Posted on 05/04/2010 10:20:16 AM PDT by K-oneTexas
Our American Declaration of Independence is the supreme, unamendable moral law of the United States. Declarational law preceded and trumps our supreme, amendable secular law, the Constitution. As stated in our Declaration, the purpose of secular law (Constitution) is to secure our sacred, unalienable, equal, individual rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness -- i.e., private property honestly earned through creative labor: "That to secure these rights, Governments [constitutions] are instituted among Men...."
While our Constitution and Bill of Rights are the greatest secular laws ever written, it must be acknowledged that our secular Constitution has a sacred mandate -- the Declaration of Independence. The American Revolution is first and foremost a revolution in sacred, unalienable human rights and their associated moral laws (Declaration), and secondarily a revolution in secular law (Constitution). We must be aware that secular law, and particularly the "Living Constitution" (Orwellian Newspeak for Dead Constitution), can be perverted into tyranny when such law becomes destructive of the individual's human rights.
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. - Thomas Jefferson
1) "All men are created equal" is American Declarational law. "Men," in this instance, refers to all individuals, and the word "equal" refers to natural equal rights and equal application of just law; not unnatural, forced equal social and economic outcome.
Forced equality of outcome represents social engineering empowered by the injustice of unequal rights and inequality before law. This leads to excessive collectivization of some people's labored-for property, which is sent into the communal hands of a self-serving government that "re-distributes" this property to the less industrious in return for votes. All individuals are endowed with equal unalienable rights to life, liberty, and labored-for property, and to equality before law that must secure those rights -- all men and women made equal in value and rights by the Creator and Great Equalizer.
If each individual is made in the image of God, then his/her value is infinite; all individuals are thereby equal in value before God and equal in their unalienable rights and equal before the law. All (except for the disabled) should therefore be taxed equally. If man is not made in the image of God, then some will become, as in Animal Farm, "more equal than others" -- legal superiority based on unequal rights and unequal law. If man is not made in the image of God, then by Darwinian natural selection and their animal "Will to Power," an elite class of "Philosopher Kings" will inevitably arise. Equal rights and equal law are the essence of justice; unequal rights and unequal law are the essence of tyranny.
Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights (along with the majority), which equal laws must protect[.] - Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address
2) "That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life ..." is American Declarational law. If man is made in the image of God, then since God lives and gave life to man, all individuals have a sacred unalienable right to life and self-defense.
3) "That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are ... Liberty ..." is American Declarational law. If man is made in the image of God, since God is free, then man has a sacred unalienable right to liberty -- man is born free. Human freedom can occur when all men are equal before just law, and freedom is a prerequisite to the individual's creative pursuit of happiness.
4) "That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are ... the pursuit of happiness ..." is American Declarational law. If man is made in the image of God, since God is the Great Creator, man has a sacred unalienable right to his/her own creativity -- a right to private property created through individual labor -- a right to the pursuit of happiness.
In order to save the fruit of the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence must be recognized and enforced as law. Amending our Constitution will also be necessary -- for example, limiting federal taxation and requiring federal spending not to exceed federal revenue. It appears that neither of these changes is likely to emanate from the federal government any time soon. However, "We the People" do not need the federal government to define our sacred human rights or their associated moral laws. According to the Declaration, those truths and laws are self-evident. "We the People" are capable of becoming masters of federal government through the amendment process.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham Lincoln
All American laws which are destructive to an individual's sacred, equal rights to life, liberty, and private property are un-Declarational and must be nullified -- if not by Congress or the Supreme Court, then by states and local government. The concept of "Declarational" law must find its way into the American mind and into all levels of American government.
“All men are created equal”
The Founders failed to fulfill that promise.
The Declaration is aspirational, but it matters little without the Constitution as the coherent and practical foundation of American liberty.
“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 to 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.” ......... I fear the time is rapidly approaching to “alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government”. I hope this will not be necessary, but I fear it will.
Let's leave the Declaration as our country's "Birth Announcement" and restore the Constitution to rightful place: the charter of our liberties.
Inspirational I think. Although it would be nice if the courts used it as well as the Federalist Papers as cites since they already have used Jefferson’s letter to Danbury Baptist (a non-founding document).
Sorry Ronald but the Declaration is not law!
It IS exactly what it purports to be. A declaration of Independence!
The Libs have been trying to write a new Constitution to their liking and use it as a ‘real’ living document.
The Declaration could not stand as law of the land in its own right without standing along side the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
"Treason doth never prosper -
What's the reason?
For when it prosper,
none dare call it treason"
Military intervention and a short, brutal and nasty civil war to clean house and set the country back on the course the Founders intended. It's either that, or a broad civilizational collapse - speed it up by starving he monkeys. The outcome of the latter will most likely kill off 2/3 of the planet.
The declaration was a statement of agreement to separate from the crown and the reasons why this was necessary. It was not the law in any way shape or form, in particular since there was no independent United States or Constitution for years to come. The Constitution fulfilled parts of concepts detailed in the declaration but it was not law.
The Declaration has one well-recognized effect in American law: in most states, English common law precedents are treated as valid up until July 4, 1776. Other than that, the Declaration does not provide rules of decision. That is the task of the Constitution and legislation.
You are wrong, but understandably so.
The very first congress codified the Declaratiom of Independence as the very first statute; so it is the law of the land.
FYI, the Constitution was codified as the second statute enacted.
Exactly. I have read that as well, that the very first Act of Congress after ratification was to enact the Declaration of Independence as law.
I recently googled “natural law”—what our system is supposedly originally based on-—very interesting—even the stuff I found in Wikipedia.
ML/NJ
Aach! Wee Jemmie canna be happy.
The Declaration is an exercise of Natural rights.
Natural rights trump EVERYTHING and every law, created by man. The constitution, as written, is not incompatible with natural rights only the way it has been “interpreted” over the years and the way those interpretations have been woven into the fabric of society.
That’s right. The Declaration is the cornerstone of the organic law of the United States. If one goes to the website of the House of Representatives and looks up the US Code, the organic law, starting with the Declaration, is first.
“The declaration was a statement of agreement to separate from the crown and the reasons why this was necessary. It was not the law in any way shape or form, in particular since there was no independent United States or Constitution for years to come. The Constitution fulfilled parts of concepts detailed in the declaration but it was not law.”
All true, but the Declaration trumps law. It describes “certain inalienable rights”, which may not be set aside with any moral authority. The Declaration is a particular application of natural law to the unique circumstances of the colonies at that time, but the principles are timeless and transcendant.
The Constitution has increasingly become the vehicle for positive law - that which the State decrees is law, is law, period. http://www.yourdictionary.com/law/positive-law http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/positive_law
Positive law is presently being redefined by liberals to mean “what government is mandated to do for you”, or “the creation of additional rights”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_law
Positive law alone is amoral in its premises however. Government is the source of authority, and is unfettered by natural law.
Law schools pump, polish and pimp positive law while they diminish natural law - except as a limited, quaint historical artifact - because positive law is the carte blanche for authoritarians, and natural law is the tyrant’s cage.
This debate was at the heart of the conflict between the Federalists and the Anti-federalists. With hindsight, the Anti-federalists were correct in their pessimistic projections of where the Constitution would go given time. Their insistence on the Bill of Rights is our last remaining bunker from a totalitarian State.
The Constitution and US Code - as corrupted by the Congress and Executive Orders, and perverted by many generations of Supreme Court Justices - is a degenerative disease.
The principles in the Declaration of Independence are the cure. Those principals in the Declaration will endure long after the United States has failed and merged it’s bones with those of Ozymandias.
Close, but not quite exact. God's Law (natural law for those who prefer) is the supreme law of the United States. When the Constitution as written, which is supposed to be the supreme law, is ignored by socialists like Pelosi and Obama, the Declaration of Independence has the potential to come into play, not with any legal force but as a clear articulation of natural rights that take precedence over the laws of men.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.