Issue 11.17
Part 1
I recently was introduced to a series of articles that I consider important and well-written. I am sharing the first part of one them here today with full attribution to Eylar Robert Coates, Sr. as the author. I also include a link to his website at the end.
Natural rights are those rights that are indispensably necessary for man to fulfill his potential on this earth. They are “natural” because they derive from the nature of man and the nature of existence itself. As explained by Thomas Paine,
“Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others.” –Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791.
Natural rights are, in other words, the conditions that are necessary for a nation of people to realize their birthright. They were postulated in the Declaration of Independence as the foundation of man’s existence upon which rightful government is built, and on which such a government must therefore be designed to accommodate.
“The principles on which we engaged, of which the charter of our independence is the record, were sanctioned by the laws of our being, and we but obeyed them in pursuing undeviatingly the course they called for. It issued finally in that inestimable state of freedom which alone can ensure to man the enjoyment of his equal rights.” –Thomas Jefferson to Georgetown Republicans, 1809.
Therefore, the Natural Rights upon which this government is founded are not and were not thought to be a set of abstract theories, but rather a reasoned structure based on the observation of natural man in a natural universe. It was, perhaps, as ‘scientific’ as philosophy gets, relying as it did for its axioms on observable nature and its requirements, not on abstract ideals of what is the highest good. These foundational rights were identified in the Declaration of Independence in these immortal words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Declaration of Independence thus listed these rights as the first premise in an argument setting forth the rights of a people to a government that allowed them to live as human beings should live. This means a government that recognizes that the full development of human nature can only occur in a state of freedom enjoyed by all men equally. The very purpose of government was the protection of these rights.
“It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all.” –Thomas Jefferson to M. D’Ivernois, 1795.
Therefore, it must be recognized that these rights are not given by governments nor by magistrates nor by any other body of men.
“A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.” –Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774.
To be continued… the website is http://eyler.freeservers.com/JeffPers/jefpcont.htm
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.