Posted on 03/14/2015 9:32:05 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
The attitude of progressives never ceases to amaze me. I should be used to it by now, you would think I would be - considering how many of their books I thumb through. But I don't think it's possible to entirely get used to things such as this:
The phrase "natural rights of Englishmen" is vague and meaningless in the history of constitutional development and political philosophy, and deserves to stand with that other equally abused phrase, much on the lips of the colonists at this time, "taxation without representation." Neither had any literal meaning in fact, but as historical influences each became a phenomenon of far-reaching significance.Men have died for a false creed; the colonists fought under the banner of a false philosophy. The importance of the Stamp Act congress does not lie in the declaration of principles which it enunciated. It lies in the accomplished fact that amid a thousand centrifugal tendencies that were keeping the colonies apart as the inhabitants of thirteen separate communities, there had arisen a conscious purpose of uniting to support a common interest. Premature as it was and almost a mockery in the light of the history of the years that followed, the remark at the congress of Christopher Gadsden, a man whose impulses generally outran his judgment, was in a sense a prophecy, "There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on this continent, but all of us Americans." The congress marks the end of an era, and inaugurates a period of disturbance, disorder, suffering and war, destined to culminate in armed revolt from British authority, and the eventual overthrow of the power of king and parliament in America.
This comes to us from one of the many revisionist Progressive "historians" who wrote 100 years ago. This was Charles McLean Andrews, in 1912 he wrote a book titled "The Colonial Period". The quote above are the last two paragraphs of the book, page 251. Just to highlight how awful all of this is, here are the two lines from Christopher Gadsden's speech. As you will see, Andrews only quoted the second line: (Gadsden speech excerpt, page 680)
We stand on the broad common ground of those natural rights that we all feel and know as men. There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on this continent, but all of us Americans.
It was the progressive historians who removed America from its heritage of Natural Rights and Natural Liberty, doing crap like this. They just omit what they don't like, and pass it off. It then becomes cemented because there are far too few historians outside of the overwhelming body of progressive historians. They've had free reign for 100 years to destroy American History. Fundamental transformation? What else would people want, they've been lied to about what America really is(was).
“Progressive” thought is most succinctly explained as dismissing every lesson from hard-won experience and a native sense of self-preservation, proclaiming that “this time”, the experiment is going to work, they have got the right people running things for sure.
Only, every time, the “right people” get corrupted and cease to hold to the original altruistic goals, which is to “believe in Man”. There is no moral center, only a drifting relativism, and if not for double standards (one for the people who agree with us, and another for those obviously mentally damaged folks who disagree with us), they would never hold to any standard at all.
The Universe is not malevolent, the Universe has no opinion at all. But with unbelievable ferocity, it will rise up and bite the person who does not learn, or will not obey the “natural laws”, firmly and sometimes mortally in the gluteus maximus.
If you look at American Foreign Policy since World War II, with the brief exception of the Reagan Administration; at American Immigration policy since 1965; at what has been going on in Academia & the Mass Media, increasingly (and even accelerating) since the 1950s or '60s, you will see an undeniable pattern. You will also see the ongoing methodology for keeping what would be the natural opposition fragmented--the shrieking or squealing of insult ("chauvinist, sexist, racist, elitist, bigot," etc.), ad nauseum.
The idiotic pursuit of a "diversity," which actually undermines what makes diverse peoples unique, is of course part of the same pursuit. For more on that, see "Diversity" In Context. For more on the specific effort to terminate American Independence, Surrender By Subterfuge.
I have been fighting this ideological betrayal since I was a College Freshman in the 1950s. It needs to be challenged, wherever it raises its hideous head.
William Flax
A very apt comment, particularly in the American context. One of the most significant aspects of the American experience, is just that. Instead of the pursuit of fantasy & day dreams of what might work--such as the pursuits of egalitarian collectivists, since the French Jacobins, Marxists (both of the Bolshevik, Nazi & Social Democratic varieties) & the faux "Liberals" of Twentieth Century America:--America was built from her birth on reasoned premises specifically derived from experience.
If one does not understand this; one cannot really grasp what America is really about. See Grounded On Experience.
There is in that vast data bank of actual experience, a complete answer to every idiotic argument--the only kind they ever offer--that the Left has. The contest is between reality & compulsion driven wish lists & theories.
The so-called "progressive" agenda has, for decades, sought to replace the founding concept of Creator-endowed individual rights, liberty and laws to protect that liberty with their own false concept of imperfect persons in government falsely assuming the role recognized by the Founders as the "Supreme Being."
If liberty is to be regained, America's electorate must become educated to these competing ideas and rediscover America's Founding principles, which can enable them to recognize which are true ideas of liberty, and which are counterfeit ideas of tyranny. That is not easy.
In 2008, Michael Ledeen, on another subject altogether, wrote of the degree to which Americans have been "dumbed down" on some basic ideas underlying our freedom:
Ledeen said, "Our educational system has long since banished religion from its texts, and an amazing number of Americans are intellectually unprepared for a discussion in which religion is the central organizing principle."
In the Pope's speech in Germany a few years ago, he observed:
"A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."
Ledeen put his finger on a problem that stifles meaningful dialogue and debate in America on a number of subjects--as is now exhibited in the discussion on the causes and solutions to acts of violence such as that in recent news stories in America. Censors [disguised as "protectors" (the Radical Left's ACLU, NEA, education bureaucracies, etc., etc.)] have imposed their limited understanding of liberty upon generations of school children.
From America's founding to the 1950's, ideas derived from religious literature were included in textbooks, through the poetry and prose used to teach children to read and to identify with their world and their country.
Suddenly, those ideas began to disappear from textbooks, until now, faceless, mindless copy editors sit in cubicles in the nation's textbook publishing companies, instructed by their supervisors to remove mere words that refer to family, to the Divine, and to any of the ancient ideas that have sustained intelligent discourse for centuries.
Now, it is the ACLU which accuses middle Americans of "censorship" if they object to books, films, etc., that offend their sensibilities and undermine the character training of their young. Sadly, many of those books and films are themselves products of the minds that have been robbed of exposure to wisdom literature in the nation's schools and universities.
Back in 1876, a Black Minister and Ohio State Legislator, Rev. Benjamin W. Arnett, delivered the "Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon," celebrating the Declaration of Independence, at St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Urbana, Ohio. The Sermon, which examined the nature of governments, and the history of nations, can be read online at the American Memory Section of the LOC, in the African-American Collection. Below is a relatively small excerpt from that Sermon's conclusion. In it, Rev. Arnett warned about a movement among "liberals"--many of whom were prominent in the academic community of that day--to remove the ideas underlying America's founding documents, and to replace them with counterfeit ideas of their own invention. See if you recognize those ideas in what you have observed in recent years and in what is the dominating philosophy of "progressives" today:
"The Danger to our Country."Now that our national glory and grandeur is principally derived from the position the fathers took on the great questions of right and wrong, and the career of this nation has been unparalleled in the history of the past, now there are those who are demanding the tearing down the strength of our national fabric. They may not intend to tear it down, but just as sure as they have their way, just that sure will they undermine our superstructure and cause the greatest calamity of the age. What are the demands of this party of men? Just look at it and examine it for yourselves, and see if you are willing that they shall have their way; or will you still assist in keeping the ship of state in the hands of the same crew and run her by the old gospel chart! But ye men who think there is no danger listen to the demands of the Liberals as they choose to call themselves:
"'Organize! Liberals of America! The hour for action has arrived. The cause of freedom calls upon us to combine our strength, our zeal, our efforts. These are The Demands of Liberalism:"'1. We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical property shall no longer be exempt from just taxation.
"'2. We demand that the employment of chaplains in Congress, in State Legislatures, in the navy and militia, and in prisons, asylums, and all other institutions supported by public money, shall be discontinued.
"'3. We demand that all public appropriations for sectarian educational and charitable institutions shall cease.
"'4. We demand that all religious services now sustained by the government shall be abolished; and especially that the use of the Bible in the public schools, whether ostensibly as a text-book or avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall be prohibited.
"'5. We demand that the appointment, by the President of the United States or by the Governors of the various States, of all religious festivals and fasts shall wholly cease.
"'6. We demand that the judicial oath in the courts and in all other departments of the government shall be abolished, and that simple affirmation under the pains and penalties of perjury shall be established in its stead.
"'7. We demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath shall be repealed.
"'8. We demand that all laws looking to the enforcement of “Christian” morality shall be abrogated, and that all laws shall be conformed to the requirements of natural morality, equal rights, and impartial liberty.
"'9. We demand that not only in the Constitution of the United States and of the several States, but also in the practical administration of the same, no privilege or advantage shall be conceded to Christianity or any other special religion; that our entire political system shall be founded and administered on a purely secular basis; and that whatever changes shall prove necessary to this end shall be consistently, unflinchingly, and promptly made.'
"'Let us boldly and with high purpose meet the duty of the hour.'
"Now we must not think that we have nothing to do in this great work, for the men who are at the head of this movement are men of culture and intelligence, and many of them are men of influence. They are led by that thinker and scholar, F. E. Abbott, than whom I know but few men who has a smoother pen, or who is his equal on the battle-field of thought. He says in an address on the duty of his leagues:
"'My answer may be a negative one to all who see nothing positive in the idea of liberty. The conviction I refer to is this: that, regarded as a theological system, Christianity is Superstition, and, regarded as an organized institution, Christianity is Slavery. The purpose I refer to is this: that, whether regarded as theological system, Christianity shall wholly cease to exercise influence in political matters. Although the national Constitution is strictly secular and non-Christian, there are many things in the practical administration of the government which violate its spirit, and constitute a virtual recognition of Christianity as the national religion. These violations are very dangerous; they are on the increase; they more and more give Christianity a practical hold upon the government; they directly tend to strengthen the influence of Christianity over the people, and to fortify it both as a theology and a church; and they are therefore justly viewed with growing indignation by liberals. Not unreasonably are they looked upon as paving the way to a formidable effort to carry the Christian Amendment to the Constitution; and the liberals are beginning to see that they must extinguish the conflagration in its commencement. I believe all this myself, with more intense conviction every day; and therefore I appeal frankly to the people to begin now to lay the foundations of a great National Party of Freedom. It is not a moment too soon. If the liberals are wise, they will see the facts as they are, and act accordingly. Not with hostility, bitterness, defiance, or anger but rather with love to all men and high faith in the beneficence of consistently republican institutions, do I urge them most earnestly to begin the work at once.'
"He acknowledges that this is a religious nation and wants all men to assist him in eliminating the grand old granite principles from the framework of our national union. Will you do it freeman; will we sell the temple reared at the cost of so much precious blood and treasure? These men would have us turn back the hands on the clock of our national progress, and stay the shadow on the dial plate of our christian civilization; they would have us call a retreat to the soldiers in the army of Christ; the banner of the cross they would have us haul down, and reverse the engines of war against sin and crime; the songs of Zion they would turn into discord, and for the harmony and the melody of the sons of God, they would give us general confusion; they would have us chain the forces of virtue and unloose the elements of vice; they would have the nation loose its moorings from the Lord of truth and experience and commit interest, morally, socially; religiously and politically to the unsafe and unreliable human reason; they would discharge God and his crew and run the ship of State by the light of reason, which has always been but a dim taper in the world, and all the foot-prints it has left are marked with the blood of men, women and children. No nation is safe when left alone with reason.
"But we have no notion of giving up the contest without a struggle or a battle. We are aware that there is a great commotion in the world of thought. Religion and science are at arms length contending with all their forces for the mastery. Faith and unbelief are fighting their old battles over again, everything that can be shaken is shaking. The foundations of belief are assaulted by the army of science and men are changing their opinions. New and starting theories are promulgated to the world; old truths are putting on new garbs. Error is dressing in the latest style, wrong is secured by the unholy alliances, changes in men and things, revolution in church and state, Empires are crumbling, Kingdoms tottering; everywhere the change is seen. In the social circle, in the school house, in the pulpit and in the pews. But amid all the changes and revolutions there are some things that are unchangeable, unmovable and enduring. The forces that underline the vital power of Christianity are the same yesterday, to-day, to-morrow and forever more. They are like their God, who is omnipotent, immovable and eternal, and everywhere truth has marched it has left its moccasin tracks.
"The Conclusion of the Whole Matter.We have patiently tried to examine the record of the nations of antiquity and learn the cause of their decay and decline, their fall, why their early death; and why so many implements of destruction around and about their tombs, and everywhere, in the silent streets, mouldering ruins, tottering columns, mouldy and moist rooms, and the united voice from the sepulcher of the dead past is, "sin is a reproach to any people." We see it written on the tombs of the Kings, and engraven on the pages of time, "sin is a reproach to any people." These are the principles of governments, Right and wrong; and the people who are the advocates of Right have bound themselves together and by their united effort they have brought light out of darkness and forced strength out of weakness.
"We as a nation have a grand and glorious future before us. The sun of our nation is just arising above the horizon and is now sending his golden rays of peace from one end of the land to the other. The utmost extremities of the members of the body politic are warm and in motion by the commercial and financial activities of the land. Her face is destined to blush with beauty when peace and justice shall be enthroned. The grand march of progress shall mark her in her onward advancement in moral strength, intellectual brilliancy, and political power. Then we can say that we give to every man, woman and child the benefit of our free institutions, giving all the benefits of our common school and the freedom to worship God under their own vine and fig tree. Then will we see written, on the banner of our free, redeemed and disenthralled country, the sublime words written, not in the blood of men, but in the sun-light of truth, that "Righteousness exalteth a nation." It will fall like the morning dew on the lowly; it will descend like the showers of May on the poor; and like the sun it will shine on the good and bad, dispensing from the hand of plenty the blessings of a government founded on the principle of justice and equality.
"Standing on the threshold of the second century of the nation's life, with the experience of the past lying at our feet, we are saluted by the shout of triumph from the millions who left their homes and business and attended the Great Exposition of the skill and genius of the world, collected at Philadelphia. We were permitted to receive the greetings from the oldest to the youngest nation of the earth. Egypt and the United States clasped hands over the waste of 5,000 years, and lay their treasures at the feet of our civilization. The material, intellectual and mechanical deterioration of the one, and the unprecedented progress of the other, stand in great contrast; in all that makes the nation great,—morally, religiously and socially, the young nation is ahead.
"Following the tracks of righteousness throughout the centuries and along the way of nations, we are prepared to recommend it to all and assert without a shadow of doubt, that "Righteousness exalted a nation"; but on the other hand following the foot-prints of sin amid the ruins of Empires and remains of cities, we will say that "sin is a reproach to any people." But we call on all American citizens to love their country, and look not on the sins of the past, but arming ourselves for the conflict of the future, girding ourselves in the habiliments of Righteousness, march forth with the courage of a Numidian lion and with the confidence of a Roman Gladiator, and meet the demands of the age, and satisfy the duties of the hour. Let us be encouraged in our work, for we have found the moccasin track of Righteousness all along the shore of the stream of life, constantly advancing, holding humanity with a firm hand. We have seen it “through” all the confusion of rising and falling States, of battle, siege and slaughter, of victory and defeat; through the varying fortunes and ultimate extinctions of Monarchies, Republics and Empires; through barbaric irruption and desolation, feudal isolation, spiritual supremacy, the heroic rush and conflict of the Cross and Crescent; amid the busy hum of industry, through the marts of trade and behind the gliding keels of commerce.”
"And in America, the battle-field of modern thought, we can trace the foot-prints of the one and the tracks of the other. So let us use all of our available forces, and especially our young men, and throw them into the conflict of the Right against the Wrong.
"Then let the grand Centennial Thanksgiving song be heard and sung in every house of God; and in every home may thanksgiving sounds be heard, for our race has been emancipated, enfranchised and are now educating, and have the gospel preached to them!
"Sons of freedom, sing the glad hymns of praise on the Western plains! Daughters of sorrow shout the joyful tidings amid the savannahs of the South-land! Proclaim it on the Atlantic's western stand and declare it on the slopes of the Pacific! Humble followers of the Son of Mary, chant the eternal truth in the temple of the Most High, that “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
"We invite every nation, kindred, tongue and people, to come to our land. Come from the bogs of Ireland; come from the dykes of Holland; come from the mountains of Switzerland; and from the sunny plains of Italy; and enjoy a government made for man! Come from the jungles of Africa or Egypt, the university of the infant world; come from Asia the cradle of humanity; come and bring your gifts from the Islands of the South Sea and spice land! Come ye men of every clime and race and see a nation founded in Righteousness, guarded by Justice, and supported by truth and equity, and defended by God!
"When thus united in one grand commonwealth of nationalities the universal prayer will be:
"Show us our Aaron, with his rod of flower!
Our Miriam, with her timbrel soul in tune!
And call some Joshua, in spirits power,
To praise our sun of strength at point of noon.
God of our fathers! over sand and sea,
Still keep our struggling footsteps close to thee." - (End of Excerpt from "Righteousness Exalteth a Nation, but Sin is a Reproach to Any People")
So said Rev. Benjamin Arnett in 1876. Where is the leader who will declare these things today? Arnett, the learned statesman and minister, chose as his theme, "Righteousness Exalteth a Nation, but Sin is a Reproach to Any People."
Might such outspoken thoughts enlighten the minds of Americans today as they discuss the topic of this thread?
When the original states were separated from England, they passed what were called the “reception statutes.” This received the English law as their own law. Through stare decisis, (let the decision stand) principles of law and notions of rights were passed down.
English history itself is a long struggle to wrest various civil rights from the Crown such as trial by jury, due process and the right to confront an accuser and cross examine witnesses. (Ex. Magna Carta) This body of rights became known as “the rights of Englishmen.” The colonists believed that they were Englishmen entitled to these rights by birth. They were rights not subject to royal whim. The English Crown and Parliament did not recognize that they had such rights.
These were in addition to the “natural rights” of all men identified by John Locke (Second Treatise on Civil Government http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtreat.htm ) and other political writers of the time (Edmund Burke and the “old Whigs”) as a right to self defense, a right to liberty, a right to own the fruits of one’s labor, etc.
These concepts are a vital foundational understanding of the political thought justifying the American Revolution and creation of the new United States. Unlike the European notion of rights which is based on the premise that one sacrifices one’s natural rights for superior “civil rights” and the greater good, our individual natural rights are retained from government as is recognized in the Tenth Amendment to the U.. Constitution: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Very solid points.
Russell Kirk talked about “prescriptive rights as a principle of conservatism.
Third, conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription.
Conservatives sense that modern people are dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, able to see farther than their ancestors only because of the great stature of those who have preceded us in time.
Therefore conservatives very often emphasize the importance of prescription—that is, of things established by immemorial usage, so that the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. There exist rights of which the chief sanction is their antiquity—including rights to property, often. Similarly, our morals are prescriptive in great part. Conservatives argue that we are unlikely, we moderns, to make any brave new discoveries in morals or politics or taste. It is perilous to weigh every passing issue on the basis of private judgment and private rationality.
The individual is foolish, but the species is wise, Burke declared. In politics we do well to abide by precedent and precept and even prejudice, for the great mysterious incorporation of the human race has acquired a prescriptive wisdom far greater than any man’s petty private rationality.
Hello William, good to see you still around. Thanks for the great contributions.
They love to call themselves Progressives. But what they don’t tell you is that they’re trying to get you, and your children, and America, to Progress with them over a cliff into the chasm of hell.
Progressives think if you can’t polish one side of a turd start polishing the other side and then you can pick it up by the clean side.
“Progressive” “liberal” and “conservative” have meant vastly different things to different people at different times and places. Makes for a lot of confusion. At the time of the American Revolution “conservative” meant monarchist, “liberal” meant espousing natural rights. After the Revolution the “conservatives” (Tories) were expelled, and in America conservatism became conserving the liberal principles of Locke and Jefferson. Meanwhile in Europe, conservatism still means statist, while here liberal (or progressive) means statist. As for progressive, Teddy Roosevelt’s idea of progressive is completely different that Obama’s.
This is the nub of the argument; progressives deny the existence of Natural Rights because they want to pretend that rights are a present from the government
Good article.
Progressives are masters at contorting words and meanings to drive their psychotic agenda.
Progressive playbook:
A) Changing the definition of “American.”
i) Commonly accepted usage: “American” refers to a citizen of the United States of America.
ii) New style: American: Any person in North, Central or South America. This reprogramming blurs or blots out the distinction of being an American (U.S. citizen) and justifies an open southern border.
“We’re all Americans in this hemisphere, North and South America.” -Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Pelosi’s remark is echoed by Obama.
Yep . . . that’s why the US has the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence (not that either is of any use since we have been blessed by our present esteemed President).
BEEP!
America ceased to be a We The People Republic when Johnson took the reins of power. The American people just haven’t awoken to that reality yet, but they’re getting there ever so slowly.
Thanks for the ping!
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