America's Government has become Illegitimate on its own Terms Home

The government of the U.S.A. has become illegitimate on its own terms In drafting the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson made the strongest argument the colonists had: Britain's government had become illegitimate on its own terms. The Declaration, like a number of pamphlets of the time and similar declarations issued by individual colonial legislatures, recited the basis of English law and liberty and then showed how Britain's government had violated those principles. Where did Jefferson find the ideas that create liberty? We don't have to guess, because on March 4, 1825, while a member of the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia - the university Jefferson founded - he caused a resolution to be passed that specified the texts to be used in classes on the principles of government at both the university and its law school. The resolution provides, in part: Whereas, it is the duty of this Board...to pay special attention to the principles of government which shall be inculcated therein, and to provide that none shall be inculcated which are incompatible with those on which the Constitutions of this state and of the United States were genuinely based...it may be necessary to point out specially where these principles are to be found legitimately developed: Resolved that: It is the opinion of this Board that as to the general principles of liberty and the rights of man, in nature and in society, the doctrines of Locke, in his "Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government," and of Sidney in his "Discourses on Government," may be considered as those generally approved by our fellow citizens of this, and the United States. The Sidney the resolution refers to is Algernon Sidney, who was executed in 1683 for writing his Discourses, because he argued that men established governments for their own good and, thus, citizens owed no obedience to governments that enforce evil rather than good. Sidney argued from English history to show that the idea that kings ruled by divine right was a new invention not supported by English law. Sidney showed that kings were made by the law, and that the basis of English law and liberty were God's moral laws in the Bible. Citing St. Paul from Romans 13, Sidney said: He therefore is only the minister of God, who is not a terror to good works, but to evil; who executes wrath upon those that do evil, and is a praise to those that do well.... All princes therefore that have power are not to be esteemed equally the ministers of God. They that are so, must receive their dignity from a title that is not common to all, even from a just employment of their power to the encouragement of virtue, and to the discouragement of vice. He that pretends to the veneration and obedience due to the ministers of God, must by his actions manifest that he is so.... I am inclined to believe that the same rule, which obliges us to yield obedience to the good magistrate who is the minister of God and assures us that in obeying him we obey God, does equally oblige us not to obey those who make themselves the ministers f the Devil, lest in obeying them we obey the Devil, whose works they do. Jefferson explicitly referenced Sidney's idea in the Declaration of Independence, when he based America's claim to liberty on "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," an English legal term of art that means the "eternal immutable principles of right and wrong to which the Creator himself conforms...found only in the Holy Scripture." Unfortunately, the government of the United States no longer holds any allegiance to God's moral laws. Our government has steadily abandoned these principles over a long period of time beginning in 1867 when the first law was passed that violated the Constitution's General Welfare clause by taking property from one citizen to give it to another. Since 1867, our government has steadily abrogated God's laws. While God says that man is responsible for his own welfare, we have made legalized theft and wealth redistribution the basis of innumerable policies from Social Security to prescription drug give-aways. While God says that all men are created equal we have legalized discrimination through Affirmative Action. The Bible says God forms us in the womb, but we have legalized abortion. Where God says that His laws are given for man's good, we have made it a crime - enforced by private citizens through lawsuits - to teach the Bible in school. On June 26, 2003, the Supreme Court cut the last tie to the philosophy of Jefferson and Sidney by rewriting the Declaration of Independence. In legalizing homosexuality, the Court said that what is right and wrong is not defined by God's moral rules but simply by whatever two people agree to. The Court said the basis of morality is simply consent. How could this happen? It happened because the character of government always reflects the character of the people, and most of America's people do not know or care about God's moral rules, nor understand how these rules alone create human rights and liberty. If we want to restore the ideas that create our freedom we have only one course open to us. We must be available to the Holy Spirit to witness to our fellow citizens and bring them to a relationship with God through the Bible and Jesus Christ. Only citizens who know God will agree that His rules of right and wrong are true and form the only valid basis for law. The price of freedom in war is paid in blood, and the price of freedom in peacetime is no less dear. Our government has become illegitimate and must no longer be obeyed in those areas where it departs from God's law.