Samuel Chase (also a Founding Father), elucidated the principles of individual freedom set forth in the Declaration and carried forward into the U.S. Constitution:
“The people of the United States erected their constitutions or forms of government, to establish justice, . . . to secure the blessings of liberty, and to protect their persons and property from violence. . .The nature, and ends of legislative power will limit the exercise of it. This fundamental principle flows from the very nature of our free republican governments. [There] are acts which the federal, or state legislature cannot do, without exceeding their authority. There are certain vital principles in our free republican governments, which will determine and overrule an apparent and flagrant abuse of legislative power. [An] act of the legislature (for I cannot call it a law), contrary to the great first principles in the social compact, cannot be considered a rightful exercise of legislative authority. [A] law that punishes a citizen for an innocent [action;] a law that destroys or impairs the lawful private contracts of citizens; a law that makes a man a judge in his own case; or a law that takes property from A and gives it to B: it is against all reason and justice, for a people to entrust a legislature with such powers; and therefore, it cannot be presumed that they have done it. The genius, the nature and the spirit of our state governments, amount to a prohibition of such acts of legislation; and the general principles of law and reason forbid them. [To] maintain that our federal, or state legislature possesses such powers, if they had not been expressly restrained, would, in my opinion, be a political heresy, altogether inadmissible in our free republican governments.”
In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801, President Thomas Jefferson explained:
“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”
Frederic Bastiat’s The Law was published in 1850, where he described the “fatal principle” of “legal plunder” used by the Socialists-Communists:
“. . . imagine that this fatal principle [legal plunder] has been introduced: Under the pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law takes property from one person and gives it to another; the law takes wealth of all and gives it to a few—whether farmers, manufacturers, shipowners, artists, or comedians. Under these circumstances, then certainly every class will aspire to grasp the law, and logically so.”
“As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose—that it may violate property instead of protecting it—then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing.”
Bastiat further explained that “this odious perversion of the law is a perpetual source of hatred and discord.” When he wrote this, he praised the United States, i.e., “There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of every person’s liberty and property. As a consequence of this, there appears to be no country in the world where the social order rests on a firmer foundation [than the United States of America in 1850].”
Colonel David Crockett (1786-1836), who died at the Alamo, also served in Congress as a U.S. Representative from Tennessee. Crockett and his constituency understood that you don’t take property from A and give it to B; and that Congress has no right to be charitable with taxpayer money. While Davey Crockett was in Congress, “a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer.” Several speeches were made in the bill’s favor and just before the Speaker was about to put it to a vote, Crockett stood up and everyone thought that he was going to make “one of his characteristic speeches in support of the bill.”
Crockett opposed the bill stating, among other things, that “Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity.” The amount was a mere $10,000. Crockett concluded his speech:
“Every man in this House knows it [$10,000 appropriation] is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.”
The bill was defeated and not one member of Congress contributed a dime of their own money to the naval officer’s widow. Please read the full story at Not Yours to Give - Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org) and you will understand why Colonel David Crockett made such a speech and believed as he did, i.e., his constituency of mostly farmers understood the meaning of the U.S. Constitution, e.g., Congress has limited powers and no right to take property from one person and give it to others.
As illustrated above, in early America, most of the people, including their political representatives, understood that the federal government had limited powers and could not have much of an impact on the day-to-day lives of average Americans. Accordingly, for the most part, elections did not matter; it did not matter who served in Congress since they had no authority to take your property and give it to someone else or another favored group or an enthusiastic minority. As Bastiat wrote, in early America (1850) “the law [was] confined to its proper function.” . . . those who voted could not inconvenience those who did not vote.”
Today elections matter! Since 1798, when Justice Chase stated that a law taking property from A and giving it to B was “against all reason and justice . . . [and] altogether inadmissible in our free republican governments,” the U.S. Constitution has not been properly amended to authorize this socialist “legal plunder.” Yet it exists today, right under our noses...ignorance is bliss!?!
Our Founders warned us. Ben Franklin told us that if we made it profitable for public service, we would attract scoundrels to public office. Jefferson stated that, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground;” and that we needed a revolution about every 20-years or so to put government back in its rightful place, with limited power and authority. Unfortunately, Americans became too prosperous and complacent, failing to heed the warnings, and accepting an erosion of our liberties over time, like the boiling frog apologue.
As Frederic Bastiat wrote in 1850, about France and most of the rest of the World— excluding the United States back then— “The law [was] perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law . . . not only turned from its proper purpose but [was] made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law [has] become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself [is] guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!”
Our Founders understood, and as Bastiat wrote, “The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of time.” Human nature has not changed since recorded time and our Founders understood that. But they made every effort in 1776 and 1787, culminating in the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, to “bind [men] down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Thomas Jefferson
We Americans have been “asleep at the wheel” since 1798 and allowed “the law [to be] used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees . . . [our] personal independence by slavery, [our] liberty by oppression, and [our] property by plunder. This [has] been done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.”
When slavery was abolished in 1865, with the passage of the 13th Amendment, 14% of the population (Black Americans) was freed based upon the 1860 census; with the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913, granting Congress the power to tax incomes, “from whatever source derived,” along with the purposeful misinterpretation of that amendment, the entire population of the United States of America became enslaved by the power-elites and their minions that control government. To make it perfectly clear, we went from the enslavement of about 14% of the U.S. population to 100% of the U.S. population; the power-elites, the political establishment, and the Deep State minions that run things represent a rounding error!
How did this happen... how did things get so bad today? As Bastiat explained in 1850 and the Socialists/Communists in the United States readily understood, “If you [the socialists] desire to prevent [the] opinions and customs [of the Founding Fathers] from becoming permanent, you will secure the second generation by a general system of public education for the children.”
In addition, the socialists/communists will confuse terms. As Bastiat wrote:
“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.”
If we disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. . . We object to state-enforced equality. Then they say we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”
The Democratic Socialists in the United States of America not only purposely confuse terms, but they also divide and pit us against each other, e.g., black against white, women against men, sexual orientation, etc. With the introduction of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our government- controlled compulsory schools, they are indoctrinating our children to believe that America began as a racist society in 1619 when about 20 black slaves arrived in the Jamestown colony; and, systemic racism still exists to this day, pitting blacks against whites, fostering political division and unrest, which is destroying many of our great cities throughout the United States.
The 1619 Project or CRT is a falsehood, used to divide and control us; not only did many black slaves arrive on the American continent as early as the 1500s, but the United States of America did not exist before July 4, 1776. Prior to 1776, we were British! Slavery was predominant throughout the World prior to and in 1619 and 1776. Blacks sold blacks into slavery. In the height of slavery in the U.S., less than 7.5% of the population in the United States owned slaves (it may be as low as 3%); in 1860 there were 3,000 free Blacks that owned about 20,000 slaves; and there were many Irish slaves. With the help of some prominent blacks, it was people of white European descent that ended black slavery in the United States, the Caribbean, and western Europe. Sadly, slavery is still a real problem internationally and in the United States, with the trafficking of women and children of every color.
The Socialists and Communists have been on the move in the United States since 1798. By 1937 the Supreme Court decided to forgo its duty— “It is the duty of the courts to be watchful for the constitutional rights of the citizens, and against any stealthy encroachments”— and in 2008 Barrack Hussein Obama’s Presidency, with Joe Bidden as his Vice President, accelerated the decline of our American Republic. With Joe Biden’s election in November 2020, we are now over 2-years into the third Obama term; the results are quite devastating and destroying the middle class. A lot more damage can be done between now and January 2025!
Therefore, the November 5, 2024 elections are extremely important. We need to get rid of every socialist currently in office, i.e., everyone that wants to raise taxes on anyone, including corporate entities and businesses, who DO NOT pay taxes in the first place, they pass them on to their customers and clients. Socialists are interested in power and control, so they like to increase regulations on almost everything; regulations result in additional fees (taxation), restrictions on the use of property (reduction in freedom and/or a reduction in property values and many times, the inability to do business or make a living). And of course, Socialists love to pick winners and losers; the winners are those that vote for them and line their pockets with campaign contributions. And finally, the taking of property or money from A (Groups that they dislike) and giving it to B (more favored Groups that will vote for them and/or will contribute funds to their campaigns).
This is NOT the United States of America that our Founders fought and died for in 1776; today is much worse than what our country went through from the British and King George III during the decade leading up to the America Revolution!
Vote for those that want to reduce taxes and regulations, shrink the size of government, and destroy the Deep State. Avoid professional politicians and vote for individuals that have business experience; and avoid voting for professional politicians like Joe Biden, who never had a real job for over 49-years. Biden is just another scoundrel profiting from his political office at the expense of “We the People.”
It’s also time we took the advice of the Pennsylvania Legislature during Franklin’s time: “. . . whenever an office [e.g., congressional seats, president and vice president, cabinet positions, ambassadorships, ad infinitum] through increase of fees or otherwise, becomes so profitable, as to occasion many to apply for it, the profits ought to be lessened by the legislature.”
Maybe we need some chaos in the Oval Office—like the pandemonium that many people disliked about President Trump’s Administration. How else are we going to extirpate the Deep State with academia, an army of brain-washed college students and alumni, and the mainstream media on its side? Like it or not, turmoil will most likely occur during the expungement of the Deep State...
Dum Spiro Spero—While I breathe, I hope.
Slainte mhath,
Robert G. Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.