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Remembering Our Foundations
By Virginia Armstrong, Ph.D., National Chairman – Eagle Forum
As America remembers those who have offered the ultimate sacrifice for all of us, we would do well to remind ourselves of the truths upon which our nation was founded-truths for which millions of Americans have suffered or died. No enemy has been more vicious in undermining these truths, our foundations, than runaway Humanist/Reconstructionist judges, made safe from harm in their cozy courtrooms by our troops fighting for the very truths Reconstructionists oppose. Here is a brief summary of three such truths as expressed by some of America’s Founders and other leaders.
1. A just and free society requires a Christian foundation.
“I verily believe that Christianity is necessary to support a civil society and shall ever attend to its institutions and acknowledge its precepts as the pure and natural sources of private and social happiness.” — Joseph Story (U. S. Supreme Court Justice and Harvard Law Professor)
“I . . . recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.” — John Jay (America’s first Chief Justice)
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the ability of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity to each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.” — James Madison
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” — Benjamin Franklin
2. The U. S. Constitution is based upon a Christian foundation.
“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.” — Noah Webster
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity . . . . Now I will avow that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.” — John Adams
“America was born a Christian nation for the purpose of exemplifying to the nations of the world the principles of righteousness found in the Word of God.” — Woodrow Wilson
“The more profoundly we student his wonderful Book [the Bible], the better citizens we will become, and the higher will be our destiny as a nation.” — William McKinley
3. The Constitution and its Christian foundations require a
limited government, including a restrained judiciary.
“Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
“The Constitution is a written instrument. As such its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when adopted it means now . . . ‘Any other rule of construction would abrogate the judicial character of this court, and make it the mere reflex of the popular opinion or passion of the day.’” — U.S. Supreme Court in South Carolina v. U.S., 1905
“A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the constitution . . . [is] absolutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free government. . . . The people . . . have a right to require of their lawgivers and magistrates, an exact and constant observance of them.” — Massachusetts Constitution, 1780
“Liberty is secured, sir, by the limitation of its [the government's] powers, which are clearly and unequivocally defined.” — Francis Corbin in the Virginia Ratification Convention, 1788
Conclusion
These truths clearly and conclusively refute contemporary Reconstructionist judges’ loud and impassioned proclamations that we must “separate church and state” and that we “cannot legislate morality.” The conclusion of the matter was well stated in the mid-Twentieth Century by a high-ranking British official, Alfred Lord Denning. Describing the plight of contemporary law in both England and America, Denning declared:
What does it all come to? Surely this, that if we seek truth and justice, we cannot find it by argument and debate, nor by reading and thinking, but only by the maintenance of true religion and virtue. Religion concerns the spirit in man whereby he is able to recognize what is truth and what is justice, whereas law is only the application, however imperfectly, of truth and justice in our everyday affairs. If religion perishes in the land, truth and justice will also. We have already strayed too far from the faith of our fathers. Let us return to it, for it is the only thing that can save us. (emphasis added)
