Thoughts from the ‘Penman of the Constitution of the United States’

Posted on by matt

       Gouverneur Morris was an American Statesman, a Founding Father, head of the Committee on Style and writer of the final draft of the Constitution of the United States.  Often referred to as the ‘Penman of the Constitution’, Morris was the originator of the phrase “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union.”  At the age of 35, Morris served as a member of the Continental Congress and spoke 173 times during the Constitutional debates, which was more than any other delegate.   The following are quotes made by Gouverneur Morris about the Bible, Democracy, Education and Government:

 

Bible

“The reflection and experience of many years have led me to consider the holy writings not only as the most authentic and instructive in themselves, but as the clue to all other history.   They tell us what man is, and they alone tell us why he is what he is: a contradictory creature that seeing and approving of what is good, pursues and performs what is evil.   All of private and public life is there displayed. … From the same pure fountain of wisdom we learn that vice destroys freedom; that arbitrary power is founded on public immorality.” 

Democracy

“We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate … as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism. … Democracy! savage and wild.   Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt.”

Education

“Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man toward God.”

Government

“For avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy … the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people.   I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments.”

 

 

1.  “Collections of the New York historical Society for the Year 1821″, (New York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1821), p. 30, from “An Inaugural Discourse Delivered Before the New York Historical Society by the Honorable Gouverneur Morris”, September 4, 1816

2.  An oration Delivered on Wednesday, June 29, 1814, at the Request of a Number of Citizens of New-York, in Celebration of the Recent Deliverance of Europe from the Yoke of Military Despotism”, (New York: Van Winkle and Wiley, 1814), pp. 10, 22

3.  “The Life of Governeur Morris”, Jared Sparks, (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1832), Vol. III, p. 483, from his “Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France”

4.  “A Diary of the French Revolution”, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1939), Vol. II, p. 172, April 29, 1791; Vol. II, p. 452, to Lord George Gordon, June 28, 1792

Words to ponder on..

Posted on by matt

In his book A Christian Manifesto, renowned philosopher, author and commentator Francis August Schaeffer wrote the following:

It follows from [Samuel] Rutherford’s thesis that citizens have a moral obligation to resist unjust and tyrannical government. While we must always be subject to the office of the magistrate, we are not to be subject to the man in that office who commands that which is contrary to the Bible.

Rutherford suggested that there are three appropriate levels of resistance: First, he must defend himself by protest (in contemporary society this would most often be by legal action); second, he must flee if at all possible; and third, he may use force, if necessary, to defend himself.

One should not employ force if he may save himself by flight; nor should one employ flight if he can save himself and defend himself by protest and the employment of constitutional means of redress. Rutherford illustrated this pattern of resistance from the life of David [fleeing from King Saul] as it is recorded in the Old Testament.

The civil government, as all life, stands under the Law of God.… when any office commands that which is contrary to the Word of God, those who hold that office abrogate their authority and they are not to be obeyed.

[Justice is] based on God’s written Law, back through the New Testament to Moses’ written Law; and the content and authority of that written Law is rooted back to Him who is the final reality. Thus, neither church nor state were equal to, let alone above, that Law. The base for law is not divided, and no one has the right to place anything, including king, state or church, above the contents of God’s Law.