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 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 828, July 5, 2015 Most Americans just want to be left the bloody hell alone
Jefferson's Promise, Smith's Fulfillment
Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise Today being the Fourth of July, 2015, it is timely to review what L. Neil Smith wrote 30 years ago, in 1985, and what I have described as "the fulfillment of the promise of Jefferson's Declaration"[1]. L. Neil Smith's Covenant of Unanimous Consent actually FULFILLS the promise of individual freedom in Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. The Covenant is simple, rational, personal, easy to understand and even short enough to memorize. The Covenant also satisfies the objections noted by Lysander Spooner[2] in 1870. Instead of being a document that describes how the government shall act, and a document YOU did not sign, the Covenant is a document that describes how YOU will act and is a document that YOU voluntarily sign, if you agree. Those who do not sign (the "dissenters" mentioned by Ayn Rand[3] in 1964) are not punished. They are simply and clearly warned what to expect if they violate the rights of Signatories. The Covenant of Unanimous Consent is indeed the
political foundation, the "legal framework needed to
establish and maintain a free society open to all, including
dissenters" as was suggested by Ayn Rand. I explore
that legal framework concept further in my own article, What
*IS* The Bare Minimum...? at
For convenience, I have collected Mr. Smith's original articles along with my own and other related articles that I have found and have indexed them here: To live together peacefully and productively: Follow the Precepts of the Covenant and no "government"
will be necessary;
Live long and prosper,
[1] [2006-08-20] "...to Institute new Government, laying its
foundation..."
[2] Lysander Spooner's 1870 comment that "The Constitution has
either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been
powerless to prevent it" comes from his essays "No Treason"
& "The Constitution of No Authority" which may be found at
[3] It is well known that Galt's Gulch as described in Atlas
Shrugged has become THE prime model for those seeking relief
from our current culture of ever encroaching tyranny. In The
Letters of Ayn Rand, The Later Years (1960-1981) page 626, May
2, 1964, commenting about Galt's Gulch, Ayn Rand said:
"It does not deal with questions of political organization,
with the details of a legal framework needed to establish
and maintain a free society open to all, including
dissenters. It does not deal with specifically political
principles, only with their moral base." * There are two "origin" dates associated with the Covenant of
Unanimous Consent. It was originally published in 1985 in Chapter
XVII of The Gallatin Divergence by L. Neil Smith, Del Rey
Books (a division of Random House), and was amended by unanimous
consent, October, 1986.
This article was originally published on Mr. Wilson's website at
Jeffersons-Promise
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