“The policy of the American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits." - Jefferson
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others." - Jefferson (1)
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others." - Jefferson (1)
What is the legitimate function of government?
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
The Declaration of Independence, one of America's most significant founding documents, answers this question for us. The proper role of government is to protect the rights of its citizens. These rights include both natural and civil rights. Natural rights are those which pertain to all men equally, as a matter of their existence. No earthly authority or government confers these rights; they are innate. Furthermore, natural rights are inalienable, meaning that they cannot ever rightly be limited or repudiated.
Individuals also have civil rights. These are extensions of natural rights, and are provided to the citizenry by the government. Consider Thomas Paine, “We have now to consider the civil rights of man, and to show how the one originates from the [natural rights of man]. [...] His natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights.” (2)
The legitimate role of government is to provide the best possible protection for all these rights. As James Wilson wrote, "Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every government, which as not this in view, as its principal object, is not a government of the legitimate kind." (3) Governments were created precisely to eliminate a state of anarchy and chaos in which rights could be easily violated. People should have more and better protected rights under a government than they would without it. A government that fails to create this situation is at best derelict and at worst tyrannical.
Paine explained this expectation of government, saying, "Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, not to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured." (2) Thomas Jefferson agreed, “No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. …the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights.”
The Declaration of Independence gives several examples of natural rights; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Others, such as freedom of speech and religion, are enshrined in the Bill of Rights. A list of natural rights, along with definitions and historical commentary, can be found here.
"A wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." - Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
What is not a legitimate function of government?
1.To make citizens happy
"The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves." - William Ellery Channing, Christian Examiner, September/October, 1827
"It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy. - Government has no such office. To protect the weak and the minority from the impositions of the strong and the majority - to prevent any one from working positively to render the people unhappy... to do the labor not of an officious inter-meddler in the affairs of men, but of a prudent watchman who prevents outrage - these are rather the proper duties of a government." - Walt Whitman, editorial in the Brooklyn Eagle, April 4, 1846
2. To provide for citizen's daily needs (except some basic security issues)
" The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." - James Madison, speech in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1794
"All communities are apt to look to government for too much... The framers of our excellent Constitution... wisely judged that the less government interferes with private pursuits the better for the general prosperity." - Martin Van Buren, message to special session of Congress, September 4, 1837
"It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy. - Government has no such office. To protect the weak and the minority from the impositions of the strong and the majority - to prevent any one from working positively to render the people unhappy... to do the labor not of an officious inter-meddler in the affairs of men, but of a prudent watchman who prevents outrage - these are rather the proper duties of a government." - Walt Whitman, editorial in the Brooklyn Eagle, April 4, 1846
"The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their Government its functions do not include the support of the people." - Grover Cleveland, second inaugural address, March 4, 1893
"The business of government is not directly to make the people rich, but to protect them in making themselves rich; and a government which attempts more than this is precisely the government which is likely to perform less. Governments do not and cannot support the people." - Lord Macaulay, speech on parliamentary reform, March 2, 1831.
"The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves." - William Ellery Channing, Christian Examiner, September/October, 1827
"It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy. - Government has no such office. To protect the weak and the minority from the impositions of the strong and the majority - to prevent any one from working positively to render the people unhappy... to do the labor not of an officious inter-meddler in the affairs of men, but of a prudent watchman who prevents outrage - these are rather the proper duties of a government." - Walt Whitman, editorial in the Brooklyn Eagle, April 4, 1846
2. To provide for citizen's daily needs (except some basic security issues)
" The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." - James Madison, speech in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1794
"All communities are apt to look to government for too much... The framers of our excellent Constitution... wisely judged that the less government interferes with private pursuits the better for the general prosperity." - Martin Van Buren, message to special session of Congress, September 4, 1837
"It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy. - Government has no such office. To protect the weak and the minority from the impositions of the strong and the majority - to prevent any one from working positively to render the people unhappy... to do the labor not of an officious inter-meddler in the affairs of men, but of a prudent watchman who prevents outrage - these are rather the proper duties of a government." - Walt Whitman, editorial in the Brooklyn Eagle, April 4, 1846
"The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their Government its functions do not include the support of the people." - Grover Cleveland, second inaugural address, March 4, 1893
"The business of government is not directly to make the people rich, but to protect them in making themselves rich; and a government which attempts more than this is precisely the government which is likely to perform less. Governments do not and cannot support the people." - Lord Macaulay, speech on parliamentary reform, March 2, 1831.
3. To protect citizens from themselves
"Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practiced by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny." - Blackstone Commentaries (found here)
Citations
1. Notes on Virginia, 1782. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, ME 2:221
2. Thomas Paine, “The Rights of Man”, December 23, 1776. From Common Sense, the Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Penguin Books, 1984, pg. 151.
3. Lectures on Laws, 1791.
2. Thomas Paine, “The Rights of Man”, December 23, 1776. From Common Sense, the Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Penguin Books, 1984, pg. 151.
3. Lectures on Laws, 1791.
