IAP's 15 Principles of Proper Government

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15 Principles of Liberty as well as both Proper and 'Good' Government  

( -  for a more detailed and 'Full Text' Version, see below - )

We declare that these 15 principles must not be compromised by Independent Americans who desire to maintain a Constitutional Republic in the United States of America.

Principles of proper government and of the National Independent American Party 

(Revised by National Committee on 17 July 1999). 

The IAP honors H. Verlan Andersen (1914-1992) as the author of these 15 principles, which he wrote and distilled from the talk by Ezra Taft Benson entitled ‘The Proper Role of Government’ is published  and held by the IAP with his expressed permission before his death.

Principle 1

We believe that no people can maintain freedom unless their political institutions are founded upon faith in God and belief in the existence of moral law.

Principle 2

We believe that God has endowed men with certain unalienable rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and that no legislature and no majority, however great, may morally limit or destroy these; that the sole function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property.

Principle 3

We believe that the Constitution of the United States was prepared and adopted by men acting under inspiration from Almighty God; that it is a solemn compact between the peoples of the States of this nation which all officers of government are under duty to obey; that the eternal moral laws expressed therein must be adhered to or individual liberty will perish.

Principle 4

We believe it a violation of the Constitution for government to deprive the individual of either life, liberty, or property except for these purposes: ​ 

- Punish crime and provide administration of justice;  

- Protect the right and control of private property;  

- Wage defensive war and provide for the nation’s defense;

- Compel each one who enjoys the protection of government to bear his fair share of the burden of performing the above functions.    

Government may deprive one of life, liberty and/or property ONLY as punishment to ensure the life, liberty, and property of others.   

Principle 5

We hold that the Constitution denies government the power to take from the individual either his life, liberty, or property except in accordance with moral law; that the same moral law which governs the actions of men when acting alone is also applicable when they act in concert with others; that no citizen or group of citizens has any right to direct their agent, the government, to perform any act which would be evil or offensive to the conscience if that citizen were performing the act himself outside the framework of government.

Principle 6

We are hereby resolved that under no circumstances shall the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights be infringed.  In particular we are opposed to any attempt on the part of the Federal Government to deny the people their right to bear arms, to worship and pray when and where they choose, or to own and control property.

Principle 7

We consider ourselves at war with the enemy of our God-given liberties regardless of the enemy’s manifestation, such as international Communism which is committed to the destruction of our (original) government, our right of property, and our freedom; that it is treason as defined by the Constitution to give aid and comfort to this or any such implacable enemy.

Principle 8

We are unalterably opposed to Socialism, either in whole or in part, and regard it as an unconstitutional usurpation of power and a denial of the right of private property for government to own or operate the means of producing and distributing goods and services in competition with private enterprise, or to regiment owners in the legitimate use of private property, especially through the use of public taxes.

Principle 9

We maintain that every person who enjoys the protection of his life, liberty, and property should bear his fair share of the cost of government in providing that protection; that the elementary principles of justice set forth in the Constitution demand that all taxes imposed be uniform throughout the nation and that any tax imposed on persons within our borders be at the same impartial rate.

Principle 10

We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of the Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into such money without loss.  We regard it as a flagrant violation of the explicit provisions of the Constitution for the Federal Government to make it a criminal offense to use gold or silver coin as legal tender or to issue irredeemable paper money.

Principle 11

We believe that each state is sovereign in performing those functions reserved to it by the Constitution and it is destructive of our federal system and the right of self-government guaranteed under the Constitution for the Federal Government to regulate or control the States in performing their functions or to engage in performing such functions itself.

Principle 12 

We consider it a violation of the Constitution for the Federal Government to levy taxes for the support of state or local government; that no state or local government can accept funds from the Federal and remain independent in performing its functions, nor can the citizens exercise their rights of self-government under such conditions.

Principle 13

We deem it a violation of the right of private property guaranteed under the Constitution for the Federal Government to forcibly deprive the citizens of this nation of their property through taxation or otherwise and make a gift thereof to foreign governments or their citizens.

Principle 14

We believe that no treaty or agreement with other countries should deprive our citizens of rights guaranteed them by the Constitution.

Principle 15 

We consider it a direct violation of the obligation imposed upon it by the Constitution for the Federal Government to dismantle or weaken our military establishment below that point required for the protection of the States against invasion, or to surrender or commit our men, arms, or money to the control of foreign or world organizations or governments. 

We declare that these 15 principles must not be compromised by Independent Americans who desire to maintain a Constitutional Republic in the United States of America.

Principles of proper government and of the National Independent American Party (Revised by National Committee on 17 July 1999). 

The IAP honors H. Verlan Andersen (1914-1992) as the author of these 15 principles, which he wote and distilled from the talk by Ezra Taft Benson entitled ‘The Proper Role of Government’ is published and held by the IAP with his expressed permission before his death.

PRINCIPLE ONE

We believe that no people can maintain freedom unless their political institutions are founded upon faith in God and belief in the existence of moral law.

We must acknowledge the existence of moral law as the first principle in understanding the proper role of government. Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Before governments, we had rights we created governments to ensure that these rights were protected.  Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson stated:

"Rights are either God-given as part of the Divine Plan, or they are granted by government as part of the political plan.  Reason, necessity, tradition and religious conventions all lead me to accept the divine origin of these rights.  If we accept the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the corollary that they can de denied by government."                       -  The Proper Role of Government

ON LAW AND RIGHTS

   "True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions ... And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will fe valid for all nations and all times and there will be one master and ruler, that is God, over us all, for he is author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge."     --  Cicero (106-43 BCE), De Republicai

     "The principal aim of society is to protect individuals, in the enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature; but which could not be preserved, in peace, without that mutual assistance, and intercourse, which is gained by the institution of friendly and social communities.  Hence it follows, that the first and primary end of human laws, is to maintain and regulate these absolute rights of individuals"  --  William Blackstone.

In 1764, Massac as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the rights of others. Massachusetts patriot James Otis defined Natural Law as "the rules of moral conduct implanted by nature in the human mind, forming the proper basis for and being superior to all written laws; the will of God revealed to man through his conscience."  (Annals of America, 2:11)

     "Natural rights are those which always 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 rights of others.  Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society.  Every civil right has for its foundation some natural right pre-existing in the individual, but to which his individual power is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent.  Of this kind are all these which relate to security and protection."  -- Thomas Pain, Rights of Man

     "Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."   -- George Washington, in his farewell address

     "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?  That they are not be violated but with His wrath?"   --  Thomas Jefferson

      "Liberty must at all hazards be supported.  We have a right to it, derived from our Maker.  But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease their estates, their pleasure, and their blood."   --   John Adams,  A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765

As one delves into the beauty and horror of history, one sees a people and a time-period that God honored, because they honored Him, and believed in a better life for their posterity - that's us !  When speaking of freedom, and the creation of a Union which would perpetuate moral law, Revolutionary history is replete with quotes to this affirmative.

EXAMPLES OF 1776 PATRIOT'S PRINTED AND SPOKEN WORDS/EXAMPLES

A belief in God's might, majesty, power and dominion inspired the great Patriots of the American Revolution.  Removing God and His moral law from America, is the very definition of 'Un-American.'

      "We have proclaimed to the world our determination to die freemen, rather than to live as slaves.  We have appealed to Heaven for the justice of our cause, and in Heaven we have placed our trust.  Numerous have been the manifestations of God's providence in sustaining us.  In the gloomy period of adversity, we have had our cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.  We have been reduced to distress, and the arm of Omnipotence has raised us up.  Let us still rely in humble confidence on Him who is mighty to save.  Good tidings will soon arrive.  We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection."  --  Samuel Adams, 1777,  Father of the American Revolution

     "Man as a creature must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator.  This will of his maker is called the Law of Nature.  No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this."   --  Sir William Blackstone

     "... in France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching opposite directions.  But in America I found they were intimately united  ...  [the early American colonists] brought with them into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion.  This contributed powerfully tot he establishment of republic and a democracy in public affairs; and from the beginning, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved."   --  Alexis De Tocqueville, 1831 (Democracy in America)

      "We should always remember that the many remarkable means and events by which our wants have been supplied, and our enemies repelled our restrained are such strong and striking proofs of the interposition of heaven.  That our having been delivered from the threatened bondage of Britain aught, like the emancipation of the Jews from Egyptian servitude, be forever ascribed to its true cause.  And instead of swelling our breasts with arrogant ideas of our power and importance, kindle in them a flame of gratitude and piety, which may consume all remains of vice and irreligion.  Blessed be God!"   --  Founding Father John Jay, First Chief Justice

Principle 8 & 9 in Cleon Skousen's "5000 Year-Leap" reads:  "Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights." & "To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law."  respectively.

      "The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to found only in the Holy Scripture. When offered 'great personal rewards for making peace with your king ...' Samuel Adams response was 'Sir, I trust that I have long since made my peace with the King of Kings.'"

 PRINCIPLE TWO

We believe that God has endowed men with certain unalienable rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and that no legislature and no majority, however great, may morally limit or destroy these; that the sole function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property and anything more than this is usurpation and oppression.

   "Rights are either God-given as part of the Divine Plan, or they are granted by government as part of the political plan.  Reason, necessity, tradition and religious convictions all lead me to accept the divine origin of these rights.  If we accept the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the corollary that they can de denied by government."   -  The Proper Role of Government

  "Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws.  On the contrary, it was the act that life, liberty and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place."   --  Frederick Bastiat, 1850, The Law

God has given men freedoms that government should protect NOT infringe upon.

Destruction of individual rights in the name of security and welfare is breach of the government's contract with 'the people,' yet this happens regularly by our current Federal Government.  In George Washington's day as President there were 350 employees of the Federal Government serving about 3 million people, with one person serving 8,600 people (one person serves 107 people today).

By today's standards Washington should have added 27,650 more federal employees to his 350.  These figures are atrocious, as are the 650+ official Federal Government Agencies in existence.

Government cannot create  wealth!

Our national debt is beyond recoverable, yet government agents continue to borrow against our children's and grandchildren's future.  Today a child born in this country has $500,000 in taxes that they will never get a benefit from.  This is immoral, and the Founders waned against it.

     "I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."   --  Thomas Jefferson

     "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."  --Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kercheval

      "The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pocket to pay for it, would make of our country on of the happiest upon earth.  Experience during the war proved this; as I think every man will remember that under all the privations it obliged him to submit to during that period he slept sounder, and asked happier than he can do now."   --  Thomas Jefferson, letter to Alexander Donald, July 28, 1787  --  The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P Boyd, vol. 11, p. 633 (1955).

     "But what madness must it be to run in debt for these superfluities?  We are offered by the terms of this sale, six months' credit; and that, perhaps, has induced some of us to attend it, because we cannot spare the ready money, and hope now to be fine without it.  But, ah, thin k what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.  If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will make poor, sneaking excuses, and, by degrees, come to lose your veracity, and sink into base, downright lying; for the s3cond vice is lying, the first is running in debt."     --   The Works of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Jared Sparks, Vol. 2 (Boston 1836), p. 92-103

We must continue to demand a free-market economy with a minimum set of government regulations.

      "We should avoid ... the depreciation of our currency; but I conceive this end would be answered, as far as might be necessary, by stipulating that all our money should be made in gold and silver, being the common medium of commerce among nations."   --   George Washington

     "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies; and that th3 principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.  Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy tha has et the government at defiance.  If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by delation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.  The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."  --  Thomas Jefferson

      "We are overdone with banking institutions, which have banished the precious metals and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, ... These have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness ... [These] are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied."   Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Bergh, 12:337-38

GPRINCIPLE THREE

We believe that the Consitution of the United States was prepared and adopted oby men acting under inspiration from Almighty God; that it is a solemn compact beween the peoples of the States of this nation which all officers of government are under duty to obey; that the eternal moral laws expressed therein must be adhered to or individual liberty will perish.

Our Constitution is the product of righteous men's deliberations, and is a compact between the governors and the governed which must not be breached.

In a speech recorded by James Madison, Benjamin Franklin said tothe Constitutional Convention on June 28, `1787:(as well a letter sent to the Convention Chair, George Washington, also dated Jen 28, 1787)

      "The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendnce & continual reasonings with each other  --  our different sentiments on almost every qustion, several of the last producing as many noes as  yeas, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanormed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist.  And we have viewed ding.  We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in earch of it.  We have gone back to ancient history for models of Government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been fModern States all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

      "In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when present3d to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Fayher of lights to illuminate our undertandings?  In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.  Our prayers, Sir, were heard & they were graciously answer3d.  All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our favor.  To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that5 powerful friend?  Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?

     "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proof I see of this truth that God verns in the affairs of men.  and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?  We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.'  I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; out projects will be confounded, and we outselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.  And what is worse, mankind may hereater from this unfortunate instance, despir of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

    "I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service."

[Note; This practice is still being practiced in the House of Representatives to this day.]

Former Prime Minister of Britain, William Gladstone, regarding the American Republic as one of humanit's supreme achievements, describing the U.S. Constitution as being "the most wonderful work ever stuck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of men."  

     "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.  But the constitution which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all (including our government).  They very idea of the power and the right of people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government."--  George Washington in his farewell address.

      "In lawful governments the designation of the persons who are to bear rule being as natural and necessary a part as the form of the government itself, and that which had its establishment originally from the people - the anarchy being much alike, to have no form of government at all, or to agree that it shall be monarchical, yet appoint no way to desire the person that shall have the power and be the monarch - all commonwealths, therefore, the form of government established, have rules also of appointing and conveying the right to those who are to have any share in the public authority; and whoever gets into the exercise of any part of the power by other ways than what the laws of the community have prescribed hath no right to be obeyed, though the form of the commonwealth be still preserved, since he is not the person the laws have appointed, and, consequently, not the person the people have consented to.  Nor can such an usurper, or any deriving from him, ever have a title till the people are both at liberty to consent, and have actually consented, to allow and confirm in him the power he hath till then usurped."   -   John Locke, Two Treatises on Government (1680-1690), Book 2, Chapter 17, section 198

     "The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasoning on this subject; and to have viewed these different establishments, not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each other.  These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error.  They must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone ..."   --   James Madison, Federalist Papers, No 46, p. 264

Today's "the people" are expected to adhere to laws which spring from government, in keeping their end of the contract.  Yet, law-makers have repeatedly violated their own laws (the Constitution) with impunity.  Executive orders, administrative law, and judicial law are NOT valid under our Constitution, and as mentioned by Thomas Jefferson in the following two citations:

     "Whenever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are  unauthoritative, void, and of no force."  (1798)

     "Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people.  They fix, too, for the people the principles of their political creed."   (1802)

PRINCIPLE FOUR

We believe it a violation of the Constitution for government to deprive the individual of either life, liberty or property ecept for these purposes:

1) Punish crime and provide administration of justice;

2) Protect the right and control of private property;

3) Wage defensive war and provide for the nation's defense;

4) Compel each one who enjoys the protection of government to bear his fair shale of the burden of performing the above functions.

Government may deprive one of life, liberty, and/or property ONLY as punishment to ensure the life, liberty and property of others.

       "Do I an individual have a right to use force upon my neighbor to accomplish a goal?  If I do have such a right (to defend one's self), then I may delegate that power to my government to exercise on my behalf.  If I do no have that right (take one's property) as an individual, then I cannot delegate it to government, and I cannot ask my government to perform the act for me."    --  Ezra Taft Benson,  The Proper Role of Government

As in the nature of addiction, poor choices lead to a restriction of freedom.  Likewise, a man cannot expect to be free when in violation of others' rights of life, liberty, and property.  Punishments for crime and out Nation's defense are protections levied by just laws which insure these freedoms for all.

PRINCIPLE FIVE

We hold that the Constitution denies government the power to take from the individual either his life, liberty or property except in accordance with moral law; that the same moral law which governs the actions of men when acting alone is also applicable when they act in concert with others; that no citizen or group of citizens has any right to direct their agent, the government, to perform any act which would be evil or offensive to the conscience if that citizen were performing the act himself outside the framework of government.

Government cannot deprive one of life, liberty and property, just as an individual cannot.

       "... a government is nothing more or less than a relatively small group of citizens who have been hired, in a sense, by the rest of us to perform certain functions and discharge certain responsibilities which have been authorized.

      "It stands to reason that the government itself has no innate power or privilege to do anything.  Its only source of authority and power is from the people who have created it."             --   Ezra Taft Benson,  The Proper Role of Government

      "If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.     --   James Madison  (The Federalist, No. 51)

     The proper function of government is limited only to those spheres of activity within which the individual citizen has the right to act.  By deriving its just powers form the governed, government become primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft and involuntary servitude.  It cannot claim the power to redistribute the wealth or force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will.  Government is created by man.  No man possesses such power to delegate.  The creature cannot exceed the creator."    --    Ezra Taft Benson,  The Proper Role of Government

     "Assume, for example, that we were farmers, and that we received a letter from the government telling us that we were going to get a thousand dollars this year for ploughed up acreage.  But rather than normal method of collection, we were to take this letter and collect $69.71 from Bill Brown, at such an address, and $82.47 from Henry Jones, $59.80 from a Bill Smith, and so on down the line; that these men would make up our farm subsidy. Neither you nor I; Nor would 99 percent of the farmers, walk up and ring a man's doorbell, hold out a hand and say, 'Give me what You've earned even though I have not..'  We simply wouldn't do it because we would be facing directly the violation of moral law 'Thou shalt not steal.'  In short, we would be held accountable for our actions."   --   James R. Evans,  The Glorious Quest

       "How is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply.  See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.  See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime ... "                  --  Frederick Bastiat,  The Law,  p. 26

As quoted by George Washington, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence it is force!  Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master!"  Yet convlict arises when moral laws conflict with governmental laws.  Thomas Jefferson sheds light on this dilemma by saying,  "Whenever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."

      "How is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply.  See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.  See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime ... "                  --  Frederick Bastiat,  The Law,  p. 26aR

As quoted by George Washington,  "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force!  Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master!"  Yet conflict arises when moral law conflicts with governmental laws.  Thomas Jefferson shed light on the dilemma by saying,  "Whenever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."

In his forward to Frederick Bastiat's 1850 masterpiece, The Law, Sheldon Richman explains further:

      "A society based on a proper conception of law would be orderly and prosperous.  But unfortunately, some will choose plunder over production if the former requires less effort than the latter.  A grave danger arises when the class of people who make the law (legislation) turns to plunder.  The result Bastiat writes, is 'lawful plunder.'  At first, only the small group of lawmakers practice legal plunder.  But that may set in motion a process in which the plundered classes, rather than seeking to abolish the perversion of law, instead strive to get in on it ... The result of generalized legal plunder is moral chaos, precisely because law and morality have been set at odds.  When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.

      "I dread nothing so much as the exercise of un-granted and doubtful powers by this Government.  It is, in my opinion, the danger of dangers to the future of this country.  Let us be sure that we keep it always within its limits.  If this great ambitious, ever-growing corporation becomes aggressive, who shall check it?  If it becomes wayward, who shall control it?  If it becomes unjust, who shall trust it?  As sentinels of the country's watchtower, I beseech you to watch and guard with sleepless dread that corporation which can make all property and rights, all states and people, and all liberty and hope, its playthings in an hour, and its victims forever."        --       Statesman Benjamin Hill of Georgia, 1878.

Members of the Independent American Party, along with other Americans, have been faced with these "cruel alternatives."  We choose to be aggressively involved in reform - an effort to bring this country back to the original intent of our Founding Fathers by persuading other Americans of the serious threat to our American Constitutional Republic.

These threats are not only upon principles to which our Country has been founded, but threats to the very essence of liberty as given to man by God.

PRINCIPLE SIX

We are hereby resolved  that under no circumstances shall the freedoms guanteed by the Bill of Rights be infringed. In particular we are opposed to any attempt on the part of the Federal Government to deny the people their right to bear arms, to worship and pray when and where they choose, or to own and control property.

 It is our resolve that government's slow progress to dismantling the Bill of Rights shall be reversed.  There  has been a slow, yet clear progression of government to do away with man our specific freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights.  Government has completed with private industry in obtaining and controlling land and property.

This is an egregious conflict of interest and is NOT the proper role of government.  Furthermore, government has attempted to pass lad which conflict with our Founder's original intent to slow the free exercis of the right to bear arms, to worship, and to be free of  random searches, seizues, and the collection of information about each individual.

Mainstream media along with Hollywood movies has supported these moves which have overtaken the American people in the name of protections and securities.  Much like our U.S. Constitution, either the Bill of rights means what it says or it doesn't mean anything at all.

         " Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should therefore be constituted by the ordinary rules of common sense.  Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtilties which make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure. On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed our of the text or invented against it conform tot he probable one in whih it was passed."      --    Thomas Jefferson

          "It would be a dangerous delusion, were a confidence in the man of our choice, to silence our fears for the safety of our rights. Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism.  Free government is founded in jealousy and not in confidence.  It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go.  In questions of power, then, let not more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."     --     Thomas Jefferson, the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Annals of America, 4:65-66

PRINCIPLE Seven

We consider ourselves at war with the enemy of our God-given liberties regardless of the enemy's manifestation, such as  international Communism which is committed to the destruction of our (original) government, our right of property, and our freedom; that it is treason as defined by the Constitution to give aid and comfort to this or any such implacable enemy.

Communism as defined by collectivism, socialism, Marxism, Leninism, and more commonly today as "progressivism," leads to at best slavery, leaving no room for individual freedom.

Former US Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, once related a conversation he had with the then First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953-1964), Nikita Khushchev:

       "... I have talked face to face with Godless Communist leaders.  I was hot to Mr. Khrushchev for a half-day when he visited the United States ... As we talked face to face he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism.  After assuring him that I expected to do all in mu power to assure that his and all other grandchildren would live under freedom he arrogantly declared in substance - 'You Americans are so gullible.  No, you won't accept communism outright but we'll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you finally wake up and find you already have communism.  We won't have to fight you.  We'll so weaken your economy until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands.'

     "We believe in a moral code.  Communism denies innate right or wrong.  As W. Cleon Skousen has said in his timely book, The Naked Communist: 'The communist has convinced himself that nothis is evil which answers the call of expedience.'  This is a most damnable doctrine.  People who truly accept such a philosophy have neither conscience nor honor.  Fore, trickery, lies, broken promises are wholly justified [under Communism]."

The position of the Independent American Party on the subject of Communism (or any of its cousin 'isms'), is that we consider it the greatest threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of freedom among men that exists on the face of the earth.

PRINCIPLE EIGHT

We are unalterably opposed to Socialism, either in whole or in part, and regard it as an unconstitutional usurpation of power and a denial of the right of private proeperty for govrnment to own or operate the means of producing and distributing good and services in competiton with privae enterprise, or to regiment owners in the legitimate use of private property, especially through the use of public taxes.

        "While the State exists, there can be no freedom.  When there is freedom there will be no State."  -  Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

1963 Statistics by Ezra Taft Benson:

       "I fear for the future when the Central Government now owns more than one-third of the land ar within the boundaries of the fifty states.

       "I fear for the future when the Cental Government owns and operates more than 3000 businesses and commercial activities in competiton with its own private tax-paying citizens.

       "I fear for the future whne I realize that the functions of the Federal Government are carried on by somoe 2000 major operating units.

       " Socialsm, with Communism, destroys private property and makes man production 'cogs in the machine' which is the State.

      " I fear for the future when the Federal Government directly lends $1 for every $5 loaned by private banks and that much of hte federal funds loaned are at rates below the cost of the money to the government.

      " I fear for the future when in 1913 a couple making $10,000, paid in federal taxes $60, but in 1956 a couple earning $10,000 paid $1,590 in federal income tax.

       " I fear for the future when I realize that twenty-five years ago the Federal Government received on-fourth of all taxes collected in the United States.  Today the Federal Government collects not only one-quarter but 68 percent of all our taxes.

       "I fear for the future when I realize that twenty-five years ago all taxes, federal, state and local, took 14 percent of our national income. Today taxes take 35 percent.

       "I fear for the future when I see our federal debt soar well above 300 billion dollars - over $7,000 per family of four - sixteen times the combined debt of the fifty states and at the sa"me time see no evidence that this dangerous trend will be curtailed.

        " I fear for the future when foreign governments have used and are using American tax money to pay for socialsim ...[and] an affluent but coomplacent citizenry is paying little or no attention to these and many other socialistic trends in America."

       "Socialism. ... is the theory and practice of coerciv collectivism. It is the evil fruit of greed for fother men's possessions and greed for control over other men's labor.  This greed for goods and power is as old as man and as widespread as the human race.  It goestt by many names, disguised in many forms, as men think up many excuses for robbing and ruling their fellows.

       "Socialist theory is a modern excuse, an elaborate rationalization for this greed and for the organized looting and despotism it seeks to achieve ... it holds out to mena the hope that they may reap where they have not sown. It teaches that man is the creature of his environment, and that he may be happy and good if he gets enough wealth, regardless of how or where. All that is needed, says the Socialist Tempter, is to bow down and worship the Socialist State, turning over to it authority and power take wealth where it find it and in direct labor as it wills. Just a little class hatred, a little lying propaganda, a little violence on the picket lines, a little suppression of adverse critics, and a few generations of sompulsory education in Socialistic thought, then surely we shallsee the bright new day of equality, peace, brotherhood, and freedom !  So says the Socialist."  -  Dr. V Orval Watts, noted political economist"

The first new state added to the Union  [after the War for Independence] was Ohio, admitted in 1803.  Ownership of the land was "priviatozed" immediately went on the tax rolls for the state.  This was followed in all of the new states east of the Mississippi as well as all new states in the Louisiana Purchase.

However, these provisions were ignored when the western states wer admitted to the Union.  The Federal Government unconstitutionally withheld vast sections of each state.  Today the government holds the following percentages of land in the following Western States:

           *      Arizona          45%

           *      California       45%

           *       Colorado       36%

           *       Idaho             64%

           *       Nevada          87%

           *       Oregon          52%

           *       Utah               66%

           *       Washington    28.6& 

PRINCIPLE NINE

We maintain that every person who enjoys the protection of his life, liberty, and property should bear his fair share of the cost of government in providing that protection; that the elementary principles of justice set forth in the Constitution demand that all taxes imposed be unofrm throughout the nation and that any tax imposed on persons within our borders be at the same impartial rate.

The U.S. Constitution states:

        "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, impost and excise [...] but all duties, imposts and excise shall"No be uniform throughout the United States"   -  Article 1, section 8, clause 1

         "Representatives and direct taxes shall be pportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers"   --  Article 1, section 2, clause 3

         "No capitation (tax per head), or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion in the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken"   --  Article 1, section 2, clause 3

The 16th Amendment adds to the welfare state, and should be immediately repealed, and the IRS absolved.  In essence, the Constitution grants to the Congress the power to impose taxes, but requires excise taxes to be geographically uniform, which means that taxes were NOT to benefit a specific group or geographical region.  Such taxes were deemed direct taxes.  All direct taxes were required to be apportioned among the states according to population.

For example: as of the 2000 Census, nearly 34 million people populated California (CA).  At the same time, the national population was 281.5 million people.  This gave CA a 12 perent share of the national prpulation, roughly.  Were Congress to impose a direct tax in order to raise $1 trillion before the next census, the taxpayers of CA would be required to fund 12 perent of the total amount ... $120 billion dollars.

Yet, unjustly, the 16th Amendment ratified in 1913, exempted income tax as a direct tax, hence the creation of the IRS and a tax that is proportional to one's income.

Such action violates Independent American Principle  2 by stealing from persons who create wealth the fruit of their labor and/or property.  The 16th Amendment forces wealth to be "redistributed," contributing to the welfare state.

The Independent American Party calls for the repeal of the 16th Amendment, and the abolishment of the IRS.

PRINCIPLE TEN

We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of teh Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into such money without loss.  We regard it as a flagrant violation of the explicit provisions of the Constitution for the Federal Government to make it a criminal offense to use gold or silver as legal tender or to issue irredeemable paper money.

In the Constitution it states that "Congress has the power to coin money, regulate and value thereof, and fix the standard of weights and measure" (Article 1, section 8).  It also states, Article 1, section 10, "No state shall coin money."

We hold the U.S. Constitution as sacred, and believe as Abraham Lincoln stated, "Let every man remember that to violate the law [or Constitution] is to trample on the blood of his fathers, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty."

First, it must be acknowledged that the "Constitution is not a suicide pact,"  as expressed by Abraham Lincoln describing the belief that constitutional restrictions on governmental power must give way to urgent practical needs.  that day is upon us.

Although not a "suicide pact,"  the Constitution is a pact (see Principle 13), since the original state's lawmakers carefully read and studied the document before deciding to ratify it.  When they did ratify it, it was only upon the inclusion of the Bill of Rights, or the first 10 amendments.  The 5th of these amendment reads that no-one presumed innocent shall "be deprived of life, liberty, or property ...", which is the issue at hand.

In addition, Alexander hamilton stated "... the laws of Congress are restricted to a certain sphere, and when they depart from this sphere, they are no longer supreme or binding (Alexander Hamilton, Elliot's Debates 2:362).  Simply, upon "viola[tion] of the Ckonstitution, the compact beween the rulers and the ruled is broken and the obligation ceases to be binding."  (John Taylor).

Still furthermore,  Article 1 Section 10, clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, reads:

       "No State shall ... make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ,,,"

Thomas Jefferson observed[loan money], but he who has money to leand."

       "No one has a natural right to the trade of money [loan money], but he who has money to lend."

2 Thessalonians 3:10 reads:

        "... this we commanded you,  that if anyu would not work, neither should he eat."

PRINCIPLE ELVEN

We believe that each state is sovereign in performing those functions reserved to it by the Constitution and it is destructive of our federal system and the right of self-government guaranteed under the Constitution for the Federal government to regulate or control the States in performing their funcitons or to engage in performing such functions itself.

The original intent of the Constitution is that the federal government is an agent of the states.  Hence in ratifying the Constitution each state had an opportunity to aprove or disprove of the document, which allowed the federal government to have ONLY its limited powers.

The Constitution, with its vital 10th Amendment, is not an insturment for the federal government to restrain the sttes, nor the federal or state governments to restrain the people.

Thomas Jefferson penned the Kentucky Resolutions, which states in part:

       "States are self-governing, and have the right to 'Nullify' Federal mandates.

       "[The] Constitution for the United Sates ... delegate[s] to that [Federal] Government certain definite powers, reserving each State to itslef, the residuary mass of right to t own self Government; and that whensoever the General [Federal] Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force ... the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not hte Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge of itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress."

The federal government was and is a joint action of the states in creating a compact among themselves, and cannot tell the states; with no room for diagreement or appeal, what their own Constitution means.  James Kilpatrick, working with Thomas Jefferson, put the question this way:

      "Are the alternatives two only: submission or arms?  Is the choice truly confined to an acceptance of tyranny on the one hand, or a resort to the sword on the other?  Every consideration of reason, common sense, and constitutional theory demonstrate that in a civilized and enlightened society, disputs are not to be  so resolved."

The only way a state can both remain in the Union and retain its liberties in the face of an unconstitutional act by the federal government is to declare the federal action null and void and refuse to enforce in - or in other words to nullify it !  A state's Nullification of ANY mandate by the federal government, including Obamacare, is apt and proper.

      "The State government will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority."     -   Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 28

The 10th Amendment reads:  "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people."

      "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.  Those which are to remain in the Stte governments are numerous and indefinite."   -   James Madison, Federalist Paper #45

Principle 19 of Cleon Skousen's "5000 Year Leap" states:

      "Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people."

PRINCIPLE TWELVE

We consider it a violation of the Constitution for the Federal Government to levy taxes for the support of state or local government; that no state or local government can accept funds from the Federal and remain independent in performing its functions, nor can the citizens exercise their rights of self-government under such conditions.

        "It is a firm principle that the smallest or lowest level that can possibly undertake the task is the one that should do so.  First, the community or the city.  If the city cannot handle it, then the county.  Next, the stte; and only if no smaller unit can possibly do the job should the federal government be considered.  This is merely the application to the field of politics of that wise and time-tested principle of never asking a larger group to do that which can be done by a smaller group.  And so far as government is concerned, the smaller the unit the closer it is to the people ..."   -   Ezra Taft Benson, The Proper Role of Governemnt

State and local area governments can solve their own problems, and should NOT accept federal dollars in their support since such conditions put these government in a position of dependency.  

      "The way to have good and safe government is no to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to do.  Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the state governments with the civil rights, law, police, and administration of what concerns the state generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself.  It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until is ends at the administration, until it ends in the administration of every man's farm by himself; by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.  What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government whihc has ever existed under the sun?  The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body."    --   Thomas Jefferson

Article 1, section 8, clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution states:

        "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and exercise; to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the U.S...."

The intent of the Constitution by the term 'general welfare' was NOT that Congress was to favor special interest groups or particular classes of people.  Quite the opposite, the term meant that there were to be NO privileged individuals or groups in society.  The word 'general' was intended to mean "the whole of society."

The original mandate of the federal government was to allow monies received from taxes to benefit America uniformly, meaning one group or geographical region would not benefit from tax collections over another group, state or region.  Yet after the adoption of the 16th Amendment, it was irresponsibly deemed that taxes could benefit "any good cause" (and what isn't a good cause?).

Since then, the goal of many vain politicians at the federal level has been to make a state or local area dependent on federal dollars through programs and monetary incentives (using both levied taxes AND the Federal Reserve, which creates money out of nothing!).  It has followed that within a certain time-period states and local areas become dependent on these funds, and cannot retract agreements made wit hte federal government without serious economic repercussions.

This dependency creates a 'quality of life' that states and local areas get sed to, and these dollars become "entitlements" which cannot be taken away, doing so would be extremely unpopular for a politician whose goal is to get re-elected.

A few verses in the book of Gensis gives statesand local governments great insight:

       "And the King of Sodom said unti abram ... take the goods to thyself.  And Abram (Abraham) said to the King of Sodom ... I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-lachet ... I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich. " (Genesis 14:21-230

       "How is it possible to cut out the various welfare-state features of our government which have already fastened themselves like cancer cells onto the body politic?  Isn't drastic surgery already necessary, and can it be performed without endangering the patient?  In answer, it is obvious that drastic measures are called for.  No half-way or compromise actions will suffice.  Like all surgery, it will not be without discomfort and perhaps even some scar tissue for a long time to come.  But it must be done if the patient is to be saved, and it can be done without unde risk."      --    Ezra Taft Benson,  The Proper role of Government

Principle 21 in Cleon Skousen's 5000 Year Leap states:

       "Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom."

PRINCIPLE THIRTEEN

We deem it a violation of the right of private property guaranteed under the Constitution for the Federal Government to forcibly deprive the citizens of this nation of their property through taxation or otherwise. and make a gift thereof to foreign governments or thier citizens.

        "How is this legal plunder to be identified?  Quite simply.  See if the law takes from soem persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.  See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime."   --  Frederick  Bastiat,  The Law,   p. 26

A plethora of tax collections are obtained through "legal plunder" as Frederick Bastiat call it.  American citizens should NOT be deprived of their property, especially as a gift to foreign governments or their citizens.  Today, our government is engaged in "Legal Plunder" as Bastiat coined, by taking monies from "the general welfare" to spend in the form of bailouts, Foreign Aid, entitlements, welfare, farm or business subsidies, state grants, aid to education, housing, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.

These "services" are not, and never have been, authorized constitutionally.  By doing these things the government is committing cosmic-size theft by taking from the "haves" and giving to the "have nots" irrespective of why the "have nots" have not!

Principle 25 in Cleon Skousen's 5000 Year Leap states:

      "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations  -  entangling alliances with none."    --   Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address

John Locke reasoned that God gave the earth and everything in it to the whole human family as a gift.  Therefore the land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer feeding in the meadow belong to everyone "in common."    However, the moment someone takes the trouble to change something form its original state of nalture, the person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change.  Herein lies the secret to the origin of "property ;rights."

PRINCIPLE FOURTEEN

We believe that no treaty or agreement with other countries should deprive our citizens of rights guaranteed them by the Constitution.

Relationships with other countries should NOT impose on American citizen's constitutional rights. 

      "It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it [would be] in the power of one, or anu number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, fromt he very natures of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defense of those very rights;  the principal of which ... are life, liberty, and property.  If man, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renunce or give up an essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation.  The right to freedom being the figt of God Almight, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a salve."         -         Samuel Adams

U.S. Constitution, Article VI, paragraph 2, states:

       "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land... "

The Laws are made in pursuance of the Constitution (Article 1, section 8, clause 18), and the treaties are made unde th authority of the United States (Article 2, section 2, paragraph 2).  Thus all authority to make Laws and Treaties is delegated from the Constitution.  Hence, the Constitution takes precedence over the Laws and the Treaties.

In Reid v Covert (October 1956) the Supreme Court made the ruling that  1) Treaties do no override the U..S. Constitution; 2) Treaties cannot amend the Consitution, and last, 3) A treaty can be nullified by a statute passed before the signing of any treaty.

Their opinion, in part stated:

       "There is nothing in this language whih intimates that treaties and laws enacted pursuant to them do no have to comply with  hte provisions of the Constitution.  Nor is thre anything in the debates which accompanied the drafting and ratification of the Constitution which even suggests such a result.  These debates as well as the history that surrounds the adoption of the treaty provision in Article VI make it clear that the reason treaties were not limited to those made in 'pursuance' of the Constitution was so tha agreements made by the United States under the Articles of Confederation, including the important peace treaties which concluded the revolutionary War, would remain in effect.  It would be manifestly contrary to the objectives of those who created the Constitution, as well as those were responsible for the Bill of Rights  -  let alone alien to our entire constitutional history and tradition  -  to construe Article VI as permitting the united states to exercise power under an international agreement without observing constitutional prohibitions.  In effect, such construction would permit amendment of the document in a manner not sanctioned by Article V.  The prohibitions of the Constitution were designed to apply to all branches of the National Government and they cannot be nullified by the Executive or by the Executive and the Senate combined.  

      "There is nothing new or unique about what we say here.  This Court has regularly and uniformly recognized the supremacy of the Constitution over a treaty."    -    Supreme Court Opinion

Regardless of the riding of the Supreme Court, this is the position of the Independent American Party.

Principle 22 of Cleon Skousen's 5000 Year Leap states:

       " A free people should be governed  by law and not by the whims of men."

PRIBCIPLE FIFTEEN

We consider it a direct violation of the obligation imposed upon it by the Constitution for the Federal Government to dismantle or weaken our military establishment below that point required for the protection of the States against invasion, or to surrender or commit our men, arms, or money to the control of foreign or would organization or governments.

Principle 25 in Cleon Skousen's 500 Year Leap states:

         "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations  -  entangling alliances with none."    -   Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.

Principle 24 in Cleon Skousen's 5000 Year Leap states:

       "A free people will not survive unless they stay [militaristically] strong."

        "among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention, that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard.  To be prepared for was is on the most effectual means of preserving peace."   -  George Washington

Principle 5 (of 8) of Hyrum L Andrus's "WAR AND SAINTS" states:

        "A peace-loving country should keep itself militarily strong in order to defend the lives and the freedoms of its citizens."

Of the six overriding principles in Sun Tzu's  "The Art of War,"  the first is:  "For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill.  To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

Our Federal Government's responsibility tot he American people is to keep our military strong and engaged only in Constitutional causes.

Although our capital, men, arms and money should never be committed to the control of foreign or world organizations or governments, it may be committed to the aid of a defenseless nation (for the purpose of defense, NOT control) according to Principle 7 of Hyrum Andrus's "War and Saints" which states:

        "Peace-loving individuals are justified in taking up arms for certain reasons [including] aiding a weak nation to defend itself against an aggressive power; when that weak nation has sought unsuccessfully to preserve peace and prevent conflict."

The Independent American Party believes that God never justifies a man or a nation in being an aggressor; yet He expects the righteous to defend their lives and liberties against those who would destroy them.