AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE HOMEPAGE
Week 2 - American Law: Biblical Foundations and Godly Beginnings
How it began:
After winning their independence from Great Britain, the thirteen states adopted new state constitutions. They also needed to form some kind of central government. Adopted in 1777, the Articles of Confederation was the first government of the United States.
By 1787 the weaknesses of the Articles were clear. A convention was held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. While originally planned merely to revise the Articles of Confederation, the convention eventually adopted an entirely new plan: the Constitution. After strong debate throughout the country, the new Constitution was ratified by all thirteen states. It now was time for the nation to elect leaders and begin the work of government.
The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it." This exchange was recorded by Constitution signer James McHenry in a diary entry that was later reproduced in the 1906 American Historical Review. Yet in more recent years, Franklin has occassionally been misquoted as having said, "A democracy, if you can keep it."
At the end of his second term, President Washington announced that he would not seek reelection. In his farewell address he warned the nation about the dangers of political parties. It was too late. The Federalist and Democratic-Republican Parties had already formed. The nation�s second president, John Adams, faced problems with France and division within his own political party.
a) Democracy is rooted in folly
i) "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever
been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and
have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in
their deaths" - James Madison
ii) "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders
itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."- John Adams
iii) "A simple democracy . . . is one of the greatest of evils." - Benjamin Rush, Signer
of the Declaration of Independence.
iv) "In democracy . . . there are commonly tumults and disorders. . . . Therefore a pure
democracy is generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical
government on earth." - Noah Webster
v) "Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an anarchy that every man
will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or
liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system
of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers
of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will,
and the execrable [abominable] cruelty of one or a very few." -John Adams
b) Republicanism is rooted in the Law of God
i) "Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct
republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the
Christian religion." � Noah Webster
ii) "Where there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law
but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of
the community".-Benjamin Rush
iii) "All [laws], however, may be arranged in two different classes. 1) Divine.
2) Human. . . . But it should always be remembered that this law, natural or
revealed, made for men or for nations, flows from the same Divine source: it is
the law of God. . . . Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the
authority of that law which is Divine." - James Wilson, Signer of the
Constitution; U. S. Supreme Court Justice
c) The main problems with democracy:
i) There is no overarching philosophy from which laws are derived
ii) A simple majority may impose its will, no matter how detestable, on the minority.
Consider a society made up of five people: three men and two women. The three
men (the majority) decide it�s perfectly legal to repeatedly rape the two women
(the minority).
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