Understanding the Founders

Before you can appreciate today's current government (Congress and the President), it is helpful to have some understanding of the people who actually founded this country. If you understand how they felt and what they thought about the basic principles, you will have a basis to make a strong comparison of where we are today. When you do you will see that we have not made positive progress!

When you start to study and discover the writings of our Founders, it becomes hard not to get a sense of pride that the United States had such outstanding leaders to launch the beginning of what we call America. Our Founders were men of strong character and virtue – unlike what we have in our government today (in either political party).

They believed that people as individuals were all given inalienable natural rights and they included:

• The right to assemble
• The right to bear arms for self defense
• The right of self-government
• The right to own property
• The right to make personal choices
• The right of free conscience
• The right to choose a mate
• The right to choose a profession
• The right to petition
• The right to beget one's kind
• The right to contract
• The right of free association
• The right for a fair trial
• The right to provide personal security
• The right to provide nature's necessities (food, air, water, clothes, shelter)
• The right to privacy
• The right to explore the earth's natural resources
• The right to invent
• The right to improve one's position via barter and sale
• The right to enjoy the fruits of one's labor
• The right of a free press
• The right of free speech

Thomas Jefferson described Natural Rights as follows in the Virginia Declaration of Rights (before the Declaration of Independence):

"All men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

Know Your Liberties
This list is not all inclusive, but it should give you an idea of what YOUR natural rights are. Know what they are so you can tell when government is stealing they from you. Stand up for your rights and remember that the government does NOT give you "human rights" but that you are endowed by your creator of these Natural Rights. Don't be confused with the politician's jargon. They don't give you anything! They take!