Filed under: Thomas Jefferson

Everson v. Board of Education

The 1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision was a departure from American legal foundations, striking at the very heart of self-government and liberty.  Within fifteen years, radicals on American campuses were gleefully rejecting and attacking core American belief for law.  Everson v. Board of Education appears to have been by far the most harmful court action taken against individual liberty since the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision ninety years earlier.

 

The Everson v. Board of Education decision twisted the meaning of the First Amendment of the Constitution in two ways.  According to Daniel L. Dreisbach, "First, the phrase emphasizes separation of church and state--unlike the First Amendment, which speaks in terms of non-establishment and free exercise of religion.  Second, a wall [term used by the Court] is a bilateral barrier that inhibits the activities of both civil government and religion--unlike the First Amendment, which imposes restrictions on civil government only [not on religious freedom]."*

 

Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation" metaphor was totally misrepresented by the judges.  He adamantly objected to any such tyranny against religious liberty.  Engraved on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC are his own words:  "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."  He was a religious seeker and regularly attended church services held on Sundays in the United States Capitol building.**

 

Instead of upholding their oath to abide by the Constitution, judges ruled by "incalculable and changeable decrees."  Rule by men replaced government by established law.  The reasoning behind their decision reflects the old European secular doctrine of open-mindedness for dumbing the people down and transforming society.  Instead of being umpires, unelected judges are trampling on the sacred rights of the people by legislating superior rights for the enemies of responsible liberty.

 

First_amend

*Daniel L. Dreisbach, Professor of Justice, Law, and Society at American University in Washington, DC, "How a Misused Metaphor Changed Church-State Law, Policy, and Discourse," essay, Heritage Foundation publication, June 23, 2006, http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles

**Hutson, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, 84.

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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.

 

Thomas_jefferson_quote_from_karen

 

*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.*

 

Wethepeopleimage2

 

 

*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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America's Civic Religion in Light of Congress

Even Congress has recognized that America has a civic religion. 

 

Presidents, as well as many other citizens, attended church services held on Sundays in the United States Capitol building.  President Thomas Jefferson, "during his whole administration, 1801-1809, was a most regular church attendant," documents James H. Hutson in Religion and the Founding of the American Republic.  Ministers of several Christian denominations conducted the services.  Honoring the nonsectarian God of creation in public and on government property is an important manifestation of civic faith.  In addition to attending church services in the Capitol building, Thomas Jefferson made significant financial contributions to that ministry.

 

"After the Civil War, from 1865-1868, the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., permitted the newly organized First Congregational Church of Washington to use its chambers for church and Sunday school services.  During that same time, specifically on June 13, 1866, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment which, according to some later judicial foolishness, forbids religious activities on public property."*

 

Addressing Congress, Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed:  "I anticipate nothing but suffering to the human race while the present systems of paganism, deism and atheism prevail in the world."**

 

English language Bibles had to be imported from England until 1782 when Congress authorized Robert Aitken to commence the first American printing of the Bible in English.   Aitken was also the official printer of the Journals of Congress for the United States Congress.  The following year, George Washington wrote a letter of commendation to Robert Aitken for his "Bible of the American Revolution."***

 

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 and legislators.  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 previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; 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, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions… And to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue."****

 

In 1954, Congress ordered that "a room with facilities for prayer and meditation…" be made available in the United States Capitol.  The seventh edition of The Capitol, an official publication of the United States Congress, describes the stained-glass window of the Congressional Prayer Room:

 

"The history that gives this room its inspirational lift is centered in the stained glass window.  George Washington kneeling in prayer… is the focus of the composition…  Behind Washington a prayer is etched:  'Preserve me, O God, for in Thee I put my trust,' the first verse of the sixteenth Psalm.  There are upper and lower medallions representing the two sides of the Great Seal of the United States.  On these are inscribed the phrases:  annuit coeptis--'God has favored our undertakings'--and novas order seclorum--'A new order of the ages is born.'  Under the upper medallion is the phrase from Lincoln's immortal Gettysburg Address, 'This Nation under God'…  The two lower corners of the window each show the Holy Scriptures, an open book and a candle, signifying the light from God's law, 'Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path' [Psalm 119:105]."*****

 

A primary duty of government officials and most certainly the duty of professors and teachers whose salaries are funded by taxpayers is to promote the liberating principles of the nonsectarian American civic creed that has been discussed in this and earlier blog posts.

 

1

 

 

*James H. Hutson, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1998, 84.  The entire book is available at lastingsuccessedu.org

**Benjamin Rush, Annals of Congress 1834, vol. I (September 25, 1789), 949-50.

***http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/

and

http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/colonial-bibles.html

****http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/GW/gw004.html

*****http://www.wallbuilders.com/downloads/newsletter/H.Res.888.pdf

 

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Natural Law vs. Secular Law

The natural-law philosophy, foundational to the American constitution, is in direct conflict with secular law.

 

The atheistic-secular philosophy for law identifies with what Solon of Athens described as "government by incalculable and changeable decrees" (Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. II, The Life of Greece, Simon and Schuster, 1939, 118).  No ~ a solid basis is necessary for prosperity and the self-government enablements of man, for which the Constitution was written.  Secular law leads to political adventurism, exploitation, death and slavery.

 

Separation of the three branches of government (checks and balances) is vital, but what about the Declaration of Independence pattern for separation from hierarchical rule?  This is outlined in the Bill of [citizen] Rights and intended to prevent government servants from perverting established law to grant rights that are harmful to the public.  They are also intended to prevent government servants from using the public's treasury to subsidize slothful citizens and thereby attract an irresponsible voting block.  

"Liberty and security in government depend not on the limits, which the rulers may please to assign to the exercise of their own powers, but on the boundaries, within which their powers are circumscribed by the Constitution.  With us, the powers of magistrates, call them by whatever name you please, are the grants of the people…  The supreme power is in them [the people]; and in them, even when the Constitution is formed, and government is in operation, the supreme power still remains.  A portion of their authority they, indeed, delegate; but they delegate that portion in whatever manner, in whatever measure, for whatever time, to whatever persons, and on whatever conditions they choose to fix" (Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, Lectures, 1790-1791).

 

The limited purpose for judicial independence is to enable judges to settle disputes without being pressured by special interests.  When judges establish policies by legislating or administrating, they have seriously violated their jurisdiction and become fascistic.  That is, they are overriding and preventing the people as sovereigns whose exclusive authority it is to elect like-minded representatives to do the legislating and serve as administrators. 

 

"The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary.  That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is engulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them."*  Upholding the intent and meaning of "certain unalienable [supreme] rights" of the people, outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, is indispensable.  Laws that protect sodomy, same-sex marriage, abortion, and the privileges of teacher tenure are a violation of essential American principles that protect the public from exposure to unsavory and virulent evil practices.  On the other hand, laws that protect a strong, responsible citizen majority are crucial to the survival of self-government and liberty from tyrannical government rule.  

 

As long as judges do not use their independence to twist the meaning of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to mask an authoritarian secular agenda, the American principles for life and liberty are not impaired or diminished.  All citizens, including judges, have the duty to protect the unalienable God-given rights to life and responsible use of liberty for others.

Judicial-activism

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* (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge Spencer Roane, March 9, 1821, www.marksquotes.com/Founding-Fathers/Jefferson/index7.htm)

 

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.

 

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Tyranny

 

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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Image_jeffersonvstyranny

 

 

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 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.

 

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