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Freedom Under Siege

The U.S. Constitution After 200 Years

by Ron Paul

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Copyright (c) 1987 the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, Inc., Post Office Box 1776, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566. Permission to quote from, or to reproduce liberal portions of this publication is granted, provided due acknowledgement is made.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction The People's Manners Are Now Corrupt
• CHAPTER I The Concepts of Individual Rights
  • Today's Confusion on the Concept of Rights
  • Trial by Jury-the Ultimate Protection
  • Right to Own Guns and Gold
  • Legislating Morality
  • Definition of Individual Rights
• CHAPTER II Foreign Policy
  • The Constitution and Foreign Policy
  • Acceptance in America
  • Errors Compound
  • Noninterventionist Foreign Policy
• CHAPTER III The Draft or Freedom
  • Patriotism and the Draft
  • Conscription and Natural rights
  • The Draft Is Unfair
  • The Draft and the Constitution
  • The Court Rules
  • The Civil War Challenge
  • The Draft: the Final Blow
  • The Draft and Economics
  • Efficiency of the Draft
• CHAPTER IV Sound Money Is Gold
  • The Constitution and Money
  • Early Challenges of Gold-the Transition
  • The Origins of the Fed
  • The Nature of Money
  • Money, Liberty, Morality
  • Inflation and the Poor
  • Trust
  • Need for Leadership
  • Motivation
  • Economic Reasons
  • Monetization of Debt vii
    • Power and Economic Control
    • Ignorance and Innocense
    • Reforms
    • Is Monetarism a Solution?
    • The Supply-Sider's Gold Standard
    • Some Positive Steps Toward Gold
    • A Major Event After 53 Years
• SUMMARY Have We Lost Respect?

For virtually every Congressman, there is not even a pause before he plunges into the trough. It is, after all, why he entered politics. But that was not why Ron Paul went to Washington. He sought a great rostrum for freedom, and he never sold out. He even opposed public works projects in his own district, a stand that still boggles every politician in America. As Ron Paul patiently explained, he could hardly criticize federal spending in California while supporting it in Texas. But such consistency was outlandish. No one could believe his ears. Over the years, Ron Paul's influence grew. Not with the politicians, but with the people. He educated millions, spreading the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard on runaway government, sound money, and the free market. Other Congressmen would be flabbergasted to receive thousands of their own constituents' letters telling them to vote like Ron Paul. As Andrew Jackson said, "One man with courage can make a majority." Ron Paul has helped build the majority for freedom. In his campaigns, in the Congress, with the F.R.E.E. Foundation and the Mises Institute, calmly and without fanfare, he's worked for us and for our children. How often I saw him at his desk, at 7:00am and at 11:00pm, poring over legislation and committee hearings most other Congressmen ignored, studying Constitutional history and Austrian economics, and writing some of the most eloquent words ever to come out of the Capitol. He worked hard and cheerfully, earning a fraction of his former income as a physician. He would get angry at the goings-on. And frustrated. But he was never defeated, because he never forgot why he was there. Not to make a career in the State apparatus, but to help dismantle it. He never made a promise he didn't keep, never violated his oath to uphold the Constitution, never desecrated free market or hard money principles, never voted to waste a cent or to raise our taxes, was never less than a pure champion of liberty. We have not seen Ron Paul's like in Washington since the days of the Founding Fathers. And this book helps demonstrate why. On the economy, civil liberties, the IRS, foreign policy, the gold standard, the draft, and the Power Elite, he takes the hardcore, principled Libertarian position. He is the 20th century's Thomas Jefferson. The Omnipotent State threatens us with inflation, expropriation, depression, war, and slavery. Republicans and Democrats offer only lies and loot-seeking.

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But Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party provide honesty and decency: an America where we are free to work and to achieve; an America at peace with its citizens and its neighbors; an America of abundance and compassion; an America of healthy families and decent children; an America tolerant of peaceful differences; an America true to its origins in liberty; an America liberated from the Moloch State. The remaining years of the 20th century hold out the prospect of State created war, pestilence, famine, oppression, and depravity. If we succeed in changing this specter, Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party will have made the difference.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., is founder and president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. 1988

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Freedom Under Siege – Ron Paul, 1988

Has America become known for lies? Our presidents lie about foreign affairs while secretly carrying out activities never approved by Congress. Scientists falsify records for career purposes. Wall Street is filled with stories of lies and scandals. Sadly, lying and deceit have become a way of life for many in America today. Samuel Adams, at the time of the Constitutional Convention, accurately warned: “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” We certainly are blessed with a unique and inspired Constitution, probably the best in the history of man, despite its shortcomings. Yet today, two hundred years since its ratification, the Constitution doesn’t restrain the pernicious and steady growth of government at the expense of personal liberty. Our manners are now corrupt. We have been conditioned to accept debt as part of every aspect of our lives. Individuals, corporations, and nations are swimming in debt so great that no one ever expects repayment. The short-term benefit of government borrowing is a political expediency that, in spite of the rhetoric of the balanced budget, is growing ever more popular. Sadly, we rarely hear serious proposals for limiting the role of government to that of protecting liberty. Both liberals and conservatives give lip service to limited government ideas, but only to serve some special view of government that they might endorse, rather than to promote consistently the principles of freedom. In the twentieth century we have come to accept demands and needs as rights at the expense of someone else’s rights. Responsibility for our own acts and livelihood has been replaced by lawsuits demanding and getting unrealistic settlements. We have a massive government, passing out wealth stolen from one group and giving it to another. Those with clout in Washington do well, while those who do not understand the lobbying system and seek only their individual freedom are left out. The survival of a car company like Chrysler is now more dependent on lobbying tactics than on management skills. Government has come to mean something entirely different than what was intended by the writers of the Constitution. It is an entity capable of confiscating and distributing wealth ad infinitum. Government no longer serves the people by guaranteeing equal rights to all. Government is now expected to provide profits, medical care, jobs, homes, and food whenever the people demand these benefits as a right. Most

people today fail to accept the obvious fact that government largesse can come only as a result of a systematic scheme of government theft. Compromise is universally accepted as the only tool for political stability, while the leaders argue that anything less is rigid and confrontational and will inevitably lead to chaos. Yet this so-called tool of compromise, on each occasion it is used, is an attack on someone's freedom. Most fail to see that interventionism, welfarism, and socialism are very rigid philosophies. Continued sacrifice of a portion of one's rights has led to a disintegration of self reliance in America today. The latter part of the twentieth century has permitted the acceptance of the idea that "society" owes everyone a living. Vandalism by many is no longer seen as a crime, but only as an opportunity to get what is deserved or owed to them. Once the principle of government wealth-distribution is accepted at face value, it is logical to expect some individuals to bypass the slow-moving bureaucracy, especially in a time of crisis, and take what they claim is rightfully theirs. This principle is the reverse of Frederic Bastiat's moral law. Bastiat stated that a law is immoral if it does something that an individual himself is not allowed to do (such as transfer wealth from one to another). Once we accept, as we have these past 75 years, that it's a proper function of government to transfer wealth, it's not difficult to understand the "logic" of the vandal who breaks windows during storms, floods, or power outages and takes whatever he needs without a sense of guilt. Throughout the twentieth century, the trend has been away from limited government and toward big government's intervening in every aspect of our lives. It has been financed with borrowed money and a fraudulent paper money system. We have come a long way from the Republic envisioned by the Founders. Today, by majority vote, government can easily cancel out the earnings or rights of individuals without any debate as to constitutionality. The only debate is between the competing special interests, deciding who will benefit and who will suffer. We are witnessing the end stage of the Republic as we drift closer and closer to pure dictatorship. Dictatorship of the majority is every bit as oppressive as the dictatorship of the few. It is also more difficult to attack, since so many accept the notion that the majority has the authority to redefine rights. Political leaders today are more interested in opinion polls than they are in the Constitution and freedom principles. Any event of importance is quickly analyzed by a poll, which the politician takes to heart

are routine and no longer considered unconstitutional. The usual thing is that Congress almost always accepts the secret and dangerous agreements as if they were law. The year 1913 certainly was a banner year for the anti-constitutional movement. The Sixteenth Amendment, the Personal Income Tax, and the Federal Reserve Act were all passed. The central bank monopoly guaranteed the destruction of our gold dollar. The recessions, depressions, and inflations of the twentieth century can be laid at the doorstep of the Federal Reserve.

Our government routinely lies to us and uses

"disinformation.”

The Founding Fathers intended that the federal government be totally dependent on the individual states and their legislatures for the collection of taxes and the election of Senators. Since that time, we have abandoned the concept of sovereign individual states and accepted a strong centralized federal government. The Senate was intended to protect states rights and impede the natural tendency of government to grow large, abusive, and centralized. In 1915 the popular election of senators changed our attitudes regarding the protection of the sovereignty of the states. The power of state legislatures to call a constitutional convention, although never used, fortunately is still available to us to circumvent the obstructionist federal Congress. The electoral college emphasized the importance of state power over central authority. This feature, although considered important by the writers of the Constitution, was never a practical part of the election process. The twentieth century's near deathblow to the concept of individual liberty has today produced a multitude of problems. The people's manners are now universally corrupt. Violent crime continues to grow at a rapid rate and can be expected to continue as economic conditions worsen. One thousand new prisoners are sentenced each week. Many of those who are sentenced should not be, and many of those who are out on the streets, tragically, should be in prison. Our government routinely lies to us and uses "disinformation. " The luxuries of the current generation are financed by the sweat and blood of the next. Yet flowery slogans are used to describe the wonderful prosperity we enjoy, with few realizing the seriousness of the in-

Freedom Under Siege – Ron Paul, 1988

debtedness incurred in the process. In the midst of a market glut, more and more people each year get pushed into the poverty class. Liberty has become a term that offends establishment intellectual leaders. Feeble attempts at fairness in the forceful redistribution of wealth is considered noble, but principles that guarantee free-market incentive systems are considered immoral and selfish. Even the businessman today is more accustomed to getting special privileges or contracts from the government than in minimizing the role of government. Difficult choices by our national leaders are postponed, and gimmicks are devised to further consume the wealth and capital of the country instead. Passion for liberty has faded from the hearts of most Americans and is now cherished only by a remnant diligently working to reestablish its rightful place as one of our most important concerns. The challenge to keep alive the legacy of the Founding Fathers is overwhelming. The Bicentennial Celebration of the Constitution is certainly an appropriate time to restate and emphasize the importance of the freedoms embodied in this great document. The erosion of freedom seems of little concern where the promise of government security motivates the people and encourages the politicians' extravagant ways. Living for immediate material benefits has replaced concern for long-term freedom principles necessary to guarantee peace and prosperity for the next generation. American society is characterized by hopelessness and operates without a moral, constitutional, or monetary standard. The early Reagan years permitted a temporary reprieve by glossing over the problems of debt, inflation, and runaway government spending. A basic understanding of the problems we face is vital if we expect to reestablish the constitutional principle of equal rights:

Loss of hope in the future has driven many to think only of the present, making a drug induced high the first priority in many people's lives. Young people feel helpless against their government's inability to provide economic prosperity or safety from a nuclear holocaust. Teenage suicide statistics are a frightening revelation of this feeling of hopelessness.

The drug craze reflects the desperate feeling of many. Young people remain skeptical of a generation that kills ten times as many with alcohol as with hard drugs and yet pontificates about the dangers

Freedom Under Siege – Ron Paul, 1988

numbers of hungry and unemployed steadily rise. A nation without standards will see such industries thrive while farmers go bankrupt, oil wells are turned off, and steel mills are closed, and while foreigners outperform us in every industry. Amazingly, 256,000 millionaires receive Medicare benefits, while the numbers of indigents receiving no care are growing. This is happening in spite of the billions spent with the supposed intention of helping the poor and the down-trodden. The failure of these programs never seems to awaken the people.

Another recent trend reflects a decaying, sick society. Government agencies are bribing citizens to turn in others to law enforcement agencies. Children are encouraged to turn in their parents, employees their employers, and friends their neighbors. Spying for the government is a despicable act and something that should never exist in a free and just society.

There are times when it seems like we get our system of values from television productions. Professional wrestling is one of the few programs which started on TV in the late 1940s and now claims more viewers than ever. There are no rules, and it is associated with contrived (but unreal) violence: mockery of the referee, racism, absence of sportsmanship, yelling, screaming, and hatred. Reasonable rules of decency are totally ignored. The shows get worse every year; belts, chains, and cages are now part of the acts. Twenty wrestlers are put into a ring without a referee and a free-for-all erupts -- the more violent, the more the crowd cheers the ridiculous charade.

The twentieth century has been characterized increasingly by guilt. Social planners have conditioned many to believe that problems exist and that we are all responsible. Ideas of collectivism ignore the importance of individual rights and imply social wrongs are “everyone's” fault. The unbelievable burden of government bureaucracy is enough to depress anyone concerned about freedom.

Madison warned us:

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Madison would be apoplectic if he had been forced to witness the writing of the 2,000-page 1986 Tax "Simplification" Act, which no one fully understands. A decade will be required to decipher the thousands of pages of yet-to-be-written regulations. The chaos is not accidental: the taxing authorities can rule any way they wish with those they choose to imprison as long as the tax code is incomprehensible. When our government officials call it "simplification," we can be confident that it is exactly the opposite.

The welfare ethic has destroyed the proper and traditional American role of government's guaranteeing liberty. It has also caused unrealistic and unbelievable litigation that has brought the production of some goods and services to a standstill.

Schools are sued for poor performance of students. Physicians are sued for less than normal children, whether due to nature or the patients' own habits. An accident with a lawn mower used as a hedge trimmer prompted a successful suit against the manufacturer because the injured parties were not warned against such usage. A psychic won a huge award for losing her "powers" following a CAT scan. Doctors have been sued for failing to kill unborn children in abortion procedures that resulted in so-called wrongful lives. Boards of directors of charities are now receiving judgments against them for innocent errors of employees.

To the majority of Americans, the concept of responsibility for one's own actions, has been replaced by the belief that someone else must pay those who demand a handout. The manufacturer of a microwave oven was held liable for damages after a woman's cat died when she placed it in the oven to dry its hair -- because there was no warning label on the oven! Can you imagine what Thomas Paine's reaction might have been to such an absurdity?

It is inconceivable that the Constitution was intended to protect life and property in this manner. Today a defect in a product is not

constitutional principles do not occur soon, the American way of life cannot continue. We cannot live forever off the wealth of a previous generation and we cannot enjoy the benefits of liberty if we neither understand nor defend that liberty. If it is true that every generation must earn its freedom, the obligation of this generation is overdue. Certainly this 200th Anniversary of our Constitution provides an appropriate time to consider the serious discussion of what constitutes a free society and how it can be preserved through constitutional law.

Chapter 1 - Individual Rights

CHAPTER 1

The Concept of Individual Rights

There is a serious lack of concern for individual rights today. The concept of rights has been distorted to such a degree that the authors of the Constitution would not recognize what is today referred to as a "right." Demands for unearned wealth, based on needs and desires, are now casually accepted as rights. We see little value placed on the traditional concept of equal rights. This change in the general attitude regarding rights is the most significant event of the twentieth century. It has literally torn us away from the constitutional guidelines given to us by the Founding Fathers two hundred years ago. The media, the Congress, the courts, and the President reflect the prevailing philosophy of our thought leaders -- especially those in our teaching institutions. Without an understanding of the nature of rights, a solution to today's political problems is impossible. The gimmicks won't work, only philosophy works. People must once again believe that it is in their best interest to support individual rights, just as they now believe it's in their best interest to vote for those who provide food stamps for the poor, corporate bailouts for the rich, and bankers aid for the powerful. The purpose of government is now dramatically different than that which the eighteenth century writers of the Constitution intended. Government is now broader in scope and bigger in size with a corresponding reduction in individual liberty. A precise definition of individual rights, strictly adhered to, is required to prevent the continued erosion and com-