Did the Founders Hate Government?

[malthaussen]

15. Which Founders?

There was a radical fringe who supported state's rights over central authority, just as there is now. It is false to assert that the Founding Fathers acted in all things with one voice.

I think the Bill of Rights makes one thing clear: that when it came to deciding between strengthening authority vs individual rights in the name of security, the plurality came down on the side of the individual. Things like habeus corpus, restrictions on search and seizure, even things like freedom to assemble and bear arms, all make the task of government and policing more difficult, as any cop will tell you. Our founders were not particularly stupid men, so one might reasonably expect that they knew this when then penned the laws. Ergo, one might conclude that they were chary of giving the coercive authority too much power. This is not to assert that they wished to give the coercive authority no power. The clique who pushed the Constitution through the State Assemblies and who wrote the Federalist papers clearly saw the need for a central power, and were willing to do some pretty underhanded things to get the Constitution approved (but that's another story). But some desired more central power than others -- which is why Jefferson proclaimed that his election was a "revolution," in the claim that he was not a big-government man. (Which was disingenuous, because he actually exceeded previous parameters of central authority... but that is also another story)

Tyranny was a big thing in the 18th century. Most educated men feared it from both directions -- the tyranny of the ignorant majority just as much as the tyranny of the greedy elite. Mind you, it is a fair question to wonder if they feared the latter tyranny largely because they feared they wouldn't be part of the ruling element. This leads into the "Outs and Ins" theory of the Revolution, however, and is perhaps not germane to the present question.

I sure do wish they taught this stuff in school these days.

-- Mal