FROM THE ARCHIVES: LIBERTY, NOT EQUALITY:

God Bless America (Harry V. Jaffa, April 16, 2008, Claremont.org)

What exactly did these words, of both the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, mean? They meant that there was no difference, between one human being, and another human being, that made one the master and the other the servant. As Jefferson once put it, some men are not born with saddles on their backs, nor are others born booted and spurred to ride them. That a man or woman rides a horse corresponds with the difference in their natures. No injustice is done to the horse! That an ox should pull a plow, while a man walks behind, is according to nature. In these cases, servitude follows from the laws of nature. But these same laws of nature tell us that when a human being is subjected to other human beings as if he were a horse or an ox, the laws of nature are violated. All human beings are accordingly equal in their right not to be enslaved, and in their right to be in secure possession of their lives, liberties, and property. To this end they have a right to be governed only by laws to which they have consented.

That all men are created equal does not mean that human beings are the same, or equal, in size, strength, beauty, virtue, or intelligence. There are obviously great differences in individual aptitudes and talents in sports, music, mathematics, speaking, and writing. They are also unequal in the virtues, among them courage, temperance, and justice. But as Jefferson once said, the fact that Sir Isaac Newton may be the most intelligent of living human beings does not give him any right whatever to my person or my property.

If there is no natural authority of any human being over any other—leaving aside the temporary authority of parents over children—how does lawful authority arise? In the words of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, "The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals; it is a social compact by which the whole people covenants with each citizen and each citizen with the whole people that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good."

It cannot be too greatly emphasized that the political community is a voluntary association. In obeying the law, we are obeying ourselves. In obeying the law we seek to provide a greater security for the rights which we have from God and nature, but which rights we cannot provide for by ourselves alone. The "just powers of government" arise for no other purpose than the protection of those rights which are antecedent to government. Governments exist to protect these rights; the rights themselves do not come from government. In the protection of these rights, no citizen is entitled to greater, or to less protection, than any other. Here is the original meaning of the equal protection of the laws. No one is entitled to greater protection than any of his fellow citizens, because of his wealth, birth, or intelligence. Nor is any one entitled to exemption from taxation or from service in the common defense, because of any claim of superior personal worth.

Once the political community comes into being as a result of the unanimous consent of those who form it, this community must have a government capable of acting. It cannot, however, act by unanimous consent. Such government must, at first, be by majority rule. It must be understood, however, that the authority of the majority is bounded and limited by the purposes for which unanimous consent had originally been given. The majority represents the community in determining how the rights of everyone, minority no less than majority, are to be served. It is to spell out the boundaries of majority rule, and to assert the indefeasible rights of minorities, that constitutions are peculiarly necessary.

In the government of the political community, officers in all its branches will have lawful powers, by which they can give lawful orders. The president as commander-in-chief of the armed services has unique authority to command the use of force in the execution of the laws. We do not however suppose his person to be endowed with rights greater than those of anyone else. We the people have endowed him with powers necessary for our protection. The powers which he enjoys under the Constitution are for our benefit, not his. Thus civic or political inequality arises necessarily from original equality and is consistent with it.

A free society, so far as possible, has a level playing field. But within the human family, there is a great variety of talents, and of energy, and of ambition. Equality of opportunity leads necessarily to inequality of results. Equality of rights leads necessarily to inequality of wealth. A war against wealth is a denial of the equality of rights. James Madison, in the tenth Federalist, observed that there is a "diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate." The equal protection of unequal faculties of acquiring property is "the first object of government." As Abraham Lincoln wrote: "that some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise." It is the encouragement to industry and enterprise, arising from the recognition of human equality, which makes a free society more productive, with more wealth, more widely distributed, than any other form of human society.