FFQF: Moral Authority, From Whence it Comes?

See what’s up with today’s FFQF at Meet the Founders blog

Hercules Mulligan has begun a new theme for a new month. This month it is “moral authority.” What did America’s founding fathers say about the measuring stick for virtue in a free republic? Is it reason as the basis for virtue, that man inherently recognizes that which is good and virtuous? (Answer: no). What did our founders mean when they said virtue was absolutely necessary to maintain a free government?

Here’s something John Adams said:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Benjamin Rush, Adam’s contemporary and known as the “third most influential founder” of the American idea of liberty, said:

By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects. Our Saviour in speaking of it calls it the “Truth” in the abstract. It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published. It contains a faithful representations of all its follies, vices, and crimes.

All systems of religion, morals, and government not founded upon it must perish, and how consoling the thought — it will not only survive the wreck of these systems but the world itself. “The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” (in a letter to John Adams, 1807)

and he also said this:

The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty.

I think Hercules Mulligan has chosen a very good theme for the month, especially meaningful in light of a new visitor’s center that has opened in Washington, DC. The visitor center is glaring in its glorification of government and its dismissal of God as the giver of our inalienable rights. As a matter of fact, one of the statements on display at the visitor’s center says:

We have built no temple but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution.

That statement reeks of dishonesty and self-gratification. It is not the American form of government that is so great, it is the foundation upon which it stands. Take that away, and our government is NOTHING.

George Washington said:

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

On the contrary, here’s an interesting quote by none other than Joseph Stalin.

“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is three-fold: its patriotism, its morality and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.” Joseph Stalin, former dictator of the Soviet Union

FFQF: Virtue Extravaganza

See what’s up with today’s FFQF at Meet the Founders blog

For this the final day of “virtue” as the topic for this month’s FFQF, I couldn’t choose just one. I decided to post a whole bunch of quotes! I don’t know about you, but I am savoring every word from these wise men.

Virtue toward the Constitution:

“No legislative act contrary to the Constitution can be valid. To deny this would be to affirm that the deputy (agent) is greater than his principal; that the servant is above the master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people; that men, acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid. It is not to be supposed that the Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents. A Constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by judges as fundamental law. If there should happen to be a irreconcilable variance between the two, the Constitution is to be preferred to the statute.” Alexander Hamilton

Electing virtuous candidates for office:

“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate — look to his character….” Noah Webster

Necessity of a virtuous people to maintain free government:

“It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in the people.” Richard Henry Lee

The virtue of eternal vigilance under a free government:

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.” Thomas Jefferson

Virtue is the primary ingredient and main support of free government. George Washington said it best, I think:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity.

Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?

And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

…Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

Hey, did you know that for centuries, American schoolchildren were required to memorize Washington’s Farewell Address? This hasn’t been done in schools since.. well, since about the time that virtue and morality have taken a national nosedive! Now, why is that, I wonder?

FFQF: Oath of Office

See what’s up with today’s FFQF at Meet the Founders blog

The theme for this month has been “Virtue.” The FFQF group has really done well with the theme this week; I’ve really enjoyed reading the quotes and the posts about them. Most of the posts have concerned private virtue, that is, moral virtue. Since the presidential election is so near, I decided to do something different and mention about the virtue of the oath of office, particularly of the presidential oath of office. This is the oath required in the Constitution that the president is to make:

US Constitution, Article II, Section 1

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The phrase “So help me, God” was added by George Washington (he also kissed the Bible), in deference to Providence that had helped the patriots win the fight for liberty.

In reading the news and hearing so many campaign promises from various candidates for president, very little is mentioned of the oath of office the president will take. This oath does not concern national health care (unconstitutional), income taxation fluctuations (unconstitutional), the “war” in Iraq (unconstitutional), “exporting democracy” (unconstitutional), and bailing out financial institutions (unconstitutional).

If, for instance, the president is required to do any act, he is not only authorized, but required, to decide for himself, whether, consistently with his constitutional duties, he can do the act.
Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

I sure wish our leaders would stick to their oaths. The office of the president is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to eradicate the states’ sovereignty or dole out public largess at the slightest oinking.

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29:2

FFQF: Man’s Lust for Power

See what’s up with today’s FFQF at Meet the Founders blog

One reason why I love the founding area of my country is because during this time, the country was filled with wise, honest, perceptive, and influential men. When I read what men like Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Rush, and Jay had to say, I am blown away by their multifaceted grasp of human nature, history, and judging the events of their time.

John Adams is especially a favorite. He was a virtuous man, and although vain and cranky (he was a Yankee, after all), he was incredibly insightful. I love reading his letters and essays. Here’s a snippet he wrote about man’s lust for power– particularly the man who has acquired some measure of authority and influence in government.

“[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.” John Adams (An Essay on Man’s Lust for Power, 29 August 1763)

I think this quote is very appropos at this time, when government “leaders” are giving billions of dollars to rich bankers (rich bankers who line the government leaders pockets, by the way), yet allow the American taxpayer to wither away under the weight of heavy taxation and their own debt. I can’t believe we Americans are allowing Congress and the president to do this.

And of course this bailout, combined with the numerous other things that have been going on in Washington, are merely evidences of the immoral and unvirtuous government we now have: that they have the right to vote perks for themselves and their buddies to retain power and influence, but “the people” are mere labor units for the political and Federal Reserve banking machine. THEY have perks and rights; WE are monitored, surveilled, and manipulated.

Here’s an extra:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. –a proverbial statement attributed to Edmund Burke