A Call To All Good Men...
We were warned over 200 years ago that our government would fall into tyranny:
The very idea of the power and the right of the people to
establish
government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established
government.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and
associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to
direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of
the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle
and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction; to give it an
artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated
will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and
enterprising minority of the community, and, according to the alternate
triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror
of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the
organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels and
modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and
then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things
to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men
will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for
themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines
which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
Toward the preservation of your government and the permanency of your
present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily
discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also
that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles,
however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect in the
forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the
system, and thus to undermine what can not be directly overthrown. In all
the changes to which you may be invited remember that time and habit are at
least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other
human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test
the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; the facility in
changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to perpetual
change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember
especially that for the efficient management of your common interests in a
country so extensive as ours a government of as much vigor as is consistent
with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will
find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted,
its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name where the
government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine
each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to
maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of persons
and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with
particular reference to the founding of them on geographical
discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in
the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party
generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root
in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different
shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed;
but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is
truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the
spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and
countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful
despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent
despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the
minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an
individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more
able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the
purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless
ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs
of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a
wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public
administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and
false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments
occasional riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and
corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through
the channels of party passion. Thus the policy and the will of one country
are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon
the administration of the government, and serve to keep live the spirit of
liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of
monarchical cast patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor,
upon the spirit of party, but in those of the popular character, in
governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their
natural tendency it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit
for every salutary purpose; and there being constant danger of excess, the
effort ought to be by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A
fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its
bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country
should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration to confirm
themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding the
exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The
spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the
departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a
real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse
it which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the
truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise
of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different
depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against
invasions by others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern,
some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be
as necessary as to institute them. If in the opinion of the people the
distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any
particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the
Constitution designates, but let there be no change by usurpation; for
though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the
customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must
always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient
benefit which the use can at any time yield.
George Washington
Farewell Address to Congress (a small excerpt)
Our Recourse (Why I Am A Libertarian)
About 3 years ago, the amount of garbage coming out of both the Republican and Democrat parties pushed me over the edge. The Republican Party finally made me as sick as the Democrats had (although I have never supported their ideals). I had supported the GOP since I was a child and actively spread its message. I believe that the GOP has finally sunk into the depths that the Democratic party fell to in the late 60's and 70's. I can no longer support the GOP effort and now submit and voice my support for the Libertarian Party.
I regret this move had to take place but the two parties controlling the US Government have finally disgusted me to the point where I feel we need to start all over. The Constitution has been usurped and the result is a government of despotism and tyranny. It is the duty of all free people to pledge their support to the Constitution, which insures a limited government and the individual the right to be themselves and live according to their convictions. The platform of the Libertarian Party most closely fits my world and national view.
~~Reverend Robert S. Herring, DD
Legalize Humanity!
For more information follow the links below:
The Constitution of The United States of America
Harry Browne for President in 2000!
Return to Clear White Light Org
Contact Reverend Robert S. Herring, DD or Visit: Rev. Robert's World
Remember that the ClearWhiteLight can only be explored or realized when we have the freedom to seek our own path and live our lives in our own manner. Tyranny extinguishes the Light and replaces It's Brilliance with Darkness.
updated: 06-09-2000
