Our Founding Documents Then and Now

Preface

Who and What brought us Principles of

Freedom

Liberty

Life

Liberty

Pursuit of happiness

Prosperity

Private property ownership

The foundation of America was based on the Judeo/Christian principles of God our Creator and his Word, the Bible.

It was from the teaching of the Old Testament and New Testament that our Founding documents were based on;

The Declaration Of Independence, The Constitution And The Bill Of Rights.

History Is God's Providence In Human Affairs.

Daniel Webster

By Preserving America’s Past

We Insure America’s Future

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors;

and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life,

the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence."

Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice

Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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ref_Table_of_Contents

Preface

Chronology of American Law

Introduction

Democracy vs. Republic~Which are we?

The Constitution and The Rule Of Law

The Doctrine of Lower Magistrates

Federalism: Elliot's Debates

The 17 "Enumerated (LIMITED) Powers"

Government of the United States ofAmerica

Government and Constitution Charts

Senate Organization Chart

House of Representatives Chart

Map Of The Thirteen Colonies

Declaration of Independence Time Line

Declaration of Independence Original Document

The Signers DOC

Influential Founding Fathers Quotes

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Franklin

John Adams

James Madison

George Mason

Slavery The National Sin

Sir William Blackstone

Frederick Douglass

Three Fifths of a Person Clause

End Of Slavery

Constitution The Beginnings

The Signers Constitution

Joseph Story Supreme Court Justice

Constitutional Interpretation J. Story

Constitution Original Page One

Constitution of The United States With Comments

Bill of Rights

Amendments 1-10

Amendments XI- XXVII    11-27

The Virginia Declaration of Rights

The Constitution Questions and Answers

Articles Of Confederation

Magna Carta June 15,1215

Mayflower Compact

Chronological List of Presidents

THE FEDERALIST (Papers)

The Federalist Papers No. 9

The Federalist Paper No. 10

The Federalist Paper No. 51

The Oaths of Office~Pre Revolution

Current Oaths Of Office

Transcript of Northwest Ordinance (1787)

Postscript

About the Author

Chronology_of_American_Law

Magna Carta 1215

Sir Edward Coke

John Wycliffe 1330–1384

Columbus discovers America 1492

Martin Luther The Reformation 1517

John Calvin 1509

John Knox (c.1514–November 24, 1572)

Mayflower Compact 1620

Lex Rex Samuel Rutherford, Lex Rex 1664

John Locke 1680-1690

William Penn (Pennsylvania)

Montesquieu, Baron Charles Louis Joseph de Secondat

Wrote the commentary The Spirit of Laws 1748

Sir William Blackstone’s Commentary (excerpts) 1765-1770

The Declaration of Independence July 4,1776

The Constitution of the United States of America 1788

The Bill of Rights December 15, 1791

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Introduction

Before you can really study and understand our government and its founding documents, you have to understand how, why, what and who created it.

Magna Carta

On JUNE 15, 1215, England's barons surrounded King John on the plains of Runnymede and forced him to sign the Magna Carta, the Great Charter of English Liberties.

British judge, Lord Denning, described the Magna Carta as the greatest constitutional document of all times - the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.

The Magna Carta was the first time in history that the unlimited and unpredictable power of a king was handcuffed, and the process began of guaranteeing individual rights under a rule of law which eventually culminated in the United States Constitution.

The Magna Carta ends:

...for the salvation of our souls, and the souls of all our...heirs, and unto the honor of God.

Because of the great importance of the Magna Carta considered to be the Constitutional Charter document of England and subsequently of America this section is a little longer than most. This great document was the legal precedent used down through the ages guaranteeing the rights and liberties of freemen. During the 13th century in England freemen were ‘in’ a minority, but the term would include all English eventually. The same thing

applies to all Americans with the phrase We the People.

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Democracy_vs_Republic_Which_Are_We

Below is an excerpt from Republic Or Democracy, Is There A Difference? © Taylor E. Hoynes, Jr. 2011

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A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.

Edmund Burke

Democracy and Republic: Definitions

To better understand this we must understand the definition of each form of government. So many times we have several different definitions and understanding of words by listening to different positions. This is what gets us into trouble so much of the time. You can ask 10 people their opinion on something and you can get 15 different answers because 5 of them changed their minds already. Sometimes it is much more expedient to go to the dictionary and look up the definitions. Merriam Webster dictionary defines both:

DEMOCRACY

government by the people; especially : rule of the majority

b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

Webster’s 1828 Definition

In other words majority rule by the ruling majority at the time and not under a Constitutional Rule of Law as in a Republic.

REPUBLIC, n. [L. respublica; res and publica; public affairs.]

1. A commonwealth; a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. In modern usage, it differs from a democracy or democratic state, in which the people exercise the powers of sovereignty in person. Yet the democracies of Greece are often called republics.

Webster’s 1828 Definition

REPUBLIC. re•pub•lic \ri-ˈpə-blik\ noun

1 a (1) : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president

1b : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers

and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.

3 : a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the U.S.S.R., or Yugoslavia (see note below).

Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary

Thesaurus: (synonyms): State, Nation, Democracy, (antonym: Monarchy)

So what are we, a Democracy or a Republic? What did these great learned and wise men create for us that would be a lasting form of Liberty and Freedom.

The Constitution does not contain the word Democracy, but it does contain "a Republican Form of Government as spelled out in the following legal definition as to what our government is:

United States Constitution Article IV, Section. 4.

"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." (emphasis added)

Rule of Law

The Founders created the Constitution over all the Land i.e. Law of the Land (Rule of Law), all branches of government, all lower government and all citizens.

ARTICLE VI, Clauses 2 & 3 (Comments in italics)

Clause 2

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any state to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The supremacy clause is the most important guarantor of national union.  It assures that the Constitution and federal laws and treaties take precedence over state law and binds all judges to adhere to that principle in their courts.

Clause 3

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

State and federal officials, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, must take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.  No religious test, either an avowal or a repudiation of any religious belief, shall ever be required of any public officeholder in the United States.

The Founders put the Law of the Land (Rule of Law) under the Constitution with all branches of government and all officials and bound them with a Legal Affirmation of the Oath Of Office.

The supremacy clause is the most important guarantor of national union.  It assures that the Constitution and federal laws and treaties take precedence over state law and binds all judges to adhere to that principle in their courts.

State and federal officials, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, must take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.

They are all bound by the Law of the Land to uphold this legal Oath of Office. (emphasis added)

For over two centuries the Constitution has remained in force because its framers successfully separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the central and state governments.  

William E. Gladstone’s famous remark about the U.S. Constitution:

As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and long gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. (emphasis added)

Gladstone, William Ewart (December 29, 1809–May 19, 1898), was British Prime Minister four different times during Queen Victoria’s reign and an author.

The Constitution therefore is not a "living document or a floating document subject to be changed by special interest groups or even by those in government including the courts by claiming it is outdated and not suitable for modern times. As we will see in this book in the Founders" own words they were not concerned with technology and industrial advancements. They knew that only a culture that was concerned with character, honor, truth, virtue, morality, absolutes, integrity and Godliness would survive and flourish.

Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government.

George Washington W.B. Allen, ed. (521)

James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Samuel Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin and most of the others believed our freedoms come from our Humanities; Jefferson had just written in the Declaration of Independence that, all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator…………………………

"Happily for America, happily we trust for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society.

They reared the fabrics of governments which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate."

James Madison ( Federalist Papers , No. 14)

So, our Natural rights come from our Humanities which come from God and are confirmed by the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights with the Declaration of Independence as our Charter Document; government’s role is to guarantee these rights.

God is free and he created us free and therefore we are free men and women. The framers took great pains to create a unique and limited federal government based on God’s law.

So why is the Republic of the United States of America different from other Republics past and present? What holds us to absolutes of the Rule of Law under the Constitution; that binds us as a people and keeps majority rule from taking us over?

It is because America was set up as a Republican form of Government based on the Covenant Law of God (Judeo/Christian) with elected representatives by the people. Remember the definition of a Republic?

a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president

"a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law"

The Thesaurus says a Republic is a State, Nation.

Russia and Iran are republics and they are under law so what is the difference?

We were founded as a Republican form of Government with elected representatives by the people, but our rights (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) come from our Creator, not the government.

Again, it is clear that the supreme power of the land is the Constitution and it is not in any of the three branches of our government. And, the beginning of our Constitution was formed by The Laws of Nature and Nature’s God as spelled out in our Charter Document, The Declaration of Independence.

The_Constitution_and_The_Rule_Of_Law

The Declaration of Independence was written to cast out the dictatorship of the monarch George III the King of England. Imperialism was back in England and the Colonies were under bondage of an Imperial government, yet they were citizens of England.

Absolute control by the elite, the royals who knew all things and the sheeple were just that, dumb sheep that had to be tended to.

Imperialism; Belief in Empire Building, Domination by Empire;

the extension of power or authority over others in the interests of domination. (Encarta Dictionary)

Imperial; Commanding; maintaining supremacy; as the imperial democracy of Athens.(Webster’s 1828)

The Declaration states that Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.

The Declaration says that civil governments are instituted to secure our unalienable God-given rights.

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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.  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes" (emphasis added)

UNDER THE LAWS OF NATURE AND NATURE’S GOD

(Declaration of Independence)

(Article IV, Section 10 the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government..)

The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and alter their constitutions of government.

President George Washington

This (right of the People) is the leading principle~the sheet of anchor of American republicanism

President Abraham Lincoln

A Republic is where civil power is exercised by representatives of the people under the rule of law under the Constitution.

It is evident that no other form (Republican) would be reconcilable with the genius of the People of America; with the fundamental principles of the Revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates every voary of freedom to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government".

James Madison

James Madison is refered to the Architect & the Father of the Constitution.

REMEMBER, THE FOUNDERS REFERED TO DEMOCRACY AS DESPOTISM AND TYRANNY (The power, spirit, or principles of a despot; absolute control over others; tyrannical sway; tyranny).

DEMOCRACY

"government by the people; especially : rule of the majority"

In other words majority rule is mob rule by the ruling majority at the time and not under a Constitutional Rule of Law as in a Republic.

The People, who have all civil authority, separately delegated some authority to the states and some authority to the national government.

Civil rulers have no authority to adopt a new form of government.

The United States Government has only the authority expressly enumerated (specifically listed and/or counted things) in the Constitution.

Public officials have no right to define their own powers

No government branch, department or official has absolute power.

The separation of powers is mandatory, and the authority to regulate must always be justified under the Constitution.

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and Judiciary, in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny"

James Madison

All civil authority belongs to the People, some of which has been delegated to the federal government. What the people have not delegated has been reserved. The government has no inherent authority. (Amendments Nine and Ten, see below)

The Constitution specifies the purposes of government which are intended to be permanent, not the means of government which are subject to change.

OATHS OF OFFICE BY ALL OFFICIALS: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend (AND PRESERVE) the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…"

Amendment IX (1791)

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

(Failure of the Constitution to mention a specific right does not mean that the government can abridge that right, but its protection has to be found elsewhere.)

Amendment X (1791)

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are