Government Threat to Life, Liberty

Why, yes, I have? Have you? These are our natural rights.

Having a right to something means having a "just claim" to it; having a natural right, means that, by nature, we humans each have a just claim to our own life, (and no one else's), our own liberty, (and no one else's), our own justly acquired property, (and no one else's).

Certain individuals believe that the problem is that we were supposed to have a republican form of government, and not a democracy. So, what is the real difference between these two?

REPUBLIC, n. ...a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. In modern usage, it differs from a democracy or democratic state, in which the people exercise the powers of sovereignty in person. ~ Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language

Well, then, you have your "republican form of government", because the "sovereign power IS lodged in representatives elected by the people". So, that's not the problem; so what is?

"Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights . . . and to take none of them from us. 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 . . . and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural right." ~ Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Francis Gilmer (c.1816)

Just like the American declaration of independence stated, "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men".

Last question. What is the only form of jurisprudence, i.e. "system of laws", that deems all men equal? Here's a clue.

"The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule." ~ Samuel Adams

And, here's the answer – to both of the above questions.

"Question; where do our freedoms come from? Answer; if the person answering is Thomas Jefferson, from our humanity. God created us in his image and likeness and as he is perfectly free, so too are we perfectly free. And when Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal and*[sic] endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, he answered that question for all time. Our freedom comes from our humanity. This belief is known as the natural law; that our freedom is as natural to us as the fingers on the end of our hands, the noses in the middle of our faces, or any part of our body, or any part of our spirit." ~ Andrew P.Napolitano, former New Jersey Supreme Court Judge

* Not "and", Andrew, all humans are equal only in that they are equally endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

Quod ad jus naturale attinet, omnes homenes aequales sunt. All men are equal before the natural law. Dig. 50, 17, 32. ~ Maxim of law – Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition (c.1991), page 899 [Emphasis added]

"If a nation were founded on this basis, it seems to me that order would prevail among the people, in thought as well as in deed. It seems to me that such a nation would have the simplest, easiest to accept, economical, limited, non-oppressive, just, and enduring government imaginable - whatever its political form might be. ~ Excerpted from The Law by Frédéric Bastiat