The very concept of a separation of Church and State was as revolutionary in a political sense, if not more so than the idea of Democracy itself.
Democracy was a historical precedent, however vague and distant in Human History or confused in the hearts and minds of idealists, but never in the entire history of humanity had the idea of a State independent of the validation of theocratic authority been realized. The very notion was a common heresy.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--"
We established a State independent of any single established religion or doctrine with an intent to remain objective in this regard, granting all citizens the right to practice their beliefs unhindered by state oversight and decree, but also without any one religion to be made "Official" as an institution of State.
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 of 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.
We did not proclaim Independence blithely or lightly, nor with such brazen and wanton disregard for the Rule of Law as to behave as simple hedonists or "libertines",
"We the people" attempted to methodically and diligently lay the case for the establishment of a responsive government and system of law and social fabric that would be coherent and transparent to the governed as well as the governing. The delicate balancing of power would come later after long struggle and longer contemplation but the words that followed the above quotes were these:
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
And we did... With greater alacrity with simple words, individual purpose, and more precise aim, we proved the ancient adage that words are mightier then the sword. Words alone would not have withstood the test of human mettle but it was the argument made in support of our claim that has withstood the test of time and inspire an Age of Revolution. We demanded a redress of grievance in the court of Public Opinion under the Principle of Common Law as defined not just by custom but of reason. We established that Law is a bottom up phenomenon determined by a freely associating people, not a top down imposition of the of Rule of Kings and Churches. We declared boldly that the idea of a
Benevolent Dictatorship is an oxymoron.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
For those of you that still do not recognize this document and the quotes my friend William freely uses it is not a legal document at all. It is not the law of any land, it is the United States Declaration of Independence. It begins thus:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
These were fighting words, some of the most imaginative and powerful fighting words yet heard in the political arena since the fall of the Roman Republic, but of even greater importance is the fact that they were
Uniting Words.In the above title realize that we were not yet called the
United States of America, we were thirteen uniting
States of America. Separate City/States and their respective peoples joining in a Union of like intent and common cause with regard to the fundamental principles of governance.
And everyone please take notice that nowhere does it say
"One Nation Under God" but instead anticipates Darwin's Laws of Nature, and
Nature's God as the source of divinity in each individual, transcendent of the State's or Institutionalized Church's attempt to define and establish said legitimacy for the individual.
The wildfire started upon this distant shore called the New World is one that shall not be extinguished so long as any can learn of its inspiring purpose. Even should this great nation fall, the hope that it has inspired will last so long as humans do, and such concepts shall endure. It is a rational principle that cannot even be extinguished by those that would turn a blind eye to the fact that its substantive message is a banner that has been taken up by Freedom loving peoples everywhere on this Earth, though much to the conspicuous chagrin of those vested interests that have come to rule in the Land where these concepts of Freedom were conceived, fought for, and established.
LongeCity
