The Constitution does not “cite” Blackstone either!
Blackstone is NOT the end all and be all of common law. One of the first and throughout England's history one of the most significant treatises of the common law, Bractons De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae ("On the Laws and Customs of England"), which was heavily influenced by the division of the law in Justinians Institutes.
But the Declaration of Independence does recognize Natural Law. That would be Vattel, who heavily influenced French Ambassador Franklin. Franklin helped Jefferson by editing the drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin was also the head delegate in the First "Committee of Eleven" that began drafting the Constitution in the summer of 1787.
Blackstone, in contrast, saw that Natural Law might be useful in determining the content of the common law and in deciding cases of equity, but was not itself identical with the laws of England.
Further, the Constitution does not cite the Ten Commandments or the Bible.
But as the majority of Framers feared their Christian God, there is no doubt that the influence of our Republic's laws from the Ten Commandments and the Bible from which they came is indelible on the Declaration of Independence that founded our nation:
Then 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.
-snip-
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
> The Constitution actually cites common law. It never sites de Vattel. The Constitution does not “cite” Blackstone either! Blackstone is NOT the end all and be all of common law. One of the first and throughout England's history one of the most significant treatises of the common law, Bractons De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae ("On the Laws and Customs of England"), which was heavily influenced by the division of the law in Justinians Institutes. But the Declaration of Independence does recognize Natural Law. That would be Vattel, who heavily influenced French Ambassador Franklin. Franklin helped Jefferson by editing the drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin was also the head delegate in the First "Committee of Eleven" that began drafting the Constitution in the summer of 1787. Blackstone, in contrast, saw that Natural Law might be useful in determining the content of the common law and in deciding cases of equity, but was not itself identical with the laws of England. Further, the Constitution does not cite the Ten Commandments or the Bible. But as the majority of Framers feared their Christian God, there is no doubt that the influence of our Republic's laws from the Ten Commandments and the Bible from which they came is indelible on the Declaration of Independence that founded our nation:
Then 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. -snip-
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. |