Filed under: American

Part I: Government/Chapter 2, P 38-40

The Process Toward Independence

From Authoritarian Rule To a New Government

 

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

 

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

 

In 1774, on September 5, the First Continental Congress came together in Philadelphia with hopes of reaching an agreement with the British king.  Alexander Hamilton expressed the colonists' concern in a published pamphlet:  "The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists of this: in the former state, man is governed by laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or, by his representative.  In the latter he is governed by the will of another.*

 

In 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened May 10.  The goal of the colonies was justice, not independence.  On July 5, 1775, the Continental Congress approved the Olive Branch Petition and appealed "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, Most Gracious Sovereign" for reconciliation.  The English Parliament responded to this appeal on December 22, 1775, with the American Prohibitory Act--a declaration of unrestricted war against the colonists, claiming the right to confiscate their property.  Freedom for Americans at that point becomes a matter of self-defense and necessitated a new republican (republic) government.

http://www.founding.com/timeline/pageID.2462/default.asp

 

*Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum:  The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution (Lawrence, KS:  University of Kansas Press, 1985), 160.

 

 

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Part I: Government/Chapter 2, P 35, 36

The Sovereignty Of Man

Under the Impartial God Of Creation Over Government

 

 

In this chapter we can see the rich orthodoxy that brought the universal principles of the Declaration to the American mind.  That the nation was founded upon the principles of God's Word is well documented by the founding compacts, covenants and constitutions.

 

In 1620, the Pilgrims drafted our nation's first self-governing document, the Mayflower Compact: "We . . . having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, do . . . solemnly and mutually in ye presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politic . . .. And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/mayflower_compact_text.htm

 

The King of England left the colonists alone for 150 years.  Without the albatross of paternalistic authoritarianism, the colonists experienced the benefits of personal responsibility and hard work.  People would come together with their pastor or a prominent student of the Bible as moderator and search the Scriptures for principles of government that would uphold civility in their community.

 

In 1630, the famous sermon by John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, reflected the great sense of purpose that has prevailed since the arrival of the Pilgrims.  Later quoted repeatedly by Ronald Reagan, Winthrop declared: "We are to be 'a City upon a hill,' a beacon of light for the world to follow."  He continued, "The eyes of all people are upon us.  So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world."*

 

In 1638, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut stated: "[We] enter into a combination and confederation together to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we now profess."

http://www.constitution.org/bcp/fo_1639.htm

 

*Robert C. Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity," discourse written aboard the Arbella during the voyage to Massachusetts, 1630, In Life and Letters of John Winthrop, 1867, 19.

 

 

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Part I: Government

Conclusion (Part II)

 

Immortal Principles Central To Liberty and American Greatness

 

 

The tragic support for radical teacher privilege can be traced to changes in what many law students are being taught.  In the 1870s, Christopher C. Langdell, Dean of the Harvard Law School, discarded the foundational basis for law upon which greatness has been achieved in America: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…"

 

Langdell's fellow travelers are themselves victims of bad education.  According to them, no lasting absolutes upon which laws can be framed exist.  Instruction that fortifies the enemies of William Blackstone's Commentaries on Common Law is BAD education.  Blackstone's Commentaries were used by law students up through Abraham Lincoln's time.  It took several decades for the secularized instruction in law schools to compromise American jurisprudence.  The Commission on Excellence in Education emphasizes what is happening, "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."  The report laments, "the de-construct of the moral and spiritual strengths which knit together the very fabric of our society" (A Nation At Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 26, 1983).

 

"Human history records the ongoing effort by men to substitute man-made law for the [unrelenting] laws of God and creation's nature."  Laws contrived by men end in disaster because they reject the existence of moral absolutes.  The consequences of this are clearly apparent today in America.  Quoting Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who documented the extermination of tens of millions of innocent victims in order to create a socialistic utopia in his homeland, "man has forgotten God" (quotes in this paragraph are from Understanding the Times, an exceptional resource, by David A. Noebel, Harvest House Publishers).

 

Enslavement by authoritarians' regulations and excessive taxation could not occur if Americans were being taught American history.  Renewed exposure to the God-honoring principles of the American Declaration of Independence is our most powerful weapon.  The light of truth fortifies the minds of men and women, boys and girls.  We believe these principles because they reflect the unrelenting power of creation's God.

 

We serve God.  The most significant change that came from the American war for independence is that the people were recognized by law to be sovereigns under God, over government.  Citizen self-rule replaced self-anointed authoritarians.  Government officials were recognized for what they are--servants of the people.

 

The Spiritual Awakening of 1740 through 1780 drove the selfless dedication that brought the American Revolution to a successful conclusion.  We have this promise, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

 

 

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Part I: Government

Conclusion (Part I)

 

Immortal Principles Central To Liberty and American Greatness

 

 

"Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal" (Dr. Benjamin Rush, Essay, 1786).

 

Our families and nation are at risk.  Where moral law ends, tyranny begins.  Some sixty years ago, public schools were still circulating the A Golden Treasury From The BIBLE pamphlet full of wholesome character-building Bible verses.  The God-rejecting secular worldview imposed upon education by control of just a few militant teachers, protected by union contract negotiators, has undoubtedly put our nation "conceived in liberty" to the ultimate test.

 

The tactics of a small group of tenured teachers have forcibly elevated sexual promiscuity, infanticide and other practices devastating to students and society to the status of education legitimacy.  Because of the tactics of secular militants, good teachers, students and even the taxpayers who pay the teachers' salaries, are afraid to object.  These few radicals have the power to totally disrupt the education process.  School administrators know this.  Teacher tenure laws, approved by current state laws, force administrators to leave bad teachers in control of the God-rejecting anti-Christian education climate.

 

This is not a strictly religious matter.  The consequences of rejecting the life-enhancing Laws of Nature are easily seen in daily experience.  Even though some parents do not give creation's God credit for life-enhancing standards, they take their children out of government public schools to avoid exposing them to evil suggestiveness.

 

What do we mean by LIBERTY?  We do not need new principles to solve our problems.  We need America; meaning, we need to advance again and apply the civic values of the American Judeo-Christian heritage.  The Preamble (purpose) for the Constitution reads to "… secure the BLESSINGS of LIBERTY to ourselves and our posterity…"  If we do not succeed in alerting our young people, our friends and others, to what the enemies of American liberty are accomplishing, there will no longer be the kind of liberty that inspires the "BLESSINGS of LIBERTY for our posterity [descendants]."  The purpose of the Constitution includes "… establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare…" (meaning common needs that do not conflict with or hamper the development of the work ethic and citizen self-reliance).  If we do not succeed in alerting others, ill-advised politicians will, at the expense of taxpayers, justify benefits for voters from birth to grave.

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Fifteen 

 

The Benevolent Provision and Heart Of God For Mankind

Are Recognized By Our Founding Fathers

 

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

Declaration of Independence

 

 

It is the deeply felt expression of faith in the God who gave us life and the respect for unchanging laws of creation's nature that reversed the historic tide of oppression by government officials.

 

Our duty is to be public about the fact that reliable standards for law come with knowledge of the non-sectarian Creator-based meaning of the Declaration of Independence and the First Amendment.  In 1835, the significance of this connection was observed by Alexis de Tocqueville, "… in America religion is the road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom…"

 

We must be honest.  There is an imperative need to restore American law that upheld the impartial life-enhancing morality, known then as Common Law and will always be known as the Laws of Nature.  The Declaration of Independence reads "… the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind…"  This is not only the basis for our nation's charters, it is also the unifier of our immigrant nation for the greatness that has been achieved.  

 

The wisdom of leaders who drafted the American charters is illustrated by the recommendation made for the American Seal.  Originally Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams proposed that the Seal pay tribute to the benevolent provision and heart of God for mankind.  Their design depicted the Old Testament journey of the Israelites who were guided by God through the wilderness.  The other side displayed Anglo-Saxons from Germanic tribes who descended to England and influenced the making of laws.  The Anglo-Saxons introduced morality for law comparable to the values of right and wrong identified by the human conscience at birth.  Undoubtedly, the most significant guide for law chosen by Americans was the Ten Commandments presented by God to Moses at Mount Sinai.

 

Secular authoritarians who abuse citizen sovereignty in practice and the Constitutional concept of unalienable God-given human rights have always menaced society.  "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations" (James Madison, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788).  The quest for power is reflected in their tax and spend authoritarian militancy.  While claiming patriotism, they promote fear and employ every conceivable means to remove any knowledge of America's Judeo-Christian heritage and the principles of the Declaration of Independence that gave birth to the United States of America.

 

The Declaration of Independence concludes: "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.  And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor" (the final paragraph from the Declaration of Independence unanimously adopted by the thirteen United States of America, CONGRESS, July 4, 1776).

 

The Constitution concludes: "Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present on the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the independence [Declaration of Independence] of the United States of America the Twelfth [adopted earlier] In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our names."

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Fourteen 

 

Life and Happiness are Humanity's Goals

 

"Unalienable rights, that among these are Life,

… and the pursuit of Happiness."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

"Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness…  We claim them from a higher source--from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth.  They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence…  It would be an insult on the Divine Majesty to say that He has given or allowed any man or body of men a right to make me miserable.  If no man or body of men has such a right, I have a right to be happy.  If there can be no happiness without freedom, I have a right to be thus secured" (John Dickinson, reply to a Committee in Barbados, 1766).

 

An American principle: "What then is the American, this new man?  He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds [citizens are sovereigns under God, government officials are the servants]…  What is an American?  The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.  From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury [extreme poverty], and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.  This is an American" (one of several essays, in Letters From an American Farmer, 1782, by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, a French immigrant who became a New York state farmer).

 

Regarding the establishment of a representative Republic, Alexander Hamilton declared, "…the people surrender nothing.  The people simply delegate to government servants as trustees the powers to protect and uphold the values, which the people believe to be inside the envelope of life and liberty for the 'pursuit of Happiness.'  Governments must be prohibited from doing things that undermine the citizens' right to life and self-rule.  The means that are helpful to governance and those which are harmful are countless in number, therefore," Hamilton added, "they have no need of particular reservations [spelled out in the Bill of Rights]."

 

"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, 1790-1791).

 

 

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Part I: Government

American Principle Six (Part III)

 

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

 

 

Constitutional law, before it was amended, protected the public treasury from being raided by government employees.  It is important that we the people know and support the retention of honorable legislators, administrators and judges.  Honorable officials do not dole out money flippantly, promote character-destructive legislation, and provide administrative favors or prejudicial judgments to privilege-seeking voters.  This means no "quid pro quo."

 

Secondly, the basis for the Bill of Rights amendment details how the tool, albeit the people's treasury, must NOT be used to interfere with a citizen's freedom to learn, think, worship and work independently.  This principle from the Bible, declaring that people have the right to view competing sources of knowledge and are free to choose, speaks to the tremendous value of the American Judeo-Christian heritage.  This never before used basis for a nation's laws came from the Judeo-Christian beliefs of our Founders.

 

Called natural law, the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" from the Declaration of Independence, reflect man's inherent ability to distinguish between right and wrong.  These beliefs are also supported by man's conscience.  Paul rejoices that "… the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world…" (2 Corinthians 1:12).

 

The original laws adopted by Americans uphold life and equal justice.  They include the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman as well as the Ten Commandments.  When natural law was adopted by the judiciary and legislators, it became known as the Common Law basis for the rule of law.  Clearly superior to the vacillating rule of man, American law is traceable from the Bible to the Magna Carta (citizen sovereignty under God) to the Declaration of Independence and the citizens' Bill of Rights.

 

Common Law, resting on God-honoring values, caused immigrants by countless millions to flee authoritarian rule and come to America.  It is the conspicuous benefits flowing out from the impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" that unified our immigrant nation.  That bond is reflected in the USA Today/Gallup Poll, May, 2010.  Ninety-two percent of Americans believe in God and only five percent say they oppose the National Day of Prayer.

 

The Commission on Excellence in Education remains the premier American study of problems in public education.  It states:  "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."  The report laments "the de-construct of the moral and spiritual strengths which knit together the very fabric of our society" (A Nation at Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 26, 1983).

 

The meaning of diversity, applauded by American immigrant society, has now been perverted by laws, requiring citizens and public schools to assent publicly to sodomy, infanticide and atheistic education exclusivity, all of which are outside the envelope of life.

 

Americans had not sought to amend the Constitution, yet Langdell (dean of Harvard Law School, 1870-95) determined that the original intent and meaning for our written Constitution be scrapped.  As long as the people's lawmakers in Congress willingly sit idly by, liberal judges will continue to modify or sanction laws that are outside the envelope of life and then endorse their own opinions.  Secular militants who discount the Common Law moral fabric that powered American greatness speaks to the evil consequences of secularism which lead men and nations to self destruct.


 

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Part I: Government

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

 

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Part I: Government

A Definite, Unique, American Belief

Translated Into Specific Principles

For Governments Does Exist

 

James_wilson_pic

James Wilson was one of six men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.  His contribution to the deliberations of the Constitution was second only to James Madison's.  Addressing the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention for the new constitution, Wilson stated:  "I beg to read a few words from the Declaration of Independence made by the representatives of the United States and recognized by the whole Union:

 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

 

Wilson concluded, "This [Declaration] is the broad basis on which our independence [from authoritarian rule] was placed; on the same certain and solid foundation this [the Constitution of the United States] system is erected" (cited in John Elliot, Elliot's Debates, The Debates In the Several State Conventions Adoption Of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 11-20-1787, Book I, published 1836, 457).

 

The American Principles rest on the First Principle (emphasized in the Introduction).  Compromise of any of the following principles leads to very harmful consequences.

 

 

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Introduction VI

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants," Justice Brandeis

http://www.law.louisville.edu/library/collections/brandeis/node/196

 

Secular militants claim to be patriots because, as they say, dissent is American.   What they mean is evident from how they have gutted traditional American values in public education.  They demand freedom for themselves, but reject the American concept of academic freedom (the freedom to be honestly informed) and the freedom of others to make their own choices.  The soft underbelly of the secular left is the fact that they cannot withstand the competition of ideas.  For them, it is intolerable to allow students to be taught about the non-sectarian and impartial  God of creation upon which inalienable rights, citizen self-government and liberty depend.

 

An elaboration of “In God We Trust” is found in Proverbs 3:5,6:  “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.”

 

The “In God We Trust” worldview has been the foundation for public education, beginning in the original thirteen colonies and continuing for over 250 years.  The Supreme Court's ruling in the Everson v. Board of Education decision of 1947 began a dramatic shift away from “In God We Trust.”  See Chapter 6 for details about this Supreme Court ruling.  We review the civic religion adopted by immigrants from around the world in Chapters 1 through 4 and Part IV, Appendix B, Iowa's Bill of Rights, taken in part from the Declaration of Independence.  The strategy for restoring competition in education and choice by the people is outlined in Chapters 11 and 12.

 

The unionization of teachers and accompanying tenure law have enabled a small cadre of radicals to take God out of citizen-funded government schools. Newt Gingrich stated:  “Those who want absolute proof you cannot teach American history honestly and accurately without reference to God, go to the Lincoln Memorial and read where in Lincoln’s second inaugural, March 1865, he referred to God fourteen times and used two quotes from the Bible.”*

 

*http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/3597743

 

 

Lincoln_memorial_lincoln_contrasty

Lincoln Memorial Statue

 

 

 

There are millions of honest, hardworking teachers, but they have no more control over the lifeview being taught in the soft sciences than do parents.  An entirely different system for educating American youth is needed that would bypass the leftist teachers' union monopoly.  Funds for education provided by Americans must be routed through the parents, similar to the G.I. Bill following World War II.  This bill provided that education sought by veterans be paid from taxpayer revenues, and the veterans had the freedom to use the tuition grant in a public or private institution of their choice.

 

 

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

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

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

 

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http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

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