Back to Basics: Twenty Eight, World-Changing, Founding Principles of Liberty
I was encouraged this week by attending an interesting and informative one day seminar on the Constitution. It was sponsored by our local Tea Party and the material was from the National Center For Constitutional Studies. It was inspiring to see a packed house of people taking a Saturday to get informed. I would recommend for you to coordinate a seminar in your area. Spreading the word is the only way we can take our country back from an out of control government. People need to truly understand the role of the federal government. Below is some great info from www.nccs.net Also check out check out www.halearn.com for online studies.
Principles of Liberty: The 28 Great Ideas That Are Changing the World
Discover the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Founding Fathers which they said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desired peace, prosperity, and freedom.
These beliefs have made possible more progress in 200 years than was made previously in over 5,000 years.
The following is a brief overview of the principles found in The Five Thousand Year Leap, and one chapter is devoted to each of these 28 principles.
Principle 1 – The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.
Principle 2 – A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.
Principle 3 – The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.
Principle 4 – Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.
Principle 5 – All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.
Principle 6 – All mankind were created equal.
Principle 7 – The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.
Principle 8 – Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights.
Principle 9 – To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law.
Principle 10 – The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.
Principle 11 – The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.
Principle 12 – The United States of America shall be a republic.
Principle 13 – A Constitution should protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.
Principle 14 – Life and liberty are secure only so long as the rights of property are secure.
Principle 15 – The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.
Principle 16 – The government should be separated into three branches.
Principle 17 – A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power by the different branches of government.
Principle 18 – The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written Constitution.
Principle 19 – Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people.
Principle 20 – Efficiency and dispatch require that the government operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.
Principle 21 – Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
Principle 22 – A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.
Principle 23 – A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.
Principle 24 – A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
Principle 25 – “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations.”
Principle 26 – The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore the government should foster and protect its integrity.
Principle 27 – The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom as subjugation by conquest.
Principle 28 – The United States has a manifest destiny to eventually become a glorious example of God’s law under a restored Constitution that will inspire the entire human race.
The Founders sensed from the very beginning that they were on a divine mission. Their great disappointment was that it didn’t all come to pass in their day, but they knew that someday it would. John Adams wrote:
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
Check out www.nccs.net for a more detailed explanation of each principle.
Source: over 150 volumes of the Founding Fathers original writings, minutes, letters, biographies, etc. distilled into The Five Thousand Year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen, published by National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1981.
Image: Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States; Howard Chandler Christy (1873–1952). public domain
