"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. ME 1:209, Papers 1:134
Which by implication pointed to the Lord above them, although Tom Jeff really did himself a disservice by editing his bible down. Full-on Christianity is not a bunch of superfluous ornamentation. It is the plan of divine power from alpha to omega.