Thomas Jefferson was renowned for stressing that authority ultimately rested with the people and not the government. Self-government often seems more like a theoretical concept today, or even a partisan issue. Ultimately, so much of what we see in politics today is a belief that Americans are no longer capable of governing themselves. They need more rules, and regulations to cope, and “free stuff” to occupy their time or even thrive in a modern world. The American Founders wouldn’t have ever thought that way. Self-government was embodied and actualized in the people at that time. There is a great example from our history that demonstrates that meaning. Os Guinness mentions the story in his masterful book, “A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future.” Seventy years after the American Revolution a Dartmouth student set out to record the testimony of soldiers who fought in the conflict. One of those men, Captain Levi Preston, then in his 90s, fought in the very first engagement at the Battle of Lexington in Concord in 1775. The student asked Preston if he was inspired by the works of John Locke, or oppressed over the Stamp Act or Tea tax? Preston said he hadn’t heard of Locke and didn’t drink tea and hadn’t seen any stamps [seals] back then. It’s unclear if Preston had more than a rudimentary understanding of the Stamp Act. The student went through a few more litany of questions and became perplexed why Preston took up arms again the British Crown. Preston simply replied, “Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had been free, and we meant to be free always. They didn’t mean we should.”