The founders on sovereignty.

“I say supreme absolute power is originally and ultimately in the people.”

In Rights of the British Colonists Asserted and Proved, James Otis Jr. was describing “sovereignty.”

Sovereignty simply means final and absolute authority. Therefore, those who have it are not subject to any outside authority on Earth.

This isn’t academic theory. This is the operational principle that created America—and the one systematically buried by institutions that benefit from its concealment.

THE DECLARATION AS OPERATIONAL DOCTRINE

The Declaration of Independence was the ultimate expression of the sovereignty of the people. This is exactly what Thomas Jefferson was expressing when he wrote, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Notice the precision: “deriving their just powers from.” Not granted powers. Not inherited powers. Powers that flow upward from the source of all legitimate authority—the people themselves.

The people have the ultimate authority. The government is an agent of the people. This relationship cannot be reversed without destroying the entire constitutional framework.

The sovereign people can therefore “alter or abolish” the government as they see fit and institute a new government, “laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Read that again. “Alter or abolish.” Not petition. Not vote harder. Not hope for better candidates. Fundamental restructuring when the agent betrays its principal.

THE BRITISH ALTERNATIVE

This was in stark contrast to the British conception of sovereignty. They believed that the absolute and uncontrollable power resided in the government and ultimately, the king or parliament.

Under the British system, power flows downward from the crown. Subjects receive privileges, not rights. Parliament grants permissions, not protections. The king’s grace determines what people may do, not natural law or constitutional limits.

Thomas Paine contrasted these two opposing views in his Dissertations on Government, calling the British system a “despotic monarchy” where “power is lodged in a single person, or sovereign.”

This made the king the sole and final authority. “His will is law; which he declares, alters or revokes as he pleases, without being accountable to any power for so doing.”

No checks. No balances. No appeal beyond the sovereign’s pleasure. Raw power exercised without constraint or justification.

THE AMERICAN COUNTER-MODEL

In contrast, Paine called the American system a republic, with “the sovereign power, or the power over which there is no control, and which controls all others, remains where nature placed it—in the people; for the people in America are the fountain of power.”

The fountain metaphor is precise. Power doesn’t trickle down from government institutions. It springs up from the people and flows through carefully constructed channels designed to serve specific purposes. When those channels become blocked or corrupted, the source remains unchanged.

Years later, as the Constitution was being debated, James Wilson carried Otis’s idea forward, proclaiming, “The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power REMAINS in the people.”

Wilson’s emphasis on “remains” cuts through centuries of institutional obfuscation. The power never transferred to government. It was never surrendered to experts or administrators or federal agencies. It stays exactly where the founders placed it.

In other words, it was always there, right from the start. Constitutional government doesn’t grant sovereignty to the people—it recognizes sovereignty that already exists and creates structures to protect its exercise.

THE SERVANT-MASTER RELATIONSHIP

Ultimately, the people are the masters. Patrick Henry declared, “The governing persons are the servants of the people.”

This isn’t ceremonial language for Fourth of July speeches. This is the operational framework of legitimate government under the American system. Servants don’t dictate terms to their employers. Agents don’t override their principals. Representatives don’t become rulers.

When government officials claim authority beyond their delegated powers, they’re not exercising legitimate authority—they’re staging a coup against their employers.When federal agencies create regulations with the force of law, they’re not implementing policy—they’re usurping legislative power that belongs exclusively to elected representatives.

When courts rewrite the Constitution through creative interpretation, they’re not evolving with the times—they’re stealing amendment power that belongs to the people through their state conventions.

THE MODERN INVERSION

Far too many people today act as if we live under the British system. They have been propagandized by government schools with an incentive to make people think they don’t have any power.

This inversion isn’t accidental. Government schools teach civics that emphasizes duties to the state, not rights against it. Students learn to recite the Pledge of Allegiance but never read the Declaration of Independence as a practical blueprint for checking government power.

Media coverage frames political issues as contests between competing authorities, not as conflicts between legitimate constitutional government and unauthorized power grabs. Citizens are trained to pick sides rather than demand adherence to fundamental law.

Professional politicians speak of “our democracy” while ignoring constitutional limits on democratic action. Federal agencies issue regulations with criminal penalties while Congress abdicates its exclusive legislative authority. Courts issue nationwide injunctions based on policy preferences rather than constitutional text.

The entire system operates as if the people granted unlimited authority to government institutions, then forgot they had any recourse when those institutions exceeded their bounds.

THE INSTITUTIONAL RESISTANCE

Here at the Tenth Amendment Center, we’re committed to telling the truth about sovereignty and reversing this brainwashing.

Every institution with a stake in expanded government power has an incentive to obscure the founding principles. Universities receive federal funding. Think tanks chase government grants. Media companies depend on access to official sources. Bar associations maintain professional monopolies through state licensing.

None of these institutions will voluntarily teach the people that government authority derives entirely from popular consent—and can be withdrawn when that consent is violated.

The Constitution provides specific mechanisms for popular sovereignty: nullification through state governments, constitutional conventions, and ultimately the right of revolution declared in the founding documents. These aren’t theoretical concepts—they’re practical tools for a sovereign people to control their servants.

THE CLEAR MANDATE

The message from the founders is clear: No servant is greater than the master. That means the people are in charge. They have final authority.

They just need to start using it in support of their own constitution and liberty.

This isn’t about political preferences or policy disputes. This is about the foundational relationship between ruler and ruled in the American system. Either the people are sovereign, or they’re subjects. Either the Constitution limits government, or government defines the Constitution.

The founders resolved this question definitively. The only remaining question is whether their descendants will enforce their decision.