Taking Rights Seriously
"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion,
Mankind would be no more justified
In silencing that one person,
Than he, if he had the power,
Would be justified in silencing mankind."
-- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
The world is filled with self-evident truths -- truisms -- that philosophers, lawyers and judges know need not be proven. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Two plus two equals four. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
These examples, of which there are many, are not true because we believe they're true. They are intrinsically true. Thus, they are true whether we accept their truthfulness or not. Of course, recognizing a universal truth acknowledges the existence of an order of things higher than government and discoverable by the exercise of reason.
The generation of Americans that fought the war of secession against England -- according to Professor Murray Rothbard, the last moral war Americans waged -- understood the existence of truisms and recognized their origin in nature.
The most famous of these recognitions were Thomas Jefferson's opening two sentences in the Declaration of Independence that self-evident truths come not from persons but from "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." Thus, "All Men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" is a truism. Jefferson could have appealed to the laws of Parliament, as he had done in previous writings. Instead, he appealed to the laws of nature and nature's creator.
Jefferson's neighbor and colleague, James Madison, understood this as well when he wrote the Bill of Rights so as to reflect that human rights do not come from the government. They come from our individual humanity. The Bill of Rights does not grant rights; it restrains the government from interfering with them.
Where do rights come from?
Your right life, to think as you wish, to say what you think, to publish what you say, to worship or not, to associate or not, to shake your fist in the tyrant's face by telling the government what you think, your right to defend yourself using and carrying the same weapons as the government does, your right to be left alone, to own property, to travel or to stay put -- these intrinsic aspects of human existence are natural rights that come from our humanity and for the exercise of which all rational persons yearn.
This is the natural rights understanding of Jefferson's Declaration and Madison's Bill of Rights, to the latter of which all in American government have sworn allegiance and deference.
A right is not a privilege. A right is an indefeasible and permanent personal claim against the whole world. It does not require a government permission slip. It does not require preconditions except the ability to reason. It does not require the approval of family or neighbors.
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