The Classical Liberal's Worldview

Law:
Law predates the institution of civil government. There are no such things as law-makers, only law protectors. This natural law comes from God Himself and is perfect, and human laws are made only to the degradation of this law.

Rights:
The natural rights of human beings to life, liberty, and the fruit of their labor (property) are given them by God. These rights are not granted by governments and can not lawfully be taken away by the same.

Force:
There are two kinds of force:
1. Aggressive (or coersive) force, which violates another person's rights and is therefore an unlawful use of force.
2. Defensive (or reactionary) force, which is in response to aggressive force. This is a lawful use of force.

Power:
All power emanates from the individual, thus, power flows upward. Governments therefore receive their power from the individuals that make up their populace, and should be held in check by the same. If a government breaks the social contract, it is the right of the people to remove it and institute proper government in its place.

Goals:
The end of classical liberalism is true liberty. Thus, a classical liberal's job is never done. The classical liberal is always looking forward to that goal. This is in contrast to those that can be called “conservative” which defend the status quo and fight for what was, rather than looking forward to what should be. The true goals of classical liberalism have not yet been accomplished at any point in our country's history. Thomas Jefferson knew and understood this and fought for these goals until he died.

The Social Contract:
As Samuel Adams described in “The Rights of the Colonists,” an individual's relationship to proper government is a contractual business relationship. The people of a land pool their individual power and resources to create an organization, which is a government. This organization has contractual obligations to the people that created it. In this tradition, our founders wrote our Constitution, which begins with the words, “We the people of the United States...” It is the literal contract with America, and lays out the contractual obligations of our nation's federal government. We give the government certain resources, and then they must fulfill certain obligations to us, the people. Those obligations can be found summarized within the preamble to the Constitution, and are “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”