All patriots are acquainted with the opening phrase of the second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence. Yet I fear that too many have never taken the time to read and/or study the entire Declaration and the complaints lodged within it against the tyranny of King George III.
One thing I am certain of – those in our government most certainly are not familiar with it, for if they were, they would heed the warnings within it and change the way in which they are exercising similar tyranny over us today.
Consider these four complaints stated by Jefferson – complaints you will readily see should serve as a warning to those in our government today.
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
Does this not reflect the myriad of government agencies that have proliferated over the decades that are suffocating our freedom and liberties with endless regulations and oppressions? Think IRS, BLM and the EPA just to list a few.
“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:”
Madison and others of our founders argued strenuously that the federal government’s powers were to be “few and defined”, whereas those left to the states would be “numerous and indefinite” (Federalist 45). Yet we see Congress, the executive branch with all its agencies, and the federal courts constantly and repeatedly overstepping their constitutional authority and subjecting the citizens of the several states to purported “laws” that are contrary to the constitutions adopted by the citizens of their respective states.
“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:”
You can scarcely find a more obtrusive and anti-freedom tax system than what we currently suffer under. Yet when we petition our representatives for relief, they talk much but deliver only more oppression – or if nothing else, stand idly by while the IRS runs roughshod over us.
“We have warned them [those in the English government] from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.”
This statement, near the end of the Declaration, sums up the warning we are giving those in our government. There is a tsunami of anger and frustration rising up all across the land and for the same reasons as in the days of our forefathers. We all know how that matter was resolved:
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute New Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Yes, those who govern us would do well to revisit our Declaration of Independence and give heed to the message and warnings it contains.
-April 15, 2016