Filed under: George Washington

The American Revolution: Unjustified Rebellion or Unavoidable Self-defense?

In 1776, King George III was violating written law, the 1215 Magna Carta and the 1689 Declaration of Rights that had been imposed on government officials by the English people.  1) Written law placed strict limits on what government officials, kings, academia, militarists, clergy, etc. could do.  2) The king was required to sign a contract, a Magna Carta, before being installed upon the throne.  3) In 1689, government officials were exploiting the people in spite of the Magna Carta.  At that time, the people refused to accept a king until he and his queen took oaths and signed an explicit contract.  That document was a Bill of Rights, if you will, for the English people.

 

Objections by the original colonies regarding the rule of the British king began when he imposed a series of unjust laws that violated the colonists' rights as British citizens.  The colonists objected most vehemently to taxation without representation.

 

Nearing the end of 1773, the Colonists were refusing to pay taxes required by the British Parliament because their representatives had not been allowed to participate in tax enforcement decisions.  If Americans paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them.  On December 16, with three shipments of tea in Boston harbor the crisis came to a head.  In the early evening about 200 colonists descended upon the three ships and dumped the expensive shipments into harbor waters.  This act was monumental and there could no longer be any misunderstanding about the political will of Americans.

 

On September 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress came together in Philadelphia with hopes of reaching an agreement with the British king. A respectful petition was sent on October 25 to the King, pointing out acts of oppression.  Congress was still communicating the desire of Americans to remain as British subjects although Americans had a valid concern.  Alexander Hamilton expressed it well in a published pamphlet:  "The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists of this:  in the former state, man is governed by laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or, by his representative.  In the latter he is governed by the will of another" (Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution, Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1985, 160).

 

In 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened on May 10.  The goal of the colonies was justice, not independence.  On July 5, 1775, the Continental Congress approved the Olive Branch Petition and appealed "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, Most Gracious Sovereign" for reconciliation.  The King's response?  He refused to read the petition and on August 23 proclaimed that the colonies had "proceeded to open and avowed rebellion."*

 

The English Parliament retaliated on December 22, 1775, with the American Prohibitory Act, a declaration of unrestricted war against the colonists, claiming the right to confiscate their property.  Freedom for Americans at this point became a matter of self-defense and necessitated a new republican (republic) government.**

 

From June 1775 to December 1783, upon the recommendation of John Adams, George Washington served as commanding general of the Continental Army.  The winter at Valley Forge (1777-78) is an example of the privation suffered by the soldiers who gave their lives for liberty.  At this time, George Washington had a portion of Thomas Paine's The American Crisis read to the American army:

 

"These are the times that try men's souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.  Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.  What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly:  it is dearness only that gives every thing its value."***

 

In 1776, on July 4, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, and the American nation was born.

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*http://www.learner.org/workshops/primarysources/revolution/docs/olive.html

**http://www.manhattanrarebooks-history.com/prohibitory_act.htm

***http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/37676

Image from http://www.behance.net/milkomelian/frame/357459

 

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American Principle Ten: Government Must Be Decentralized

"…repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny [British King] over these States."

Declaration of Independence

 

Officials who bypass the principles of limited government are suppressing the supreme right of the people to rule.  Such officials have violated their duties as trustees and are in effect usurpers, oppressors and tyrants.

 

The American system is "a Republic--a federation, or combination, of central and state republics--under which: the different governments will control each other…  Within each republic there are two safeguarding features: (a) a division of powers, as well as (b) a system of checks and balances between separate departments: hence a double security arises [essential] to the rights of the people."

(James Madison, Federalist, No. 51, 1788)

 

Regarding the federal government usurping essential citizen rights, "True barriers [for] of our liberty are our State governments."

(President Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, 1801, http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/founders/jefferson/thomas-jefferson-first-...

 

"The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes.  To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them."

(George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=15)

 

"Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possesses their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

(President Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, 1801, http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/founders/jefferson/thomas-jefferson-first-... 

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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).

 

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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 Seven: Interpreting the Constitution Is Predicated By Morality

"We hold these truths to be self-evident …"

Declaration of Independence

 

"Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.  Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with

indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?"

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

 

Declaration-of-independence
The Founding Fathers wrote God-honoring natural-law philosophy into the Declaration of Independence.  Morality inherent in natural law is the underpinning of the Constitution.  Persistence in upholding this perspective separates the Constitution as a tool from defilement by the adherents of man-made law (Alexander Hamilton, Tully Papers, in Philadelphia newspapers 1794).

 

Natural law reflects the common-sense separation of wrong from what is right, as does man's God-given conscience.  In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 1, Paul rejoices in "the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward."

 

Provisions that distinguish the application of American Constitutional law include not destroying innocent life, not stealing and not being untruthful.  Following through on one example, lying when a person gives evidence in a court of law is the crime of perjury.  Liberal law professors avoid discussions about the origin of natural law because that requires an acknowledgment that the predicate for Constitutional interpretation--"government of laws, and not of men"-- resides in higher biblical authority.

 

The impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"* are the moral connectors that uphold the work ethic, prosperity, and civil community.  When we speak of morality here, we are speaking of what John Marshall wrote in the Marbury v. Madison opinion.  He said, "The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men."

 

It is this bold rejection of the foundational history of law by atheistic-secular authoritarians and the elevation of natural-law philosophy that caused immigrants, by countless millions, to come to America.  And it is the ironclad benefit resulting from applying the impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" that cause them to stay in America.

Prog1sm

*The phrase "Nature's God" used in the Declaration of Independence did not originate with Americans.  The laws of nature's God include the biblical standards of morality.  When the bond between God and man was broken in the Garden of Eden, the forces of evil that seek to defy creation's nature were unleashed.  "The law of nature was a common term used by historic legal writers such as Grotius, Burlamaqui, Blackstone and others.  The law of nature's God, a lesser used term, was more commonly called the divine law, or the revealed law"

(Loning Historical Reference Works).

 


 

 

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Thanksgiving and the First Amendment

On September 25, 1789, Congress requested unanimously that President Washington proclaim a national day of thanksgiving and prayer. This is the same Congress that on the same day approved the final draft of the First Amendment to protect the people’s rights to religious freedom from suppression by government administrators, judges, or legislators.

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President Washington proclaimed on October 3, 1798: “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor …  Now, therefore, I do recommend … that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country ... for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed  ...

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations.”

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The President’s proclamation included,

 “ ... and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions ... to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.”

 

(Jared Sparks, ed., The Writings of George Washington, vol. 12, Boston:  Ferdinand Andrews, 1838, p. 119-20, www.forbes.house.gov/uploadedfiles/Footnoted397.pdf) 

 

True Patriotism

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In his Farewell Address, Washington reminded Americans that:

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them."

(George Washington, Farewell Address, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_ century/washing.asp.)

Knowledge of the Bible, the Great Reformation (1517-1648), and the American experience inspires individuals to become self-governing and, on a broader scale, inspires communities and the nation as a whole to overcome the tyranny of moral confusion.  Even the German atheist Friedrich Nietzsche understood the source of freedom for his way of life when he wrote:  "Remove Christianity and the ideas fall too."  (Cited by Dinesh D'Souza, "Created Equal:  How Christianity Shaped the West," Hillsdale College Imprimis, November 11, 2008.)

 

Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844-1900

German philosopher

 

Failure to acknowledge the benevolent laws of God and creation's nature and conform to moral truth guarantees harmful consequences.  When God's benevolent provision is rejected in any particular, the rejecter bears the price of that sin against himself and the will of God.

 

A most insightful analysis has been presented by Marvin Olasky.  As a Marxist intellectual, he was highly regarded by the chairman of his PhD academic program and dissertation committee at the University of Michigan.  Marvin Olasky, who became disillusioned by the shallowness of socialistic panaceas, became a solid convert to Christianity.

(Marvin Olasky, “God Doesn’t Give Up,” World Magazine, May 23, 2009, 64-67).

Olasky

Marvin Olasky

1950-

Author

Whittaker_chambers

Whittaker Chambers

1901-1961

Author

Olasky concurs with Whittaker Chambers, who came to believe in God after being a Communist Party member in the 1920s and 1930s.  In the autobiography Witness, Whittaker Chambers writes:  "A Communist breaks because he must choose at last between irreconcilable opposites--God or man, Soul [conscience] or Mind [emotions], Freedom or Communism ....

Patriotic-bible-americanflag

The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree

 in which it is indifferent to God."

 

 

 

 

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