In order to understand where we are at this point in time, as far as being governed, we must understand a couple of things. There are basically two systems of law, both are opposite each other. On the one side is a government that is ruled by either on person, or a small group of wealthy people. On the other side, is a civilization living without any form of law, doing what ever they want whenever they want, without regard to the rights or property of others.
“Although men have always wanted their freedom to do as they please, they realized that there needed to be some form of order in their lives, to protect their God given rights, and their property. As a result of this desire, there have always been those rise up among the people who were strong, making promises that the people liked, and they were placed at the head of government, and the people called them Kings or Queens. These “families” were given all power to control.
There were also those, who would rise up in rebellion to the ruling power, and overthrow the oppressive government. However, these people had their own ideas, and they began to rule enforcing their own ideas.
There are several forms of the above kinds of governments. They are known as:
- A Monarchy, a government with is considered “Royal” and the people are ruled by the one.
- An autocracy, a government ruled by ‘the one’ or a dictator.
- A Plutocracy, a government run by an exclusive wealthy class.
- An Aristocracy, is a government by those with inherited titles or those who belong to a privileged class.
- An oligarchy, a government by an exclusive few.
- An empire, which is an aggregate of kingdoms ruled by a monarch called an emperor.
- A Military dictatorship, which is government by one or a few top military leaders.
Ruler’s Law is a form of government which allows total authority and power to rest with the central government. The ruler or ruling group makes the law, interprets the law, and enforces the law. One of our founding father’s, James Madison, defined this as tyranny. He said, “The accumulation of all powers – legislative, executive, and judiciary = in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” (Federalist Papers, #47
The characteristics of Ruler’s Law are as follows:
- The government power is exercised by compulsion, force, conquest, or legislative usurpation
- All power is concentrated in the ruler
- The people are treated as “subjects” of the ruler
- The land is treated as the “realm” of the ruler
- The people have not unalienable rights
- Government is by the Rule of Men rather than the Rule of Law
- The people are structured into social and economic classes
- Government is always from the ruler down
- Problems are always solved by issuing new deicts, creating more bureaus, appointing more administrators, and charging the people more taxes to pay for these “services” Under this system, taxes and government regulations are always oppressive.
- Freedom is not considered a solution to anything
- The transfer of power from one ruler to another is often by violence-the dagger, the poison cup, or fratricidal civil war.
- The long history of Ruler’s Law is one of blood and terror, both anciently and in modern times. Those in power revel in luxury while the lot of the common people is one of perpetual poverty, excessive taxation, stringent regulations, and a continuous existence of misery” (The Making of America, W. Cleon Skousen, pp. 44-45)
The Opposite of Ruler’s Law is Anarchy, which puts government on the exact opposite end of the spectrum of Law. In it, there is no law, and as long as people are moral and respectful, things can go along well. However, it seems to be human nature for a man or a woman to want something they don’t have, and the easiest way to get it is to take it with out asking, or without paying for it.
This form of government is that everyone is in it for him or herself. This leads to theft and murder, and for the people to want a leader to protect them and their property, and so they resort back to Ruler’s Law.
When the founders decided they were going to break away from the tyranny of King George of Great Britain, they began looking into how to form this new government in such a way that there would be no central power, but they would have each state with the authority. They came up with “The Articles of Confederation,” which gave the central government no power at all, and as a result, it almost cost them the war with Britain.
It was because of this that they sent their representatives for their various colonies to correct the problems in the “Articles.” They were not to change the form of government, just improve upon the laws they were currently working under. Those sent to the Continental Convention began to realize that for this convention to really work, they were going to have to scrap “The Articles of Confederation” and come up with something new.
They were going to be pioneering new territory. They were looking to do something that had never been done before. They didn’t want a central government with so much power they could control the states or the people, but give this central government enough power to protect the people from foreign powers.
They wanted the states to have the power to control this “monster” the federal government. They wanted the people to have the power to govern themselves. Our founders realized that they were going to have to create a government that was the inverse to Ruler’s Law. So they began creating something I will label as “People’s Law.”
This was designed to give the Federal Government the least amount of power, with the States controlling the Federal, and the people within each state controlling their own state’s governing. It was to give the greatest power to the smallest unit, that being the individual. Everyone would be able to vote for people to represent them in government.
The struggle to come up with this “new” form of government is something we will speak of in another post.
Recent Comments