© 2025 Dr. Frederick David Graves, JD
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Contrary to Popular Myth
Contrary to popular myth, our
"rights" in this nation do not derive from our Constitution.
The people of this great nation deserve to know the truth.
Our rights come from ancient principles of law upon which our Constitution was built. The Constitution did not "create" them.
Our Constitution is an attempt to codify ancient principles of law and to provide a mechanism for enforcing those principles for the benefit of all by granting rights to the people while restraining the exercise of government power beyond what is good for the people, i.e., what is good for each and every one of you ... each of you individually!
Printed words are only symbols representing thoughts. The symbols are not thoughts. Thoughts exist apart from printed symbols. Thoughts can be expressed by printed or spoken words, however thoughts themselves are independent of the page or voice expressing them. True thoughts are part of eternal spirit.
False thoughts are darkness.
Words and the thoughts they represent are not tangible things. One cannot put words or the thoughts they express in a basket like apples. Words and ideas are intangible things.
Trees and cobblestones are tangible things.
Words are spirits, intangible, powerful.
There is a difference.
There is a tangible reality ... and there is an intangible reality.
Guns and swords are tangible.
Principles and promises are intangible.
In the realm of tangible things we find transition. Change is constantly at work. Change affects everything tangible. What was true yesterday in the tangible world (i.e., in the world apart from words) may not be true today. Moth and rust consumes all. As Lucretius said, "Tall towers will fall and mountains will crumble." Tangible things don’t last.
However, intangible truths last forever. They were true from the beginning and always will be true. Truth endures.
When our words express truth, they overcome falsehood (the adversary of peace and human happiness).
The maxim, "A thing similar is not exactly the same," is always true. It cannot be refuted. It is not subject to changes in the tangible world , because it exists outside the tangible. It is simply and irrevocably true … self-evidently so.
Truth exists.
Truth is truth. Nothing else is.
Truth is always true.
It is upon this fundamental maxim that our mechanisms of law are are erected, principles of justice that never change. True before you or I were born. They will be true then the sun stops shining and the oceans freeze in utter darkness.
The principles of justice are self-evidently true. They abide in common-sense. Only the most unreasonable (or deceitfully self-interested people) deny self-evident truth.
Over mankind’s 6,000 year history, wise writers have written self-evident truths to guide us in the administration of justice, giving us tools to measure and examine our system of written codes and precepts to judge if they are truly "just". These self-evident maxims of law should be relied upon and adhere to in the every decision of our highest courts. They are not subject to debate. They need not be taken on faith. They are common-sense. Indeed, they are the bedrock upon which the administration of law in every civilized society should be rooted and grounded without exception.
Unfortunately, however, principles codified by the ancient legal maxims of truth are now being displaced by modern thinkers who are intentionally eroding the people's due process rights, undermining The Rule of Law with stupidity and self-serving policies of politicians that threaten the welfare of every one of us.
Long before Columbus sailed these Maxims of Justice were studied and preserved by wise scholars who knew those principles were essential to protect the innocent and promote peace. Their thinking brought about the establisment of constitutional republics such as ours, where justice and liberty could be secured by societies willing to adhere to the reliable guide of self-evident truth.
The men who met on the 4th of July 1776 were in agreement about those ancient maxims. It was their faith in the self-evident truth of the maxims and their love for people that guided them to rebel against King George and draft our Constitution as they did.
Maxims are the bedrock of our nation’s liberty. Maxims guided the founding fathers to declare our independence from the crown. Maxims were embodied in our Constitution and form its framework. Maxims expressed the principles of equity that encouraged them to stand together and trust the blessing of Providence on their holy enterprise.
This truth is too little known today, yet it is as certain as the stars.
The "Holy Experiment", as William Penn called the foundling nation of America, was predicated on the maxims of Justice that compelled right-thinking men and women of courage and goodwill to work together, pledging their lives and sacred fortunes to the cause of liberty and justice for all.
They trusted Truth to see them through the struggle ... self-evident truth.
Maxims that are always true.
Maxims that protect the innocent.
Maxims that need to be rediscovered and published to this present generation and to each succeeding generation until the end of time.
Maxims must once again guide our courts to dispense justice in favor of individual liberty, without regard to the constantly varying ideas of public opinion or the self-interest of political parties.
"The safety of the people cannot be judged but by the safety of every individual."
"Liberty to all but preference to none."
Maxims act out of love for people.
Maxims are common-sense.
Maxims adhere to the lessons history has taught us and warn against the consequence of ignoring their self-evident truth.
Maxims encouraged the architects of our nation's government to risk everything for the sake of what we may yet secure for ourselves and our children ... a nation dedicated to the rights of each of us to live in liberty and pursue happiness through labor.
Who sees this today?
Who speaks of it openly?
Who teaches these principles?
Do YOU know them?
Without the power of self-evident truths expressed so wisely by the ancient maxims of Justice, liberty may soon become an empty dream for all but the rich and powerful.
Without the protections of self-evident truths in our courts and legislatures, the weak and few among us will be destroyed by the powerful and many.
Justice cannot survive where there are no fixed rules to guide its administration.
Maxims prevent the abuse of power by men and women in high office.
Only by reestablishing the self-evident truths set forth in the maxims of justice can we hope to guide our children safely forward into the future.
We need artists, writers, educators, publishers, promoters, and media personalities to impart these simple concepts of absolute truth to our children and to all who will listen, lifting the lamp of liberty higher, leading our people out of the darkness toward which they are steadfastly marching at this dangerous hour, deluded with misinformation and lacking any sense of unity, without the strength of purpose that comes by abiding in shared truths.
Today's generation is guided only by good intentions. Fill in the blank.
The maxims of justice must be published as soon as possible with every means, in every media, and effectively so they can once again unite us with a shared vision of what our nation is and what we must do to secure its sacred benefits for everyone.
No expense should be spared. The need is immediate. Critical.
Time is of the essence.
Lift this Lamp.