Below are two short explanations of why property rights and the U.S. Constitution are so critically important to our freedoms and the American way of life, and how growing federal power and social/environmental activism is destroying the very foundations upon which they rest. Unless we return to the Constitutional Republican form of government soon, America will find herself in a downward slide to Third World Nation status and tyranny. There have been no exceptions in all of human history.

Property Rights - The Foundation of Freedom

The Growing Civil Unrest in America

Property Rights

THE FOUNDATION OF FREEDOM

The Feudal Nature of Federal Regulations

Š1997 Environmental Perspectives, Inc.

Federal Power -- The Road to Tyranny

Many Americans are frustrated with unfunded mandates. What most Americans don't realize is that these unfunded mandates are merely the tip of an increasingly repressive regulatory iceberg. There is growing concern that fellow Americans are being sent to prison and property owners are being systematically stripped of their life savings and livelihoods for violating an explosion of totally arbitrary and often ludicrous regulations that the average person has no hope of understanding.

Although most Americans intensely dislike unfunded mandates, they don't understand why property owners are so upset. To them, it seems only fair that property owners do their share to protect the environment and our cultural heritage. After all don't similar types of zoning protect property values in urban and suburban areas? In response, property owners claim they are not against protecting the environment or our cultural heritage. Rather, they are upset the government is forcing them to shoulder the cost of this protection by controlling their property for the so-called "public good."

The answer to these confusing issues is found in our Founding Fathers understanding of the feudal tyranny that led to the Declaration of Independence, and how unalienable property rights were intended to be the foundation of all other civil rights in our U.S. Constitution. Ironically, once these principles are understood, it becomes clear that the tensions over unfunded mandates and loss of property rights are both related to the same problem -- usurpation by the federal government of state and local powers. Such usurpation, warned our Founders, inevitably leads to growing tyranny and the type of tension we are experiencing in our lives today.

In their recent efforts to reverse this tyrannical trend, many in Congress have been accused of rolling back 25 years of environmental protection. To the contrary, Congress is attempting to prevent the rolling back of over 200 years of freedom! By denying the concept of unalienable property rights we may be choosing a new feudalism over freedom, with devastating consequences for all Americans.

Federal and Feudal Tyranny

After breaking the feudal bondage of England, our Founders were so fearful of creating another feudal government that they severely limited the Constitutional powers of the federal Feudal/Ruler Government government to only those pertaining to foreign relations and war. The only exceptions were the "General Welfare" and the "Interstate Commerce" clauses. The former clause was intended to ensure life, liberty and opportunity for all citizens equally, while the second clause was intended to promote free commerce between states. Neither of these two tiny clauses were intended to subvert the rest of the Constitution in order to make the federal government the supreme regulator of America, as is the case today. So adamant were our Founders about keeping power away from the federal government that they included the Tenth Amendment to prevent expansion of federal powers, Thomas Jefferson warned,

"When all government…shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."⁽¹⁾

Jefferson called this centralization of power the "feudal/ ruler" form of government where the rights of the government become superior to the rights of citizens. The foundation of this form of government is almost always control of property -- he who controls the land (or water) controls the people. If a person cannot own land and property to grow crops, have a business, or build a home to shelter their family, they are at the mercy of those who do hold that power.

Tragically, that power is increasingly being held by the federal and some state governments. How can a citizen use their First Amendment right of free speech if the government agent to whom they would speak against can deny them home, hearth and means of livelihood?

Unalienable Property Rights and the People's Law

People's Law Unalienable property rights are fundamental in the protection against feudal/ruler tyranny. John Adams warned that such tyranny is the inevitable result of losing the inalienable right to own and use land unencumbered by government interference,

"The moment that the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the Laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be sacred or liberty cannot exist."⁽²⁾

James Madison not only affirmed the sacred nature of property rights, but emphatically proclaimed that the highest priority of government is to protect these unalienable rights, "Government is instituted to protect property of every sort…This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures, to every man, whatever is his own. That [which] is not [a] just government, nor is property secure under it, [is one] where arbitrary restrictions… deny to part of its citizens that free use of their [property]"⁽³⁾

The underlying principle of unalienable rights is simple. Men are governed by specific natural laws. Violating these laws results in depriving man of his freedom of choice, his liberty, and his search for happiness. Sir William Blackstone and Thomas Locke, both prolific writers of these foundational concepts, were repeatedly quoted by our Founders during the Constitutional debates,

"Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws…. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them..."⁽⁴⁾

Jefferson called these natural laws "the laws of nature and of nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence. Even though they can not be "seen," these natural laws are as certain as the law of gravity. For any legislature to violate these laws is to invite tyranny upon its citizens as certainly as death results from inadvertently walking off a 1000 foot cliff.

Thomas Jefferson based our U.S. Constitution on unalienable rights and called it the People's Law. People are first protected by unalienable rights. Secondly they hold all power. The people then allocate a part of that power first to local government, then to state government, and finally to the federal government, with the latter having the least power of all.

Unalienable property rights were to be limited only by the 1) right of imminent domain for the public good -- but only with "just compensation" as defined by the Fifth Amendment, or 2) common law concept of harm and nuisance. The latter was intended to be invoked only at the local level where zoning was under direct control of the people affected. It could only be used where definable harm to another person's health or property value could be demonstrated. Further loss of property rights leads to abuse.

Dangers of the "Public Good"

By misusing the concept of the so-called "public good," the multi-billion dollar environmental and public interest lobbies have convinced a constitutionally ignorant American people to pressure Congress into expanding federal powers. They are using what James Madison called the "Tyranny of the Majority". By claiming that the so-called "majority" outside a local jurisdiction have the right to intervene in local issues in the name of the "public good," the environmental lobby has convinced Congress to usurp local power by inserting federal jurisdiction into local issues. In doing so, power shifts from those who are accountable to the citizens within a jurisdiction to federal agents having essentially no accountability to any one local area. While this type of "public good" seems democratic, James Madison warns it leads to civil strife and national ruin,

"In all cases where a majority are united by a common interest or passion, the rights of the minority are in danger."⁽⁵⁾ "[A] pure democracy…can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of [the majority]…and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal securities or the right of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." ⁽⁶⁾

That we are witnessing this turbulence and contention today as the result of the passions of the environmental movement, should be of grave concern to all Americans -- especially Congress. A democracy can provide freedom only within a constitutional republic based upon the People's Law and secured by unalienable rights. Yet, almost every solution proposed by the environmental lobby is structured around the feudal/ruler form of governance that shifts power to appointed unaccountable regional planning commissions, the state, or federal government. As a consequence, Americans all across this nation have been experiencing upset and disagreement with the government as a new type of feudal rule becomes established.

Reestablishing True Limits to Property Rights

The power to regulate private property rights must be returned to state and local governing units and confined to the strict original concept of common law nuisance and harm backed by empirical, peer-reviewed research. Cross-jurisdictional appointed planning commissions are generally not accountable to the people within their jurisdiction and must be abolished or elected. When in doubt, property rights must take precedence. It is incumbent upon the state to prove its case, not the property owner.

Conversely, public interest environmental laws are based on personal values for the so-called "public good." Like highways, parks, wildlife sanctuaries and other public benefits, they should be subject to the Fifth Amendment requirements of full just compensation. Paying 100% compensation would force prioritization of public benefits, rather than receiving a public benefit at the total expense of the property owner. Making the property owner pay for such public values is comparable to expropriating a person's life saving's to pay for a public good such as reducing the national debt.

Likewise, environmental damage resulting from cumulative effects represent a total societal problem to which all have contributed, so all should bear partial fiscal responsibility. Regulations protecting endangered species and wetlands fall into this category. Compensation from the state is due the landowner when economic loss exceeds a certain percent. By doing so, both the property owner and the state would be forced to find creative solutions or alternatives.

The growing tensions and strife caused by the gradual reversion to feudal/ruler governance in America was predicted by our Founding Fathers. It will only get worse unless the process is reversed. The choice is simple, freedom or feudalism. The former will allow us to protect our environment with common sense creativity. The later will strangle our economy so we no longer have the ability to protect either the environment or over 200 years of freedom -- taking with it the light and hope of the world provided by the greatest nation on earth.

References

1. Albert Ellery Bergh, Ed. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. 20 vols. (Washington: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association). 1907. 15:332

2. John Adams. Works. C. Francis Adams, ed. (Little & Brown, Boston). 1854. Vol. 14:560.

3. 4 Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, 174. Taken from the essay "Property" written in 1792 and published in the National Gazette, March 27, 1792.

4. Ibid, pp 93.

5. James Madison, Notes of debates of the Federal Constitution. (Bicentennial Edition), 1987. At 76.

6. James Madison, The Federalist Papers, 10.21-10.22.

For more information on this subject contact Environmental Perspectives (207) 945-9878

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THE GROWING CIVIL UNREST IN AMERICA

The Feudal Nature of Federal Regulations

Š1997 Environmental Perspectives, Inc.

THE NATURE OF FEDERALISM AND FEUDALISM

There is a growing unrest welling in America. Whether it is in western states clamoring for states rights over federal land, or in the growing frustration over unfunded mandates, the Endangered Species Act, and wetlands regulations, the cause is the same -- growing and unaccountable federal power. Thomas Jefferson and other Founders warned us that excessive federal power would result in the reestablishment of a "feudal/ruler" structure of governance that "will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."⁽¹⁾ The Founders noted that such a government would exhibit highly definable characteristics:

Power is by compulsion, force, conquest, or legislation usurpation.

Power is concentrated in the one or the few.
The people are treated as "subjects" of the one or few.
The land is treated as the "realm" of the one or few.
The people lose their unalienable rights.
Government is by the rule of men rather than the rule of law (i.e. arbitrary and capricious).
The people are structured into social and/or economic classes.
The thrust of government is always from the top down, not from the people upward.
Problems are always solved by issuing new edicts, creating more bureaus, appointing more administrators.⁽²⁾

There are others. Congress should be concerned that much of the friction and heartache vocalized by rural residents, western states claiming rights over federal land, and states over unfunded mandates are grounded in these feudal/ruler characteristics.

Tragically, we are seeing the first fruits of Jefferson's warning. State and local rights are being usurped by the federal government. Immense power is being consolidated in the hands of a few thousand bureaucrats and citizens. Vast federal agencies are becoming empires that spawn ever increasing regulations which are applied to their subjects in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Fellow Americans are being sent to prison for dumping clean dirt on dry land arbitrarily declared wetlands by federal bureaucrats. Property is being confiscated from farmers who inadvertently run over endangered rats that are too numerous to avoid. Whole communities, families and lives that depend on federal land are being destroyed.

It is the system

It is not that federal employees are evil as often accused. Rather such tyranny is in the very nature of federalism. The Latin root word for both federalism and feudalism is foedus or foedum, meaning strong central control. In such governments the controllers are unaccountable to the people whose lives and economic well being depend on them. They can and will become tyrants without realizing it.

A shocking study done by Yale research psychologist Dr. Stanley Milgram clearly showed that "…ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process."⁽³⁾ (Italics added) These conclusions were drawn from research designed to determine whether "normal" Americans would exceed personal moral limits of inflicting pain on others if they believed they were doing so under a higher authority, and for a good cause. Milgram and the psychology world were stunned when he found that,

"a majority of people would go to great lengths to comply with expert authority, despite the stress induced by the conflict between what they knew was right and what they were asked to do. Many obeyed the experimenter by inflicting great pain, regardless of the victim's agony and pleas for release from the experiment. Those who volunteered for the experiment were not sadists or cruel monsters recruited from the fringes of society. They were ordinary people drawn from the working, managerial, and professional classes."⁽⁴⁾

It should therefore come as no surprise that "normal" federal agents can practice tyranny on a daily basis without thinking of themselves as tyrants. Our Founding Fathers seemed to clearly understand this principle. Hence, the powers of the Federal government were severely limited within the Constitution. A republic was created by dividing the government into many levels so that no level or branch could overpower another. Likewise, each level of government was accountable to the people over whom they governed. The greatest powers were to reside at the lower levels (communities, counties and states). The least and most restrictive power was given to the federal government. These limitations were driven home in the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, "All powers not specifically delegated to the Congress of the United States by this Constitution, nor prohibited to the states by this Constitution, are reserved to the states or to the people." Jefferson called this the People's Law.

DANGERS OF THE "PUBLIC GOOD"

Although the Tenth Amendment seems clear enough, the incredibly powerful environmental lobby and others have pressured Congress to abandon Constitutional limitations of federal powers. Instead, federal jurisdictional authority now includes powers initially intended for the states and local governments. The justification for this usurpation is based on the so-called "general public good"as defined by majority rule. The public good, in turn, is heavily influenced by the environmental and other special interest lobbies. While this type of "public good" sounds democratic, James Madison calls it the tyranny of the majority,

In all cases where a majority are united by a common interest or passion, the rights of the minority are in danger."⁽⁵⁾ [emphasis added] "[A] pure democracy…can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of [the majority] …and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal securities or the right of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." ⁽⁶⁾

By itself a true democracy is nothing more than mob rule controlled by whoever has the most power and influence. Democracy can only work within a republic based upon the People's Law -- where laws are tailored and administered at the local level where there is accountability, not at the federal level. Yet, almost every solution proposed by the environmental lobby is structured around the feudal/ruler structure of governance where the federal government is supreme. As a consequence, Americans all across this nation have been experiencing a new type of feudal rule. Local citizens are under the jurisdiction of federal (sometimes state) agents who are only remotely accountable to them. Nonetheless, by having jurisdiction over development and land use, these unaccountable agents control the economic future of their local communities.

Although Americans can't put their finger on it, an increasing number know something is terribly wrong. They blame federal bureaucrats when, in fact, it is the system that is causing the abuse and unrest. Both federalism and feudalism inevitably lead to tyranny. It is worth noting that James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers,

"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."

To trust our freedom to the chance that our governors and regulators will be "good" is folly. Patrick Henry asserts,

"Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt."

Feudalism--The real cause of the growing unrest in America

Congress has delegated feudal power to our federal agents and the predictable tension and unrest has resulted. Fifty-two percent of our American citizens now say they are afraid of our federal government. The growing civil unrest that we are now witnessing throughout America is due to the growing tyranny resulting from a government that is no longer responsible to the individual people it governs. Congress must begin the healing that has to occur in America before the majority of its Citizens can once again say that they are not fearful of their federal government. And that cannot happen until state and local governments have control over the laws and regulations that affect their citizens -- as defined in the Constitution. Only then will the agents of law and enforcement be accountable to the people they govern.

References

1. Albert Ellery Bergh, Ed. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. 20 vols. (Washington: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association). 1907. 15:332

2. Adapted from Skousen, W. Cleon. The Making of America -- The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution. Washington DC, The National Center for Constitutional Studies. 1985. Pg 44.

3. Stanley Milgram. Obedience to Authority. New York: Harper Torchbooks. 1974. Also see, Zygumunt Bauman. Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 1989.

4. Robert G. Lee. Broken Trust Broken Land. Wilsonville, OR: BookPartners. 1994. Pp 27.

5. James Madison, Notes of debates of the Federal Constitution. (Bicentennial Edition), 1987. At 76.

6. James Madison, The Federalist Papers, 10.21-10.22.

For more information on this subject contact Environmental Perspectives (207) 945-9878 or the Maine Conservation Rights Institute at (207) 733-5593.

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Last Updated May 30, 1997 by Michael Coffman