Bill of Rights Day Speech

I realize that I have been somewhat reticent for quite some time. Being involved in a Congressional race tends to capitalize much time and drains your energy. Now that the race is over, I hope to become more vocal on issues once more. Towards that end, I would like to share the speech that I prepared for a local Bill of Rights dinner which I attended this month. Though I did not deliver the entire speech at the event due to time constraints, I would like to make it available in its entirety. Enjoy.

THE Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.

In the minds of the Founders, we are born with rights by the simple fact of existence, as identified by John Locke and others in the 1600s, and written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," Jefferson wrote. Humans are "endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights...." These rights are clear and obvious, the Founders repeatedly said. They belong to us from birth, as opposed to something the Constitution - or any government - can hand to us.

Some of our founders felt that a “bill of rights” was indeed unwarranted. In the opening sentence of the Constitution, Hamilton argued, "We, The People" created this government, and therefore "We, The People" hold all the rights.

Thomas Jefferson, however, foresaw a time when the concepts so fundamental to the founding of America could be forgotten by the people. He began to agitate for at least a rudimentary statement of rights as amendments to the Constitution, laying out those main areas where government could never intrude into our lives.

Although the purpose of the Constitution wasn't to grant rights to people, Jefferson felt it was necessary to be unambiguous about the reality that humans are the holders of rights, and that in no way was the new government of the United States to ever infringe on those rights.

In an October 17, 1788 letter to Jefferson, Madison initially took Hamilton's position, writing that he was more afraid of the people abusing the government than the government abusing the people.

"Wherever the real power in a Government lies," Madison wrote, "there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community...."

In ignorant or corrupt future hands, a Bill of Rights may actually limit rights "because," Madison believed, "there is great reason to fear that a positive declaration of some of the most essential rights could not be obtained in the requisite latitude."

Yet despite all the documentary evidence - from the Declaration of Independence, to the Federalist Papers, to the Constitution's own Preamble, to the letters of our nations Founders and Framers – some people continue to insist that we only have rights if he can find them written down in the Constitution.

The Constitution doesn't grant rights - it acknowledges that We The People are the sole holders of rights. We need not "pass a law" to have rights.

Yet history may be all but forgotten in today’s modern society
I will end by submitting to you these two quotes:

Thomas Jefferson - from a letter to Francis W. Gilmor, July 7, 1786 stated:

"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. ...the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights."

Finally and as a dark reminder of the danger to our liberties…..

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums in war to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, they will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so.How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Ceasar."

Let us never forget history and the lessons it holds.

Thank you