Forgotten Amendments

The following quote is an excerpt from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to a Francis Hopkinson on March 13, 1789.  The emphasis is supplied by me.

“You say that I have been dished up to you as an anti-federalist, and ask me if it be just.  My opinion was never worthy enough of notice to merit citing; but since you ask it, I will tell it to you.  I am not a federalist….What I disapproved from the first moment also, was the want of a bill of rights, to guard liberty against the legislative as well as the executive branches of the government; that is to say, to secure freedom in religion, freedom of the press, freedom from monopolies, freedom from unlawful imprisonment, freedom from a permanent military, and a trial by jury, in all cases determinable by the laws of the land.”

At the time this was written, a federalist was one who was a supporter of a central government, which was in the works of being formed through the drafting of the United States Constitution.  Thomas Jefferson was involved in the creation of the bill of rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution.  Contrary to popular belief, the bill of rights is not a list of rights one gets from the government.  The bill was added to the Constitution in order to put a limitation on the power of the central government to intrude on what was accepted as the natural rights of man in the wake of the fact that the Constitution was not first accepted by a majority of the colonies since they didn’t want a central government.  After all, they had just fought a revolution to get away from one.

What is worth noting is that Jefferson intended for the bill of rights to include amendments restricting the central government’s involvement in commerce (freedom from monopolies), and hosting a standing army (freedom from a permanent military).  How ironic that these two subjects have defined the role of the central government since the early 20th century with the establishment of the Federal Reserve (a monopoly) and the first world war, which began right after the Federal Reserve was established.

The following chart shows that there is now a generation of Americans coming of age who have never known a time of peace.  This is the fruit of a permanent military.  After all, a permanent military is a permanent expense that requires permanent war in order to pay for it.

Fortunately, the tide is turning.  The creation of decentralized assets like Bitcoin are providing a freedom from monopolies like the Federal Reserve.  And, the emerging of people like Adam Kokesh in the political realm are giving voice to a practical, and systematic withdrawal from the necessity of a central government.  Whether people are willing to be involved in these things is up to them.  The good news is: Freedom doesn’t require the approval of the majority.  As Thomas Jefferson has also said, “One man with courage is a majority.”