Here is a currently available audiobook of the full text: https://youtu.be/dP4rG9DgTmM
Here are the 28 principles the book is based on (which are the book chapters):
- The Genius of Natural Law
- A Virtuous and Moral People
- Virtuous and Moral Leaders
- The Role of Religion
- The Role of the Creator
- All Men Are Created Equal
- Equal Rights, Not Equal Things
- Man’s Unalienable Rights
- The Role of Revealed Law
- Sovereignty of the People
- Who Can Alter the Government?
- Advantages of a Republic
- Protection Against Human Frailty
- Property Rights Essential to Liberty
- Free-market Economics
- The Separation of Powers
- Checks and Balances
- Importance of a Written Constitution
- Limiting the Powers of Government
- Majority Rule, Minority Rights
- Strong Local Self-government
- Government by Law, Not by Men
- Importance of an Educated Electorate
- Peace Through Strength
- Avoid Entangling Alliances
- Protecting the Role of the Family
- Avoiding the Burden of Debt
- The Founders’ Sense of Manifest Destiny
(A brief summary of each of these 28 principles can be seen at this website: Learn the Constitution – Five Thousand Year Leap) as well as an inexpensive purchase of a card with the 28 principles on it.
Now here are my notes on the book:
It should not be left communism right fascism it should be left anarchy right tyranny.
In America we made a 5000-year leap in civilization. This book is about getting those principles of the founders.
Jefferson wanted Anglo-Saxon law of rule by the people with God-given rights.
4 crimes the Anglo-Saxons would punish by capital punishment:
1 homosexuality,
2 desertion,
3 lack of courage, to refuse to fight / fighting cowardly, and
4 treason.
Anglo-Saxons had a system of first deal with problems in the family before the government. They had local government leaders of groups of 10 50 100 and 1000, like the bible.
Crimes were reparation to the victim not fines to the state and penalties.
People in the Bible were reprimanded when they reverted to slavery;
Leviticus says proclaim liberty to all the land.
They wanted the American seal to be the people who practice this liberty such as two Anglo-Saxons or the people of Israel being led by Moses.
The founders were diverse but they were all trained in the classics on their own if not elsewhere.
Cicero was one of the Great political philosophical geniuses and did well in speaking against dictatorship, and in favor of natural law. He wrote several books and the founding fathers of America used these as they sought to make the ideal society. Cicero knew that the only good government was the government of the creator and they called this natural law.
Natural law includes the premise that our ability to reason is godlike and important.
Cicero said true law is right reason in agreement with nature, and is universal in its application, and it is sin to try and change or abolish this law.
God’s law is right reason and when it is applied, it is called justice.
Cicero understood that the two great commandments of love for God and his law, and the second commandment of love for neighbor; to seek to establish the justice of God are what keep society together.
All law should be measured against God’s law and if a law of man does not measure up to God’s law, is not really a law, or in other words it is an evil law.
The innocent must be protected and crime must be punished. Cicero knew you need high morals in society if you are to have justice, and that with corrupt laws you have no justice.
Cicero taught God’s law as well as any Bible prophet ever did.
(Note- it’s true, anyone speaking truth is scripture, and our record is sadly incomplete.)
Natural law includes contracts, family, marriage, and balance of powers.
Self government was called republicanism. Founders knew only a moral people could handle it. A popularly based government cannot support itself without self-virtue.
Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, promoted the idea that the people of the colonies were worthy of self-government because they were righteous people, and not corrupted by riches and the want for luxury and entertainment like the Europeans were.
The founders had to debate upon whether or not the people were good enough for self-government. There was a revival where people confessed their selfishness and their lack of public political involvement. A spirit of sacrifice and reform became apparent in all 13 colonies.
(Note- we cannot say we are truly selfless if we aren’t involved in public affairs one way or another.)
In the spirit of public virtue, businesses voluntarily at their own loss refused to import goods.
George Washington said religion and morality are essential for people who want property freedom and that you could not have national morality without religion.
(Note- this refutes the popular idea that morality can be sustained without religion; it cannot. It quickly warps into a false idol, a false philosophy, a false morality, like the useless politically correct virtue signaling among the anti-religionists of our time.)
Benjamin Franklin emphasized the importance of teachers of youth and said that anyone who has that gift to teach youth has the moral obligation to do so.
(Note- this is also applicable in encouraging parenthood as a duty.)
Founders repeatedly taught that the form of government made for America was only able to work for a moral people.
One founder said that even if we have a perfect government, if we aren’t virtuous people, we will be slaves.
(Note- if you can’t have conscience, you have to have cops. The less conscience, the more cops. These are the 2 guards to virtue. See Peter Kreeft’s “Culture War”.)
Founders said don’t let public office be something for gain, and don’t elect people to public office who are not moral and virtuous, and don’t choose people lacking experience in their fidelity.
(Note- let the chief offices be without a wage; let it run more like a church in that manner. Public “service”. This would also naturally encourage more experienced servants.)
A favorite scripture of the time was in Proverbs, that when a righteous man rules the people rejoice, and when a wicked man rules the people do not.
It was commonly held that people who were the best people the most moral -those were the people who should be involved in public life.
That they should have the same sense of duty as Washington who allowed himself to be called out of retirement three different times to serve the people.
It was said that it is an artificial aristocracy to base rulership on wealth and status instead of on virtue and talent.
Jefferson dreaded the day when the best of people would refuse to go work in public office. He said those with whom nature has endowed genius and virtue should receive the liberal training for public leadership, and this without regard to birth.
(Note- sadly we are at a day when the best often refuse to participate, and where the best are hunted rather than supported when they try.)
Cicero said that the closest we get to acting like God is being involved in creating or sustaining states.
(Note- true, governing kingdoms, as we hope to do in God’s kingdom, and we try to let his kingdom come here and now “on earth as it is in heaven.”)
Samuel Adams and John Adams both sacrificed their wealth to serve in politics.
John Adams said politics are the divine science. He said the end of politics is not wealth and fame like it has been reduced to in Europe. He was a practical politician. He said a politician does not make his own fortune, he makes the fortune of his country.
John Adams said the science of government is his duty to study above all other sciences. That he said he must study politics and war that his sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, and their sons in turn would be able to study industry so that their children could study art.
John Adams said that he was not into politics for fame or wealth, and that he approached every situation in his political offices with the integrity of his best judgment.
Benjamin Franklin saw that in Europe everybody wanted to be in political positions because they paid so well, and he knew this was wrong.
As a matter of principle George Washington refused to accept a salary for being president, and a salary for being the commander-in-chief of the armed forces during the revolutionary war. Not all leaders could do this but it was considered the proper procedure when circumstances permitted.
Franklin said giving large salaries to political positions leads to monarchy. Franklin believed we would always have enough good men in this country to take the leadership positions with little to no pay.
The high sheriff position of England is not well paid but it is done well. There are many examples of positions of power being low pay and still being done well.
Monarchy in America would not come under the title of monarchy, but under the title of an executive with monarchal powers.
Cicero taught that reason and self-evident truth bring people into harmony, and we see that the founders all shared high values; they had all learned those principles even when those principles went against some popular views of British government and even of some church denominations, some of which they were members of.
Congress passed the “Northwest Ordinance” which emphasized that in the schools three things were to be taught:
1. religion (man’s origin and relation to the cosmic universe and his relationship to his fellow man)
2. morality (a standard of behavior distinguishing right from wrong)
3. knowledge (intellectual awareness of established facts of history, geography, sciences, etc.)
Washington said you cannot have morality without religion, as experience and reason show.
Jefferson made a bill for an elementary school and said nothing should be taught there which would go against any of the religious sects which shows us that there were fundamental principles agreed upon by the various religions.
Franklin identified the fundamental points of all religion to be that
1. there is a creator whom we should worship,
2. that the creator has given morals for our happiness,
3. that we will be accountable to the creator for our choices,
4. that all live beyond this life, and
5. that in the next life we will be judged for what we did in this life.
This was called “the religion of America” or “the religion of all mankind” which could be taught in schools without offending anyone as they are shared by all faiths around the world.
Atheists took control of the French revolution and made it a bloodbath.
Europeans thought that religion and liberty were enemies, but Alexis de Tocqueville saw that the religion was a fundamental part of Liberty in America. He said all the religious sects differ but they agree in the fundamentals of moral law. He said there is no country in the world where Christianity governs the souls of men more than in America. And it was not the state trying to push a certain sect. He said the secret of America’s greatness was not its economy but the fiery pulpits of its churches. That America is great because it is good, and that it ever if it ever ceases to be good it will cease to be great.
In America people were taught the principles of their religion, the history of their country, and the principles of their constitution.
American rulers didn’t push a particular religion but they did push Christian morality. There was separation of church and state but not separation of state and religion! The first amendment was to keep government out of church.
The Supreme Court tries to use separation of church and state as an excuse to meddle in the religious business of the states. It has used this to force states to take a hands-off approach to religion. But separation of church and state was originally meant for only the federal government not for state government.
Founders wanted all religion to be encouraged, but no specific sect endorsed.
Jefferson and other founders were fine with public tax supported facilities (like the courthouse) being used for religious purposes, so long as all religions had access to use them.
John Locke said it’s completely against reason to think everything was created by chance. Thus the atheist is irrational and out of touch with reality. Locke said all can know there’s a God simply by thinking about it: as things cannot be made by nothing, and the creative thing is superior to all else, it is the supreme ultimate good (called God by the Anglo-Saxons).
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that in America, a judge refused to accept the testimony of a man who declared to not believe in the eternal souls or the existence of God, as such a person is obviously untrustworthy, out of touch with reality and rational thought.
God must be cogitative as he made cogitative things. He has a strong sense of justice and compassion. Man is made in the image of God (with these same sensibilities and powers of reason). Founders saw God as intelligent and compassionate, interested in and involved in human affairs.
The will of God is called the law of nature. How do we find these things out? Moral law is revealed, nature’s law is discovered.
People have different strengths but are equal in equality before God, before the law, and in protection of their rights.
Every ethnic group of America was once a minority here. America is the melting pot. In America and everywhere, minorities need to cross the culture gap to become an insider rather than an outsider. In America this can happen quickly. The gap involves becoming socially useful, learning the language, and getting an education all similar to others.
Hoover protested capturing Japanese after pearl harbor, they knew there were minimal threats among them.
By 1970 a black in America had a better opportunity for a college education than a white in England.
Black Panther violence was counterproductive, and most houses attacked were houses of black citizens. Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver went out of America, converted out of atheism & communism. Cleaver then said the Panthers were wrong, and pointed out that a black had more rights as in jail in America than out of jail anywhere else. He saw blacks had the same constitutional rights as others in America.
There should be equal freedom, but not equal results. Equal rights, but not equal capacity. Equal rights but not equal possessions. Equal protection but not equal status. Equal educational opportunities but not equal grades.
If government gives people equal things, the people will immediately become unequal again based on their choices.
Government cannot take from the haves and give to the have nots. Government can’t do anything a person can’t do themselves. Government can make police to protect, but can’t take from one man to give to a poor neighbor. A man can’t take ones car and give to another, neither can a government vote to take that man’s car and give it to his neighbor. No Robbin Hood.
Government taking from the rich to give to poor means not everyone has equal rights, and everyone’s rights start to get squashed.
There should not be a penalty for getting rich. Yes many will get rich, and afford factories and give jobs to many.
The rich were encouraged but not forced to help the poor.
Equal rights being protected, not equal things by a welfare state, are what inspire natural charity by individuals.
Note: With freedom, individuals can thrive, and be in better positions to help the poor. Individuals can feel a sense of justice in getting what they earned, and happily be inclined to chose to help others. With welfare state, everyone becomes poor, and government spending is wasteful, not really meeting the needs it claimed it would. Work is disincentivized, and the civilization comes to depression, idleness, entitlement, and ruin.
To encourage idleness is to go against God and nature. Compassion is counterproductive when it encourages idleness.
Founders taught to not give prolonged free gifts to the needy, but rather to help the needy in ways that help them learn to help themselves, which would give them the sense of accomplishment that comes from earning what they get. This learned work ethic and experience natural consequences would allow the needy to climb up the accomplishment ladder of going from a tent to a cottage, then a cottage to a comfortable house.
Founders taught that if a person was in need, first the family was to help, then the church, then the community, then in an extreme emergency the state, but NEVER the federal government. No constitutional authority exists for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare.
There are inalienable rights given to us by the Creator and there are vested rights given to us by the society. For example, the government can choose to close a certain highway or close a certain area for hunting, but they cannot decide to kill all babies under the age of two, or lock up everyone with blonde hair. A person can lose his liberty by his own behavior, but not by arbitrary government decree.
There are inalienable rights which the founders knew existed but they did not explicitly list in the Constitution such as:
-The right of self-government
-the right to bear arms for self-defense
-the right to own develop and dispose of property
-the right to make personal choices
-the right of free conscience
-the right to choose a profession
-the right to choose a mate
-the right to beget one’s kind
-the right to assemble
-the right to petition
-the right to a free speech
-the right to a press
-the right to the fruit of one’s laborers
-the right to improve one’s positions through barter and sale
-the right to contrive and invent
-the right to explore the natural resources of the Earth
-the right to privacy
-the right to provide personal security
-the right to provide nature’s necessities of air food water shelter clothing
-the right to a fair trial
-the right of free association
-the right to contract
The rights to the pursuit of happiness were commonly understood as property rights.
The ten commandments are Divine Law.
We have rights but we also have duties.
William Blackstone referred to public duty and private duty saying that if a person wants to be privately wicked the state can do nothing, but if he is publicly wicked the state can stop him due to the pernicious effects that bad example would have on society.
Human tribunals cannot determine whether or not a person has private sobriety so they cannot enforce that.
He lists 20 duties we have:
- The duty to honor the supremacy of the Creator and his laws. Blackstone calls it the law of nature, and says it has supremacy over all countries and applies to all mankind.
- The duty not to take the life of another except in self-defense.
- The duty to not steal or destroy the property of others.
- The duty to be honest in all transactions with others.
- The duty of children to honor and obey their parents and elders.
- The duty of parents and elders to protect, teach, feed, clothe, and provide shelter for children.
- The duty to support law and order and keep the peace.
- The duty not to contrive through a covetous heart to despoil another.
- The duty to provide insofar as possible for the needs of the helpless – the sick, the crippled, the injured, the poverty-stricken.
- The duty to honorably perform contracts and covenants both with God and man.
- The duty to be temperate.
- The duty to become economically self-sufficient.
- The duty not to trespass on the property or privacy of another.
- The duty to maintain the integrity of the family structure.
- The duty to perpetuate the race.
- The duty not to promote or participate in the vices which destroy personal and community life.
- The duty to perform civic responsibilities – vote, assist public officials, serve in official capacities when called upon, stay informed on public issues, volunteer where needed.
- The duty not to aid or abet those involved in criminal or anti-social activities.
- The duty to support personal and public standards of common decency.
- The duty to follow rules of moral rectitude.
Criminals who refuse to pay back the damages they’ve done should go to prison until they agree to pay back those damages.
It was said that life liberty and property existed before people made laws, and people made laws to protect those three principal rights.
John Locke said that there are laws of nature; in other words laws of God. Legislators are bound to not make any laws which contradict these.
William Blackstone, a contemporary of the founders, said that the laws of God, the creator of us creatures, are more important and take precedence over the laws of man.
Algernon Sydney was beheaded for saying there is no divine right of kings, and that government is the people deciding to make law. The same year John Locke fled for safety so he could say the same thing
Founders saw rulers as servants of the people. That is how it was with the Anglo-Saxons. The ultimate government power resides with the people.
The pledge of allegiance highlights the fact that the founders wanted a republic (representative) government, not a democracy. Full participation of all the people on every issue does not work because people are too occupied in their daily tasks to fully study the issues at hand, and they are too busy to participate in all the hearings. Whenever the Greeks tried to use full democracy it always ended in tyranny. An enlarged democracy is unstable, whereas a republic is always stable no matter how big it is.
The intercollegiate socialist society ISS took over the word democracy in the early 1900s. They called socialism “industrial democracy”. Socialism is government control of the economy and calling it industrial democracy is deceptive. After people began to dislike the word socialist, the ISS changed its name to “the league for democracy.” Wilson called the United States a democracy and it caught on. Wilson was close with the ISS.
Pure democracy always leads to diminished property rights. Property rights are the way that you can tell if people’s life and liberty rights are being respected. Without property rights the accumulation of anything invites attack, and we become belittled to living with nothing.
John Locke pointed out that property is an extension of what we spend the time of our life developing, so taking one’s property is an attack on their life.
We enter into society for the express purpose of protection of property rights; it is backwards for society to take property. John Adams said that property rights should be taken as seriously as any of God’s laws, otherwise there will be tyranny.
Having dominion over the Earth means having control; that means exclusive rights; this means property rights are essential if we are to obey God’s law.
When you remove something from nature it becomes your property; you do not need the consent of everyone, you could never get that.
Goods belong to whoever did labor to get them.
Jefferson said do not have confidence in men, bind them down by the chains of the Constitution. The Constitution is not outdated because it was made for something that does not change, namely human nature.
Abraham Lincoln said a law to prevent a man from getting rich would do more harm than good, and the fact that some people can get rich is encouragement to everyone else that they can too.
Note: graduated income tax is certainly a law to prevent man from getting rich.
Who will care for the poor? Anyone but the federal government said the founders. Until the present generation, help was given almost exclusively in the private sector or in some cases by the community or state government, but never by the federal government.
Adam Smith of Scotland wrote The Wealth of Nations. This aligned well with the thinking of the founders.
The United States was the first economy to be a free market. This involves letting everyone do what they do best and allowing exchange in the market without government being involved in prices etc. Profits are what make all of this worthwhile and should not be penalized by graduated income tax.
Free markets improve products and lower prices.
4 laws of free market economics: The freedom to try, the freedom to buy, the freedom to sell, and the freedom to fail.
In markets there should be no fixing prices, no fixing wages, no controlling distribution, no controlling production. No granting monopolies and no subsidizing certain products.
Government should prevent illegal force in the marketplace to buy or sell. Government should protect against fraud in the market. Government should prevent monopoly in the market. Government should prevent exploitation of selling things like pornography drugs liquor prostitution and commercial gambling.
In the 20th century the old rugged individualism age was replaced by modern collectivism. People bashed Adam smith’s economics despite all it has given them. They were tearing down Smith so they could replace it with Marx. They didn’t just want to update the system, they wanted to throw out the entire system. They called the old ways ignorant, and stopped having students read Adam Smith. Professors called what the founders believed as myths.
The federal government, not the banks, should issue currency, and there should be no fractional banking.
Jefferson lamented banks who withdrew resources from real things and made resources for idleness. Jefferson lamented that we had become so tied to the banks that we would have to go where they lead.
We became a people founded on debt rather than founded on wealth.
The great historian Polybius saw the strength of a monarchy to get things done, and the strength of an aristocracy to represent the wealth and resources, and the strength of democracy to represent the people. But he saw that each of these three forms carried within itself the seed of degeneration if they could not operate with checks and balances of opposing principles. Shortly after Polybius died the Romans abandoned their republic and went to an empire. In the 1700s with Baron Charles de Montesquieu the idea of a mixed constitution of balanced power came back. Montesquieu was a French philosopher who wrote “The Spirit of Laws”.
John Adams worked long and hard to get the unpopular idea of separation of three balanced powers in government. John Adams had a vision of a nation and empire of free men, hundreds of millions of people without a noble or a king over them.
Montesquieu said the three branches cannot be independent of each other, they need to be checked by each other.
The three powers are not in balance today. For example, the legislative is making many taxes never contemplated by the founders or the constitution.
The executive is invading congress by making many laws by executive order (thousands of them). The judicial is making many laws (“judicial legislation”) by pretending like they’re just interpreting old laws, but they really making new laws. This imbalance has allowed the federal to invade the states on a massive scale.
Checks were to protect the will of the people.
Look into Thomas Hooker and the first constitution.
Freedom and individuality diminish when the federal government has more power than the state government. And the nation collapses when it has too little.
Founders wouldn’t like the 17th 1913 amendment. It’s a threat to states’ rights. The state loses veto power. The federal is not accountable to states anymore, just to the masses.
The US is more helpful and generous to newcomers than any other nation. While newcomers are working their way up and assimilating to the language etc., the old citizens can help them.
Central government is the opposite of biblical local government of solving problems locally with captains of 10 50 100 1000 etc.
Bergs(?), Shires, these have been practiced in recent times and resembled the locally strong government of the bible.
Aristotle was right about men being unstable and needing law without passion.
Plato was wrong in thinking the few should rule the many, and force them into what’s best. Plato said men not law should rule. Plato said a code of laws is second best compared to a person’s rule. The US founders, unlike Plato, saw law as a positive good, not a necessary evil.
John Locke said the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to promote freedom. Where there is no law there is no freedom. Without law we get violence from others, which means no freedom.
Note: Well did Moses say to proclaim liberty in all the land; God’s law maximizes liberty.
Founders knew that if people are to have confidence in the law, it must be understandable and permanent.
The original public schools were required to have Bible study. The founding fathers would not have agreed with banning Bible reading from public schools.
A native of America who cannot read or write is as uncommon as a comet or earthquake.
America was the first nation to have such widespread public schools free.
School board members were elected and they were the ones who would choose the books and the teachers.
Note: School curriculum was decided upon locally, lead by the voice of the parents, very unlike today’s schools. Today’s schools resemble more of an empire than a republic.
Founders like Franklin and Washington had minimal formal education, but they both knew the fundamentals; they learned from the same books; once they had the fundamentals, they could succeed from there on their own.
Be acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready to debate about the present.
It was said that the pioneers of America, though they lived in rough circumstances, were refined in their character: noble and dignified.
Early Americans knew that their political system was unique and powerful. They went to great lengths to teach it to their own people and children.
Abraham Lincoln had no college training, yet look at the elegant speech of the Gettysburg Address etc. This refined speech is what he learned from the Bible.
It was said that the Americans knew English better than the English.
Franklin knew that strength is the means of maintaining peace. That one sword often keeps another in its scabbard. The way to maintain peace is to be prepared for war. Those who appear ready to receive their adversaries are in much less danger of being attacked.
Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you.
Washington said don’t just be armed, be ready and trained.
If we want to avoid insults we have to be able to repel it said Washington.
It was said that we must be known to be ready for war at all times.
Note: Gun laws and where they are the most restrictive will reflect this truth in their crime rates time and again.
Samuel Adams said it is the business of America to take care of herself and her strength lies within her own virtue.
George Washington fought with essentially no navy, an untrained army, and little to no support from the states he was defending.
The founders had a doctrine of separatism: that they were not going to become involved in foreign entanglements, with the only exception being a temporary arrangement if an attack on us made such necessary.
The founders did not want to be isolated from the rest of the world, they wanted America to be friends with the whole world, but not involved in arguments which would make them enemies with a different part of the world.
It was said that we don’t want to be a slave to other nations by our affection for them or animosity for them.
Jefferson said we don’t get involved with European entanglements because we have a completely different set of values than Europe our values are freedom.
Separatism was the policy of the United States for the first 125 years, but financial circles wanted America in the thick of things worldwide. Even before World War I these financial forces were trying to get the US involved in foreign entanglements.
It was said that we should not have been involved in World War 1. We were not in danger and everyone involved was being bad. America should have stayed home and conserved its resources. We came out of that war without establishing a single principle for which we entered it. The people of America voted for president who said he was going to keep us out of War, but the propaganda poured in and Americans started believing everything bad about the enemy that was being said, and got involved in the war.
It was said by one who tried to keep us out of World War II that America is supposed to be the great neutral power of the world – it is a country which is alone geographically, politically, nationally, racially, ethnically, etc., and it can do more good by remaining neutral then by getting involved in the butchery.
Our roles should be feeding the hungry, caring for the woman and child. We should have been the world’s great peacemaker, not the world’s great policeman.
Americans have high value for marriage, stability, and a sense of order.
The husband and wife each have their own separate roles, and each have all rights. For the purpose of order, the man was given the decision-making capability in the family. God’s law made man the governor of his family, but the Bible speaks repeatedly of children obeying both father and mother.
Careful research shows that Franklin was not the philanderer many have made him out to be. He did fall in with a rough crowd when he was young and have an illegitimate child, but he raised that child well that child grew to be a governor. But the accounts of various engagements in his adult life are mythical.
He said marriage is the happiest way to live and to not postpone it. He said a single man is half a person.
Parents rule their children until the children become reasonable. The guardian has the will over him until he is of age. Children are to esteem and reverence their parents. The children owe to their parents their life and security etc.
The founders knew that borrowing could be an advantage in a crisis but they discouraged it.
Debt tends to corrupt a person, and taints his search for happiness, and causes him to pass by financial opportunity which a free man would pursue. Debt makes a constant threat. It makes a sense of waste, like making payments on a dead horse. When in debt you walk a razor’s edge.
Founders knew that when you had to borrow, you should do so frugally and pay it back quickly. Founders wanted debt to be seen as evil bondage.
Franklin said even though poverty is hard, you sleep sounder with poverty than with debt.
The worst debt is from splurge fun spending.
Franklin says first comes debt, then comes lying.
It was said that public debt should be a great fear of the people.
War and other emergencies could justify public debt so there is an allowance for that in the Constitution.
Founders felt that the generation who incurs the wars and debts is the one who needs to pay for it, not leaving a debt for the next generation.
Forcing children of the next generation to be born into debt is a type of servitude bondage that they did not vote for or subscribe to. It is literally a taxation without representation. It is a blatant violation of the Republican principle.
Jefferson said we are morally bound to pay for whatever debts we incur and not leave them to the next generation – we must raise these funds either by taxes within the year or by loans which are repaid by ourselves. Perpetual funding is foolish.
In early US wars they tried to quickly pay off war debts.
Milton Friedman showed that our unconstitutional expenditures were not profitable.
We are like drug addicts now when it comes to national debt. We need to stop using, suffer the withdrawal, and be done with it. We must muster the willpower to be willing to go through the physical withdrawal.
The US Constitution is the oldest constitution.
Concerning successful civilization, the founders gave us the needed ingredients for a gigantic 5000-year leap!
