Individual Rights Or Community Rights?

The Founders of our nation argued strongly for individual rights. By that, they meant the right of each person to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They believed that the sum of many people having such personal liberty would ultimately create strong communities. In other words, strong individual rights translated into vibrant communities and a prosperous nation.

In the 1830s, one generation after the Washington presidency, the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville visited the U.S. and observed the thriving voluntary organizations founded in city after city to improve the quality of life. The “safety net” of the 1800s was stretched out by concerned citizens in the cities of America who cared for the mentally ill, the elderly, stray dogs, and so on.

In this environment, government was small and, as President Thomas Jefferson observed, “It may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask, ‘What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a tax gatherer of the United States?’” Very few Americans did see tax collectors, but even so, that small revenue collected from tariffs and whiskey taxes paid off the national debt completely in the 1830s. Americans were showing the world that freedom works; and when the slaves were freed in the next generation, Americans showed themselves willing to practice more thoroughly what we were preaching in our Founding documents.

The big change in national attitude began in the Progressive Era with the idea that the federal government needed to be enlarged to protect community rights that were being threatened by the selfish use of individual rights by rich Americans. Theodore Roosevelt gave voice to this idea in 1910 when he announced that “every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.”

Who would determine what the “public welfare” was? Progressives believed then and now that politicians, especially progressive politicians, and educated experts can objectively decipher “the public welfare.” The individual right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness had to be reigned in, new taxes had to be collected, and government planning had to take place.


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The Importance of Real Equality

The subject of “equality” is the source of much political debate these days. Ever since the founding era, free-market thinkers have argued for equality of opportunity in the economic order. Equality, in other words, is a framework, not a result. In modern terms the goal is a level playing field. Government should be a referee that enforces property rights, laws, and contracts equally for all individuals.

What the free-market view means in policy terms is no (or few) tariffs for business, no subsidies for farmers, and no racism written into law. Also, successful businessmen will not be subject to special taxes or the seizure of property.

In America this view of equality is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence (“all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights”) and the Constitution (“imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States” and “equal protection of the laws”).

Much of America’s first century as a nation was devoted to ending slavery, extending voting rights, and securing property and inheritance rights for women–fulfilling the Founders’ goal of equal opportunity for all citizens.


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The Miracle Of The United States – The Hope Of The World

The founders of the United States shared a common vision of freedom for the people of all nations. This was a frequent subject in their writings as the pursued their objective of creating the world’s first truly free nation in which all people would prosper and live in peace. The Founding Fathers envisioned their new republic as a model for the rest of the world.

More than a decade before participating in writing the Declaration of Independence, John Adams recorded his vision of hope blossoming in the colonies in his diary on February 21, 1765:
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder– as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”

In the same vein, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 14:


“Happily for America, happily, we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of governments which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate.”

Thomas Jefferson seemed to be constantly searching the world for innovative principles which would improve the well-being of not only his fellow Virginian and united colonists but also the people of other nations. On March 6, 1801, President Jefferson wrote to his old friend, John Dickinson:

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