To the editor:

Within the span of the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, the concept of man’s unalienable rights is established. However, the genius of the document lies as much in the assertion that such rights exist equally for all men, as in the affirmation that these rights come from the Creator — nature’s or Spinoza’s God — if one does not believe in the God of the Bible. Thus conceived, no government may be allowed to infringe upon our rights that it did not even birth in the first place.

A commonly held misconception is that our rights stem from the Bill of Rights — a set of enumerated rights that is not deemed to be comprehensive. Even if the Bill of Rights were comprehensive, they would be merely parchment guarantees without a system of government that allows for separation of powers to check the infringement upon such rights, and without the founding documents that proclaim that these rights originated before any government could even be conceived of, let alone be established. On such grounds, Madison had argued that the Bill of Rights was not necessary, despite Jefferson’s urging to support it. Man’s rights are so numerous, Madison argued, that to write them down would be to limit them. However, ultimately, the supporters of the constitution, including Madison, as prudent as they were, led the push for the amendments in the First Congress, when its ratification was in danger in the key state of Massachusetts.

There are other countries that have the equivalent of Bill of Rights — the former Soviet Union, for example, had a more comprehensive detailing of the rights of its citizens. However, in most countries in the world, as in the case of the U.S.S.R or modern Russia, such rights have been diluted or eroded away by the very government that initially codified them. This is often the case, where there is a lack of true shared-understanding amongst the populace, that a government that is duty-bound to protect man’s rights from being trampled upon by other men, and which may even take the pains to enumerate those rights, is not the original source of their endowment.

The Declaration is a brief document, but in every sentence, and its careful phrasing, the wisdom of the founding fathers shines through. My gratitude to them, and for this document, remains unbounded.

I enjoy my rights, in the only country in the world that truly understands — and I hope continues to understand — that we are endowed with them by our Creator. Furthermore, I put my faith in the easy courage of the American people, that they would continue to resist any infringement upon an endowment so sacred, may it come through the misguided self-interest of bands of other men, or through the depraved hunger for reach by their government. Because, a man without courage, and his rights, are quickly parted.

Farewell,

Nandan Pai

Plattsburgh