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13th
Principle: Protection
Against Human Frailty 163-167
The 5,000 Year Leap
By Skousen
13th
PRINCIPLE
A Constitution Should be Structured
to Permanently Protect the People from
the Human Frailties of
their Rulers.
At the Constitutional Convention, the
Founding Fathers were concerned with the one tantalizing question
which no political scientist in any age had yet been able to answer
with complete satisfaction. The question was, “How can you have an
efficient government but still protect the freedom and unalienable
rights of the people?”
Distrust of Power Not
Necessarily
Disrespect for Leaders
The Founders had more confidence in the people than
they did in the leaders of the people, especially trusted leaders,
even themselves. They felt the greatest danger arises when a leader
is so completely trusted that the people feel r anxiety to watch
him. Alexander Hamilton wrote:
For it is a truth, which the
experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly
most in danger when the means of injuring their rights are in the
possession of those [toward] whom they entertain the least
suspicion. (Federalist Papers, No. 25, p. 164.)
Two hundred years of American history have
demonstrated the wisdom of the Founders in proclaiming a warning
against the frailties of human nature in the people’s elected or
appointed leaders. Every unconstitutional action has usually been
justified because it was for a “good cause.” Every illegal transfer
from one department to another has been excused as “necessary.” The
whole explosion of bureaucratic power in Washington has been t
result of “trusting” benign political leaders, most of whom really
did have good intentions. Thomas Jefferson struck out with all the
force that tongue and pen could muster against trusting in human
nature. Said he:
It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in
the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our
rights; that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free
government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is
jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions
to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our
Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no
farther, our confidence may go....
In questions of power,
then, let no more be said of confidence in man, BUT BIND HIM DOWN
FROM MISCHIEF BY THE CHAINS OF THE CONSTTTUTION. (The Kentucky
Resolutions of 1798, Annals America, 4:65-66; emphasis added.)
Government Is Coercive Force
George Washington made it very clear why all of this
was necessary. The Founders looked upon “government” as a volatile
instrument of explosive power which must necessarily be harnessed
within the confines of a strictly interpreted Constitution, or it
would destroy the very freedom it was designed to preserve. Said he:
Government is not reason,
it is not eloquence—it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous
servant and a fearful master. (Quoted in Jacob M. Braude, Lifetime
Speaker’s Encyclopedia, 2 vols. [ Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
19621, 1:326.)
Leaders Are Not Angels
But
Fragile Human Beings
James Madison saw the problem of placing power in
the hands of fallible human beings who, by nature, contain a
complexity of elements reflecting both good and evil. The purpose of
a constitution is to define the area in which a public official can
serve to his utmost ability, but at the same time provide strict
limitations to chain him down from mischief. In every human being
there is a natural tendency to practice Parkinson’s Law of perpetual
expansion and to exercise personal proclivities toward ego-mania and
self aggrandizement. As we indicated earlier, Madison was very
concerned about human frailties in the leaders of the people. He
said:
It may be a reflection on
human nature that such devices [ as Constitutional chains] should be
necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is
government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human
nature? . . . If angels were to govern men, neither external nor
internal controls on government would be necessary.
[ But lacking these,] in framing a government which is to
be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in
this: YOU MUST FIRST ENABLE THE GOVERNMENT TO CONTROL THE GOVERNED;
AND IN THE NEXT PLACE OBLIGE IT TO CONTROL ITSELF. (Federalist
Papers, No. 51, p. 322; emphasis added.)
Why the Original
Constitution
Will NEVER Be Obsolete
And that is what the Constitution is all
about—providing freedom from abuse by those in authority. Anyone who
says the American Constitution is obsolete just because social and
economic conditions have changed does not understand the real genius
of the Constitution. It was designed to control something which HAS
NOT CHANGED AND WILL NOT CHANGE—NAMELY, HUMAN NATURE.
Danger of Losing
Constitutional Rights
Furthermore, the Founders knew from experience that
the loss of freedom through the gradual erosion of Constitutional
principles is not always so obvious that the people can readily
detect it. Madison stated:
I believe there are more
instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual
and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and
sudden usurpations. . .. This danger ought to be wisely guarded
against. (Elliot, Debates in f/ State Conventions, 3:87.)
When Erosion Occurs, Act
Quickly
ln 1785, Madison had occasion to issue a vigorous
warning to his own state of Virginia:
It is proper to take alarm
at the FIRST EXPERI MENT ON OUR LIBERTIES. We hold this prudent
jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of the noblest
characteristics of the late Revolution. THE FREEMEN OF AMERICA did
not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and
entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences
[governmental abuses] in the principle, and they avoided the
consequences by denying the principle [which the abuses were based].
We revere this lesson too much . . . to forget it. (“Memorial and
Remonstrance,” in Rives and Fendall, Letters and Other Writings of
James Madison, 1:163; emphasis added.)
But where are the encroachments of
abusive rulers most likely to attack? Is there some basic right
which self aggrandizing politicians seek to destroy first? The
Founders said there was. Mankind has so many rights that it is some
times difficult to keep a watchful eye on all of them. There fore,
the Founders said we should especially concentrate on the
preservation of one particular right because all other rights are
related to it. This special object of concern is identified in the
next principle.
“Let no more be said of
confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of
the Constitution”
(Thomas Jefferson)
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