Aug 01 2008
The Bill of Rights. Why and Whence?
Post 2 in the series. Post 1 here.
Here’s the preamble again:
Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine. 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 ensure the beneficent ends of its institution. RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz. ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
The Bill of Rights limits Congress, at least ostensibly. It limits the ability of Congress to legally attack what the founders believed were rights given by God. Only Congress was empowered by the Constitution to make laws, and so by extension the Bill of Rights limits the entire Federal Government. I believe the intention was to limit all levels of the sphere of the state, but that isn’t something I’m going to try to prove here.
The main point is this: The Bill of Rights does not grant rights. It does NOT. It is a legal guarantee of the government’s lack of authority to trump the rights that are enumerated here. The rights do not come from the government. They come from God. (See my review of and read Bastiat’s The Law
here.) They exist whether or not the government believe they exist, and they exist whether or not the government recognizes they exist. That, at least, is what the founding fathers believed. And this document was adopted, “in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers.” The Bill of Rights was a protection against the United States government growing into a tyrannical monstrosity. And the following posts will discuss in what ways it has been misinterpreted in order to allow just that tyranny it was designed to protect against.
