Posted on 07/21/2009 2:40:11 PM PDT by Tzimisce
While arguing with a bunch of Liberals I went and looked at the American Declaration of Independence. The brilliance and insightfullness of the men 200+ years ago is truly astounding.
Look at some of the things that the Founders thought worthy of separating from England over (and how many of them are being pushed for today)...
Just think: right off the bat this document couldn't be written today. They call on God?
****snip*****
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
Amnesty Anyone?
*****snip*****
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Empathic judges anyone?
****snip*****
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
Tzars anyone?
****SNIP*****
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
****snip*****
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
Ending Free Trade? Raising Taxes?
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
Altering our Government? Does that sound familiar?
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
I think that speaks for itself.
Amazing how little has changed in 200 years. And at the same time, how much. The same colony that started the war 200 years ago when Britain tried to disarm them is now leading the push for those same types of gun control laws.
There was a thread similar to this not too long ago that was taken over by those who claimed that since Jefferson owned slaves he was a hypocrite and that anybody that revered him was “making him into a God”.
good luck.
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
A 4TH OF JULY TEA PARTY SPEECH
...and on the lighter side, take your mind off the Obamanation for a few minutes and enjoy some beautiful Western US scenery slideshows.
With that in mind it is remarkable how few of us know the philosophical basis of our Declaration and Constitution. The basis is Natural Law which is a gift from God. God's Law grants us Natural Rights which all are born with. As such they cannot be legitimately denied us by government. William Blackstone wrote, “Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to forfeiture.”
Read the first three sentences of the Declaration to see for yourself. Note also, “That to Secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men . . . “ That means the only legitimate purpose of government is to secure the aforementioned unalienable Rights, among them Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Our Founders started with a short list of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. When they got around to the Constitution we can see freedom of the press, speech and religion, self defense, property, assembly, fair trial, association, and contract. All are Natural Rights granted by God, not by man.
Notice that totalitarian countries meet a lot of resistance from the people when they deny them their Natural Rights. It is why after 36 years, almost everyone, regardless of belief in God, have some reservations about unlimited abortion. It is against Natural Law, the denial of life to innocents.
It is only in the context of Natural Law that the Declaration and Constitution form a coherent whole.
I have been involved in a number of arguments in which I contend one can not be an atheist, and a committed American patriot. Certainly there are atheists who have fought and died for this nation, and who love this nation dearly for the freedom it has given them to live as atheists. Having conceded all of that, they fail to acknowledge a power greater than humanity with the authority to grant inalienable rights.
John Adams would agree with you:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
“There was a thread similar to this not too long ago that was taken over by those who claimed that since Jefferson owned slaves he was a hypocrite and that anybody that revered him was “making him into a God”.
Why don’t you fish out that thread and post it here. I’d be most interested in calling out any Freepers who thought that anyone who revered Jefferson was “making him into a God”.
I’ll wait...
Brilliant post !
Artemis Webb, thanks for the link.
I’ll drop in and cause a bit of chaos.
Well, I dropped in to read the thread. Mostly, they smell like liberals RINOs trashing Jefferson to gain favor with the NYT crowd. They’re looking to sleep with the zombie Maureen Dowd or suck Dick Morris’ toes. They’re all clueless boot camp trolls and rely on the Huffington Post for information.
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