Filed under: Founding Fathers

Education That Is Profoundly American

Sound education rests on respect for the First Principle, namely, the God of Creation is man's benefactor.  Increases in knowledge are made possible by the connecting links of intelligible design. Irrefutable third-grade math, for instance, is a link to the latest reliable advances in the physical sciences.

 

John Jay is thought to be one of the most influential among the Founding Fathers.  He served as president of the first Continental Congress and was the first chief justice of the United States.  When Jay applied for admission to King's College in New York at the age of fourteen, one of the requirements he had to fulfill was to translate the first ten chapters of the Gospel of John from Greek into Latin.*

 

The Founding Fathers recognized that the preservation of the family, self-government, and liberty depends upon applying the timeless and universal principles found in the Bible.  And for Americans to have firsthand knowledge of the Bible, they must be taught to read.  Public school textbooks taught the alphabet through Bible verses that started with each letter.

 

Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, Founding Father and a Signer who arranged  the final draft of the Constitution, wrote "Religion is the only solid basis for good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man toward God" (The Life of Governeur Morris, Jared Sparks, Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1832, Vol. III, p 483, from his "Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France"). **

 

Immigrants from diverse backgrounds came to America and worked peacefully together because they shared a common mind on the issue of human equality, moral law and responsible citizenship.  They wanted no more potentates, or authoritarian clergy, professors or kings.  The Constitution clarified the point, when forbidding titles "of nobility," that could undermine the sovereign authority of the people under God over government (Section 9, article 8).

 

"O Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto:  'In God is our trust.'  And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" (From The Star-Spangled Banner).***

 

Gouverneur_morris_1752-1816

 

Gouverneur Morris

1725-1816

Founding Father and successful politician, diplomat and writer

He took twenty-three proposed resolutions and condensed them into the seven major articles

contained in the Constitution.

 

 

*John Eidsmore, Christianity and the Constitution (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 1987), 220.

**http://www.partyof1776.net/p1776/fathers/Morris%20Gouverneur/quotes/contents....

***"The Star-Spangled Banner" was made the national anthem of the United States by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. 301), and signed by President Herbert Hoover.

 

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Teacher Union Contracts

The Supreme Court's failure to apply the First Amendment for its intended purposes destroyed the perimeters necessary to protect society from morally incompetent teachers.  Statewide laws, enabling tenure guarantees for unqualified teachers, crept silently into legislation for lower-level public schools beginning in the early 1970s.  Only seven states have rejected such laws.  The leftist NEA union advantage of control continues, however, without tenure laws in those seven states.

 

Two paragraphs for teacher contracts demanded by NEA unions are the root of the problem.  These controlling paragraphs may be found in the contract between the NEA union (or its state affiliate) and the local school board or in the state public sector collective bargaining laws.  One paragraph provides teacher tenure, which makes it virtually impossible to fire a teacher.  There is also a confidentiality paragraph, making it a crime for school administrators to disclose the reason(s) for dismissing a teacher without advanced approval--a very costly and lengthy procedure.  If the citizens are not permitted by law to be informed, their political support, so desperately needed by the superintendent in order to fire a bad teacher, is successfully silenced.

 

"Precisely because of the obvious potential for abuse, even labor union advocates like AFL-CIO President George Meany and Franklin D. Roosevelt viewed unionization of the public employees as unthinkable."*

 

In March 2008, harsh debate in the Iowa legislature brought this problem to the public's attention.  Radicals, whose elections were advanced by large sums of campaign money received from outside the state, were pushing for changes in the public sector collective bargaining law.  A section making it even harder to fire harmful teachers caused "grave concerns" among school administrators.  "Margaret Buckton, chief lobbyist for the Iowa Association of School Boards, says [arbitration] adjudicators have tended to rule in favor of the teachers."  As the teachers' bargaining rights law now stands, "Attempts to remove a teacher can last years and cost hundreds of thousand of dollars."**

 

Any force that makes it impossible for the school administrator to be in control and implement the citizen consensus for values is, by definition, fascistic and advances the consequences of fascism.  It was this ever-present threat, and its consequent tyranny of the mind, that prompted elected representatives in the individual states to require that curbs be placed upon government employees via the First Amendment and the federal Constitution.

 

*Peter Brimelow and Leslie Spencer, "How the National Education Association Corrupts Our Public Schools," Forbes magazine, June 7, 1993.

*Dan Gearin, "Schools Concerned with Union Bargaining Bill," The Tribune (Ames, IA), March 27, 2008, B4.

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American Education Philosophy Corrupted

Those who champion the atheistic-secular concept of open-mindedness use it to justify exclusivity for imposing their God-rejecting life view upon captive classroom students.  "Not only must school teachers and principles be 'exemplars of open-mindedness and free inquiry, but severally and collectively, they must be prepared to proclaim their faith in that open-mindedness and free inquiry.'"  Here we must hearken to Dewey:  "The administrator will… realize that public education is essentially education of the public: directly, through teachers and students… in the transformation of society [into a God-rejecting, socialistic society]."*

 

Atheistic-secular demands that "school teachers and principals be exemplars of open-mindedness [in] the transformation of society" undermine the moral foundations of civil society.  The justification for a tax on the people for education, in a representative republic, requires that the curriculum promote foundational moral boundaries.  The constitutions of the Soviet Union, China and Cuba proclaimed liberty.  But in the absence of a moral predicate providing certainties for Constitutional law--such as provided in the American Declaration of Independence and Northwest Ordinance, they rule by what Solon of Athens called "incalculable and changeable decrees."**

 

Prior to the leftist takeover, the National Education Association published God-honoring, character-building booklets for students and parents as recently as 1950.  For example, A Golden Treasury from the Bible, contained twenty-four Bible verses, including Psalm 1; Proverbs 20:1; Exodus 20 (the Ten Commandments); Romans 12; John 3:16, 6:23, 14:1-4 and 15:1-4; 1 Corinthians 13; and Ecclesiastes 12:1, "remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

 

In contrast to the old European secular philosophy, the American philosophy of education requires that all prominent views, including the atheistic-secular view, be introduced, but that they are taught in the context of the history of their outcomes.  This is seen in the resolution proposed by both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and adopted by the newly founded University of Virginia (see Chapter 10 of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness).  Their resolution identifies the great need of our day, stressing citizen responsibility and the need for a thorough knowledge of historic American foundations.

 

The education guidelines set forth for the University of Virginia emphasize that "all students shall be 'inculcated' with the basic American principles for government," and, "None should be inculcated which are incompatible with those on which the Constitution of this States, and of the United States were genuinely based, in the common opinion."  The resolution also stated that the faculty had a standard of responsibility and were required to teach affirmatively these unique American principles.  Only after they had done so were they to teach the conflicting principles as such, judging them by the soundness of the American principles that served as a basis.***  These principles are detailed in Chapter 10 of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

Faithful school boards and administrators take seriously the fact that youthful trust, inexperience and vulnerability to exploitation by the enemies of the family and self-government require that the learning environment be protected.  God has given mankind a wonderful mind to use and explore the universe, with but one exception:  we are not to use our minds to absorb the details and wiles (deceptive snares) of evil (Genesis 3:13; Isaiah 5:15-16, 20; Romans 16:19; and James 1:12-17).

 

Image_nea_booklet

 

*James Allen Johnson, "A Note on Academic Freedom: Schoolmen Must Declare Their Faith," Phi Delta Kappan, 44:185-88 (January, 1963), in Robert Hoffman, Foundations of American Education (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1970), 192.

**Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. 2, The Life of Greece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939), 118.

***Nathaniel F. Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia as contained in the "Letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph B. Cabell" (n.p.: Richmond, Virginia, 1856), 339.  Repeated in Hamilton Albert Long, The American Ideal of 1776, Your American Heritage Books, 141-44, 147.

 

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A Celebration of Liberty

"Be it remembered, however, that liberty must at all hazards be supported … cannot be preserved without a vernal knowledge among the people…  And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.  The people … have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know."*  This is from the 1765 Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, by John Adams.  He was a devout Christian, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses that adopted the Declaration of Independence.  He was the second president of the United States.  Adams' wife, Abigail, has been recognized as a Founding Mother because of her influence on behalf of women's rights.  Their son, John Quincy Adams, was the sixth president of the United States.

 

Are we as citizen taxpayers willing to forfeit our liberty, the teaching of essential knowledge, as a courtesy to union bosses and tenured secular militants who have rejected American history, the traditional family, public morality and representative government?  AS EDUCATION GOES, SO GOES A NATION.

 

On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote the following to his wife, Abigail:  “The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.  I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.  It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more” (cited by David McCullough, John Adams, New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2001, 130).

 

On July 4, 1787, consistent with the nationwide custom, Philadelphia celebrated the Declaration of Independence with bell ringing, marching with fife and drums, the salute of guns and speeches.  It was Wednesday, and the constitutional delegates had taken the day off.  That "The Grand Convention may form a constitution for an eternal Republic!" was the toast of the day.  The Pennsylvania Herald declared, "With zeal and confidence we expect from the Federal Convention a system of government adequate to the security and preservation of those rights which were promulgated by the ever memorable Declaration of Independence."  

 

No more rule by pretender gods -- Samuel Adams is quoted as saying, "We have this day [Fourth of July] restored the Sovereign [the God of creation] to whom all men ought to be obedient.  He reigns in Heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come."*


Fireworks2

*http://www.usachristianministries.com/us-history-quotes-about-god-and-the-bible/

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Exegesis of the Constitution

 

The importance of firmness in retaining the original meaning of the Constitution for judiciary, legislative and administrative separation merits repeated emphasis.  The duty of unelected judges is to settle disputes based upon the Constitution and Precedents consistent with the Constitution.  Responding to the question, "Is there a role for politics in our judicial system?" Atonin Scalia, who has now served for over twenty years on the Supreme Court, said:  "The absolute worst violation of a judge's oath is to decide a case based on a partisan principle or philosophical basis, rather than what the law [states]."*

 

Prior to the Everson v. Board of Education decision in 1947, the First Amendment protected religious liberty.  Liberals going to court to get the Ten Commandments removed from public property would have been wasting their time.  A disruptive student who objects to the statement "Jesus is the reason for the season" on t-shirts in the public school would not have threatened a lawsuit.  The force of government was on the side of the people's civic right to use their institutions, including public education, to proclaim belief in the nonsectarian God of creation.

 

The First Amendment upholds the unalienable right of the people to share their religious beliefs and make comparisons.  With this knowledge they can then choose what appears to be best.  This competition between the religions strengthens the Higher Authority "government of laws, and not of men" consensus among voters.

 

"On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed" (June 12, 1823, Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography Notes on the State of Virginia, Public and Private Papers, Addresses and Letters, New York: The Library of American, 1984).

 

Modern_judge

*V.P. Price "Are There Too Many Lawyers?" Parade, September 14, 2008, 9.

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The Highest Court is Not the Supreme Authority

Why is it that so many things have gone wrong in the judicial branch of government?

 

Before proceeding, I want to acknowledge and honor the many attorneys and truly fine judges, including conservatives, on the Supreme Court who recognize the limited purpose of government and seek to uphold the people as sovereigns under God over government.

 

The reckless attitude of supremacist judges may stem in part from the use of the term "Supreme" Court when naming the highest court in the United States judiciary.  The Founding Fathers knew that the highest court itself is not the supreme authority.  Proof beyond any doubt can be demonstrated by a factual review of American foundations presented in Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

Dr. Benjamin Franklin's motion for daily prayer at the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787, focuses upon the Founding Fathers' beliefs about Supreme Authority:  "In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?  In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.  Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered…  I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men.  Can an empire rise without his aid?  We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the House they labor in vain that build it.'  I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel:  We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages."

 

"I therefore beg leave to move--that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."

Dr. Franklin himself seconded a substitute motion by Edmund Jennings Randolph:  "That a sermon be preached at the request of the convention on the 4th of July, the anniversary of Independence; and thenceforward prayers be used in ye Convention every morning."  

Six days later, the entire assembly of delegates worshiped together, with testimonies of praise to God at a nearby church in Philadelphia.*

 

Supreme_court

*http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=98

 

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John Adams: A Government of Laws and Not of Men

John Adams used the words "government of laws, and not of men" when he wrote the Bill of Rights for the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780.*  The preamble to the Massachusetts Constitution includes:  "We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe, in affording us, in the course of His providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other; and of forming a new constitution of civil government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, ordain and establish the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."  The Massachusetts Bill of Rights goes on to read like the principles in the non-sectarian Creator-based Declaration of Independence.**

 

In contrast, a government "of men" rests upon revisionist morality, which makes the Constitution meaningless.  Contemporary liberals who reject the God-honoring meaning for "government of laws, and not of men" are aided by militant atheists, who not only reject "government of law," but work feverishly to eliminate all references to God in education and public discourse.  Described by Solon of Athens as "government by incalculable and changeable decrees," the religious justification for revisionist morality is a strongly held belief about life's origin, meaning and purpose:  atheistic Darwinism.***  Sold as absolute science, the demand for education exclusivity is, in reality, the religion of scientific fascism.  Liberals are constantly revising Darwin's theory because the absurdity of their science is continually being exposed.  The underlying cause of the anger and militancy for their demands becomes clear.  They must prevent any ideological competition in the taxpayer-funded classroom.  Secular militants must have total control in order to dumb the students down.

 

Elected representatives make laws and serve by the "consent of the governed," who are "endowed by their Creator" with certain unalienable rights.  This claim reaches the very heart of American society and law.  Conservative Supreme Court justices have cited the Declaration as support for their decisions over two hundred times.  The Federalist Papers, written to promote acceptance of the Constitution by the people, cited the Declaration thirty-seven times.

 

When confronting the greatest crisis since the War for Independence, Abraham Lincoln turned to the Declaration to assert the "sacred right of self-government."****

 

When the Founding Fathers undertook a long war for independence, the did not dither, knowing full well that there were huge problems such as slavery and harmful citizen voting restrictions.  Citizen awareness, prayer and the Declaration of Independence resonates with people and by the grace of God those problems in 1776 were remedied.  With citizen awareness, which we are working on, and prayer, the cancer of socialistic paternalism can be removed.

 

Stuart_adams_john_c1800_15_ngdc

John Adams

2nd President of the United States

1735 - 1826

 

*www2.bartleby.com/73/991.html

**http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution#cp00s00.htm

***Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. II, The Life of Greece, Simon and Schuster, 1939, 118. 

****Abraham Lincoln, October 10, 1854, Peoria, Illinois, http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/peoriaspeech.htm

 

 

John Marshall: A Government of Laws and Not of Men

A related cause of judicial incompetence is the foolishness of judges who have closeted the true role of the nation's basis for law--the non-sectarian Biblical principles of the Declaration of Independence.

 

John Marshall wrote the landmark 1803 Marbury v. Madison opinion that inaugurated the concept of judicial review.  He served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from February 4, 1801 to July 4, 1835.  Marshall saw the importance of biblical morality in civic affairs as did the other Founding Fathers.

 

When writing the Marbury v. Madison opinion, Marshall said:  "The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men… That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis, on which the whole American fabric has been erected.  The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental.  And as the authority, from which they proceed, is supreme, and can seldom act, they are designed to be permanent."*

 

The meaning and intent of Chief Justice Marshall's statement--"The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men"--is clear.  "The government of laws" is based upon impartial Higher Authority moral law, "and not of men."  The benefit is that "government of laws, and not of men" is anchored in the timeless principles revealed by Scripture and proven beneficial in the American experience.  This stands in contrast to arbitrary rule and oppression that follow governments "of men," meaning rule by privileged authoritarians.  Application of this basic understanding preserves the all-important predicate for the safe and impartial application of government power.  It is the "rule of law," emphasized by Moses, that identifies with the desirable outcomes that prevail over circumstances and diverse cultural environments.

 

The rule or "government of laws" occurs when the voting sovereigns base their preferences for government on the wisdom that is available from the Creator and the self-evident boundaries of creation's nature.  The people then elect like-minded representatives to serve as lawmakers.  In contrast, self-righteous liberals, especially law professors who are given captive audiences (not held accountable to those who pay their salaries), fool people by teaching them that God has no relevance.  Citizens and judges must reject the wisdom of creation's God.  Then hierarchical elites slip into the vacuum as god, and society experiences the tyranny of the rule or "government of man."

 

John Marshall's Higher Authority basis for rejecting the atheistic secular government "of men" also concurs in full with the public standard of Benjamin Franklin whose call for prayer was adopted by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention.  In this regard, Henry Steele Commager, eminent historian of the twentieth century, points to the Creator-based Declaration of Independence as the source of America's unique principles of government, and refers to America's new political system for the vindication of God-given rights as "matchless logic" and of "permanent" rather than "transient" value.**

 

Unabashed belief in the providence of the universal and impartial God of creation, as a political principle, is fully American.  This was the source of the courage of the Founding Fathers when risking confrontation by the greatest military force on earth at the time.  The Higher Authority standard for morality in matters of law is indelibly written in American history:  "The Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions… And for the support of this Declaration [of Independence], with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

 

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*http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/democrac/9.htm

**Henry Steele Commager, forward to McGuffey's Sixth Reader (New York: The American Library, 1962), xiv.

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Government by Written and Permanent Law: Stability vs Manipulation

The most significant correction that came with the American Revolution was that citizens themselves were recognized as sovereigns under God over government.  In the United States, people looked to creation's God for higher authority.  The First Amendment rejection of power, claimed by government authoritarians, kings, academians, clergy, etc., unleashed competition for religion, education and speech among the people that enabled America to become the greatest nation in world history.

 

William Ellery Channing wrote, "Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man.  Appetite knowing no restraint, and poverty and suffering having no solace or hope, man would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws.  Virtue, duty, principle would be moved and scorned as unmeaning sounds.  A sordid self-interest would supplant every feeling, and man would become… a companion of brutes."*

 

"Government by written and permanent law" is not complicated.  No matter what one's religion, birthright or political view, the principles of the Declaration and universal absolutes shown here clearly distinguish right from wrong.  Stealing property that belongs to another is violating an unalienable right upon which liberty depends.  Adultery is a violation of the sacred obligations of marriage and family, creating stress and shortening life.  Dishonesty cheats the victim out of an unalienable, God-given right and undermines the reliable communication upon which commerce and community depend.  Deliberately stopping the heart of an unborn child is an horrific offense to the God of life as well as to society.

 

How then can the people protect themselves from cavalier authoritarians who manipulate changes in laws that enable radicals to dumb down students and, by extension, over time, manipulate society?

 

Historians Will and Ariel Durant pointed out Solon of Athens' recognition of the critical procedural choice that is directly related to limiting the options for political deception.  Do we insist upon "government by written and permanent law," or do we permit "government by incalculable and changeable decrees?"**

 

Impressions of Solon of Athens and other lawmakers from different cultures, with the focus on Moses and the Ten Commandments, are displayed on the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC.  Although Solon did not support his understanding with references to the Old Testament for reliable standards, he did recognize the ongoing dangers of deception by authoritarians who manage to dominate soft sciences.

 

"Government by written and permanent law" provides long-term stability.  Mankind is protected from short-lived popular fantasies and preserved from the inroads of political deception.  Secular elitists who insist that the American charter for the use of government power is a "living constitution" now artfully advance "government by incalculable and changeable decrees."  To retain respect for the family and liberty, the Constitution must be anchored to the political truth adopted by the Founding Fathers.

 

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*William Ellery Channing, 1820, The Great Doctrine of Retribution: The Founders' Views of the Social Utility of Religion, cited by James H. Hutson in a presentation to the John Courtney Murray Seminar at the American Enterprise Institute, 1150 Seventeenth Street, NW, Washington, DC, June 6, 2000.

**Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, the Solon of Athens "government by incalculable and changeable decrees" Vol. II, The Life of Greece, 1939, 118.

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Government by Written and Permanent Law: Liberty vs Oppression

"Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions, a government of FORCE [arbitrary and changeable decrees imposed by authoritarians], and a government of LAWS [governments that derive 'their just powers from the consent of the governed']; the first is the definition of despotism--the last Liberty" (Alexander Hamilton, Tully Papers, 1794).

 

In the words of Chief Justice John Roberts:  "Governments in world history have so often abused the power, and people have suffered because of it.  The framers decided they were going to lay down some rules to try to keep that from happening--that's what the Constitution is.  Of all the major written constitutions in history, it is the shortest.  It's not an elaborate code.  They were laying down basic principles that they wanted to endure and it is timeless… our Constitution is different from a lot of others.  Many countries that have constitutions--they're really just political documents."**

 

Corruption is limited when the development of law comes from the people unless, of course, they become estranged from God and the moral certainties of creation's nature.  When this happens the people become vulnerable to exploitation and paternalistic authoritarians.

 

"In questions of power let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

Thomas Jefferson

 

The American Principles One through Fifteen, Chapter 1, in the Restoring Education Central To American Greatness book that we have listed in previous blogs are changeless, practical and appropriate for government "by written and permanent law."  That "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

George Washington reminded future generations that they cannot neglect the personal responsibility for upholding the moral predicate for law:  "It is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ('keep alive the spirit of Liberty'); as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively directed.*

 

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*Chief Justice John Roberts, discussing the role of Constitutional American politics with C-Span host Lamb on August 5, 2006.

**George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, in The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, published by the authority of Congress, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 35, 214-38.

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For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

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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