I have been a student of the Constitution and writings of the Founding Fathers most of my life (thanks Mom), and must say that the Constitution is one of my favorite documents after my Bible. I literally have page upon page of quotes from the Founding Fathers in a journal because I wanted the wisdom they shared, as well as their direct take on this nation (since they did founded it) at my fingertips. I wanted to share some thoughts with y’all, and hopefully shed some light on what’s going on currently.
The rights of free men as given by the Constitution are:
- Being innocent until proven guilty
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of Religion
- Right to peaceful assembly
- Right to petition the government for redress of grievances
- Right to bear arms
- Soldiers cannot be housed in your house without your consent
- Being secure in your person
- Being secure in your papers
- Being secure in your house
- Being secure in your effects (belongings) without a warrant issued on probable cause backed up by oath
- No person can be held for a crime that is not indicted by a grand jury unless it’s under the Uniform Code of Military Justice
- Not being tried twice for the same crime
- Private property cannot be taken for public or governmental use without just compensation
- Speedy and public trial by jury, and right to confront the accusers
- Excessive bail, nor cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted
- Your Constitutional rights cannot be used to remove someone else’s
I realize that social studies have replaced history, and the most high-schoolers tend to get on the Constitution is examining the preamble, when all the important items of being a citizen, of how this country is to run, and the Bill of Rights are all listed after the preamble. I know this first hand after tutoring two high school students whose textbook didn’t even INCLUDE the entire document, and their only assignment was to memorize the preamble. Government class is not usually taught beyond state government and a quick overview of the federal system. Our governmental representatives frequently misquote and try to alter the Constitution for their own political gain, but their statements are so repeated by the media that people tend to believe them to be true. All of this is by design, to make sure that American’s do not know their God-given and Constitutionally-protected rights, and thus they will not fight for them. Well, I believe it is time to understand this again, so please let me expound on these points.
To be innocent until proven guilty means that you are to be assumed innocent until judgment is passed condemning you, and the burden of proof is on the prosecution to show that you are guilty, not your responsibility to prove that you are innocent. Every single red flag law that is being proposed or implemented right now is in direct violation of this right, as it makes you guilty based on suspicion, rather than proof, and the burden of proof of innocence is on you, while more of your rights have been stripped away in the process. It is also a violation of due process, which according to the 14th amendment is, “that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Yes, these laws are always done in a way that sounds good, sounds like it’s providing safety or going to be better for society, but it’s nothing more than removing your freedom.
Freedom of speech means that you have the right to speak out, the right to speak your mind. It does NOT mean that you can speak what you want as long as someone isn’t offended, as long as it’s not on the ever-growing list of what some consider “hate speech”. It means that you have the God-given right to speak your mind without censoring, without being told what you can and cannot say by the government, or that your speech can land you in prison (outside of committing treason). Every organization, including those in the House, who say you cannot speak something because it’s what they consider hate speech; or that your posts, communications, social media, and more need to be censored and we need to be told what we can say by those who “know better than the people,” have far overstepped their authority and are trampling on the rights of every citizen of this country.
Freedom of Religion. Contrary to popular opinion, this clause means that religion does NOT have to stay out of government or politics. In fact, you will not find the separation of church and state in the Constitution at all. That phrase came from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists to assure them that there would not be a government ordained religion as they had experienced in England and Europe, but rather they would be allowed to freely practice their denomination of Christianity without Government interference. This was especially important because different states had different dominate religions – some were catholic, some Puritan, some Quaker, some Baptist, etc. It was up to the states to decide how they would handle this, not the government. But we also see from the writings of the Founding Fathers that every session of government was started with prayer; when something like war, famine, plagues, or more came, they called for National days of prayer and repentance. They also stated that it is the duty of every American to elect Christians to public office. I bet you haven’t heard that one on the news or in the classroom. What does all this boil down to? The government does not have the right to tell you how you can run your church, or what you can preach from the pulpit, it does not have the right to tell you how to practice your religion, NOR to keep it out of politics. In fact, it is to have a large place in politics.
George Washington stated,
“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”
James Madison, primary author of the Constitution stated,
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions up on the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
John Adams, Founding Father and second President of the United States said,
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Right to peaceful assembly means that you have the right to assemble without repercussions from the government, or as we have recently seen, literally having police at a place of worship to keep people out. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t quarantine in times like this, but there is a difference in self-quarantining or the pastor saying they wouldn’t have services for the protection of the flock, than the government coming to the door and shutting them down. Again, it’s crossing Constitutional boundaries.
Right to petition the government for redress of grievances means that the government cannot run as a theocracy or monarchy without the people having a say about what they are doing. You have the right to petition the government and let your voice be heard, requesting change if you do not agree with what they are doing, assuming it’s already been done or passed.
Right to bear arms. This one is a very hot topic, but honestly one of the most important ones. You, as a citizen of the United States of America, have the right to keep and use firearms of any kind, without having to have permission from the government. There is NO limit to the firearms you can own. Remember, at the time these men were writing these documents, they had been fighting the largest army of the world with the very same kinds of weapons as the army was using. And yes, there were more than one kind of rifle at the time. It was also written about many times by the Founding Fathers, that this right was particularly to be protected. This right was NEVER about hunting. It was a right for self-defense, and for taking down the government if they crossed the line and became tyrannical. So let me ask you, why would they want you disarmed if this was one of the main reasons for the right being given? Could it be that they don’t want you able to stop them? Could it be that they want you to be no more than sheep that can be lead to the slaughter? So any bill that infringes on your right to own a weapon, or what kind of weapon, or what kind of ammunition you can have, or how much ammunition you can have, or (as the current bill before the senate is stating) making it illegal to own guns you already have, is totally illegal according to the Constitution! You are SUPPOSED to have the same kind of weapons the government has! Whether that be for self defense against thieves and crooks, or the government itself. This is not tyranny or sedition; this is literally what the Founding Fathers wrote about! They wisely put the final phrase, “Shall not be infringed,” in the right to bear arms, and ours is infringed on DAILY. It’s time to say “No more!”
Soldiers cannot be housed in your house without your consent. Though we have basically not seen the need for this since the War Between the States, it means that the government cannot house people in your house or on your land without your permission, nor use your supplies for their aid. It is to secure you and your family.
Being secure in your persons means you get to decide what happens to you and your body, unless you are incarcerated. So, every vaccine mandate, every healthcare mandate, every state passing forced euthanasia of the elderly (like Oregon and a couple other states where they have started killing elderly against their will), is a major infringement on this right. The government does NOT have the right to choose what treatments you get or don’t get, they do NOT have the right to force inject you or your kids with whatever they deem fit. We literally already settled this in the Constitution, and then again at the Nuremberg trials! If you think it’s for “public health,” think again. They will say or do anything to get you to hand over your rights a little at a time. If you do not have the say over your own body, how are you anything but a slave? The collective good never trumps the good of the individual.
Being secure in your papers – While your documents can be used in a court of law, they HAVE to be secured with a warrant. It means that the government cannot use your emails, your documents, your agreements, your texts, your FB posts, or anything else to build a case against you without you having committed a crime and a warrant being issued. This whole issue of organizations and the government tracking our posts, emails, transmissions and such is not treating people as free men, but as subjects or threats. Ask yourself again, if they are so interested in what you write, or the documents in your possession, why does it benefit them? Why would they need it? Why are the stripping away your autonomy and freedom to conduct your business or correspondence without fear of what might be done from what you say? Why is there a bill before Congress that would demand that there be no encryption they cannot open, that there be no end-to-end encryption that they do not have a key to and can go in and ready anything you write? WHY would they need that, unless they see you as subservient to them and not worthy of the God given rights you already possess? Yes, our correspondence is already being monitored, people are already on government watch lists, and honestly, this post will probably garner a similar response, but that just goes to show you how far the government has stepped over the bounds of the Constitution.
Being secure in your house and in your effects means that you are not subject to search and seizure without a warrant. You can live in your home, say what you want in your home, have whatever you would like to possess in your home, and the government has no right to enter it or take anything without having a warrant that is backed up by an oath of what someone has witnessed. So in every state where governors have stated that they can send agents to your home to take your guns or private property, to arrest you on red flag laws, to say what you can do with your family, or more, is breaking more than one amendment of the Bill of Rights and is totally unconstitutional, which means it is ILLEGAL. Oh, and that includes Governor Kemp’s executive order that he signed a week and a half ago which includes being able to take your guns and possessions, and can force vaccinate people.
No person can be held for a crime that is not indicted by a grand jury unless it’s under the UCMJ. This protects your freedom in legal cases, meaning that you cannot be imprisoned for no reason. Unlike England and old Europe, where you could be imprisoned for anything, especially if someone was more powerful than you and didn’t like you, all men of all stations in life are equal when it comes to a court of law in America. Justice is blind – or at least is supposed to be. You cannot be held for a crime without being indicted, and you cannot be convicted without being tried by a jury, unless you are in the military and then you are tried under the UCMJ for military matters. Yes, the Constitutional Bill of Rights gives the clause for that.
Not being tried twice for the same crime means that once you have been tried for a crime and sentence passed, you cannot be tried again, even if more information comes out. Unless you appeal the decision, there will not be another trial. Even if information comes out that you had taken part in a second aspect of the same event, once you have been tried for it, you cannot be tried again. This was to keep people from being constantly in court, or trampled upon by those of higher station and more money, or just repeatedly thrown in jail. So for those, say a certain cake maker, who has been brought to lawsuit after lawsuit for refusing to bake a cake against his beliefs (freedom of religion, freedom in your person, property, etc.), it was completely out of line.
Private property cannot be taken for public or governmental use without just compensation, meaning basically, imminent domain is illegal. The government cannot come in and take your property, or a large chuck of your property without your approval, or at least without paying you the fair market value of it. Anyone who has had their property taken on imminent domain knows that the government does not pay fair market value, so everyone of those situations is an illegal seizure.
Speedy and public trial by jury, and right to confront the accusers. If we were truly following the Constitution, or the Bible for that matter, there would not be people sitting around awaiting trial for weeks and months on end, nor would there be people spending years on death row at the expense of the tax payers. You as a free man or woman have the right to have your case heard quickly, and to see your accusers, to know of what they accuse you, and to counter their accusations. There are so many examples, particularly in recent history, where this was not done, nor afforded to citizens, nor to people that one group wanted to make sure was removed. But their very actions were illegal. You always have the right to face your accusers – whether in the work place, in a trial, in the government, or elsewhere. If you are told otherwise, remind them of the law.
Excessive bail, nor cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted. This was based in the history that in the British system, people could be fined and placed in jail well outside of their ability to pay, and then would be left there to die in prison, whether innocent or guilty. As a citizen of this country, the Founders wanted all men to be equal also in their right in the legal system, so they insured that men would be able to pay bail, that punishment fit the crime, and that it would be something that an average person could respond to. This is part of the equality of the U.S.A.
Your Constitutional rights cannot be used to remove someone else’s is vitally important. Just because you may want to press charges, or may not like guns, or may not like what someone says, doesn’t mean they cannot say, do, or possess it. You can say what you believe, but so can someone else. You can choose whether to own or use a gun, and so can someone else… without having that right taken away. You can choose how you want to practice your beliefs and so can someone else. It is important to remember that the Founding Fathers made ALL men equal according to God, and gave all of them the same rights as citizens of this nation. Not that they would achieve the same outcomes/pay/benefits, etc., but that they would all have the same basic human rights, and what they chose to do with their opportunities was up to them.
I share all of this (and it’s only part of what I could have said, but I figured most of you wouldn’t last the whole six pages to begin with) to say that every law, executive order, bill that is proposed that infringes on these rights is ILLEGAL according to the Constitution, and designed to make you a slave of a tyrannical government, and a few elite, who want nothing more than to control you or destroy you. It’s time to know, really know, what your rights are as citizens of this country. It’s time to put the pieces together and to stand up to the government and say, ‘NO! You are not going to take my rights away and make me a slave.’ It’s time to stand up now, even if the current issue doesn’t apply to you, because if they can take someone else’s Constitutional freedoms away, they will do it to you as well. Winston Churchill said, “Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.” Benjamin Franklin wisely stated, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Do not give up your liberty, Americans! Even if it gets uncomfortable for a while, even if it means fighting back, safety is not worth singing in the canary cage for so long that it becomes comfortable, because one day that door will slam shut and the opportunity to be free is long gone.
I’ll leave you with some words from men far wiser than I.
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.” ~Thomas Jefferson
“If it be asked, what is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, an inviolable respect for the Constitution and laws.” ~Alexander Hamilton
“A Nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” ~Benjamin Franklin (Any wonder many dangerous laws are passed during the night or in secret?)
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.” ~Patrick Henry
“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.” ~Thomas Paine
“No people will tamely surrender their liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved.” ~Samuel Adams
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