The U.S. Constitution Has Answers to Mismanagement and Destruction on Federal
Lands

(Note: Not only is this a matchless piece of inspired writing but this organization has a superb website -- please visit!)

July 2002

National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS)
37777 West Juniper Road
Malta, ID 83342
1-800-388-4512
Fax: 208-645-2667
http://www.nccs.net/
Copyright © 2000-2001 All Rights Reserved
By Earl Taylor, Jr., President of NCCS
etaylor@mstar2.net

Many of us who live in the western states have been touched directly by the
devastating wildfires which continue to burn out of control. The lives and
fortunes of thousands of people are being altered or destroyed by
the destruction. The economies of huge areas will never be the same in our
lifetime and hundreds of homes and hundreds of thousands of acres of
beautiful forestlands lie in waste, no more to be visited and enjoyed as
recreational areas or summer or year-round residences,
and no more to be the means of livelihood for thousands of families.

There will be much debate about who or what is at fault and what should be
done in the future. Business blames environmentalists and environmentalists
blame business. Politicians get into the act on one side or the other. It is
as though no one has really come up with the best answer yet and so we must
keep searching and talking.

But for those students of good government who have studied the Founders'
formula for "a perfect union" and for "domestic tranquility", the answer is
ringing ever so loudly in our ears. It is an answer so profound yet so
powerful, so obvious yet so silent, that the loud and the
boisterous, the proud and the philosophers, seem to pass over it with disdain
or just neglect. The answer, the simple answer, lies within the paragraphs of
the Constitution of the United States. Once again, the
Founders had the answer 200 years ago to another crucial
modern-day problem.

Development of the Earth Mostly by Private Endeavor

John Locke pointed out that the human family originally received the planet
earth as a common gift and that mankind was given the capacity and
responsibility to improve it. Said he:

"God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them reason
to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience."

Then Locke pointed out that man received the commandment from his Creator to
"subdue" the earth and "have dominion" over it.

Dr. Skousen points out:

"But because dominion means control, and control requires exclusiveness,
private rights in property became an inescapable necessity or an inherent
aspect of subduing the earth and bringing it under dominion.

"It is obvious that if there were no such thing as 'ownership' in property,
which means legally protected exclusiveness, there would be no subduing or
extensive development of the resources of the earth." (See
discussion in The Five Thousand Year Leap, pp. 169-172)

In other words, the highest level of prosperity occurs when there is private
ownership of property. Mankind will be more willing to work and subdue if
there is a reward for doing so-a reward which no one has a
claim to but the owner himself. Ownership also allows one to develop so that
others may enjoy. It allows jobs to be created so that more people can earn a
living. Private ownership of property enables a nation to become more
productive and wealthy than any other system.

Many philosophers throughout history have asked the question: Will not
community ownership of property benefit more people than private ownership?
John Locke answers this powerfully. He said under a system of common
ownership, when one person wants to make use of something that is owned by
"everyone", he must ask all the owners'
permission to use it. If this were required, Locke says, the man would starve
to death before he got permission of all! Hence, private ownership of
property is the best means to fulfill the mandate of God to "subdue and gain
dominion." (Ibid., p. 172)

The Founders allow Very Little Property to be Owned by the National Government

With the power of private property firmly in mind the Founders clearly set
forth necessary limitations in the Constitution so that the national
government will not accumulate much property itself. The thought was to leave
it to the people who will use, care for, develop, subdue, and gain dominion
over it in a manner which will bless the lives of all the people and lead to
greater and greater permanent prosperity.

There were, however, a few reasons to have the national government own
property: for a seat of government, for military uses, and for needful
buildings. This is the very limited power given to Congress in the
Constitution:

"To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such
district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular
states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of
the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased
by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be for
the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful
buildings" (Art I, Sect. 8, Clause 17)

An earlier draft in the Convention merely read, "to exercise like authority
over all places purchased for forts, etc." Madison noted that "Eldridge Gerry
contended that this power might be made use of to enslave any particular
State by buying up its territory and that the
strongholds proposed would be a means of awing the State into an undue
obedience to the General Government..."

Madison said Mr. King then moved to "to insert after the word 'purchased' the
words 'by the consent of the Legislature of the State.' This would certainly
make the power safe."

Even as limited as the Founders could make it, this clause allowing the
National Government to own and control property within a state continued to
bother some. They thought, in time, mischief would develop. Listen to what
Joseph Story, Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote in his famous Commentaries
in 1833 about this particular clause. It is as though he foresaw some of the
incredible regulations which are strangling the efforts of the people to
"subdue and gain dominion over" huge sections of land in our country:

"And yet this clause did not escape the common fate of most of the powers of
the national government. It was represented, as peculiarly dangerous. It may,
it was said, become a sort of public sanctuary, with exclusive privileges and
immunities of every sort. It may be the very spot for the establishment of
tyranny, mid of refuge of the oppressors of the people. The inhabitants will
be answerable to no laws, except those of congress. A powerful army may be
here kept on foot; and the most
oppressive and sanguinary laws may be passed to govern the district. Nay, at
the distance of fourteen years after the constitution had quietly gone into
operation, and this power had been acted upon with a moderation, as
commendable, as it ought to be satisfactory, a learned
commentator expressed regret at the extent of the power, and intimated in no
inexplicit terms his fears for the future. 'A system of laws,' says he,
'incompatible with the nature and principles of a representative democracy,
though not likely to be introduced at once, may be matured by degrees, and
diffuse its influence through the
states, and finally lay the foundation of the most important changes in the
nature of the federal government. Let foreigners be enabled to hold lands,
and transmit them by inheritance, or devise; let the preference to
males, and the rights or primogeniture he revived with the doctrine of
entails; and aristocracy will neither want a ladder to climb by, nor a base
for its support.'" (Quoted in The Founders' Constitution, vol. 3, p. 237)

Dr. Skousen Explains the Growth of Federal Power in Violation of the
Constitution

It would also appear that this provision gives each state the right to assume
title to all lands within its boundaries which the federal government is not
using for the purposes specified in this section.

But what about new states coming into the Union where most of the territory
consists of federal public lands? The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 declared
that all new states would come into the Union on a basis of complete equality
or equal footing with the original thirteen states. Therefore it was assumed
that as soon as a new territory was granted statehood, the people of that
state would acquire title to every acre of land other than a very small
percentage granted to the federal
government for the "erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock yards, and
other needful buildings."

But Congress did not allow this to happen. When Ohio was admitted into the
Union in 1903, the government retained title to all of the public lands but
assured the people that Ohio would acquire jurisdiction as soon as these
lands could be sold to help pay off the national debt. This, then, became the
established policy for new states:

1.  The federal government would retain all ungranted public lands.

2.  The government guaranteed that it would dispose of these lands as soon as
possible.

3.  The new state would acquire jurisdiction over these lands as fast as they
were sold to private individuals.

As a result of this policy, all of the states east of the Mississippi, and
those included in the Louisiana Purchase, eventually acquired all but a very
small percentage of the land lying within their state boundaries.

However, when the territory of the western states was acquired from Mexico,
Congress radically digressed from the Constitution by virtually eliminating
the sale or disposal of federal lands. The general policy was to permanently
retain major portions of each of the western states for purposes not listed
in the Constitution. This policy resulted in the government becoming the
permanent owner and manager of over 35 percent of the American landmass. At
the present time, vast areas within the boundaries of these states are
permanently designated as
part of the federal domain for national forests, national parks, national
monuments, coal and oil reserves, lands leased for profit to ranchers or
farmers, and huge tracts of land with valuable resources completely locked up
as "wilderness areas."

Here is the amount of land in each of the western states still held by the
federal government: (these figures do not include Indian reservations)

Arizona      45%   
 
California   45%   
 
Colorado     36%   
 
Idaho        64%    
 
Montana      30%    

Nevada       87%  

New Mexico   35%
Oregon       52%

Utah         66%

Washington   30%

 Wyoming      50%

The most flagrant example of all, however, is found in the conditions under
which Alaska was admitted to the Union in 1959. The people were only allowed
to occupy approximately 4 percent of their state.

Of course, the government should have exclusive jurisdiction over those lands
acquired for the purposes listed in the Constitution. As Madison stated:

"The public money expended on such places, and the public property deposited
in them, require that they should be exempt from the authority of the
particular State. Nor would it be proper for the places on which
the security of the entire Union may depend to be in any degree dependent on
a particular member of it. All objections and scruples are here also obviated
by requiring the concurrence of the States concerned in every such
establishment."

It is obvious that the federal government is currently occupying millions of
acres within certain states without the concurrence of those states. (See The
Making of America, p. 458-459)

The Answer to Destructive Wildfires in the Western United States

Again, the answer to our most serious challenges is not to debate for years
whether or not trees should be thinned out, whether or not ground cover
should be periodically burned off, whether or not timber should be
cut and replanted. These discussions do not belong in the federal sphere at
all. They belong with people who will own and care for their own land,
knowing they will be held responsible for any damage they might cause to a
neighbor by mismanaging their land.

The answer then is to turn the land back to the states and to millions of
people. Studies have always shown that privately and state held land always
had fewer fires, is cleaner, and produces more revenue than the
land held by the federal government.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost so much. May we be more
successful in restoring our Constitution.

Sincerely,

Earl Taylor, Jr.

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