The Functional Libertarian
November 14, 2013
Our short series on some classic American patriots continues with a focus on John Adams. Fortunately, with the fairly recent publication of David McCullough’s book entitled “John Adams” (Touchstone, 2001), this somewhat crusty but likeable American is finally beginning to be recognized as the hero that he is.
Tragically, unlike many naturalized citizens who lived under totalitarian regimes, most Americans who were born here take our freedoms for granted. But to the Founding Fathers like John Adams, freedom and liberty were what our country was all about. And those are now slipping away from us because, as John Adam warned us: “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
Adams was so vocal about the necessity of independence from Great Britain that, although Lord Cornwallis was given authority by King Richard III to give pardons to some of the American rebels if and when their rebellion was put down, John Adams was not on that list. So it is quite likely that Adams would have been hanged for treason if the revolution had failed. He was that committed.
How many of us would have been like him?
It was John Adams who helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. And it was John Adams who had a large hand in writing the Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia, which defined and limited the power of government and the basic rights of the citizens. And this served as a model for our federal Constitution.
Generally the basis for John Adams’ beliefs was that “The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” And today with the power that has evolved to our country’s president, we are seeing John Adams’ fears realized.
What do you think that John Adams and his fellow patriots would have said about the recently-discovered PRISM program, in which the federal government has been gathering information about our telephone calls, including the length, to whom and how often? Or about drones flying overhead and surveilling our movements without a judicial warrant? Or about holding people we simply have labeled as terrorists at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for years without any charges having been filed against them, much less a trial?
In my view, John Adams would rail against such practices! Why aren’t we? Adams said that “Fear is the foundation of most governments.” And our government, with its so-called “war on terrorism,” has joined many “tin pot dictators” throughout history in continuing that dark tradition.
Realistically, there is no way that any society could keep random shootings like those that occurred in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado or, more recently, at Los Angeles International Airport from having occurred. We could arm the ticket-takers at all theaters and TSA agents at all airports, and even allow the police to randomly search people on the streets, and still this would not stop tragedies like these.
John Adams understood that there are risks in life that even governments cannot shield us from, and they should not be used as a means to cause unwarranted intrusions into our liberties. We should also understand that reality.
Finally, Adams sadly stated that “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” Our democracy, as we still try to call it, has lasted for more than 225 years. But now special interests have gained huge control over its functioning; way too many people, young and old, rich and poor, are demanding lots of “free stuff” from the government; and, in many ways, government workers have become a privileged class.
So is our great country now committing the suicide that John Adams foresaw? Or are we, like John Adams, willing to take risks to preserve our democratic republic from the encroachments upon our freedoms and liberties by our own government?
I think that patriots like John Adams and others like him would look at our present situation with shame and sorrow, and if they were still with us would rise up to reverse that trend. So let us make them proud of us by picking up that spirit and committing ourselves to the preservation of our liberties and freedoms, which are the very soul of our great country. We owe them, and ourselves, nothing less.
James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of “A Voter’s Handbook: Effective Solutions to America’s Problems” (The Forum Press, 2010), and the 2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President. Judge Gray can be contacted at [email protected].
Most libertarians don’t rank John Adams or TR among the better past US presidents. I’d be interested in seeing if Judge Gray would agree to a public debate on that issue.
Eric, sorry…I’d need some dots connected to understand the reference and its applicability here.
Long live Seth Warner and Daniel Morgan . . .
I think Ivan Eland’s rankings are pretty accurate: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130622132003AAmaqEr
See http://mises.org/Books/reassessingpresidency.pdf for a Libertarian perspective on the presidents.
There’s a table on p. 19 ranking the presidents based on the size of government and inflation.
Forgot about Harrison. You have a point.
In the 20th century, Harding was probably least bad.
I would say the best President in American history was William Henry Harrison. As President he did two things: give an inauguration speech, and die!
note: this is not an endorsement of his life prior to being elected.
If you want to go that far back, you’d be better off with John Tyler, Grover Cleveland or Martin Van Buren.
This is why I never look to the founding fathers as libertarian heroes. If you want a president the herald as a champion of liberty, you want Calvin Coolidge.
More about that at http://colonialseminar.uga.edu/whiskeyrebellion-6.pdf
Yes, Adams was a mixed bag. All of them were.
Washington was the only president to lead an army in the field while in office, and he did so for the purpose of suppressing internal revolt (it wasn’t just a tax thing — among the charges laid in support of the expedition were erecting “seditious poles,” i.e. Liberty Poles).
Jefferson had a number of individuals, including the vice president of the United States, held incommunicado by the US armed forces for an extended period before charge or trial (he didn’t have Gitmo to send them to, though).
And so on, and so forth.
I ended up narrowly concluding that, for whatever flaws, Johnson brought enough positive to the ticket to earn my vote for the top spot, but I would have felt less comfortable making such a decision if I didn’t get a separate vote for VP.
That’s why I voted Wrights for VP (and for our presidential nomination as well.
I don’t mind Gray. He’s not my optimal choice of a Libertarian but I would have no qualms voting for him if he was on a ballot I was to cast. I’d likely vote against him at a convention (as I did Johnson) but I’d still cast a vote for him.
Has there ever been any kind of survey conducted among official party members and registered Libertarians to get a feel for what “wing” of the party we all come from?
Per wikipedia, Adams was a mixed bag.
Good points: a leading advocate of American independence from Great Britain, a lifelong opponent of slavery.
Bad points: promoted…a strong central government, signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army and navy especially in the face of an undeclared naval war (called the “Quasi-War”) with France, 1798–1800.
There’s a lot more on both sides of the ledger in the wikipedia article.
Judge Gray is a libertarian, but a moderate one. I strongly disagree with some of the articles he has written, but if we are too quick on the draw to declare moderate libertarians to be non-libertarian it will be difficult to expand the movement or the party. There’s room for some differences. Would we rather have the Judge switch parties?
I’ve seen no evidence, at least yet, that he is strongly attached to one of the other parties, as with our 2008 ticket. However, I thought he had many of the same strengths and weaknesses as Gary Johnson, so I would have preferred a radical libertarian VP candidate to balance the ticket.
Adams left office when his term was over, as did Washington. The comparison with large numbers of later tyrants is actually quite positive. Also, the comment about blacks is totally wrong. Adams wrote the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, which with amendments is still in place. A series of lawsuits, e.g., Quock Walker, ended slavery in Massachusetts by 1783.
Free African Americans, which in Massachusetts was all of them, were allowed to vote.
However, Gray is no libertarian.
Ia Gray actually a libertarian?
Yeah, John Adams was very much not a Libertarian. I’m pretty sure he’d be fine with the PRISM program. He also wouldn’t support voting rights for women, blacks, or white males without property.
Jed Ziggler said: “It was John Adams who signed into law the Alien & Sedition Acts.”
I was just about to point out the same thing.
I call bullshit. It was John Adams who signed into law the Alien & Sedition Acts. John Adams was the enemy of liberty.