The American Founding as the Best Regime The Bonding of Civil and Religious Liberty

The Claremont Institute ^ | 05/15/2002 | Harry V. Jaffa

[Archon of the East]

The American Founding as the Best Regime The Bonding of Civil and Religious Liberty By Harry V. Jaffa Posted May 15, 2002

In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American people, find our account running, under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tell us.

— Abraham Lincoln January 27, 1838

The Preamble of the Constitution crowns its enumeration of the ends of the Constitution by declaring its purpose to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." No words of the Constitution reveal the intention of the Constitution more profoundly than these. The Preamble is the statement of the Constitution's purposes, and this culminating purpose embraces and transcends those that have gone before. Alone among the ends of the Constitution, to secure liberty is called a securing of "blessings." What is a blessing is what is good in the eyes of God. It is a good whose possession — by the common understanding of mankind — belongs properly only to those who deserve it. We remember that the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence appeals to "the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions." It is by "the authority of the good people of these colonies" that independence is declared. It is because of this assurance of their rectitude that this good people, and their representatives, placed "a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence."

[Archon of the East]

The debate about Terri Schiavo has caused many strong feelings to be aired. I for one have reflected not only on the direct implications of this case but also of our great founding principles and philosophies. It seems to me that WE were in fact founded on the principles of reason and revelation. The first Amendent's first clause is in fact about religion, freedom of not freedom from. Does this have anything to do with the events taking place today in Florida and the US government? I believe it does, in many ways.