The Principles Of Liberty (from the 5000 Yr. Leap: C.W. Skousen)

Source: Over 150 volumes of the Founding Fathers' writings

• The only reliable basis of sound government and just human relations is natural law.
• A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.
• The most promising method of securing a virtous and morally stable people is to elect virtous leaders.
• Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maitained.
• All things are created by God, therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.
• All men are created equal.
• The proper role of government is to protect equal rights and not provide equal things.
• Men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. 
• To protect man's rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.
• The God-given right to govern is vested in the soverign authority of the whole people.
• The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.
• The United States of American shall be a Republic.
• A constitution should be structred to permanently protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.
• Life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure.
• The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and a minimum of government regulations.
• The government should be seperated into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial.
• A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent abuse of power.
• The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.
• Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained in the people.
• Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.
• Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedon.
• A free people should be governed by law not by the whims of men.
• A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.
• A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
• "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations: entangling alliances with none."
• The core unit which determines the stregnth of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.
• The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.
• The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.