The Provision of Our Constitution: The Protection of Individual Life & Liberty
“I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring forth from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence — I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army, who achieved that Independence. I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis?”
Abraham Lincoln, speech at Independence Hall
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1861
It is a grievous action to disregard the liberty of ‘man.’ As it relates to America, England’s parliament and monarchy in the 1760s until the 1780s placed profit over people with its taxes, its abrasive, condescending relational position vis a vis the American colonists, and its failure to understand the roots of liberty in the American experiment that began with the Mayflower ship landing of the pilgrims. They, a people searching for a land wherein they would be at liberty to worship God, safe and happy in their persons, property, and future hopes for their progeny. These entered the waters of Plymouth, Massachusetts on November 11, 1620 with a spirit of liberty that would bear its first fruition 156 years later in July of 1776.
The center focus of the Revolutionary War; of the deliberations in our first government, the Continental Congress; of the beginnings of colonial tumult — was the natural right to self-govern; to throw of the feudal shackles of monarchical government, and to assume amongst humanity, to be a people with the right to life and liberty, that therein, we be safe and happy.
So important is our understanding of the complete works and writings of the framers of our Constitution and the few, unalloyed champions of liberty since that time. Without the knowledge; without the understanding of the sentiment of that spirit of liberty of 1620 and of 1776; we would fail to bring about the right defense; we would fail to be aptly strengthened to put forth a triumphant protection of our cherished liberty now and across all future generations. Knowledge is power and the application of knowledge can be power in motion. Power to defend our right to be happy; and how can we be happy, if we are not also free? If this country, our United States of America be saved, then we must return to the ancient precepts of the Declaration of Independence; the self-government; the individual sovereignty of humanity that is that American experiment, namely, we are all free as long as we respect the right to life and liberty of each other. To effect that social contract written in 1776, we have a government that is supposed to be ‘of and for’ the people. We, the American people form government to ensure our liberty, and the safeguarding of our individual liberty, that we may have happiness.
It is rather simple.
In the instance that government begins to walk a path that is not in line with the Constitution our fathers framed, it is our solemn duty to help bring it forth into alignment: our life, established upon that understanding of shared liberty, and the life of our children depends on it. The founders of our first government; and in particular, George Washington, Abigail and John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Abraham Lincoln, amongst many other stalwarts; the patriotic, devoted soldiers of the Revolutionary War, these are not to be swept away as historical figures of a far-gone time, but as living examples of the rigor and sentiment that is required.
Critical thinking Americans, that is to say: analytical, observant, dynamic, and finally, solution-focused, creative individuals are to look into the performance of our government, of our local and national community life as ‘physicians’ with the ultimate regard to question and see to it that the people; that we are happy. It is a practice in political science to do so, and in light of a government that has acquiesced to slavery, segregation, and abortion, it is our duty to do so.
The 1803 (Marbury v. Madison) U.S. Supreme Court ruling opinion of Chief Justice John Marshall introduced an idea, that in his written conclusion, an in the lack of contesting of it by the American people, was allowed to set itself as a new shadow law that was off the books: namely, statutory interpretation. The Chief Justice proclaimed that the Constitution was too extravagant to be taken at its word, and that from henceforth, the Constitution was what those who worked as Justices in the Supreme Court said it was! Somewhat apologetically, but not really so, Marshall made his case on the legal invention, saying that individual cases that were brought before the court were so unique that the wording of the Constitution simply did not address it.
It would seem a valid point, but Chief Justice Marshall deftly left out the weight of the spirit or sentiment of the framers of the Constitution as they went about wording the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the constitutional document that describes the powers and functions of our branches of government and its relation to the people who form it.
We would know the sentiment of George Washington if we read his writings and we study his works. For instance, Washington created a fund to care for his freed slaves after his death. There was an orphanage that was created, and a work employment educational pact to empower those black-skinned laborers to be able to practice a professional trade. In his writings we learn that the sole issue that weighed on his heart was slavery. He knew that the hard-won liberty of the Revolutionary War would be for nothing, unless all humanity, created equal was given a chance to enjoy life and liberty, that they be happy. What more can be said of the writings and life’s work of Abigail and John Adams, who refused to own slaves, understanding that a new nation was being formed on the context of liberty and justice for all.
To read Abraham Lincoln’s words, to know his works, is to love the man. His passion for the upholding of the Declaration of Independence was his compassion for humanity. He defends the first government, acclaims its sentiment as rooted in with goodness, and lays his case with specific laws and governmental actions that put slavery on the path to extinction, with the liberty of all as his priority focus.
Brought before us is the 1803 U.S. Supreme Court unconstitutionality of ‘statutory interpretation:’ it shifted the balance of power amongst the three branches towards the highest court in the land because (1) it disregards the brilliance of the foundational sentiment of natural law that is supposed to be the core strength of our government, (2) the people did not contest the opinion, (3) it placed the authority of the Declaration of Independence below any person who chaired the Supreme Court, (4) a Supreme Court judge assumed an extra-constitutional authority from the legal invention allowing for judicial aggrandizement — this meant that a political faction could possibly groom and position like-minded people into being nominated and chosen as Supreme Court Justices. A faction that has representation in our federal Supreme Court can use that seat of government as a path towards social engineering, in example, the allowance of slavery, segregation, and abortion. In effect, ‘faction’ ‘constitutionalizes’ language to suit its purpose as it goes about establishing its narrow version of what American liberty should be.
What brought about the Civil War was the impasse to bring a peaceful resolution to our national conversation on the issue of slavery and its detrimental effect on the foundational principles of our natural law as recorded in the words and sentiment of our Declaration of Independence; itself, a testimony; a promissory note holding together our sense of shared, sovereign liberty. Lincoln beseeched, cajoled, and pleaded with all his heart and mind to the people. His intellect, itself now a documented heritage to the American posterity, is the most inspiring work of American writings for the protection of the American experiment and its sentiment of a chance of liberty unto all.
The supremacy of the Constitution cannot be left open to interpretation, especially on the unalienable right to basic life and liberty. Our U.S. Supreme Court has been subject to the inerrancy of its office holders political inclinations on the most important of matters, the life and liberty of individual Americans. The enslavement of people was wrong. The segregation of these same people of black skin color was wrong. The targeting of these same people’s progeny for abortion as a form of population control is wrong. Not only that, but these three forms of oppression have withheld the blessings of local and national peace that is due unto America.
The sentiment of those pilgrims landing on that Plymouth shore, and of those freed, black-skinned laborers in 1863 (Emancipation Proclamation) & 1865 (end of Civil War) were the immediate next steps after the blockading of liberty. Not only do the people who sit as judges in the federal Supreme Court have to do the right action in ending the unconstitutionality of the slaughter of humanity in the womb, but they must publicly denounce any credence of legality on the legal invention of ‘statutory interpretation’ and its stated loophole that affords any person supremacy over our Constitution. It is altogether clear that our Supreme Court has been used to misconstrue the natural law sentiment and words of the Declaration of Independence, and it is up to the American people to be a critical thinking citizenry to disallow the manipulation of government as an instrument of faction. If we are to give an equal chance unto all, we must bring about the America that ought to be; one where respect, decency, and civility are the basis that our country stands on.
