LibertyMinute December 30 2013

The Declaration of Independence asserts that individuals have an innate right to pursue happiness. Recognizing that right doesn?t impose a responsibility on others to provide the individual with happiness ? however it may be defined.

An early draft of the Declaration referred to the pursuit of ?property.? That phrase doesn?t refer merely to the acquisition of material wealth, but also the ownership of one?s life and the product of the exertion of his talents. For several decades after the American founding, this right was savagely denied to millions of people who were treated as the property of others.

The abolition of chattel slavery ? which was the only commendable outcome of a Civil War in which it was not the original objective ? was an unqualified blessing. However, that same Civil War set the precedent for a modified form of slavery called the Income Tax, in which the government ? following the example of ancient despotisms ? requires tribute from its subjects for the supposed privilege of living under its claimed jurisdiction.

We?ve reached a point where less than half of the population pays taxes, and the others are net tax consumers. A house thus divided against itself cannot stand.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.