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Pamela is teaching kids about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights this summer and sent us some great questions. We've provided a short answer but how would you answer them? Question 1 - Name one common theme in the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights THE common theme is the legitimate purpose and scope of action of government. The Declaration states the ideas that create free government and shows how Great Britain violated these principles in 27 particulars, justifying the colonists in estabishing their own government. The Preamble states the legitimate purposes of free government. The Bill of Rights states an incomplete list of things that a free government must do or cannot do. Americans often make the mistake of thinking the Constitution and Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) state the moral principles on which the U.S. is founded but, in fact, they simply REFLECT those principles. The Constitution and Bill of Rights give a structure and certain powers and boundaries to our government, but they do not explain why this structure or these powers and boundaries were chosen. To understand America's founding principles we must understand the ideas set forth in the Declaration. In drafting the Declaration, Jefferson made the colonist's strongest argument, that Great Britain's government of the colonies had become illegitimate because it violated its own founding principles. To prove this argument, Jefferson quoted the most recognized authority of the time on English law and government, Sir William Blackstone. From 1765 to 1769 Blackstone published his four volume Commentaries on the Laws of England, thereby becoming only the second person in history to write a comprehensive summary of English law. The first was Henry de Bracton who published his De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (the laws and customs of England) in the year 1260. Both Blackstone and Bracton said that for government to be legitimate, it must follow God's moral rules. Bracton was the first to articulate what we now call the "rule of law" - the idea that kings must submit to law and justice founded, with the assistance of reason, on God's divine laws, just as Christ, the King of Kings, submitted to the Father's law. Blackstone said that no law or act of government was legitimate if it violated the "laws of nature", which Blackstone defined as God's will, or the "laws of Nature's God, the revealed law found only in the Bible. Jefferson quoted this phrase "the laws of nature and of nature's God" verbatim in the Declaration because the Declaration bases our claim to independence directly on the idea that Great Britain's government had made itself illegitimate by violating these laws. You can read the relevant portion of Blackstone here. Free government must obey God's laws because our rights come from the moral obligations that God's law creates. For example, the right to life comes from the obligation not to kill innocent people, the right to property from the obligation not to steal, and so on. The Preamble states the purposes for which free people establish government. The important idea here is that government is created by us to be our servant. Government cannot arrogate to itself powers that individual citizens do not possess. So, for example, government cannot take property from one citizen and give it to another. This idea is what is meant by the General Welfare clause of the Preamble, which the Founders felt was so important they repeated it in the Enumerated Powers clause (Art. 1, Sect. 8) which lists the powers of Congress. You can read what Madison and Jefferson had to say about the General Welfare clause in the article which also discusses how the Supreme Court destroyed this limitation. Just as we have lost the idea that laws should be general and not benefit specific groups, every single provision of the Bill of Rights has, today, been agrogated in some way. Question 2 - Why are most of these documents so focused on limiting government? Because man is sinful. As Madison wrote in Federalist #51, if men were angels, government would not be necessary. Since they are not, it is necessary to create ways of limiting man's ability to take and use power. The Constitution does this by dividing power horizontally, between the three branches of the federal government, and vertically, between the federal government and the states. The Founders relied on man's sinful nature - his desire to keep his power - to guard against encroachments between the different spheres. Question 3 - What are some potential drawbacks of a government that is too limited? A government that is too limited would not be able to accomplish the purposes set forth in the Preamble. The Founding Fathers had several examples in mind, particularly the problems with the Articles of Confederation that governed the United States between the end of the War for Independence and the ratification of the Constitution. They also looked back in history at other republics and federal leagues, such as the Hellenic League between Greek city-states that was too weak to defend against the Romans and Persians. Alexander Hamilton was the most ardent proponent of a strong federal government. The Federalist Papers written by him give perhaps the best insight into the problems of a too-limited government. You can find and read the papers Hamilton wrote here. Question 4 - What issues did the Declaration of Independence fail to address? None! Because the Declaration incorporates the idea that was already hudreds of years old in English law that government had to follow God's moral laws found in the Bible there is not a subject that is left untouched by the Declaration, because there is not a subject left untouched in the Bible. James 1:25 says "But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but and effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does." Unfortunately, to understand how God's law creates freedom you have to do your homework. You need to have at least a fraction of the understanding of an English lawyer of the 18th century, since that is who the Declaration was written by and to whom it was addressed. Remember, just over a century before the American Revolution, Britain had undergone its own revolution which finally did put the king firmly under the power of a democratically elected Parliament. This revolution occurred in two parts, the Puritan Revolution of the 1640s and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The American Revolution - including our Declaration - was just the last step of a process that had begun in earnest with the Reformation in the early 16th century. The most important thing that happened in the Reformation was that ordinary people began to read the Bible for themselves. As they did, they learned not only the important spiritual truth about salvation by faith in Christ, they also learned God's rules for how people should treat each other. As people learned God's rules, an intellectual firestorm was ignited as men began to use their God-given reason to figure out how the rules applied to all social institutions, including government and the church. Perhaps surprisingly, what really led to political freedom was the struggle for freedom in the church - freedom from domination by the Catholic Church. As Christians rejected the idea that the Pope was anything other than a man like themselves they had to learn what the Bible said about how the church should be organized. The process of setting up a government of equals within the church led directly to the destruction of the absolute power of kings and civil government. There are many, many Christian thinkers who contributed to the evolution of liberty and influenced our Founding Fathers in writing both the Declaration and Constitution. To understand these documents, you have to understand what happened during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries leading up to the American Founding. And you need to read at least a few of the most important writers who influenced the Founders. Here are some suggestions: While he was a trustee of the University of Virginia - which he founded - Jefferson had an order passed mandating that two books be taught in all political courses at the university, because, he said, it was in these two books that Americans should look to understand their rights. The two books were Locke's Two Treatises of Government and Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government. Locke's second treatise and Sidney's Discourses can be found for free in the library at Constitution.org. I would also add Burlamaqui's Natural and Politick Law, which is the source Blackstone quotes for the meaning of the right to the pursuit of happiness. Today, most people think this means simply "do your own thing" but Blackstone explained that God had made us in such a way that we cannot be happy unless we follow God's moral rules. As a political right, then, the right to the pursuit of happiness is a right to be free from a governmet that forces you, or just allows you to do what God forbids, or that forbids you to do what God commands, or what God simply allows. I would also suggest reading Willam Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, which explains how rights - and therefore true freedom - come from moral obligations. Finally, perhaps the best book to read - because it condenses all of the above into something short and easy to read - is Never Before in History by our good friend Gary Amos. (This book must be between printings at the moment. To find a used copy, you might check at bookfinder.com.) When the U.S. was founded, both lawyers and pastors knew the Bible was their common source book. Unfortunately, too many Christian today do not understand how the Bible applies to law and government. We desperately need to restore our understanding of how Scripture alone creates freedom, prosperity, happiness, and peace. |
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