An American Manifesto, Not A Communist Manifesto

The English version of the Russian newspaper Pravda, that once was the voice of the Soviet Communist Party, has run an editorial saying essentially that the in reelecting Obama, America has put someone back in office who is pushing the Communist Manifesto on us without calling it what it is.

          I offer an alternative. Thirty seven years ago I was a young attorney and National Secretary of a Conservative organization called Young Americans for Freedom.  In 1975 I was asked to write something relating to the upcoming Bicentennial to present to the YAF convention in Chicago. When I read what I wrote to the convention it was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation and adopted by YAF as the official Bicentennial statement of the organization.

I present it here exactly as I wrote it and as it was printed by YAF in pamphlet form. I still believe everything in it and I believe there are many Americans who will agree with it. I offer it as an American Manifesto:

“On this, the eve of the 200^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America, we, the members of the Young Americans for Freedom, as citizens of this great nation, do hereby reaffirm and pledge ourselves to the following:

          We reaffirm our belief in the inalienable and divine rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

          We reaffirm our belief in the free enterprise system of economics as the only system compatible with human freedom.

          We reaffirm our belief in the right of all men to own individual property and use it as they see fit.

          We reaffirm our belief that a government is only legitimate as long as it serves its citizens and becomes illegitimate when it compels its citizens to serve the government.

          We reaffirm our belief that the Constitution of the United States and its original Bill of Rights establish the best form of government for the preservation of freedom.

          We reaffirm our belief in the rights of men to control their own individual destinies without interference by other men or by government.

          We reaffirm our own moral obligation to fulfill those responsibilities incumbent upon the exercise of our rights by never intentionally violating the sacred rights of others.

          We reaffirm our belief that the power to tax is the power to control and that such power should be restricted to the one purpose of national security.

          We reaffirm our belief that the United States of America is not just territory, that it is a way of life and a state of mind. It will live as long as there is one man who still believes in human freedom, and as long as that one man lives, the spirit of the United States will never be conquered.

          Along with our reaffirmation of these basic beliefs of free Americans, we pledge the following:

          We pledge that we will never submit to tyranny in any form and we issue the following warnings:

          To those in other lands who would destroy our freedom, be forewarned that there are still millions of us who believe that liberty is worth fighting and dying for. Do not naively believe that you can win just by forcing our government to surrender. If you plan to occupy this nation come prepared to fight for every acre of ground, for every building and for every hill and valley.

          To our own government we say this: Do not forget that you are only a government which exists at the pleasure of the American people. We will not allow tyranny to be established from within any more than we will allow it to invade from without. Only the republican institutions created by our Constitution are sacred to us; the people who occupy them are not.

          We pledge never to surrender the sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

          We pledge, on behalf of generations yet, unborn, to continue the struggle begun by our forefathers over two hundred years ago to secure and maintain liberty and to defend that liberty against all enemies domestic and foreign.

          And, following their example, to that end, the preservation of liberty, we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

Michael Connelly

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Michael Connelly blog

Constitutional Law Alliance