By BOB HESS

“All tyranny needs, to gain a foothold, is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“A well-instructed people, alone, can be permanently a free people.” – James Madison

How true these two statements are. We ask ourselves why our nation is in the condition that it is in today. The answer is found in the two statements that were made by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

For years, people who knew that this nation was moving away from the two documents that the founders of this nation had written to establish and maintain a nation that was, as Abraham Lincoln had so clearly stated, “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Notice the key words that were based on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that he was sworn to uphold and protect: “Of the people, by the people and for the people.” But instead of electing people who would turn this nation back to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the intended purpose that was stated in the Gettysburg Address that was given by President Lincoln, they made the election process a popularity contest.

They made the election process a means to get bigger government that would give them whatever they could get without pursuing it by honest hard work as was the procedure of acquiring these things in the days of our forefathers.

It is my opinion that of all the recent leaders, only Ronald Reagan showed a desire to direct this nation back under the Constitution and the principles that were laid out by the Declaration of Independence and the words of Abraham Lincoln.

So, the people who knew where we were headed remained silent. They watched our young people being robbed of an education that included true American History, and the morality that had been taught since the beginning of this nation.

Studies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were dropped or watered down. American Heroes were dropped from the history books or made to look like crooks and selfish individuals who did not deserve the respect of the American people.

The Christian beliefs that directed the writings of these documents were slowly dismissed as insignificant by “so-called” historians who wrote the modern history books that are used in schools. So our children are no longer getting the kind of education that would lead to a “well instructed” generation of Americans who are proud of their nation and proud of their heritage.

Government was been allowed to grow larger and larger. Rights were slowly taken away and more and more regulations were placed on the people of America. Government officials have begun voting on laws that they wanted instead of what the people deserved and were guaranteed by the Constitution. Slowly, we became a nation “of the government officials, by the government officials and for the government officials.

More and more taxes are placed upon the people, just as they were prior to the Declaration of Independence, with less and less of actual, true representation.

Thomas Jefferson, the man that true historians consider as the chief designer of the Declaration, stated that the Declaration was “an expression of the American mind” and that it’s intent was to “place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.” This Declaration was written to tell the oppressive governors, in no uncertain terms, what they were doing and why the Americans were breaking away from them.

As one reads the Declaration today, he will see that the government that was over the colonies in Jefferson’s day, was very similar to what our government is becoming today.

The Declaration, in the first paragraph, clearly states that the oppressive governors of England had moved away from that which the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” dictated.

In the second paragraph are found the following beautiful words that clearly state what kind of government that these people were determined to have.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”

What do we learn from these words as stated here?

These men believed that the Laws of “nature’s God” were to be followed.

These men believed that the “Creator” of mankind, created all men to be equal.  He never intended that the governors were of a higher class than the governed.  What was good for the governors was also good for the governed.  What was good for the rich, was good for the poor.

There was not one law for one group and another law for another group,  There was not to be one penalty for one group and one penalty for another.

These men believed that the creator gave all men certain unalienable rights, or rights that are not to be taken away by the government or by anyone else.

These men believed that citizens had the right to pursue life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Man should be allowed, lawfully, to pursue riches, a life as they desire to have, and freedom from government oppression.

These men believed that government had one purpose.  That purpose was to protect these unalienable rights for the people.

These men believed that a government that stepped outside of this purpose should be replaced with a government that would get back to it’s intended role.

As we get into the Constitution, we will see how these men intended for a bad government to be replaced. I’ll give you a hint about how this is to be done. November 2012.

(To be continued)