Filed under: Constitution

A Letter To My Grandchildren

More than one of you have faced a challenge from your college professors or spiritual mentors that the War of Independence was "throwing off the government that God has placed upon you."  Some theologians do take that position according to Daniel 2:21, "He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings …"  A similar reference to this is, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God…" (Romans 13:1,2).

 

I would agree ~ IF the King of England had been proceeding according to written law.  

 

Following the British "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 and the ascension of William and Mary as joint monarchs, the proposal to draw up a declaration of subjects' rights and liberties was made in the House of Commons.   The completed declaration was codified as the British citizens' Bill of Rights in 1689.  Among the "ancient rights and liberties" asserted were "the right of the subject to petition the king and prosecutions for petitioning are illegal" as well as "subjects may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and allowed by law" and "excessive bail and fines shall not be required and cruel and unusual punishments are not to be inflicted."  There was an internal change of constitution following the excesses of James II.*

 

These laws protected the citizens' right to petition the King without fear of retribution.  He and his subordinates were repeatedly violating this and the citizens' right to freedom.

 

One hundred years later, Edmund Burke (1729-1797), a British statesman and orator, commented on this internal change of the British constitution by saying, "The Revolution was made to preserve our ancient indisputable laws and liberties, and that ancient constitution of government which is our only security for law and liberty."*  He opposed the King's efforts to suppress American independence.  

 

For years our Founding Fathers tried to negotiate reasonableness; but the British response was an iron fist, including the placing of troops on the coast.  Eventually negotiations between the colonists and the King collapsed.  Written like a legal brief, the Declaration of Independence detailed how their rights as British citizens were being violated.  They are "… taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments" (Declaration of Independence).

 

"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.  A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position" (President George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796).

 

Government employees are servants of the people who are the sovereigns under God over government.  The American Declaration of Independence and citizens' Bill of Rights, added later to the Constitution, provides the God-honoring design for government, and the Constitution is the tool for implementing that design.

 

Americans concurred with written law resting upon the British references to the Laws of Nature.  It is the governing character of Laws of Nature such as humility, the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments, that lead to success.  This is the sure foundation upon which man's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" rests.  Called "virtue" by America's Founding Fathers, the impartial and divine element frees man to do what is right.  "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

 

I identify with and support the several Norris ancestors who fought for independence.  Keep up the good work as students, my children.  I love you.  

 

Grandpa

M__d_army_in_front_of_house

Grandpa and Grandma Norris

Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas

1952

 

 

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*http://constitution.org/bor/eng_bor.htm

**http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1478-0542.003/abstract

 

Telling Taxpayers the Truth

The Declaration of Independence is universal and immortal in scope. It provides the design for freedom, justice and tolerance.

 

In their quest for liberty, our Founding Fathers focused upon 1) the conspicuous Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, 2) the Declaration of Independence, 3) the governing character of humility, 4) the Golden Rule, and 5) the morality of the Ten Commandments.  The Constitution was prepared and establishedThe Constitution is the tool for implementing that design of freedom, justice and tolerance.

Image_we-the-people-300x225

Leftist union bosses and unelected judges who allege entitlement to dictate our laws ARE THE ENEMIES of the American concept of man under God over government. Laws should reflect the will of the people who choose like-minded representatives to establish their laws. 

 

The purpose of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness is to tell people the TRUTH. When taxpayers realize what is happening, they resolve to restore their control.  For example, most Americans would be appalled to know how their education tax is being used in captive student classrooms. As a citizen, your help in this important matter is needed.

 

After reading only four chapters of the book, a public school teacher from Ames, Iowa said in amazement, “This was not taught to me in American history.”  She offered some great ideas for improving education; I agreed, but had to tell her that those ideas could not be instituted.  The problem that must be corrected in order to effect the changes she is looking for goes much deeper than that: it is with the system itself. The problem is that parents and the great majority of teachers no longer have control over what is being taught.

 

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

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American Principle Fifteen: Benevolence of God for Man Is Recognized by Our Founding Fathers

This concludes the rehearsal of immortal principles central to liberty and American greatness as found in the Declaration of Independence.  We believe in them because they reflect the unrelenting power of creation's God.  Compromise of any of these principles leads to harmful consequences.  Renewed exposure to these fifteen American principles is our most powerful weapon.  It is the light of truth that fortifies the minds of men and women, boys and girls.  Americans need not be enslaved for lack of knowledge.

 

 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Declaration of Independence

 

It is the open expression of faith in the nonsectarian God of creation and the unchanging laws of nature that put an end to atheistic secular oppression and deprivation in human history.

 

"The very name of patriotism is indeed become a jest with some men; which would be much stranger than it is, had not so many others made a jest of the thing, serving their own base and wicked ends, under the pretext and color of it.  But there will be hypocrites in politics, as well as in religion.  Nor ought so sacred a name [patriotism] so fall into contempt, however it may have been prostituted and profaned, to varnish over crimes.  And those times are perilous indeed, wherein men shall be only lovers of their own selves, having no concern for the good of the public.

 

"… Is there a Christian, who is required to love all men, and to do good to all, as he may have opportunity for it; is there a Christian, who does not love even his brethren, the members of the same body with himself?  Is there a Christian, who is void of all generous solicitude for his country's welfare?  Is there, who has no desire to see it in a prosperous and flourishing condition?  Who has no pleasure in actually seeing it so?  Is there, who has no grief, in beholding its calamities?  No disposition to serve it?  Such a person, though he were of a private character, would be a reproach not only to his religion, a religion of charity and beneficence, but even to our own common nature, as corrupt and depraved as it is.  But how much more infamous were this, in persons of public character?  In those on whom the welfare of their country, under providence immediately depends?" (Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., Pastor of the West Church in Boston … to the House of Representatives, 1754, An Election Sermon).

 

"To read the Constitution as the charter for a secular state is to misread history, and to misread it radically.  The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order" (R.J. Rushdoony, The Nature of the American System, Ross House Books, 2002).

Image_in_god_we_trust

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

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American Principle Eleven: Government and Union Monopolies Involving Education or Religion Are Prohibited--For Liberty's Sake

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a 'redress of grievances.'"

Constitution of the United States

 

Education that does not teach the timeless principles recorded in the Declaration of Independence empowers the enemies of life and liberty for the pursuit of happiness.  The delegates to the Constitutional Convention understood this, and they focused upon the fact that governments are by nature a nesting place for tyrants of the mind.

 

It is the collective political power granted to monopoly teacher unions and the establishment of tenure laws that empower the enemies of the family, human dignity, and self-government.  Tenured secular authoritarians have achieved control of curriculum used in the soft sciences and the study of law taught in government schools.  The weapons they use to enforce what must be taught include the ridicule and denigration of the reputation of anyone who dares to challenge leftist political correctness.  The use of the word "science" is code for their atheistic human origins, meaning, and purpose; "diversity" is code for demanding the approval of evil life practices; and "social justice" is code for using government power to force the transfer of wealth from the thrifty to their own block of voters. 

 

It is the competition of education suppliers that reduces inefficiencies in  government-run schools and helps restrain moral pollution by tenured government radicals.  The debasement of morality evident in the tragic church-state monopoly of Medieval Europe compares with the moral decline that started with government establishment of teacher unions.  First-amendment law intended to prevent the suppression of the right of parents to choose between competing education suppliers for their children's education are superior to all other laws--national, state, and local.

 

The indispensable role of education and religious liberty in the preservation of American principles for government is "self-evident."  Education that leaves new generations viewing government as some vague entity leaves them confused about truth.  They are then easy prey for manipulation by what Jefferson called "tyrants of the mind."  Definite and specific American principles for government of a responsible nature do exist.  Fifteen of them are my current focus of this blog.  

 

Education worthy of the name will emphasize that government is the servant of and for the people, the sovereigns under creation's God.

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

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Tyranny

 

American Principle Nine: Authoritarians in Government Are a Parasitic and Ever-Present Danger

"Taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws,

and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments [constitutions]."

Declaration of Independence

 

"In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution" (Thomas Jefferson:  Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798, ME 17:388).

 

Two notable efforts by power-hungry authoritarians occurred near the end of the war for independence.  First, army officers were conspiring to take control of Congress.  Second was an effort to make George Washington king.  He squashed both of them abruptly.  After all, Americans had just been through a bloody war with England to get rid of rule by authoritarians, religious and secular.

 

An axiom for detecting the corrupt and evil use of power is to follow the flow of money to politicians inside and outside of government.  Chief among tactics for overriding the will of the people at the state and local levels is bad election finance law.  The importation of millions of campaign dollars from homosexual- and abortion-rights advocates from outside a region to fund the campaigns of radicals in the region to be represented is destructive of representative government.  This should be prohibited.


"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.  A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position" (President Washington's Farewell Address, 1796, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=15).

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

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George_washington

George Washington

1732 - 1799

Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army (1775 - 1783)

First President of the United States (1789 - 1797)

 

 

American Principle Six: The Written Constitution Established By Americans Is a Tool For Governing

Governments derive "their just powers

from the consent of the governed."

Declaration of Independence

Image_consent_of_governed

We, the people, have as our guide God-honoring principles for directing the use of government power.  When, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dedicated the field where thousands gave their lives at Gettysburg, he concluded, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" (The Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863).

 

Americans established government when covenanting to share a small portion of their God-given rights to use force and keep thieves out of the corncrib.  It is the tax revenues provided by the people that give government its power.  

 

The tool is to be used in ways to achieve the goals spelled out philosophically in the Preamble:  "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare [meaning common needs that do not conflict with or hamper the development of the work ethic and personal self-reliance] and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 

Some delegates to the Constitutional Convention believed these principles of the Declaration of Independence for guiding government action would prevail without amending the Constitution because many states had already adopted a Bill of Rights.  Obviously the delegates did not anticipate the pervasiveness of the federal judiciary as it has since developed.  Ultimately the Founding Fathers at the state level made a most significant contribution by insisting that the nation's Constitution be amended by a Bill of Rights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

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American Principle Five: Liberty Is Vital

"Unalienable Rights,

That among these are … liberty."

Declaration of Independence

 

Liberty--from oppression by big government and nongovernment authoritarians--is vital.  "Liberty and life are the gratuitous gifts of heaven.   I shall certainly be excused from adducing any formal arguments to evince, that life, and whatever is necessary for the safest of life, are the natural rights of man.  Some things are so difficult; others are so plain, that they cannot be proved" (Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, Lectures, delivered in the College of Philadelphia 1790-1791, volume II, part II, chapter 1, Lorenzo Press, 1804).

 

Liberty and self-reliance for independence are God's gifts for man to claim.  Liberty in the context of the Declaration of Independence and Preamble to the Constitution means freedom from government activity that would undermine the development of citizen self-reliance.  Accepting promises of politicians who use the public treasury to provide things that replace personal responsibility is a trap. Helping those who are incapable for reasons beyond their control is, of course, man's duty and beneficial to all, but paternalistic government services attract and enlarge an irresponsible voting block. When reduced to dependence, this cannot be reversed.  

 

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God?  That they are not violated but with His wrath?  Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just:  that His justice cannot sleep forever" (Thomas Jefferson:  signer and principle author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782, ME 2:227).

Jefferson_quote1

 

The Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson's Quote From the Northeast Interior Wall


A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

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American Principle Three: Upholding the Traditional Family Is Paramount

"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."

Declaration of Independence

 

Protecting the traditional family as a distinct institution is among the highest priorities for a nation's laws.  This historic arrangement has proven overwhelmingly to be the best setting for raising children to live healthy, responsible and productive lives (Genesis 2:23-24).

 

"That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety" (James Madison in the first session of the US Congress, proposing the Bill of Rights amendments be added to the Constitution of the United States).

James_madison

James Madison

1751-1836

Fourth President of the United States,

key author of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

 

 

"The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband and wife become in law only one person" (James Wilson, Natural Rights of Marriage, 1792, teachingamericanhistory.org).

James_wilson

James Wilson

1742-1798

Signer of the Declaration of Independence, twice member of the

Continental Congress, one of six original Supreme Court justices

appointed by George Washington

 

 

American Principle Two: God Is the Source of Unalienable Rights

“All men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Declaration of Independence

 

“We The People Of The State Of Iowa, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government, by the name of the State of Iowa …”

Preamble, Constitution of Iowa, adopted in 1846—

seventy years after the Declaration of Independence

Image_patch

Belief in a Higher Authority also believes in the opposite side of the coin:  that man does not originate law, God does.  Legislators articulate this pre-existing law and give it particular applications to changing circumstances.

 

During the 1765 crisis caused by the king's Stamp Act, John Adams, when writing the Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, August 12, 1765, the Boston Gazette, pointed out that liberty was not man's creation or something radically new to the world, but rights "derived from our Maker," rights "indisputable, unalienable," "inherent," "essential," "divine" and even acknowledged since the Middle Ages by British law.

 

"We further recommend the most clear and explicit assertion and vindication of our rights and liberties to be entered on the public records, that the world may know, in present and all future generations, that we have a clear knowledge and a just sense of them, and, with submission to Divine Providence that we never can be slaves" (John Adams, pictured below, adopted on October 14, 1765, by the town meeting of Braintree, Massachusetts, and sent to their representatives in the Massachusetts state legislature).

 

Those who reject God's authority and proceed to fix the rights of others are, by definition, false gods and, in practice, become tyrants.  Alexander Hamilton, in The Federalist, No. 78, says:  "A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law."  When a particular statute violates the meaning of the Constitution, it is the duty of judicial tribunals to disregard it and adhere to the Constitution.  

 

"The sacred Rights of mankind are not to be rummaged from among old parchments or musty records.  They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or voided or obscured by mortal power" (teachingamericanhistory.org, Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775).

 

Education in America today is energizing the enemies of the family, self-rule, prosperity and liberty because it does not emphasize that man’s unalienable rights are the gift of God.

Inalienable_rights

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.  For more information or to purchase the book:

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American Principle One: The Spiritual Nature of Man is Supreme

There is a definite, unique, American belief that translates into specific principles for the establishment and workings of our government.  It can be found in the Declaration of Independence. 

James Wilson was one of six men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.  Addressing the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention for the new constitution, Wilson read the Declaration of Independence and then he stated:  “This [Declaration] is the broad basis on which our independence [from authoritarian rule] was placed; on the same certain and solid foundation this [the Constitution of the United States] system is erected.”*

 

Declaration_of_independence
This begins a discussion of immortal principles central to liberty and American greatness as found in the Declaration of Independence.   Compromise of any of the following principles leads to harmful consequences.

American Principle One:  The Spiritual Nature of Man Is Supreme

“All men are created ... endowed by their Creator …”

Declaration of Independence

Foundational to liberty and the American approach to government is the fact that man is of divine origin.  His spiritual or God-honoring nature is held as being of supreme importance.  Upholding man’s God-given “rights” from abuses sanctioned by governments makes liberty possible.  The divine quality of these rights calls for the unequivocal rejection of the authoritarian entitlements claimed by elitists of all stripes—kings, authoritarian politicians, clergy, educators, and militarists.  This principle enshrines certain limits that must, for the sake of liberty, be placed upon the use of the law and government power.

Humble support for the sovereignty of man under God over government is the guarantor of freedom for family wholeness, self-reliance, and prosperity.  People who know the truth can reject, without fear, the alarming chatter of atheistic sectarians.

Stay tuned for my next blog entry:  American Principle Two.

 *(cited in John Elliot, Elliot’s Debates, The Debates In The Several State Conventions Adoption Of The Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 11-20-1787, Book I, published 1836, 457).

 

 

 

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