Unalienable Rights, the Ideas of the Enlightenment and the English tradition and influence on the Founding Fathers.
Unalienable Rights, the Ideas of the Enlightenment and the Englishtradition and influence on the Founding Fathers.
For 2500 years, Western Civilizations has struggled to go from aFeudal/Group right Society where Law is based on the will of Man, toIndividual Rights, where Law is based on the rule of Law, and the Lawis to recognize Natural Rights, which are all ready the rights ofeach and Every man, not because a Government, to a Group gives them,but because they are Intrinsic to being Human. Natural Law.
From the Time of Aristotle, Western Culture has been debating whatRights are Intrinsic to being Human, and How best to define anddefend them. (this actually dose not require the Acceptance orrecognition of a God or Gods, but this dose simplify theunderstanding a bit) The United States was the first country in theWorld which was founded on the Ideas of the Enlightenment, the Ideasof Natural Rights, that is, each person has rights, not because aGovernment decides to bestow them, but Rights naturally by the factone is, and is the Job of Government to recognize and protect thoseright.
"The philosophical roots of modern political conservatismextend back over many generations through Burke and the natural lawto the Middle Ages and classical antiquity." -- -Peter Stanlis(TheUnbought Grace of Life)
Humans, specifically in Western Civilization, have spent 3 Millenniatrying to free themselves from tyranny of bondage, enslavement, beingeither physical, or Mental. A Man, Living under a TotalitarianRegime, thou he may be labeled a Freeman, is ever much a Slave and inbondage as any slave or Serf.
It is the main idea in theUnited States of America’s Declaration of Independence.
“Wehold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienableRights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit ofHappiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments areinstituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent ofthe governed”. 1776
For with protections from where in shrine inthe United States Bill of Rights. 1791
These are just theCulmination of our Three Millennia struggle, which one will fineechoed in many classic Authors and philosophers, one of my favoritesstates in powerful conviction”
“It is in truth not for glory,nor riches, nor honors that we are fighting, but for freedom - forthat alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”Declaration of Arbroath, 1320.
So, from the
Charter of Liberties, 1100, Henrythe I, had specified particular areas wherein his powers would belimited.
Magna Carta Libertatum, 1215, KingJohn, also know as the Great Charter of the Liberties of England,The rebellion of the Barron’s, where by they forced on to King John(of Robin Hood fame) to accept that the King was Bound by the Law. (the King is the Government)
The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320,Scotland. A Litter to Pope John XXII, to plead the case of Scotland’sposition as an Independent Country, who May not be rules with outconsent. (Kink Edward the I, claimed overload ship at this time.Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated for his murder of John Comynin 1306. The Document is seen as an early expression of the idea –that government is contractual and that kings can be chosen by thecommunity rather than by Godalone.
The Petition of Right, 1628, KingCharles the I, is a major English constitutional document thatsets out specific liberties of the subject that the king isprohibited from infringing. Passed on 7 June 1628, the Petitioncontains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billetingof soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and restricts the use ofmartial law.
The English Bill of Rights, 1688,It lays down limits on the powers of sovereign and sets out therights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament,the requirement to regular elections to Parliament and the right topetition the monarch without fear of retribution.
The English Bill of Rights was stronglyInfluenced by the writings and thoughts of John Locke.
This is the In heritage as Englishmenwhich the Colonist in America had come to cherish, there Rights, andas stated in the Declaration of Independents of the United States ofAmerica, these foundering Fathers did not see this as simplysomething given by the Government, but Something which was all readythere’s, Natural Rights, “the separate and equal station to whichthe Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them”.
It was this belief, which allowedthese, most Loyal subjects of the King, when they felt that therehome Country, who they honored so well, when it became deft to thereneeds, when Natural Rights are being denied, and therefor, violatingand nullifying the Contract between man and Crown, which allows ,nay, Compelled these men to Rebel.
"We hold these truths to beself-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowedby their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."
In General, the men we call theFramers, the Founding Fathers, where some of the most Loyal subjectsof the Crown, the most proud of to be a Subject of the King of theFreest people on Earth. People well ground in the history, theheritage, the Laws and traditions. Neseby and Bosworth where as wellknown to them as Lexington and Concord are to us. They knew, andtook pride in Magna Carta Libertatum and The English Bill ofRights, 1688 like we do the Declaration of Independence and theConstitution of the United States.
Benjamin Franklin journey to England tosee King George the III coronation, and as late as 1769 has was stillwriting about how proud he was to be an Englishmen and a Subject ofthe Great King George the III.
George Washington, order all hisclothing from England, Subscribe to the equivalent of the day ofEnglish House and Garden, so that he could make Mount Vernon the verymodel of an English estate. George Washington also had applied servaltimes in the 1760's to join the British Regular Army.
John Adams, even after the war, asAmbassador to the Court of Saint James, would in his spare time, tourEngland to see the sights of great historical events he read about sooften. He go to Runnymede, where the Great Charter had been signed,Neseby the English Civil War and Bosworth in the War of the Roses,etc. In the evening, he find himself in road house, and he would betalking to the locals, and he would become upset, as the locals didnot know the Important events that had happened in there own backyards, and what these events have meant to the History of England,and the development of Western Thought, and Rights. Now this did notmake John Adams popular in these villages in England, but it doseshow, just how proud of this heritage.
John Hancock was also present at thecoronation of King George III, and a successful Boston merchant. Andso it gose.
The men we call the Framers, theFounding Fathers, where not natural Rebles, but exctally those whoare normally the Pillers of Society and the supporters of the statusquo.
It was, In defense of those values, ofthose Rights, which they saw as there Rights as Englishmen, and whichthey saw as being denied them, being infringed upon.
And they where not alone, there was asympathy for the cause of the American colonist in England. A feelingwhich had been emerging for some time, that they too had lost muchsince the Glorious days of the English bill of Rights of 1688.
The the Rights and Freedoms which theyrejoiced in so, had been slowly infringed upon, trimmed, loss.
The raise of the English and Scottishenlightenment added to this the body of philosophy.
No Less than Lord Frederick North, 2ndEarl of Guilford. Prim minister from 1770 to 1782 expressedsympathies with the American Colonist and there cause and tried tomake peace early on.
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