Restoring Education Central to American Greatness http://davidanorris.posterous.com David A. Norris Blog posterous.com Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:36:11 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-85354 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-85354

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" (The Federalist No. 51, by James Madison).

 

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).

 

"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" (President George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796).

 

"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).

 

 

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Fri, 01 Mar 2013 08:21:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-9912 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-9912

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

 

 

"They know from experience… beset as they continually are by the wiles of parasites and sycophants [self-seeking] by the snares of the ambitious, the avaricious [greed for money], the desperate; by the artifices of men, who possess their confidence more than they deserve it, and of those who seek to possess, rather than to deserve it" (The Federalist No. 71, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

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.  Washington 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 in and outside of government.  Chief among tactics for overriding the will of the people is fraudulent election finance law.  The importation of millions of campaign dollars from homosexual and abortion rights advocates from outside a region to be represented, given to those who would make the laws, is destructive of representative government.  The people and representative governments must be protected from the importation of campaign funds from outside the region served by an elected government official.  This is not a violation of free speech.  Failure to do so is a crime against republican (not political party) government.  Such violations call for severe punishment.

 

"For it is a truth which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger, when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion" (The Federalist No. 25, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

 

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Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:19:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-1255 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-1255

American Principle Seven (Part II)

 

The Moral Duties Of Civility Are Also a Predicate

For Interpreting Constitutional Meaning

 

"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, 1796

 

 

The Bill of Rights of Massachusetts provides, with clarity, truth learned from Scripture and the laboratory of history: "The happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality…"  Citizens in four additional states agreed to ratify the Constitution by adopting the same wording for their state's Bill of Rights.

 

Jefferson emphasized justification for taxpayer-funded education: "The first elements of morality too may be instilled in their minds; such as, when further developed as their judgments advance in strength, may teach them how to work out their own greatest happiness, by shewing them that it does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed them, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits" (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782).

 

The Grand Jury for the 11th Judicial District of Iowa investigated problems in higher education.  Their Presentment was adopted unanimously December 23, 1968: "In the field of morality all basic truths have been apprehended.  All the changing conditions we hear so much about [the charm of immoral practices] do not affect [negate] the validity or applicability of the central directives of human conduct.  These truths are demonstrable in terms of benefits and as to how it is that those who disregard them fall easily into alien pitfalls of Fascism, lawlessness, drug addiction, etc.  There is no greater contribution a teaching institution can make to human progress and purpose than to endow students at all levels with this knowledge."

 

The few teachers who are militantly opposed to the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and limited government, present their dogma with godly charm and the promises of an easier life.  Why is secular Political Correctness so dangerous?  Those who disagree, the good teacher majority and students, dare not present data that disproves what is being taught.  Those who do so are victimized by any number of charges… bigotry, unconcern for the destitute, diversity-hating, whatever.  Consequently, students are not taught about the standards of morality that make self-government, prosperity and liberty possible.

 

What is the price?  Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his Templeton Address, said: "More than a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God: that's why all this has happened.' Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by upheaval.  But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened'" (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Men Have Forgotten God, The Templeton Address, 1983, in National Review, July 22, 1983, 873, quote from David A. Noebel, Understanding the Times, 247-8).

 

The solution requires restoring the intent and meaning of the Bill of Rights that will restore the parents' freedom to choose from among schools that must compete for students.

 

 

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Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:16:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99555 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99555

American Principle Seven (Part I)

 

The Moral Duties Of Civility Are Also a Predicate

For Interpreting Constitutional Meaning

 

"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, 1796

 

 

"Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"* morality fits into the behavioral envelope that supports life, truthfulness and the Golden Rule, meaning treating others in ways that one would like to be treated and would like loved ones to be treated.  Immorality includes those traits called sin that fall outside the envelope of life.

 

Together, morality and work ethic is the engine that liberates mankind from the tyranny of aggressive government employees.  Liberty from intrusive government makes it possible for the people to market their skills to own property essential for maintaining independence and happiness.

 

"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites.  Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere… men of intemperate minds cannot be free.  Their passions forget their fetters" (Edmund Burke, British supporter of the American Revolution, November 3, 1774, speech to the electors of Bristol, England, quoted by HIllsdale College, Imprimis, Vol. 20, No. 9).

 

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).  Secularism is an evil repudiation of the solid basis for prosperity and citizen self-government intended by Constitutional law.

 

Government potential for power as well as the lucrative public treasury attract politicians who are intent on self-aggrandizement and conquest.  Expressed by President Ronald Reagan: "Government is not the solution to our problems, it is the problem" (Inaugural Address, 1981).  "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.  The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, 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, Farewell Address, 1796).

 

*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" (Lonang Historical Reference Works).

http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/index.html

 

 

 

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Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:00:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-54471 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-54471

American Principle Six (Part I)

 

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

 

 

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.  The tax revenues provided by the people, as sovereigns under God, give government its power to function.

 

George Washington, who chaired the Constitutional Convention, wrote about the dangers of government:  "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force.  Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."  The original unamended Constitution provides the nuts and bolts needed to curtail the abuse of power by government employees.  The Constitution was tailored to expose and remove government employees who use the people's treasury to purchase fame for themselves and twist the liberating self-government role of the people as intended by constitutional law.  The delegates identified the self-serving principles used by dishonest men and built in many compliant checks between officials and departments whose limited powers are detailed.

 

In like manner, automobiles need nuts and bolts such as brakes, accelerator control and lights to work safely.  Tools need a second set of laws to maintain their limited use and purpose.  The predicate limiting the use of automobiles includes speed limits, stop signs and no-travel zones.  The predicate limiting the use of government power includes the Creator-based Declaration of Independence and the Bill of [unalienable God-given human] Rights law.  The emphasis of these charters is that the monopoly power of government must never be granted to church or religious leaders, education, media or other privilege-seeking unions.  Permitting government establishment of these entities ALWAYS ends up with power-seeking authoritarians leveraged by law.  They then confuse, mislead and control the people with distorted versions of truth and morality.  It is the people at the grassroots of society who are the diviners of truth and morality, not government-established bosses.  This can only occur when knowledge providers (teachers, religious leaders, media or privilege-seeking unions) are required to compete against one another for the support of citizens in the public arena of ideas.

0478-0611-1413-4904_george_washington_at_valley_forge_m

 

Image from http://www.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_free_images/0478-0611-1413-4904_george...

 

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Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:33:00 -0800 Introduction III http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iii http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iii

Historically, public schools salvaged many students from homes where parenting was failing. Now students from good homes are abandoning the values that made America such a great nation.  This problem is ongoing even though most teachers are doing their best to counter the incursion of secular absolutism (atheism) in the soft sciences of our schools.

 

John Adams' quote:  "But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who 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; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.  Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys, and trustees. 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."  John Adams was a direct descendant of Puritan colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  A Harvard graduate, he served on the First Continental Congress and helped to draft the Declaration of Independence.  John Adams was vice-president under George Washington and the second president of the United States  (A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1766 from The Works of John Adams, …by his grandson, Charles F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 10 volumes).


 

Truth or Consequences

 

Knowledge of and acceptance of the Bible, the Great Reformation (1500-1570) and American history empower conscientious individuals to be self-governing and, on a broader scale, inspire communities and the nation as a whole to overcome the tyranny of moral confusion.  Identifying with the first principle (God of Creation is Man's Benefactor) enables believers to avoid the deception and confusion advanced by truth-trashers.

 

Strangely, even the German atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche, accepted the message from human history and understood the source of freedom for his way of life.  He wrote:  "Remove Christianity and the ideas fall too."*

 

*http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2008&month=11

 

The American Founding Fathers understood human history and identified the distinction of good as self-evident Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.  It is the governing character of these principles (laws), such as humility, the Golden Rule, and the Ten Commandments, that leads to lasting 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).

 

 

 

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Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:07:00 -0800 The Morality of Civility http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-morality-of-civility http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-morality-of-civility

"'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, 1796).*

 

The Northwest Ordinance is a rock-solid example of the nonsectarian religious predicate embraced as constitutional law.  When the Articles of Confederation was replaced by the new Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance was passed again and became effective under the new Constitution.  George Washington signed the Northwest Ordinance back into law on August 7, 1789.  Article III specified "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged."**  During this same period of time (July 17 to August 7, 1789), the same men who had implemented the Northwest Ordinance were writing the First Amendment to the Constitution [prohibiting government officials from interfering with religious freedom, printing press and education competition].

 

Even some atheists and skeptics realize the inviolate nature of what Americans call the "laws of God and creation's nature."  Ernest Renan, the agnostic, warned his friends: "Let us enjoy the liberty of the sons of God, but let us take care lest we become accomplices in the diminution of virtue which would menace society if Christianity were to grow weak.  What should we do without it?  If Rationalism wishes to govern the world without regard to the religious needs of the soul, the experience of the French Revolution is there to teach us the consequences of such a blunder."***

 

History summarizes the nature of war against responsible citizen self-rule and liberty.  When Whittaker Chambers left the Communist party, he feared that the world would succumb to the parasitic nature of socialistic promises.  He said that the only hope was to discover "a power of faith which will provide mans' mind, at an intensity, with the same two certainties: a reason to live and reason to die."**** President Reagan angered leftist sympathizers in American media and universities by using the word "evil."  On March 8, 1983, Reagan said the Cold War would "never be decided by bombs and rockets…"  We would prevail because of belief in God.  What is teaching moral revisionism (objected to by over 90 percent of taxpayers, teachers, and administrators) now accomplishing in student minds' in captive public schools?  Reagan concluded, the strength to prevail "is not material but spiritual."*****

 

*http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp

**http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=48

***http://www.scribd.com/doc/79320764/HISTORY-OF-CHRISTIANITY

****http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2001/04/whittaker-chambers-man-of-co...

*****http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/speeches/evilempire.htm

Northwest_ordinance_of_1787_card-p137813764267429633bhc2d_325

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Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:34:00 -0800 The Sovereignty of the American Citizen http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-sovereignty-of-the-american-citizen http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-sovereignty-of-the-american-citizen

Those among us who choose to exchange declining relationships and health for the temporary excitements of moral revisionism is one thing.  Exercising that diversity in private is their right.  Those demanding the right, however, to take over behavioral curriculum in taxpayer-funded public schools is another.  The war they have imposed, by pressuring liberals in government, must be confronted and won.  America is a Republic!  The "living Constitution" idea of changeable decrees imposed by liberal judges (1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision) always becomes despotism because power in the hands of man, over time, becomes corrupt.

 

"Our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who 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; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.  Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority. 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" (John Adams, Vice-President under George Washington, and second president of the United States, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1766 from The Works of John Adams, …by his grandson, Charles F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 10 volumes).

 

The sovereignty of man under the impartial and higher authority of creation's God over government is traceable from the Bible to the Magna Carta, 1215, signed at the point of a sword by a frightened king.  It is likewise traceable to the English Bill of Rights, 1689, signed by a would-be brutal king.  We then have the God-honoring American Declaration of Independence, 1776, the War of Independence, and then the Constitution highlighted by the First Amendment and the Bill of [human] Rights which details what servants in government must never be allowed to violate.

 

The Common Law jury system, resting final authority in the people, came alive in America on March 4, 1789, the date Congress set for the start of the new ConstitutionThis is the most important feature of the American Constitution.  George Washington became our first president under the Constitution on April 30, 1789.

 

Revelations of the American Judeo-Christian heritage are singularly qualified to foster personal responsibility, citizen self-government and prosperity.  People do not steal the fruits of other men's labor.  The community helps those few who are not able to work or are indigent for other reasons.  Reputations for honesty do not rest in the words of evil gossips.  Taxpayer-funded educators support the character of the traditional family.

 

God does not control men; He protects those who will listen.  By applying God-honoring interpretations of Scripture and being sensitive to His Spirit, man becomes self-controlled (Hebrews 13:18-20).  "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

 

First_amendment_in_yellow

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Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:39:00 -0800 The First Amendment http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-first-amendment http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-first-amendment

The most important of all the amendments is the First Amendment.  This is demonstrably true.  It was not until secular militants were leveraged by the 1947 Supreme Court's Everson v. Board of Education decision that the role of moral absolutes ceased to be standard in government schools.

 

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."*

 

The First Amendment was added to the Constitution to emphasize the proper use of the Constitution as a tool to protect and uphold religious freedom.  This freedom enables the religious denominations to compete in public, including education.  This, in turn, sharpens the importance of moral absolutes in the minds of citizens who are the sovereigns under God over government.  For most of our history, the Judeo-Christian basis for citizen self-rule has been vigorously taught.  Non-denominational prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance were practiced in classrooms.  For several decades now the moral religions, most directly Christianity, have been under systematic attack by liberal judges.  Americans can agree with the following quote as long as any conflict between amendments to the Constitution are reconciled by having the First Amendment, in its original meaning up until 1947, upheld as supreme.

 

"A constitution, like any other document, is to be read as a whole.  The court, in the language of the lawyers, 'will take the instrument by its four corners' and read each part in the light of the rest.  Since written constitutions come into effect through popular assent, the meaning intended by the people would be sought by the courts.  The common understanding of the words at the time the language was employed is therefore of cogent significance.  This consideration, however, will not prevent the application of the terms employed to conditions arising later and not contemplated at the time the language was adopted…  There is an ancient rule of statutory construction, coming down through Blackstone, that in seeking the true meaning of legislative language the court will take cognizance of the 'old law, the mischief and the remedy.'  The rule is useful in constitutional construction" (Rosco Pound, Dean of the Law School of Harvard University, Volume III, National Law Library, P. F. Collier & Son Publishers, New York, New York, 1939, 23-24).

 

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


 

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Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:01:00 -0700 Curriculum That Is Profoundly American http://davidanorris.posterous.com/curriculum-that-is-profoundly-american http://davidanorris.posterous.com/curriculum-that-is-profoundly-american

The proposal for education advanced by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and adopted by the University of Virginia provides an excellent formula for teaching American history and government.  It provides indisputable evidence of the American principles that are imperative for education in the taxpayer-funded classroom.

 

The resolution stated that "all students shall be inculcated with the basic American principles of government…  None should be inculcated [taught] which are incompatible with those on which the Constitution of this State, 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.  The resolution then specified six writings that, in the board's opinion, reflected the unanimously supported principles unique to America that youth should be taught.  "These documents were John Locke's Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government (1690), Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government (1698), the Declaration of Independence, Washington's Farewell Address, the Virginia Resolutions of 1799 (adopted by the Virginia legislature), and the Federalist Papers."*

 

The character-building curriculum now taught by homeschool parents and many Christian private schools is comparable to the curriculum taught in common schools and one-room neighborhood schools in early America.  At that time, such schools often had, say, thirty students, some at nearly every grade level, with one teacher.

 

Noah Webster's textbooks, including the Webster's Blue-Back Speller, were standard for American schools until early 1930.  Conversant in many languages, he spent several years writing the Webster's Dictionary that preceded the dictionary used in America today.  His definitions were often supported by Scripture.

 

Webster taught school in West Hartford, Connecticut, and later served as a soldier during the American Revolution.  He spent nine terms in the Connecticut legislature and three terms in the Massachusetts legislature.  A strong proponent for convening the Constitutional Convention, he wrote what became Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

 

Webster was concerned that the youth of our nation would learn to check their emotions and avoid the fears and pitfalls of foolish imaginations.  Karl Marx stirred up the emotions of heady intellectuals.  With promises of a utopia, he captured millions who, to the great loss of their families and even nations, embraced secular popularism.  The Webster dictionary defined emotions as the "strong impression, or vivid sensation that immediately produces a reaction.  The nature of the reaction is to either 'appropriate and enjoy, or avoid and repel' the cause for the impression."**

 

Abraham Lincoln's strong foundation in language was a result of his stepmother's curriculum--the Bible and Shakespeare (The Encyclopaedia Britannica: a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences…, Vol. 16, by Hugh Chisholm, p 703).

Albert Einstein and Bill Gates were university dropouts but not learning dropouts.  They were challenged to learn about the unvarying reliability and order of creation's design.

 

American_schools

 

*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.

**Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, G. and C. Merriam Company, 1828; cited by David A. Norris, Lasting Success (Ames, IA Alpha Heartland Press, 2003), 7.

 

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Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:14:26 -0700 From Chapter 6, The Defilement of the Judiciary http://davidanorris.posterous.com/from-chapter-6-the-defilement-of-the-judiciar http://davidanorris.posterous.com/from-chapter-6-the-defilement-of-the-judiciar

Definite and specific American principles for law do exist.  Under the influence of these principles, our nation became the overwhelming choice of immigrants throughout the world.  Chief among the foundations of the American philosophy for governing is the belief that man is the beneficiary of unalienable rights which come from God and that are superior to secular claims, governments, and things material.

 

The law given from Sinai [Ten Commandments] was civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes… of universal application--laws essential to the existence of men in society and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws" (John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States).*

 

Under the false premise that professors must be independent from the values of taxpayers and parents for determination of the truth to be used in the behavioral and political sciences, leftist union bosses demand that teachers be sheltered from the people by tenure laws.  This violation of government by and for the people has enabled secular militants to take moral law, which makes liberty achievable, out of soft science curriculums.  Consequently small cadres of atheistic teachers bully the good teachers and dumb down American youth.  The all-out war against the nonsectarian God of life, liberty and human decency is clear.

 

Failure of public schools to teach respect for "In God We Trust," along with the self-evident laws of creation's nature, and emphasize the principles of the Declaration of Independence raises a pertinent question:  "How does this classroom strategy differ from that of the Fascists and the Communists?"

 

Our Federalist approach, which divides and limits the authority of the national government, the states, and thirdly, the authority for controlling the policies of local units, such as counties, cities and schools belongs to the people therein.  Central government authority is needed to facilitate harmony between the states in such matters as interstate commerce, transportation, foreign policy, and national defense.  This protects the nation as a whole.  The central government, however, is not to get involved in domestic policy unless there was a trend in a region of the country that threatened the unity and survival of the nation as a whole.  Because needs within individual states, counties and cities differ and are better resolved locally, the right to make such laws belongs to the individual states and local citizens.  Failure of legislators and judges to respect the superior value of local control in domestic matters leads to a citizen-to-government disconnect and the tyranny of centralized authoritarian rule.

 

In his Farewell Address to the nation, President Washington expressed what has proven to be of vital importance:  "If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates.  But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.  The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield."

 

In-god-we-trust-coin1

*Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son, www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/48640.>

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Tue, 29 May 2012 11:01:00 -0700 Following the Rules for a Successful Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/keep-a-well-tuned-engine-for-maximum-performa http://davidanorris.posterous.com/keep-a-well-tuned-engine-for-maximum-performa

All tools that deliver power--automobiles, atom bombs, governments and so forth--must have a moral predicate to guide their use.  The automobile has a steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedal that enable man to guide the tool for achieving a desired destination.  Speed limits, turning rules and stop signs are the predicate, the morally significant basis for safe travel.  Success is assured if the driver is educated to be responsible to avoid pitfalls and proceeds accordingly.

 

The  Constitution, which serves as the tool for governing, has seven articles with short subsections and a preamble that starts with the sovereigns under God, "We the People."  The moral predicate for guiding the use of the Constitution is the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights that was added later to the Constitution.  The power to finance government flows from the mammoth equivalent of a local Main Street bank, the taxpayer-funded public treasury.  Even small, privately-owned banks need the system of specific policy hurdles and audits to minimize theft by employees as well as decreasing the danger of authorizing bad loans.  For this same reason, many obstacles and verifiable checkpoints were included in the Constitution.

 

Beyond the need for internal checks for monitoring the proper use of the public treasury is the need for the principles of the Creator-based Declaration of Independence, later expanded and codified for the citizens' Bill of Rights.  The Bill of Rights provides specific protections against the violation of citizens' rights as the sovereigns under God over government by government employees.  This is necessary to protect society from pretender-gods who, as government officials, interfere with man's "unalienable rights" and industry.

 

Bald_eagle_and_declaration_of_independence

In his Farewell Address to the nation, President Washington said:  "Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.  One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown."*

 

Liberals in our midst understand the value of stealthy, cradle-to-grave government (socialism) as a tool for subduing, ruling and exploiting the people.  They object to the impartial Creator-based principles, the absolutes for constitutional law that keep government on the side of citizen self-rule for liberty.  

 

"If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality [allow leftist secular militants to dictate what students are taught], and recklessly destroy the… Constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury our glory in profound obscurity" (Daniel Webster, January 18, 1782-October 24, 1852, an attorney and statesman who argued several cases before the John Marshall court).**

 

Let us reverse the tragic move to atheistic secular jurisprudence!  Morality of the God-honoring Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights are the design, and the Constitution is the tool for implementing that design.

 

 

 

*http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp

**http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Webster

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Tue, 22 May 2012 10:24:00 -0700 Government by Written and Permanent Law: Republic vs Regime http://davidanorris.posterous.com/government-by-written-and-permanent-law-repub http://davidanorris.posterous.com/government-by-written-and-permanent-law-repub

The American system of government is a Federal Republic, meaning a confederation of many--a central government and state governments.  James Madison describes the American system as "a Republic--a federation, or combination, of central and state republics--under which: the different governments will control each other…" (Federalist No. 51).

 

The powers are divided between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government which remain subject to the sovereignty of the people (electorate) under creation's God per the Declaration of Independence.  "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence" (Article IV, Section 4 of the United States Constitution).

 

The federal and state governments are Republics which are distinguished by the fact that they are representative and limited in their power by written constitutions (Federalist No. 45).  The citizen electorate adopts the constitutions, and they are only changeable from the original through amendment by the people.  


The law has been defined as "a set of rules for conduct prescribed by a controlling authority and having binding legal force" (Black's Law Dictionary).*  The overriding concern is: What are the beliefs of the controlling authority?  Sadly, some public servants, including some law professors, do not respect the fact that government gets its power from the sovereigns, the taxpayers who created the government and pay their salaries.

 

In Europe, kings, popes, academician elites and others claimed to be supreme.  This is comparable to what self-indulgent judges are now doing in America.  Rejecting the meaning and intent of the Constitution, they seek to impose societal values of their own choosing.  When federal laws dealing with local concerns descend downward, they become oppressive and often harmful to society.  

 

What sets the American constitution apart from those of so many other nations is that its use is rooted in the Higher Authority Judeo-Christian tradition for civil order.  The Constitution is a tool composed of directives, checks and obstacles.  When the principles of the Creator-based Declaration articulated in the Bill of Rights are upheld, the obstacles built into the Constitution become morally effective, and it becomes difficult for government employees to empower a partisan political agenda or line their pockets with taxpayers' money.

 

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force.

Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

George Washington

 

Bigstock_american_justice_still_life_5794375_300dpi
 *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black's_Law_Dictionary

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Fri, 18 May 2012 09:11:02 -0700 Government by Written and Permanent Law: Liberty vs Oppression http://davidanorris.posterous.com/government-by-written-and-permanent-law-liber http://davidanorris.posterous.com/government-by-written-and-permanent-law-liber

"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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Tue, 08 May 2012 06:44:59 -0700 America's Civic Religion in Light of Congress http://davidanorris.posterous.com/americas-civic-religion-in-light-of-congress http://davidanorris.posterous.com/americas-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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Fri, 04 May 2012 05:41:16 -0700 America's Civic Religion in Light of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln http://davidanorris.posterous.com/americas-civic-religion-in-light-of-george-wa http://davidanorris.posterous.com/americas-civic-religion-in-light-of-george-wa

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln understood that America has a civic religion.  As previously noted, this civic religion is different than the personal faith of individuals--their manner of worship, fellowship and practice.  Religion is embedded in the foundation of our government.

 

George Washington, so immersed in the entire process of the founding of this nation, praised the effectiveness of critics for insisting upon the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, and he complimented both James Madison and Alexander Hamilton for their work in writing the Federalist Papers saying,  they "have thrown new light upon the science of government; they have given the rights of man a full and fair discussion, and explained them in so clear and forcible a manner as cannot fail to make a lasting impression."

 

During the swearing-in ceremony for President Washington, he placed his hand on an open Bible at Genesis, chapter 49..  Of his own volition, he took the oath of office concluding with the precedent-setting foundation, "So help me God."  Immediately the new president bent down and kissed the sacred book (Peter A. Lillback with Jerry Newcombe, George Washington's Sacred Fire, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Dickson Press, 2006, 224).

 

In his Farewell Address of 1796, 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.  A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity.  Let it simply be asked:  Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?  And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.  Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."*

 

Contemporary liberals insist that the Declaration of Independence has no relevance to the Constitution.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  That was the argument used by Stephen A. Douglas in the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates.  Douglas, who practiced constitutional revisionism, rejected Abraham Lincoln's insistence that moral judgment applies to situations calling for decision.  Lincoln quoted from the Declaration of Independence to affirm the moral predicate of constitutional law.

 

The following is from Lincoln's Peoria speech, October 16, 1854:  "I have quoted so much [of the Declaration] at this time to show that according to our ancient faith, the just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed.  Now the relation of masters and slaves is, pro tanto, a total violation of this principle.  The master not only governs the slave without his consent:  but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those he prescribes for himself.  Allow all the governed an equal voice in their government, and that, and that only, is self-government."  Harry V. Jaffa, reviewing Lincoln's speech, added, "Aristotle, in his only reference to piety in the Nicomachean Ethics, says that virtue requires us to honor truth before our friends.  That is because we would not otherwise be worth having as friends."**

 

"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man."

Abraham Lincoln

 

Presidents-day

 

 

*George Washington, Farewell Address, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=15

**Harry V. Jaffa, "In Defense of Political Philosophy," National Review, January 22, 1982, http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/6068362/defense-political-philosophy

 

Image from http://aillschristianchurch.com/tag/lanny/

 

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Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:16:00 -0700 The Paper Trail of Our Constitution IV http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-paper-trail-of-our-constitution-iv http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-paper-trail-of-our-constitution-iv

On September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, members of the Constitutional Convention signed a draft of the Constitution.  Subject to ratification by nine or more states, America would become a representative republic.  Unalienable rights (man as sovereign under God over government) are to be guarded by separations of power among three branches of the central and state governments.  Constitutional separations of power also help to protect against infringement by hierarchical authoritarians or a misled citizen majority (such as occurs in a pure democracy).

 

Washington, as president of the convention, transmitted the proposed Constitution to the people's representatives, who were then still operating under the Articles of Confederation.  Referring to man's sinful nature and the dangers of collusion by government officials for personal power, Washington wrote: "The great powers to be vested in General Government of the Union and the impropriety of delegating such extensive trust to one body of men is evident:  hence results the necessity of a different organization."*

 

The ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified the Constitution at its state convention on July 21, 1788.  When Congress was informed, it set March 4, 1789, to be the start for the new government.  On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office and became the first president of the United States.  Another anxious year passed before that government became fully operational.  Fourteen years after the God-honoring Declaration of Independence was ratified, the benefits of separation from authoritarian elites became a reality.

 

Charles Pinckney, who at the outset of the convention doubted the success of the undertaking, was amazed at the final result: "Nothing less than that superintending hand of Providence, that so miraculously carried us through the war, could have brought it [the Constitution] about so complete, upon the whole."**

 

God raises up nations and He brings nations down according to His will.  In I Samuel 8, Israelites rejected citizenship responsibilities outlined in Scripture and asked to be like other nations and have a king.  God gave them a King--an arrangement that was second best to His own authority alone, but better than anarchy.  "But God is the judge:  He putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalm 75:7).  "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase" (Daniel 4:37).

 

In 1791, on July 19, George Washington wrote in a letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham:  "The United States enjoys a scene of prosperity and tranquility under the new government, that could hardly have been hoped for."*** In 1792, on March 11, Washington explained:  "I am sure there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that Agency which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."****

 

The Constitution of the United States has survived many times longer than any other constitution.  For example, in the last two hundred years, France has gone through seven different government charters, and Italy forty.  "In God Is Our Trust," emblazoned in "The Star-Spangled Banner" (official national anthem of the United States), takes elitists of every stripe out of the authority equation.

 

A century later, William Gladstone, one of Britain's greatest prime ministers, proclaimed the American Constitution to be "the most wonderful work ever struck off by the brain and purpose of man."*****

Pledge4

1789 Inauguration of George Washington

The Bible is open to Deuteronomy 28 at his request.  Washington added his own "So help me God" to seal his oath.******

*William L. Hickey, The Constitution of the United States of America (Philadelphia: Nabu Press, 1851), 188.

**Hamilton Albert Long, The American Ideal of 1776, (Philadelphia: Heritage Books, Inc., 1963), 205-206.

***Harry Atwood, The Constitution Explained, 4th ed. (Merrimac, MA: Destiny Publishers, 1992) 5.

****David Barton, Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, and Religion (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press), 116. (Citing Washington, Writings 1838, Vol. X 222-223, to John Armstrong on March 11, 1792).

*****Gladstone speech, The North American Review, (September, 1878), http://www.quotes.net/quote/3589

******http://books.google.com/books?id=S1mRh9Zhxa4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=...,+a+biography&hl=en&ei=QXIWTtukHsjd0QGvp5Rf&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=so%20help%20me%20god&f=false

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Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:55:00 -0700 The Paper Trail of Our Constitution III http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-paper-trail-of-our-constitution-iii http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-paper-trail-of-our-constitution-iii

In 1777, on November 15, the Articles of Confederation, our nation's first written constitution (which proved to be too weak), was adopted by the Congress.  It was not ratified by the states until near the end of the war, but it served as the procedure for governing throughout the war.  On March 2, 1781--the day after the Articles of Confederation were ratified--the Continental Congress became known as the Confederation of Congress, and the confederacy claimed the title "the United States of America."*

 

On May 14 of 1787, a few statesmen began to assemble in Philadelphia to assess the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.  Their meetings soon became a convention for framing a new constitution.  On May 25, 1787, George Washington was elected president of the Constitutional Convention.  The general outline proposed for the new constitution was presented by Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia.  The outline came from consultation with seven men, among whom James Madison was prominent.

 

Their work, spanning almost five months, was an ordeal that required attention to tedious debate and late-hour committee responsibilities with the added discomforts of hot, humid weather and longings for home.  Washington himself, disagreeing with one of the delegates, cautioned that regardless of whether or not the states would adopt a new constitution, popular fallacies must be avoided:  "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God."** Because it was conducted in secret, the public was unaware that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were on the verge of failure.  When opinions came to an impasse during the Constitutional Convention, Franklin called the delegates to their knees in prayer.  

 

"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."*** The practice of prayer continues today when a session of the United States Senate or House convenes.

 

The Committee of Style and Arrangements, elected by the Constitutional Congress, proceeded to codify what had started out on May 28 as a list of fifteen resolutions presented four months earlier by Edmund Randolph.  Twenty-three resolutions for the Constitution emerged from their debate.  Rearranging them for orderly reading, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania put them together as the Constitution.  It contained seven articles with short subsections and a preamble that starts with the sovereigns under God, "We the People."****

Image_hope_in_me_not_disappointed_in_god_we_trust

*Articles of Confederation, Article 1.

**Harry Atwood, The Constitution Explained, 4th ed. (Merrimac, MA: Destiny Publishers, 1992), 4.

***http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/franklin.html

****http://www.history.army.mil/books/revwar/ss/morrisg.htm


 

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Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:13:00 -0700 The Paper Trail of Our Constitution II http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-paper-trail-of-our-constitution-ii http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-paper-trail-of-our-constitution-ii

In 1776, on February 28, George Washington acknowledged a poem written in his honor and sent to him by Phillis Wheatley.  "To His Excellency General Washington"   was the title.  This occurred before the Declaration of Independence was completed and accepted by the Continental Congress.  Who was Phillis Wheatley?  She had been captured in Senegal/Gambia at the age of seven or eight and sold in Boston to John and Susanna Wheatley.  They treated her lovingly as a daughter and taught her to read and write; she even learned Latin.  An accomplished poet, she was an admirer of the minister George Whitefield and a strong supporter of independence from Great Britain.

 

The Northwest Ordinance passed in 1787 by the Continental Congress was helpful as the new constitution was drafted.  It specified the requirements of territories seeking statehood.  The ordinance declared:  "The fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws, and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory: to provide also for the establishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest."*

 

Also known as the Freedom Ordinance, the Northwest Ordinance is a rock-solid example of the nonsectarian religious predicate embraced as constitutional law.  When the Articles of Confederation was replaced by a new constitution, the Northwest Ordinance was passed again and became effective under the Constitution.  George Washington signed the Northwest Ordinance back into law on August 7, 1789.  The ordinance also prohibited slavery in any new state, and Article III specified that "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged."**

 

"During this same period of time (July 17 to August 7, 1789), the same men who had implemented the Northwest Ordinance were writing the First Amendment to the Constitution [prohibiting government officials from interfering with religious freedom, printing press and education competition]."***

 

In 1792, James Madison, in his Essay, Who Are the Keepers of the People's Liberties?, said, "Although all men are born free, and all nations might be so, yet too true it is, that slavery has been the general lot of the human race.  Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them.  But what is the lesson?  That because the people may betray themselves, they ought to give themselves up, blindfold, to those who have an interest in betraying them?  Rather conclude that the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united."  Madison served as the fourth president of the United States and is considered to be the principal author of the United States Constitution.  In 1788, he wrote over a third of the Federalist Papers, still the most influential commentary on the Constitution.  James Madison wrote the first ten amendments to the Constitution, also known as the Bill of Rights.  

 

The Declaration of Independence condemned slavery, but it took a war to make it enforceable.  On January 1, 1863, near the end of that war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that reversed its momentum.

 

"The consequence is, that happiness of society is the first law of every government.  The people have a right to insist that this rule be observed; and are entitled to demand a moral security that the legislature will observe it.  If they have not the first right, they are slaves; if they have not the second right [moral security], they are, every moment, exposed to slavery" (U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, Lectures, 1790-91).


Phillis_wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

1753? - 1784

 

*Education Resources Information Center website, ED285786.  Teaching about the US Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance.

**http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Webster

***David Barton, Education and the Founding Fathers (Aledo, Texas: Wallbuilder Press, 1993), 4.

****http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation...

 

Image from http://evolutionofpaper.blogspot.com/2010/02/african-american-literary-firsts...

 

NOTE ~ more information on Wheatley at http://www.enotes.com/his-excellency and http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/whea-phi.htm

 

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Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:12:00 -0800 A Letter To My Grandchildren http://davidanorris.posterous.com/a-letter-to-my-grandchildren-46243 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/a-letter-to-my-grandchildren-46243

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

 

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