A Call to Principle, Liberty, and the Defense of Our God-Given Rights
Opinion Piece | Michael Krempski
There was a time in America when men and women understood that liberty required courage, that freedom was not self-sustaining, that self-government demanded both virtue and vigilance, and that the blessings secured by our Founders would endure only so long as citizens remained willing to stand upon truth, uphold principle, and defend what was right even when doing so carried a personal, social, or political cost.
Today, however, we must ask ourselves a difficult but necessary question: When did we lose our ability to stand on principle?
When did convenience become more important than conviction, when did silence become easier than speaking the truth, and when did so many Americans become hesitant to defend the constitutional principles that have preserved liberty and restrained government power for nearly two and a half centuries?
Perhaps an even more important question is this: Do we truly love and support our Constitutions, both the United States Constitution and the Illinois Constitution, or do we merely appreciate them when they are convenient while neglecting the responsibility of studying, understanding, and defending them when they are challenged?
If we genuinely cherish these documents, then we have a duty not only to admire them as historical achievements, but to know their contents, understand their principles, teach them to our children, and insist that those who hold public office faithfully honor the oaths they have sworn to uphold them.
America was founded upon the revolutionary belief that our rights come from God, not government, and that government exists not to create rights but to secure those rights on behalf of a free people. The Declaration of Independence boldly proclaims that:
"All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." ¹
This simple yet profound truth remains the cornerstone of American liberty because it establishes that our freedoms are not privileges granted by elected officials, administrative agencies, courts, legislatures, or any other human institution, but gifts from Almighty God that no government may rightfully abolish, diminish, or redefine according to the preferences of the moment.
Because our rights come from God, every citizen bears a solemn responsibility to remain vigilant and to hold public officials accountable to the constitutional limits placed upon governmental authority, recognizing that liberty is preserved only when the people themselves are willing to defend it.
The people of Illinois understood this truth when they adopted one of the most important, yet often overlooked, provisions within their own Constitution. Article I, Section 23 of the Illinois Constitution declares:
"A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of civil government is necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty." ²
Those words should be engraved upon the hearts of every citizen and every elected official because they remind us that freedom is not preserved by good intentions, political popularity, or temporary majorities, but by a continual return to the enduring principles upon which free government rests.
Those same principles were expressed by Founding Father George Mason, who wrote:
"No free government, nor the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." ³
The Illinois Constitution and George Mason point us toward the very same conclusion: liberty cannot survive if a people forget the principles upon which it was founded, and constitutional government cannot endure if citizens cease to exercise the responsibility of defending those principles whenever they are threatened.
Yet this raises an important question: how can we return to fundamental principles if we do not know what those principles are?
That is precisely why John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States and one of the principal authors of The Federalist Papers, offered this timeless instruction:
"Every member of the State ought diligently to read and to study the constitution of his country, and teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better prepared to defend and assert them." ⁴
John Jay understood something that many Americans have forgotten: a citizen who has never read the Constitution cannot effectively defend it, a citizen who does not understand constitutional rights may fail to recognize when those rights are threatened, and a citizen who is unfamiliar with constitutional limits may never notice when government exceeds its lawful authority.
The responsibility for preserving liberty does not belong solely to judges, attorneys, legislators, governors, sheriffs, county boards, city councils, or public officials of any kind. Instead, that responsibility ultimately belongs to We the People, because the Constitution begins with those powerful words to remind every generation that the ultimate guardians of liberty were never intended to be those who govern, but those who are governed.
The Founders understood that freedom would endure only if the people remained informed, engaged, morally grounded, and willing to defend what was right, which is why Thomas Jefferson famously reminded Americans that:
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights." ⁵
That vigilance requires far more than casting a ballot every few years. It requires knowledge, courage, conviction, and a willingness to respectfully but firmly insist that public officials honor the constitutional boundaries established to protect the rights of the people.
Every elected representative takes an oath, and that oath is not made to a political cause, a personal ambition, a special interest, or even to the voters who elected them. It is an oath to support and defend the Constitution, It is an oath to God, and as citizens we should expect nothing less than faithful adherence to that oath.
When constitutional rights are threatened, citizens should speak. When constitutional principles are ignored, citizens should engage. When government actions conflict with constitutional protections, citizens should respectfully yet firmly seek accountability, not because they oppose government itself, but because holding government accountable is one of the highest duties of self-government.
This is not hostility toward public officials. It is not disrespect for lawful authority. It is the very essence of constitutional government. The American experiment was never intended to create a system in which citizens blindly trust those in power. It was designed to create a government accountable to the people, restrained by written constitutions, and limited by the recognition that all political power ultimately originates with the people and is subject to the higher authority of God-given rights.
That system survives only when citizens take seriously their responsibility to know the Constitution, understand its principles, and defend its protections for future generations.
So let us ask ourselves once again: Do we truly cherish our constitutional freedoms? Do we know the rights that God has granted to us? Have we taken the time to read and study the Constitutions we claim to support? And are we willing to hold our elected representatives accountable to the oaths they have sworn?
If the answer is yes, then we must return to first principles. We must study our Constitutions. We must teach the next generation the foundations of liberty. We must remember that our rights come from God and that preserving those rights requires an informed and vigilant citizenry willing to defend them whenever they are challenged.
As Ronald Reagan warned:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." ⁶
The preservation of liberty has never been guaranteed, and the future of freedom will depend upon whether the present generation has the wisdom to know its rights, the courage to defend them, the faith to recognize that they come from God, and the determination to hold those entrusted with public office accountable to the constitutions they have sworn to uphold.
And preserving that freedom begins with a simple but profound question:
Are We the People?
Endnotes
¹ National Archives. “Declaration of Independence: A Transcription.” National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.
² Illinois General Assembly Legislative Reference Bureau. “Constitution of the State of Illinois: Article I - Bill of Rights.” Illinois General Assembly, https://lrb.ilga.gov/Commission/lrb/con1.htm. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.
³ The Avalon Project. “Virginia Declaration of Rights.” Yale Law School, 12 June 1776, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/virginia.asp. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.
⁴ Dearstyne, Bruce W. “Chief Justice John Jay Explains New York State's First Constitution.” The New York State Museum, 24 Oct. 2016, https://nysm.nysed.gov/research-collections/state-history/notes/chief-justice-john-jay-explains-new-york-states-first. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.
⁵ Jefferson, Thomas. “Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price.” Library of Congress, 8 Jan. 1789, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/60.html. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026
⁶ Reagan, Ronald. “All of Us, as Americans, Are Joined in a Common Enterprise to Write the Story of Freedom.” The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, remarks at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, Atlanta, Georgia, 1 Aug. 1983, https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/quotes/all-of-us-as-americans-are-joined-in-a-common. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026