Issue 13.17
Part 3
I recently was introduced to a series of articles that I consider important and well-written. This is the third and final part and is with full attribution to Eylar Robert Coates, Sr. as the author. I also include a link to his website at the end
Later liberal philosophers abandoned the Natural Rights philosophy, and began postulating a system of individual rights based on philosophical ideals. In doing this, however, two things happened: (1) These ideals lost their ‘scientific’ foundation, and rested on the shifting sand of abstract thought, and (2) Because the resulting philosophy of rights was no longer tied to rational observations on reality, it could wander far afield and become the captive of whatever intellectual fad was currently in vogue. This loss of a natural foundation introduced differences and uncertainties, and left the mass of the people themselves unsure of the source of their rights. Jefferson, on the other hand, thought it important that a people realize that their rights were an intrinsic part of their being, hence a natural entitlement.
“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?” –Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
Deriving these natural rights from the very fact of existence is the result of a purely rational process.
“Questions of natural right are triable by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man.” –Thomas Jefferson: Opinion, 1793.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he reached to the very foundation of man’s existence on this earth in order to construct an argument to explain why the colonists found it necessary to declare their independence from Great Britain. In doing so, he also established the moral and rational foundation for American society. Without question, the Declaration of Independence is the greatest political document in the history of man. Later expositions on human rights are more speculative in philosophical terms, and lack the integrated connection with existence itself that is the foundation of the Declaration.
It should be noted that in referring to God, this view of the foundations of government cannot be said to be derived from sectarian religious dogma. These rights are not the result or an arbitrary divine fiat, with no other evidence for their existence than faith and belief; rather, man as created by God obviously has these rights, and the evidence therefor flows from a reasonable assessment of existence. It is the nature of man as established by the Creator and the self evident truths derived from that fact that form the basis of this political philosophy. There is no religious belief involved, other than, perhaps, the acknowledgment of God as the Creator of the way things are. From that given, everything else is rationally “self-evident.”
“Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights.” –Thomas Jefferson to W. Johnson, 1823.
“Under the law of nature, all men are born free.” –Thomas Jefferson: Legal Argument, 1770.
The website link is http://eyler.freeservers.com/JeffPers/jefpcont.htm
I recommend this man’s writings and concepts to all who wish to study the foundation and thought of our founders and particularly Thomas Jefferson.
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.