Welcome to your one-stop shop for all things constitutional. Here we will examine all the fun stuff that would make you pull your hair out if I posted it in the forums, but that I love to drone on and on about. You are here on your own account. If you like it here, you will probably like my other blog, www.praisethelordandpasstheammunition.wordpress.co m . If you don't like it here, well, go away. No offense, but we can argue in the Political View forum!
Beginnings
Posted 06-11-2008 at 01:59 PM by switchfoot
In an attempt to present a guide to living in a constitutional republic, I feel I must first lay down a certain frame of reference. This foundation of sorts will be unabashedly slanted toward how I view things, and not necessarily how you or anyone else in history might have viewed them. This is my prerogative, since this is, after all, switchfoot's guide. Not yours or Thomas Jefferson's.
In choosing a place to begin, I have decided to bypass the Athenian democracies. Not because I don't like them or doubt their relevance, but because I don't know much about them and I am too lazy to research them. Instead, I will start with the three most influential political philosophers on our founders, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Baron Montesquieu.
Hobbes wrote Leviathon in 1651. In it, he argued that man’s natural state was war and that a strong absolute ruler was necessary to keep these tendencies in check. He said that without a strong government, man's life would be, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." While the founders didn't support the idea of a monarchy (obviously), they did subscribe to a Calvinistic ideal that mankind’s' basic tendency was selfish. They believed that government had a duty to contain these selfish ambitions.
John Locke wrote his Second Treatise of Civil Government in 1689. From it, and other of his writings, the founders gleaned the belief in natural rights. Natural rights, according to Locke, were rights inherent in human beings, and not dependent on governments. He argued that before governments are formed, man exists in what he called a 'state of natural' which excluded all formal laws or governments, and man is governed by innate moral sense. Natural law brings natural rights including life, liberty, and property.
Because natural law is superior to human law, it allowed man to throw off tyrannical rule if a ruler attempted to usurp his rights, but only after the people really felt the effects. He wasn't into 'willy-nilly' revolutions for the slightest breach. Locke argued that government must be built on the consent of the governed, and should be limited, purposed in protecting natural rights, and flew in the face of traditional monarchies where it was believed that monarchs had divinely granted rights over subjects.
Locke held that there were two extremely important limits on government that were necessary. The first was that there must be standing laws so that the people would know what was legal or illegal before they did something. The second was that government had an obligation to secure the right to private property.
Finally, Baron Montesquieu influenced the founders with the idea of separate branches of government, each with clearly defined powers, checked and balanced by the other branches. In this way, it was postulated that government would be limited, and the people protected from a faction seizing control of the whole government all at once.
So, there you have it. The beginning. These are the beginning philosophies that influenced the founders, and the lenses we need to wear when we try to interpret the intent of the founders when our nation was born.
In choosing a place to begin, I have decided to bypass the Athenian democracies. Not because I don't like them or doubt their relevance, but because I don't know much about them and I am too lazy to research them. Instead, I will start with the three most influential political philosophers on our founders, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Baron Montesquieu.
Hobbes wrote Leviathon in 1651. In it, he argued that man’s natural state was war and that a strong absolute ruler was necessary to keep these tendencies in check. He said that without a strong government, man's life would be, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." While the founders didn't support the idea of a monarchy (obviously), they did subscribe to a Calvinistic ideal that mankind’s' basic tendency was selfish. They believed that government had a duty to contain these selfish ambitions.
John Locke wrote his Second Treatise of Civil Government in 1689. From it, and other of his writings, the founders gleaned the belief in natural rights. Natural rights, according to Locke, were rights inherent in human beings, and not dependent on governments. He argued that before governments are formed, man exists in what he called a 'state of natural' which excluded all formal laws or governments, and man is governed by innate moral sense. Natural law brings natural rights including life, liberty, and property.
Because natural law is superior to human law, it allowed man to throw off tyrannical rule if a ruler attempted to usurp his rights, but only after the people really felt the effects. He wasn't into 'willy-nilly' revolutions for the slightest breach. Locke argued that government must be built on the consent of the governed, and should be limited, purposed in protecting natural rights, and flew in the face of traditional monarchies where it was believed that monarchs had divinely granted rights over subjects.
Locke held that there were two extremely important limits on government that were necessary. The first was that there must be standing laws so that the people would know what was legal or illegal before they did something. The second was that government had an obligation to secure the right to private property.
Finally, Baron Montesquieu influenced the founders with the idea of separate branches of government, each with clearly defined powers, checked and balanced by the other branches. In this way, it was postulated that government would be limited, and the people protected from a faction seizing control of the whole government all at once.
So, there you have it. The beginning. These are the beginning philosophies that influenced the founders, and the lenses we need to wear when we try to interpret the intent of the founders when our nation was born.
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