Every Tennessee Public servant needs to be made aware of the contract that is our State Constitution. That document is a set of written hiring practices mutually agreed upon by the People in 1796. That document says who may apply to be elected, where they must live, how old they must be, and, what powers we allow them to exert, and the chains placed on them by the People they seek to work for.
Thomas Jefferson said that our original document was “The least imperfect, and most republican of the state constitutions”, not implying a political party, but a type of government. We are in fact a republic, not a democracy where the winds of whim can blow Liberty away at a change of direction…rather, we have a map, a guide which is written down for the ages. True, it can be amended, but it takes years and should be harder than it is to do so. However, there are basic principles as posted in our Declaration of Rights that are not up for discussion or removal from the People, they are in fact appointed by our Creator to each of us regardless of gender, creed, race or national origin and are taken away from politician’s grasp to control.
The preamble to our Constitution says it most clearly, that the People did “ordain and establish the following constitution, or form of government” making the words government and constitution co-equal, one and the same. And like the United States, our founders included a Declaration of Rights that they drew a wall of steel around when they said in Article 10 Section 4 of the original “The declaration of rights hereto annexed is declared to be a part of the constitution of this State, and shall never be violated on any pretence whatever. And to guard against transgressions of the high powers which we have delegated, we declare that everything in the bill of rights contained, and every other right not hereby delegated, is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate.”
They did not stutter in this proclamation; they were concise in their choice of words. The Founders had just lived through a war, a revolution on their part, where break violently away from tyranny to live as free moral agents on their own, explicitly enunciated standards of Freedom. They placed the power of government in the hands of the people, who would be held under its sway, but who are supposed to be in charge of it.
Section 26 of that Declaration stated that “That the free men of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defence.” Legislators are bound by their oath contained in the Constitution to not ”consent to any act or thing whatever that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge the People’s rights and privileges, as declared by the constitution of this State.” Yet a mere 5 years after the ratification by the People, in 1801 the General Assembly broke faith and made it a crime by statute to carry a firearm on their person. And in the intervening 222 years that infringement against the people is still on our books.
Time and again I hear from legislators, “You can’t expect to eat the whole apple in one bite” or “you don’t expect to score on every football play, let’s just move the ball down the field.” when challenged about restoring our God given right to arms. I ask them to show me anywhere in the constitution that the People are supposed to only enjoy just SOME of their rights…
I am reminded of the words of H.L. Mencken “The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.
Hold your elected employees accountable to their oath, make your voice heard.
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