Forward By Ron Paul
"The Constitution is a revolutionary document. It is also a perfect illustration of how freedom brings people together.
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 had to draft a charter to limit government and secure liberty for Americans of all kinds -- farmers and industrialists, Christians and deists, from big states and small states. Nothing else but freedom could overcome the divisions and work for everybody.
The Constitution was not perfect. It allowed for slavery. At first, it lacked a Bill of Rights. The Framers argued that the divided and limited powers enumerated in the Constitution were enough to protect our rights. The Anti-Federalists -- opponents of constitutional ratification like Patrick Henry and George Mason -- argued that there ought to be a Bill of Rights and warned that the president and the federal courts would be too powerful.
The Framers were very careful not to give the president or the courts the most dangerous powers that government has, however. They only entrusted the power to declare war and raise taxes to Congress, the branch of government most directly answerable to the people. And after the Constitution was ratified, a Bill of Rights was added that forbids any branch of the federal government to interfere with liberties like our right to free speech, to the free exercise of religion, and to keep and bear arms. These guarantees of freedom brought the Framers and the Anti-Federalists together in support of the Constitution once it was adopted.
Strictly limiting government was a revolutionary idea. What was even more revolutionary was that the Constitution left the most important things in life, like religion and education, free from government control. The Framers knew that no government, no matter how carefully designed, could make people virtuous. That job belongs to families, churches, and communities, not politicians and government schools.
Right from the start, though, politicians were unhappy about the limits the Constitution placed on them. Even Thomas Jefferson, as president, overstepped his constitutional authority by buying the Louisiana territories. Alexander Hamilton succeeded in creating a nation bank, without constitutional authority, to finance government and centralize economic power.
Politicians damaged the Constitution not only by violating its letter but also by ignoring the wisdom that created the Constitution in the first place, creating taxes and tariffs that hurt some parts of the country more than others. Just as freedom brings people together, the opposite of freedom -- tariffs, wars, slavery -- tears a country apart.
Since the Civil War, Washington has done everything that the Framers tried to prevent, from letting the president make wars to interfering in religion and federalizing education. But the people still want freedom. They want a revolution to return to the Constitution.
Young Americans for Liberty (
www.yaliberty.org) is leading the way by educating young people about their rights and demanding that politicians obey the Constitution. That is what YAL means by "winning on principle." Our principles are expressed in the Constitution, so read it carefully and commit its lessons to heart."
Ron Paul
Congressman Ron Paul