X-Message-Number: 23130
From: 
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 10:29:36 EST
Subject: Re: regulation / libertarianism

In a message dated 12/18/2003 5:01:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, Charles Platt 
<> writes:

> The US Constitution, which can be viewed as a mostly
> libertarian document, is a good place to start. It clearly
> says that all powers not explicitly assigned to government
> are reserved by the people. Regulatory power has been seized
> by the federal government mostly under the excuse of the
> Commerce Clause (look it up). This was never the intention of
> the framers of the Constitution.

And Platt also included some quotes. But I think it's a mistake to base any 
argument on authority, and guessing at the intentions of our founders is 

probably a futile exercise. Even if you can accurately ascertain exactly what it
is 
that they intended, those intentions are reactions to a different place, time, 
and social landscape.

Having said that, I'd like to share some decidedly non-libertarian quotes, to 
show a wider scope of early American political thought:

"Private property ... is a Creature of Society, and is subject to the Calls 
of that Society, whenever its Necessities shall require it, even to its last 
Farthing, its contributors therefore to the public Exigencies are not to be 

considered a Benefit on the Public, entitling the Contributors to the 
Distinctions 
of Honor and Power, but as the Return of an Obligation previously received, 
or as payment for a just Debt."
Benjamin Franklin 

"While it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is 
derived from Nature at all ... it is considered by those who have seriously 

considered the subject, that no one has, of natural right, a separate property 
in 
an acre of land ... Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given 
late in the progress of society."
Thomas Jefferson 

"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them 

like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men
of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to 
be beyond amendment... laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the 

progress of the human mind... as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, 
as 
new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace with 
the times...."
Thomas Jefferson (on reform of the Virginia Constitution) 

"It cannot have escaped those who have attended with candor to the arguments 
employed against the extensive powers of the government, that the authors of 
them have very little considered how far these powers were necessary means of 
attaining a necessary end. They have chosen rather to dwell on the 

inconveniences which must be unavoidably blended with all political advantages; 
and on the 
possible abuses which must be incident to every power or trust, of which a 
beneficial use can be made. 

"This method of handling the subject cannot impose on the good sense of the 
people of America. It may display the subtlety of the writer; it may open a 

boundless field for rhetoric and declamation; it may inflame the passions of the
unthinking, and may confirm the prejudices of the misthinking: but cool and 

candid people will at once reflect, that the purest of human blessings must have
a portion of alloy in them; that the choice must always be made, if not of 
the lesser evil, at least of the greater, not the perfect, good; and that in 

every political institution, a power to advance the public happiness involves a
discretion which may be misapplied and abused. 

"They will see, therefore, that in all cases where power is to be conferred, 
the point first to be decided is, whether such a power be necessary to the 

public good; as the next will be, in case of an affirmative decision, to guard 
as 
effectually as possible against a perversion of the power to the public 
detriment."
James Madison, FEDERALIST No. 41 

"Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and 
it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the 
people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with 
requisite powers."
John Jay, FEDERALIST No. 2 
-----

-Jonathan Hinek

















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