A Shared Feature, Used By the Twelve Points to Advance Conservative Principles

Francis Bacon, who lived during the 16th and early 17th centuries, was not only one of the leading contributors to the development of the scientific method, but also impacted the development of the law of England.  Among the achievements of his that worked to accomplish this was his creation and publication of certain legal "maxims."  (The advantages of maxims include that they are memorable, that in few words they can have a range of applications for many cases, and that they make it perfectly clear what, generally, their ultimate intended effect is to be.)

The maxims themselves were short and simple, intended to communicate as much information as possible at once.  However, Bacon knew how other, older maxims (of which many were from Rome) had been misinterpreted: by construing them to have a more limited application than intended, or by reading so many exceptions into certain rules that they lost most of their effect, or by construing them to have a far-reaching effect, alien to the true meaning of the maxim, people could prevent unobjectionable or important rules from having the positive impact that they were meant to have.

Rather than opting instead for complex and impenetrable blocks of text, however, Bacon chose to make a list of maxims, accompanied by exposition that explained their effect, combining the clarity and memorability of the maxims with the definiteness and detail of longer documents.

Of his plan for the maxims, Bacon wrote: "Lastly, there is one point above the rest, I accompt the most materiall for making these reasons indeed profitable and instructing, which is, that they be not set down alone, like short darke Oracles, which every man will be content still to allow to bee true, but in the meane time they give little light or direction; but I have attended them, a matter not practiced, no not in the Civill law to any purpose; and for want whereof indeed, the rules are but as proverbes, and many times plaine fallacies, with a cleere and perspicuous exposition, breaking them into cases, and opening them with distinctions, & somtimes shewing the reasons above whereupon they depend, and the affinity they have with other rules."

When I read this, I found it interesting, and also relevant to the Twelve Points.  There have been many documents released containing conservative principles, this year.  (Whether any of them were begun as early as the Winter of 2007 - 2008, or formed out of a shorter document from early 2003, I do not know.)  Some of these are focused solely on specific applications of conservative principles (or alleged conservative principles): on specific policy proposals.  These have their uses, but they have no application other than in the proposing of their proposals, and they certainly have no long-term guidance to offer the conservative movement, or to conservatives who are not active in the movement.  Other documents, like the proverbs referenced by Bacon as being "like short, dark oracles," are capable of applying in nearly any case someone might want to use them.  It is impossible to disagree with them, because they can be construed to include any exception and divergent applications.  As a result, it is possible that they are useful in rallying conservatives and uniting conservatives behind "conservative" candidates in an important election year, but they cannot win over those self-described "conservatives" who have embraced hostile, patently erroneous, or counterproductive and time-wasting views or views that are contrary to the basis of our philosophy.  They also cannot help to reconcile the warring constituencies of conservatives, whose differences, as reasonable as they may be, will necessarily prevent us from uniting in actual policy until we find a way to make them compatible.  Such documents, if they produce unity among conservatives, can produce only superficial unity.

The Twelve Points were written to avoid both of these outcomes.  They are not so dedicated to specific policies that they provide no guidance of broader applicability (or that they ignore the underlying philosophy of conservatism).  They were, however, written with enough specificity and exposition that their leading points could not easily be warped through misconstruction and creation of convenient exceptions to avoid the effect of the rules.  For example, while it is easy to convince people to support "Liberty" and the "Constitution," the Twelve Points use the most pointed terms available to state, among other things, that true support for Liberty and the Constitution is not the invoking of their names, or the capitalization of their names, and that support for them is a pretense unless it requires us to think about them and understand them, to support them in practice, and to recognize that defending them sometimes involves allowing people to do things that we do not want them to do, and, sometimes, that we will even have to defend such people in their right to act in ways that we would not.  Another example of this exposition is where the Twelve Points explain, substantially, the operation of those rules and how we can recognize the valid exceptions to the rules (including to the right to liberty), discouraging people from making up their own invalid, all-purpose exceptions.  Finally, the Twelve Points attempt to explain the reasoning behind the accepted doctrines of conservatism (which have been reduced to a low-resolution form, in many cases, as they have been squeezed into sound-bites and slogans and communicated primarily in that form), placing them back on their original, solid intellectual foundation.  The larger rules and themes are stated, of course -- they are the points of the Twelve Points -- but the supporting ideas, in 165 sub-points, reinforce and insulate those main points, protecting them from the forces that have taken such a toll on popular conservatism.

It is not entirely clear to me whether this plan worked for Bacon, but it will work for the Twelve Points.

Reagan

This is a well-known quote from President Reagan, but it isn't always quoted at length, and the source is not always given.  I remember even finding people online who questioned whether President Reagan ever said it.  (I found it on page 38 of "A Time For Choosing," a book published by Regnery Gateway in the early 1980s.)

"In this land occurred the only true revolution in man's history.  All other revolutions simply exchanged one set of rulers for another.  Here for the first time the Founding Fathers--that little band of men so advanced beyond their time that the world has never seen their like since--evolved a government based on the idea that you and I have God-given right and ability within ourselves to determine our own destiny.  Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction--we didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free."

Reagan said something similar when he was inaugurated as Governor of California:

"Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative.  Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.  It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.  Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.  Knowing this, it is hard to explain those who even today would question the people's capacity for self-rule.  Will they answer this: if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?"

When Malice Is Popular

"As to the opinion of the people, which some think, in such cases, is to be implicitly obeyed; near two year's tranquility, which followed the act, and its instant imitation in Ireland, proved abundantly that the late horrible spirit was, in a great measure the effect of insidious art, and perverse industry, and gross misrepresentation."

"… When we know, that the opinions of even the greatest multitudes, are the standard of rectitude, I shall think myself obliged to make those opinions the masters of my conscience.  But it may be doubted whether Omnipotence itself is competent to alter the essential constitution of right and wrong, sure I am, that such things, as they and I, are possessed of no such power.   No man carries further than I do the policy of making government pleasing to the people.  But the widest range of this politic complaisance is confined within the limits of justice. I would not only consult the interest of the people, but I would cheerfully gratify their humours.  We are all a sort of children, that must be soothed and managed. I think I am not austere or formal in my nature.   I would bear, I would even myself play my part in, any innocent buffooneries, to divert them. But I will never act the tyrant for their amusement.   If they will mix malice in their sports, I shall never consent to throw them any living, sentient, creature whatsoever, no not so much as a kitling, to torment."

-Edmund Burke

The Good Must Associate

"In a connexion, the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to the publick.   No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens.   When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

"It is not enough in a situation of trust in the commonwealth, that a man means well to his country; it is not enough that in his single person he never did an evil act, but always voted according to his conscience, and even harrangued against every design which he apprehended to be prejudicial to the interests of his country.   This innoxious and ineffectual character, that seems formed upon a plan of apology and disculpation, falls miserably short of the mark of public duty.  That duty demands and requiress, that what is right should not only be made known, but made prevalent; that what is evil should not only be detected, but defeated.  When the public man omits to put himself in a situation of doing his duty with effect, it is an omission that frustrates the purposes of his trust almost as much as if he had formally betrayed it. It is surely no very rational account of a man's life, that he has always acted right; but has taken special care, to act in such a manner that his endeavours could not possibly be productive of any consequence."

-Edmund Burke

Emphasis Added, Obviously; It Is From A Speech

John Quincy Adams, and then Karl Born, on the states and the union

"Is it not strange again that it appears not to have been perceived by any one at that time that the whole of this controversy arose out of a departure from the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and the substitution of state sovereignty instead of the constituent sovereignty of the people, as the foundation of the Revolution and of the Union.  The war from the beginning had been, and yet was, a revolutionary popular war.  The colonial governments never had possessed or pretended to claim sovereign power.  Many of them had not even yet constituted themselves as independent States.  The Declaration of Independence proclaims the natural rights of man, and the constituent power of the people to be the only sources of legitimate government. State sovereignty is a mere argument of power, without regard to right — a mere reproduction of the omnipotence of the British parliament in another form, and therefore not only inconsistent with, but directly in opposition to, the principles of the Declaration of Independence." -John Quincy Adams, April 30, 1839

It is difficult for a person to quote a passage of any real length, on this kind of topic, without including material that he disagrees with.  Nevertheless, I have posted this quote because it helps to express an idea that I want my fellow conservatives and libertarians to consider: that though the "several states" of the United States have an important constitutional role and powers guaranteed to them by the United States Constitution -- a role and powers that they ought to keep or resume -- describing these by using the term "states' rights" is a mistake, and it would have been a mistake even if that term had not been associated with racism, discrimination, and injustice (due to its use in defense of policies associated with racism, discrimination, and injustice).

States do and should have, or were meant to have, definite and extensive legal rights.  However, they do not have those "rights" for their own sakes as legally-constructed, inorganic corporate entities; any rights that they have, they have for the benefit of the people within their borders.  Those powers and jurisdictions that they were meant to have were not reserved for them by our federal Constitution because states are necessarily more trustworthy, wise, humane, or just than a federal government tends to be; that authority was reserved for a combination of political and practical reasons, including the benefits of certain types of division themselves: the division into separate states making it unnecessary for every part of the union to have the same laws and government in every respect (in areas of law and government where the interests of effective government -- in its proper role -- and justice did not require uniformity throughout the union, and likely would have been difficult to establish) and the division between the state and federal governments allowing voters to elect different officials to address different types of subject-matter.

There was nothing sacred or inevitable about the state borders as they froze around the time of the Revolutionary War (over the relatively short course of their existence, the colonies were founded with highly variable forms of government and were then consolidated, broken apart, sometimes recombined, and occasionally fundamentally altered in their form of government; several of our current states were, in 1776, considered a part of other states), and there is nothing about the collections of individuals that those borders happen to contain at various times that gives them a greater right to govern themselves than Americans possess together.

There is a proper reason for conservatives to advocate federalism, of course, and it is the reason that I would prefer to hear conservatives use: the Supreme Law of the Land, our Constitution, guarantees it, and it is in the interest of the people of the United States to maintain it.

A Referral

Spend a little time over here, learning about conservatism.

A Picture

Read the Twelve Points and Spread the Word!

Until our cause -- and all the essential details connected with it -- are made clear and unambiguous, the conservative movement and the national GOP will remain as confused and aimless as they have been for this past decade.  The Twelve Points are an important part of the solution to this problem.  Read the Twelve Points and spread the word!

The Ninth Amendment Again

This is the latest version of the synthesis of material collected from the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Stamp Act version of the Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, the Massachusetts Constitution's original declaration of rights, the declaration of rights from the Vermont Constitution of 1786, the declaration of rights from the Indiana Constitution of 1816, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
 
I. We hold these Truths to be Self-Evident, that all men are created equal; that equals, by their nature, should be independent and free; that by this gift of equal creation, they are endowed by their Creator with rights both inherent and unalienable; that these rights, though often violated, and though sometimes deprecated by agreements or by pretense of right, may never be divested or extinguished; that these rights forbid intrusions on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that they include the rights of self-defense and of the lawful acquisition, continued possession, and enjoyment and protection of property; that the American people have never, nor could they ever have, ceded or renounced these rights.

II. That when English settlers founded what became our first states, they were, at that time, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural born subjects within the realm of England; that by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants and descendants' peers are now are entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances, including American sovereignty and Independence, enable them to exercise and enjoy; that American citizens in every part of the United States are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of natural born citizens.

III. That the foundation of English and American liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council; and that when the people cannot be properly be represented in that council, they are entitled to make the arrangements they need in order to exercise that right by some other means, particularly with respect to legislation of all cases of taxation and internal polity.

IV. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen and Americans, that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives; that all supplies to the government being free gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of our constitutions for any number of the people to grant to the government the property of anyone else; that private property ought to be subservient to public uses, when necessity requires it, but whenever any particular man's property is taken for the use of the public, the owner ought to receive an equivalent in money; and that previous to any law being made to raise a tax, the purpose for which it is to be raised ought to appear evident to the Legislature to be of more service to the community, than the money would be if not collected.

V. That the members of the legislative and executive branches should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct; that elections of members to serve as representatives of the people in assembly ought to be free; that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community have the right of suffrage, an equal right to elect officers, and to be elected, for public employments, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good; and that each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws.

VI. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them; that government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

VII. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge be hereditary.

VIII. That the people of the United States are entitled to the tradition of the common law, and more especially to the great and inestimable right of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law; that in controversies respecting property and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other and ought to be held sacred; that every citizen of the United States ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character; that he ought to obtain right and justice freely and without purchase, completely and without denial, promptly and without delay, conformably to the laws; that in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand and have described to him, fully and plainly, substantially and formally, the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, to be fully heard in his defence by himself, or his counsel, at his election, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that in criminal prosecutions, the verification of facts in the vicinity where they happen, is one of the greatest securities of the life, liberty, and property of the citizen; that no man be arrested, miprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, except by the law of the land or the judgement of his peers.

IX. That excessive bail ought not to be required; nor excessive fines imposed, which shall instead be moderate; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

X. That every inhabitant of the United States has the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions, and so general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous, oppressive, and illegal and ought not to be granted.

XI. That the people of the United States are entitled to the benefit of such of the English statutes, as existed at the time of English settlement of the American colonies; and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances, and which they have supplemented with their own statutes and fundamental laws.

XII. That they are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges that were granted and confirmed to them by royal charters or that have been secured by the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the several declarations of rights asserted by the colonists, or the several states' constitutions and codes.

XIII. That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition or address the government in the manner of their choice; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal; that the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

XIV. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power; that the keeping of a Standing army in these states in times of peace is against law.

XV. It is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English and American constitutions alike, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in these states, by any council appointed during pleasure, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation; that the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative; that all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority without consent of the representatives of the people is injurious to their rights and ought not to be exercised.

XVI. That no persons shall hold more than on lucrative office at the same time, except as in the Constitution is expressly permitted; that no person shall be appointed as a County officer, within any county, who shall not have been a citizen and an inhabitant therein one year next preceding his appointment; that all town, and township officers shall be appointed in such manner as shall be directed by law.

XVII. That the extension of the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty beyond their ancient limits has a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of Americans; that no person can in any case be subject to law-martial, or to any penalties or pains, by virtue of that law, except those employed in the army or navy, and except the militia in actual service, but by authority of the legislature..

XVIII. That the people have a right to uniform government; and therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the governments of the several states or a duly constituted government of the United States, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.

XIX. The people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any State, to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid by any State, on the property of the United States, or either of them.

XX. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

XXI. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; that none shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience ; or for his religious profession of sentiments, provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship; and that it is the mutual and moral duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.

XXII. That the people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence.

XXIII. That the privilege and benefit of the writ of habeas corpus shall be enjoyed in this commonwealth, in the most free, easy, cheap, expeditious, and ample manner ; and shall not be suspended by the legislature, except upon the most urgent and pressing occasions, and for a limited time, not exceeding twelve months.

XXIV. That laws made to punish for actions done before the existence of such laws, and which have not been declared crimes by preceding laws, are unjust, oppressive, and inconsistent with the fundamental principles of a free government; that no subject ought, in any case, or in any time, to be declared guilty of treason or felony by the legislature.

XXV. That the legislature ought frequently to assemble for the redress of grievances, for correcting, strengthening, and confirming the laws, and for making new laws, as the common good may require.

XXVI. That no act of a legislature shall be in force until it shall have been published in print, unless in cases of emergency.

XXVII. That the freedom of deliberation , speech, and debate, in either house of the legislature, is so essential to the rights of the people, that it cannot be the foundation of any accusation or prosecution, action or complaint, in any other court or place whatsoever.

XXVIII. That in no case shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the union, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor.

XXIX. That as the holding any part of the human Creation in slavery, or involuntary servitude, can only originate in usurpation and tyranny, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.

The following is a possibly incomplete edition of an old, far longer draft of the Twelve Points.

The TWELVE POINTS Compendium

We, the conservatives of the United States of America, intending to define, enhance, and strengthen the conservative movement by affirming certain essential principles and creating a standard to which we can hold ourselves and our fellow conservatives, in order to allow ourselves to better serve our country and the world, state and affirm as follows:

I. Concerning EQUALITY AND JUSTICE:

That justice is founded on the recognition that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,” and that departure from this principle is the essence of injustice;

That this equal creation yields the requirement that all people be equal before the law, and from it we derive our internally-ordered right to liberty, as equality is compromised by the arbitrary use of force, whether used by a government or a private individual;

That the most essential purpose of government is to secure and preserve justice, and this liberty-infused understanding of justice must be an immutable concern in the creation and execution of government policies;

That our natural rights are unalienable, and neither the wishes of the majority nor grand promises of national or societal greatness can ever revoke or suspend these rights, but instead can only violate them;

That when the people combine to form a government, they do not surrender their liberty, but rather delegate their right to make the final determination as to the just boundaries of their liberty, requiring such boundaries to be determined by law, and taking in place of that right a share of power over the law;

That though popular approval can make injustice legal, or even obligatory, it cannot make it just;

That consent of the governed does not exist when a majority issues orders to a minority, predicated on nothing but that majority's alleged right to rule;

That the governments of the United States must take as sacred their duties -- as distributed between them by the Constitution -- to keep Americans secure in their lives, liberty, and property, and to ensure that those who threaten this security are not rewarded at the expense of the innocent;

That both sovereign levels of government are obligated to defend individual liberty from the other, as well as from individuals;

That freedom is an essential part of justice....

II. Concerning INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY:

That individual liberty is a basic and essential right;

That liberty is internally ordered, as arbitrary coercion is a destroyer of liberty, not an expression of it;

That in our imperfectible world, we will not remain free if an imperfection or an unmet need, without more, is thought to justify the sacrifice of a portion of our liberty;

That our right to liberty will be thoroughly violated if any attractive objective, without more, is thought to justify governments in forcing or forbidding Americans to act as ordered;

That protecting individuals from knowingly and willingly exposing themselves to danger is not an appropriate justification for government at any level to marshal the force of law;

That taxes, when used to finance programs and expenditures that do not justify the penalties used in tax collection, violate the essential right to liberty;

That every dollar spent by government has been or will be taken from an American;

That we, as conservatives, must commit ourselves at once to developing an effective but politically feasible plan to overcome -- in our lifetimes -- the sense that a spending item needs nothing more than an admirable goal to justify the taxes that pay for it;

That this cannot be accomplished until we turn our collective imagination to the task of finding sources of revenue that are not compulsory in the traditional sense, leveraging the rights of taxpayers, without their individual, prior consent and agreement, to pressure them to pay for expenditures that are desirable but irrelevant to the governmental responsibility to secure justice;

That “corporate welfare” is no more appropriate or conservative than any other practice that rewards people or entities with money that they did not earn, by charging taxpayers who have done nothing wrong;

That tributes to the name of Liberty are empty platitudes unless others are left free to act and refuse to act even in ways that we find unpleasant, irresponsible, or immoral -- provided that they have not threatened the legitimate rights of others -- without suffering forceful retribution or other threats to their own legitimate rights;

That, nevertheless, the success of a free society depends on the virtues willingly practiced by its people, and on their choices, as individuals, to assume control of their own lives and to use their freedom responsibly;

That a person's spiritual and moral development cannot be effectively or justly directed by governments, and that virtue cannot survive without liberty any more than liberty can flourish without virtue....

III.

Concerning THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION and the RULE OF LAW:

That the United States Constitution is the greatest legal obstacle for those who would use government to violate our rights;

That to assist the Constitution in this crucial function, its universal recognition as the "supreme law of the land" should be made meaningful through the introduction of sincerity, and it should be acknowledged as obligatory and binding on the state and federal governments of the United States of America;

That the Constitution serves its role in various, indispensable ways, including:

• The division of governmental power, first between the federal and state governments, and again between the three federal branches,
• The independence of the federal branches and the limited power each has over the others,
• A structure forcing factions to battle each other for control of the federal government, thus making each faction a check on the influence of the others,
• The limitation of the federal powers to those stated in the Constitution,
• The preservation of the unstated rights of the people and the reservation of all non-delegated powers to the people and the states,
• The explicit recognition, distributed between the original constitutional text and its amendments, of rights that are indispensable not only for their intrinsic value but also because they protect and encourage checks, both internal and external, on the power of government,
• Rules of construction,
• Prescription of mandatory procedures,
• Proscription of several of the most dangerous abuses,
• Notifying Americans of their rights in a single, concise document, and
• Imploring certain agents of government to vindicate those rights;
• That of these protective provisions, each is binding law and must be applied, unwaveringly, to restrain government and defend individual liberty;

That governments are bound by law, and constitutional deviations and violations are illegal and dangerous whether they are perpetrated by the federal government, in any of the three branches, or by the states;

That every American deserves the protections of due process, the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the protection of the warrant requirement for searches and seizures, and all other safeguards proper – and no less than those that are required by the U.S. Constitution, or other valid rules of law – to ensure that only criminals are treated as such and that every person has a fair and complete opportunity to defeat claims of his guilt, beginning from a presumption of innocence;
 

That behind the Constitution are additionally certain undeniable and long-established safeguards in the rules of the Common Law and Equity, and that if they were not honored, injustice would surely follow;

That the guarantees of our laws provide no shelter from arbitrary power so long as any person can be placed outside their protection without due process and so long as the benefits of their protection can be indefinitely delayed;
 

That the legislative power of America's federal government is vested in its Congress alone, and there it remains, even when Congress is tolerant or impotent in the face of usurpation by the other branches;
 

That no law can be executed that has not first been enacted;

That while some laws that exist should be repealed, those that are consistent with the Constitution and not patently unjust should be enforced, as it is harmful to the integrity and objectives of American legislation to vainly publish rules and threaten punishment;
 

That the United States Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land, does not and should not authorize or permit the imposition of service requirements of any kind on the people of the United States, other than as a criminal sentence for those who have been duly convicted;

That the Constitution should be strengthened, as it has been in the past, by amendments extending legal rights to those who have been unduly denied them, and so that each part of the Constitution can more effectively serve its intended purpose in restraining arbitrary governmental power;
 

That the Constitution, of which each provision was required to achieve an extraordinary level of approval in order to be ratified, and which received that approval because of the function and effect that those provisions were promised to have, should be interpreted and enforced with honesty;
 

That any legitimate constitutional interpretation is, at the very least, a plausible product of a sincere attempt to discover what the creators of the interpreted provision believed they were drafting and approving;

That a power in Congress to decide the specific content of our laws is not a power to abrogate their basic principles or to deviate from natural law;
 

That actions, decisions, and policies should be opposed if they ignore and enfeeble the Constitution, particularly for temporary or chimerical gains, and that such actions, decisions, and policies weaken the power of the Constitution to guard Americans against coercion and the other forms of injustice....

IV. Concerning LIFE:

That all human life is sacred, and that intrusion on the right to life is the most complete, absolute, and irreversible form of coercion conceivable, denying another human being even the modicum of freedom to be left to continue to exist;

That the denial of the right to life is not justified by the failure of a human being to have yet been born, or by the artificial boundary of "viability," and the question of the extent of the reach of this right should not be obscured by irrelevant quarreling over when a state government might possess a mere interest in protecting it;

That as all humans possess a right to life, the task of defining “personhood” must be confronted, not indefinitely deferred for its perceived difficulty;

That in considering the status of the unborn, the danger lies not in the possibility that we will be unduly generous in recognizing their humanity -- the humanity of members of our species, separated by mere months from universal recognition and the protection of law -- but in the possibility that we will be too stingy; that personhood, which indisputably begins well before birth, should be recognized from conception;

That those who are "pro-life" and those who are genuinely "pro-choice," if they find no other middle ground, should at least agree that governments should not assist in the destruction of what is, at the very least, very nearly human life;

That the Right to Life must be vigorously defended from both intentional and reckless violations;

That care and respect for human life must be encouraged even beyond the the obligations created by the Right to Life, and that we, as individuals, have a moral duty to enthusiastically but voluntarily assist those most vulnerable, in the manner that most encourages their future independence;

That the Right to Life is the most basic expression of the freedom to which all people are entitled -- that, if nothing more, each person should be left to continue to exist....

V.

Concerning PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS:

That our well-being depends on the existence and our enjoyment of secure, reliable private property rights;

That without the institution of private property, our relationship to the material world would be one that makes us needlessly dependent on the will of others, while private property rights complement our natural liberty and independence;

That for the futile, contrary interests of each person in the commons of the Earth, we have substituted -- through the division and organization of those interests -- widespread opportunity to possess a more meaningful, valuable right: ownership of the soil under one's own feet, and on which his house stands, and that the owner can rightfully use and enjoy as he chooses;

That property rights are invaluable as the foundation of a free market economy, which is itself a prerequisite to meaningful realization of the general right to liberty;

That it is the security and reliability of property rights, once established, that allows these rights to foster their inestimable social and material benefits:

• By teaching responsibility, and giving individuals incentives to behave responsibly
• By providing the material basis for elevating the potential uses of one's freedom
• By allowing individuals to retain the fruits of their labor
• By encouraging individuals to set root in a community, thereby encouraging the beneficial development of those communities, and
• By allowing individuals to arrange for their own future material security;

That every ally of justice abhors the use of eminent domain to take private property for private benefit, but should also oppose government takings for public uses, when they are not genuinely necessary in the course of governments' just and appropriate functions;
 

That the right of a person to keep the fruits of his labor is no less than his right to keep home, his business, or his land....

VI.

Concerning THE FREE MARKET and ECONOMIC PROSPERITY:

That because the free market is an expression of our natural right to liberty, and because it is the best economic system for encouraging vigorous economic growth -- thereby helping to meet the material needs of human beings -- there is no tolerable substitute for the free market;

That the survival of economic freedom depends on the prevalence of the understanding that the free market not only is the best economic system, but also why it is the best, how it works, when it is its least effective, and why the fallacies invoked against it are fallacious;

That governments should maintain economic freedom through low tax rates, free trade, preservation of the freedom of contract, stable monetary policy, balanced budgets, fiscal restraint, honest budgeting, respect for the investment of private property, and by avoiding unnecessary and unnecessarily burdensome regulation;

That we live in a world of relative scarcity, and that while a healthy economy continually expands the frontiers of wealth and causes this scarcity to recede, even the best economic system cannot eliminate unmet needs altogether;

That the liberty to pursue material well-being, security, and independence -- inside the just framework of the free market economy -- is not only an essential right, but one deserving special care;

That no person is owed the involuntary assistance of others in this pursuit, or in place of it....

VII.

Concerning INDIVIDUALITY AND UNITY:

That conservatives must not only oppose racism, a cancer on society and a deadly threat to justice, but must also take an active interest in solving and eliminating this problem;
 

That the solution begins with a resolute promotion of justice and equality before the law -- both in word and in fact -- and with each of us, as individuals, guarding the rights of others just as we would guard our own;
 

That unity, though not artificial uniformity, is a means as much as a goal in America's pursuit of racial reconciliation;
 

That the purposeful division of peers over immaterial differences in physical form, culture, ancestry, and origin is an affront to individuality and a threat to unity;
 

That it is in the interest of every American that no distinct class of inhabitants be maintained that, denied equality before the law, is compelled to submit to arbitrary authority;
 

That cultural traits and traditions do not flow from ancestry or run with race, but should be freely adopted by people who find them valuable, regardless of how those traits and traditions were introduced to them....

VIII.

Concerning CONSERVATION:

That conservatives must take a genuine and active interest in the preservation of the environment, supporting policies shaped by the same familiar principles and purposes that should guide any government action;

That in creating environmental policy, we must guard liberty, private property rights, the rule of law, and our economy, and also remember the risks in the steps that we take, including the risk of unintended consequences and the possibility that our actions will be motivated by error;

That private property enjoys better stewardship than public property, uniting control and consequences, and so the private protection of resources is preferable to public ownership and management;
 

That with respect to those resources over which private ownership is impracticable, public policy should unite the share of control an individual exercises over the common resource with its respective share of the consequences for the public;
 

That conservation for these purposes, and based on sound science, is complementary to our understanding of justice and property rights, and will enhance our quality of life;

That measures enacted without regard for their effect on property rights, the economy, and liberty will eventually harm all three....

IX.

Concerning the RESTRAINT AND REVERSAL OF GOVERNMENT GROWTH:

That as government expands, freedom contracts;

That the government can't control an economy without controlling people;

That in controlling people, "it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose”;

That centralized funding centralizes power;

That centralized power diminishes responsiveness and accountability;

That government is not competent to do all things;

That government tends to grow, whenever that growth is not actively resisted;

That even ineffective and obsolete government programs are vigorously defended by their administrators and beneficiaries, giving a long life to the waste and injustice of distended government;

That the myriad of small but unjustified government expenditures cannot be separately defended by pointing out the relative insignificance of each of them alone, as the dollar is no less valuable when it is counted in pennies;

That as Americans' ability to control their government -- as it is our right and duty to do -- is dependent on their ability to observe and communicate information on the conduct of government, the freedoms of speech and of the press deserve special care and protection, and the legislative and executive branches should abandon these freedoms to be protected by the judiciary alone, but should use their own powers to enshrine and shield these freedoms and those who have chosen to exercise them;

That even when they are intended to protect genuine and indispensable national security secrets, any restrictions on these rights must be met with the greatest skepticism and caution;

That no American should tolerate restrictions on the ability of individuals to monitor and investigate their own government through ordinary and otherwise lawful means;
 

That Congress and the executive branch alike should be made to take every reasonable and feasible measure to make their actions and processes known to the people who they serve;
 

That through an amendment to the Constitution, the power of Congress to create special laws should be eliminated;
 

That through an amendment to the Constitution, Americans should require that every bill passed by Congress and every vote taken by Congress be restricted to a single subject;
 

That a clear distinction must be maintained between military and civil power, and that the administration of civil law inside the borders of the United States is neither an appropriate nor lawful arena for the use of the military units or civil law enforcement units of a martial character;
 

That to the extent that government controls are imposed on the market, extraordinary vigilance and stringent ethical standards are needed to prevent such controls from being used to forcefully burden or exclude certain economic actors for the benefit of others, all under the pretext of genuine necessity and public need;
 

That beyond its legitimate functions, governments do little as well as the private sector, and that among the reasons for this governmental ineffectiveness are the absence of private enterprises' absolute need to satisfy their customers, governments' relative immunity to the driving effects of competition, and the low probability that a governmental department that fails in its role will ever be replaced or meaningfully reformed;
 

That freedom depends on the effective restraint of government, limiting its power and preventing the accumulation of that power in a single authority;

That these restraints can include the restricting of the subject matter over which government possesses any control, prohibition of specific abuses of that control, and rules of law limiting the means and controlling its processes of government;

That we, as American citizens, must require our government to honor the constraints that already exist;
 

That freedom and its benefits are most endangered when Americans are severally bribed into selling not only their own freedom, but also that of their neighbors;

That when it relieves families and voluntary associations of their traditional responsibilities by supplanting them in their invaluable role, a government can extinguish blessings that no government can replace;
 

That as there is no end to the promised benefits of government intrusion, there is no enterprise or personal sphere of freedom that is not eventually at risk of being bled of its value or driven from existence....

X.

Concerning JUSTICE IN TAXATION:

That some government functions, primarily in the governmental tasks of providing security and securing justice, deserve the support of all Americans, though some may be spared the obligation to actually pay that support, due to hardship;

That outside of those two core governmental functions, and where practicable, taxes should be made as similar as possible to user fees, charging willful beneficiaries of a particular government expenditure in proportion to the benefit that they derive from that expenditure;

That while taxes should never be used to fund government expenditures that are unconstitutional or that do not justify the obligatory taxes that fund them, when Americans cannot or will not part with an unjustified government expenditure, strategies can and should be formed to raise revenue in ways that are not compulsory in the traditional sense, and that do not leverage individual taxpayers' rights without their individual prior consent and agreement in order to compel them to pay;
 

That once required to do so, governments could justly and ethically raise substantial revenue using game theory and simple contractual lures, finding ways to offer Americans a package of benefits to which they were not already entitled but would willingly pay to obtain;
 

That these alternatives have not yet been considered and developed because too few politicians believe that it is possible for desirable expenditures to ever violate the Constitution or taxpayers' natural rights;
 

That by constitutional amendment, Americans can and should impose permanent controls specifying that only certain appropriate, lawful expenditures may ever be funded by traditional, compulsory taxation, thereby requiring the development of just alternatives to minimize the injustice of taxation....

XI.

Concerning CONTEMPLATION and PRUDENCE:

That in the formulation and execution of all policies, we must employ the conservative principle of prudence with intellectual vigor and a wide-minded perceptiveness, appreciating both the possibility of our own errors and also the possibility that inaction, at times, is an imprudent course of action as well;

That it is essential for policy programs to be shaped by an understanding of the present facts and the way the world really works, a realization that the consequences of policies cannot be effectively predicted outside of that framework, and accommodation of the fact that we cannot predict the behavior of people as well as we can predict the behavior of things;

That prudent policy-making requires that we avoid the blinding effect of zealous passions for ideologies;

That we may not fully appreciate the consequences of our actions, and that "Sudden and slashing reforms are as perilous as sudden and slashing surgery;"

That few decisions would be less conservative than to abandon the American heritage as represented by our Constitution and the traditions of liberty....

XII.

Concerning WISDOM AND STRENGTH, for SECURITY, FREEDOM, AND PEACE:

That we must defend America's just interests, preserving security and freedom for ourselves and our posterity;

That to this end, no source of strength -- including hearty diplomacy, strategic soundness, the will and preparedness to use military force, and all other just and constitutional resources -- may be wisely neglected;

That we court catastrophe when we overestimate our military strength, imprudently misspend it, or neglect to sustain and reinforce it;

That, as the federal government ought to be effective in its duty to preserve liberty, justice, and security for the American people -- and recalling also America's role as a beacon of liberty and justice for the world -- the use of military force should be preceded by a far-sighted consideration of the circumstances and consequences, and the conclusion that the use of such force is wise and necessary;
 
That once this decision has been made, like attention should then be given to the manner in which force is used;
 
That our ability to deter threats depends largely on our strength militarily, our possession of the intelligence, skill, and resources to wield that strength effectively, and our adversaries' certainty that America will answer aggression decisively; and

That the uniting goal of all of the foregoing must be to keep the United States of America, at once, secure, just, prosperous, and free.

Completed in Cicero, an outgrowth of the City of Indianapolis, on the Fourth of July, Anno Domini 2010 and in the Year of American Sovereignty and Independence the 235th.

Educating legislators

I have heard of certain "crash courses" that are offered to certain elected officials upon their election.  These are important because 1) unlike judges, there is no rule or tradition tending to assist legislative candidates who are educated in certain matters of law, history, or jurisprudence, 2) we have no class of people that is educated in such matters, and 3) elections make elected officials dependent upon voters, but neither primary nor general elections are fit for use in screening out candidates who do not meet a standard of minimal competence in these matters.  As a result, we have to educate them once they are elected, (somehow) educate potential candidates before they are elected, or suffer under the influence of uneducated officials.

The existence of such courses indicates that some people have (fortunately) taken it upon themselves to pursue the option of educating officials who have already been elected.  The effect of this is doubtlessly positive, but it does have shortcomings -- first, it can affect the beliefs and priorities of candidates between their election and their inauguration, placing an even greater divide between what they may promise and what they ultimately do, and second, there is the risk that the information being given there to freshman legislators is misleading or even contrary to principles of good government.

A great solution would be to compile some sort of comprehensive text on good government that could be used to reach the larger number of potential candidates.  Unfortunately, no such text currently exists, and creating one would be a major undertaking that most people are unqualified to undertake.  Those who are qualified are evidently disinclined to actually write the text, or else they would do so.  Even if they were to do so, we could not be certain that the text would actually succeed, being widely distributed, adopted, and studied.

The Twelve Points were a more limited undertaking.  Among their purposes is to educate officeholders, candidates, and potential candidates in some of the indispensable ideas that are not currently being circulated as widely as they should be.  They are not as detailed as a more comprehensive text would be, but they fit as much detail as possible into their five pages and communicate a lot of ideas that need very much to be communicated.

Help me to tell our fellow conservatives about the Twelve Points -- they are the best five-page crash-course we have.

One Year

I completed the Twelve Points one year ago today.

It needed to be said

The World's Smallest Political Quiz (and the diamond-shaped model that is connected with it) may be far better than the political spectrum, but it is still misleading.  I do not know whether it is a cause of the problem or it is simply related to the cause of the problem, but its lessons on the conservative positions on "social" or "personal" issues are similar to conclusions that have warped even many conservatives' understanding of those issues.  The divide between social and economic issues tracks the split between the constituencies that are interested in each type of issue.  There is no general rule (nor should there be) that the conservative position on social or "personal" issues is defined by the willingness to use force.

If it interests you

If you are interested in the origin of the Twelve Points, read this post from InTheAgora.com .  As I have written before, the Twelve Points were an update to the Seven Points of Grand Old Cause at Indiana University, and they were partly inspired by Young Americans for Freedom's Sharon Statement.  This post, however, shows the kind of problem I was trying to address, and my comment on it offers a little insight into what I wanted the First Point to accomplish for the conservative movement.  It was around that time that I finally decided to write the Twelve Points.

I do not and did not agree 100% with everyone quoted in the post, but over all, the post references challenges faced by the conservative community which still need to be confronted and resolved.

Important Posts

Over the past eleven months, I have written numerous explanations for my decision to write and promote the Twelve Points, along with thoughts on the future of the conservative movement and other related ideas.  Below are links to some of the more important of these.

The Theme
The Twelve Points
Why the Twelve Points Are Needed -- Relatively Long Version
Why the Twelve Points Are Needed -- Short Version
Memory
The Twelve Points Are Unique
Conservatism: Many Principles, One Philosophy
The Twelve Points -- Just the Points
"Up To Speed"
We Can Make This Happen
All the Pure, Concentrated Conservatism that Five Pages Can Hold
Origin of the Twelve Points
No Ordinary Year
165 Sub-Points
The Purpose of the Twelve Points as a Definitive Statement of Conservative Principles
Americans Still Have Responsibilities Under the Constitution
The Idea of Conservatism, Which I Believe Is Well-Expressed By the Twelve Points, Too
The First Point
Another Discussion of the Division of Conservatives
Small-Government Conservatives and Conservative Principles Survived
Misunderstandings Concerning the Conservative Position on the Judicial Branch
Definitive Statements of Conservative Principles: the Text, Not the Test
They Are Not Conservatives
The Only Statement of Conservative Principles We Need?
One Year Ago
On Social Conservatism
Links Relating to Freedom
On the Uses of a Bill of Rights
Recurrence to Fundamental Principles
Among Other Things
One of Many Questions

The Ninth Amendment

A few weeks ago, I posted a synthesis of three American Revolution-era declarations of rights, then updated it with language from the Massachusetts Constitution's original declaration of rights and a passage from the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.  The following version now also includes material from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

I. We hold these Truths to be Self-Evident, that all men are created equal; that equals, by their nature, should be independent and free; that by this gift of equal creation, they are endowed by their Creator with rights both inherent and unalienable; that these rights, though often violated, and though sometimes deprecated by agreements or by pretense of right, may never be divested or extinguished; that these rights forbid intrusions on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that they include the rights of self-defense and of the lawful acquisition, continued possession, and enjoyment and protection of property; that the American people have never, nor could they ever have, ceded or renounced these rights.

II. That when English settlers founded what became our first states, they were, at that time, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural born subjects within the realm of England; that by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants and descendants' peers are now are entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances, including American sovereignty and Independence, enable them to exercise and enjoy; that American citizens in every part of the United States are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of natural born citizens.

III. That the foundation of English and American liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council; and that when the people cannot be properly be represented in that council, they are entitled to make the arrangements they need in order to exercise that right by some other means, particularly with respect to legislation of all cases of taxation and internal polity.

IV. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen and Americans, that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives; that all supplies to the government being free gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of our constitutions for any number of the people to grant to the government the property of anyone else.

V. That the members of the legislative and executive branches should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct; that elections of members to serve as representatives of the people in assembly ought to be free; that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community have the right of suffrage, an equal right to elect officers, and to be elected, for public employments, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good; and that each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws.

VI. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them; that government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

VII. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge be hereditary.

VIII. That the people of the United States are entitled to the tradition of the common law, and more especially to the great and inestimable right of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law; that in controversies respecting property and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other and ought to be held sacred; that every citizen of the United States ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character; that he ought to obtain right and justice freely and without purchase, completely and without denial, promptly and without delay, conformably to the laws; that in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand and have described to him, fully and plainly, substantially and formally, the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, to be fully heard in his defence by himself, or his counsel, at his election, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that in criminal prosecutions, the verification of facts in the vicinity where they happen, is one of the greatest securities of the life, liberty, and property of the citizen; that no man be arrested, miprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, except by the law of the land or the judgement of his peers.

IX. That excessive bail ought not to be required; nor excessive fines imposed, which shall instead be moderate; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

X. That every inhabitant of the United States has the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions, and so general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous, oppressive, and illegal and ought not to be granted.

XI. That the people of the United States are entitled to the benefit of such of the English statutes, as existed at the time of English settlement of the American colonies; and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances, and which they have supplemented with their own statutes and fundamental laws.

XII. That they are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges that were granted and confirmed to them by royal charters or that have been secured by the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the several declarations of rights asserted by the colonists, or the several states' constitutions and codes.

XIII. That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition or address the government in the manner of their choice; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal; that the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

XIV. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power; that the keeping of a Standing army in these states in times of peace is against law.

XV. It is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English and American constitutions alike, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in these states, by any council appointed during pleasure, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation; that the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative; that all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority without consent of the representatives of the people is injurious to their rights and ought not to be exercised.

XVI. That the extension of the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty beyond their ancient limits has a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of Americans; that no person can in any case be subject to law-martial, or to any penalties or pains, by virtue of that law, except those employed in the army or navy, and except the militia in actual service, but by authority of the legislature..

XVII. That the people have a right to uniform government; and therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the governments of the several states or a duly constituted government of the United States, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.
 
XVIII. The people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any State, to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid by any State, on the property of the United States, or either of them.

XIX. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

XX. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that none shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience ; or for his religious profession of sentiments, provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.


XXI. That the people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence.

XXII. That the privilege and benefit of the writ of habeas corpus shall be enjoyed in this commonwealth, in the most free, easy, cheap, expeditious, and ample manner ; and shall not be suspended by the legislature, except upon the most urgent and pressing occasions, and for a limited time, not exceeding twelve months.

XXIII. That laws made to punish for actions done before the existence of such laws, and which have not been declared crimes by preceding laws, are unjust, oppressive, and inconsistent with the fundamental principles of a free government; that no subject ought, in any case, or in any time, to be declared guilty of treason or felony by the legislature.

XXIV. That the legislature ought frequently to assemble for the redress of grievances, for correcting, strengthening, and confirming the laws, and for making new laws, as the common good may require.

XXV. That the freedom of deliberation , speech, and debate, in either house of the legislature, is so essential to the rights of the people, that it cannot be the foundation of any accusation or prosecution, action or complaint, in any other court or place whatsoever.

XXVI. In no case shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the union, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor.

XXVII. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.