Article Image

IPFS News Link • Activism

Power 'From' the People!

• by Michael Boldin

The word "to" is the wrong word, by far. 

Under the system and principles of the founders and old revolutionaries, all power comes from the people.

They don't need to ask for it. They don't need to beg for it. And they don't need to demand they get it as a gift from government, or get it back at all.

They just need to take it.

George Mason put it this way in 1775:

"In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim—that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people. We should wear it as a breastplate, and buckle it on as our armour."

This view represented one of the most important principles of the American Revolution. That is, sovereignty—or supreme and final authority—is with the people, not the government.

James Otis, Jr kicked things off—"the beginning of the controversy" with his 1761 speech against the Writs of Assistance, where he forcefully made the case that "an act against the constitution is void."

If government holds final authority—they get to determine whether or not they violate their own constitution – and the constitution isn't supreme, the government is.


PirateBox.info