An American Perspective: Liberty, We the People

Chapter 1- Liberty

§1. We the People

“I had thought it self-evident that all men were endowed by their Creator with liberty as one of the cardinal unalienable rights.”9

We the People possess inherent natural rights, “amongst which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety10”; but they are certainly not limited to such a brief selection.

Inherent Power- An authority possessed without its being derived from another. It is a right, ability, or faculty of doing a thing, without receiving that right, ability or faculty from another.11

“We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life – physical, intellectual, and moral life.” 12

Natural Rights- Those which grow out of nature of man and depend upon his personality and are distinguished from those which are created by positive laws enacted by a duly constituted government to create an orderly civilized society.13

Indeed, the natural rights which we inherently possess are numerous and rightfully unable to be codified by acts of legislation; but yet, they are not all expansive, nor supreme in all matters whatsoever. Quite to the contrary of supremacy, the limitation of one’s natural rights ends where another’s begins. At the point of a violation or usurpation of another’s natural rights, lies the end of your natural rights.

“Each of us has a natural right – from God – to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties?” 14

Ex uno disces omnes.
From one thing you can discern all things.15

[9 MEACHUM v. FANO, 427 U.S. 215 (1976)
10 Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1776) Chapter I, Section I (Source: The Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Carefully compared with the Original. ... Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by Francis Bailey. In Market-Street. M,DCC,LXXI. Pgs. [vii]-xxi.)
11 A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other systems of Foreign Law, to which is added Kelhams Dictionary of the Norman and Old French Language by John Bouvier (1856); pg. 633
12 The Law by Frederick Bastiat (1850) Chapter 1, 1st paragraph (Source: Translation by Dean Russell, formerly of the Foundation staff; The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533)
13 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition (1979) pg. 925; In re Gogabashvele’s Estate, 195 Cal.App.2d 503, 16 Cal.Rptr. 77, 91
14 The Law by Frederick Bastiat (1850) Chapter 2, 2nd paragraph (Source: Translation by Dean Russell, formerly of the Foundation staff; The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533
15 A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other systems of Foreign Law, to which is added Kelhams Dictionary of the Norman and Old French Language by John Bouvier (1856); pg. 126]