Our Constitutional Heritage
America’s Constitutional Republic held initial influence by many Greco-Roman traditions. These patriotic underpinnings were cited by Historian James McClellan as, “the doctrines of republicanism, political virtue, and checks and balances.” (McClellan, 1). Plato wrote on Socrates, Gorgias, Polus, and other Greek philosophers' early works; his works revealed the importance of just governance; the difference between suffering as a result of justice, and suffering as a result of tyranny; the influence of statesmen on society, versus the influence of society on statesmen; and holding personal accountability for one’s actions (Plato, 162). Rome’s only known ancient history post-Christ was recorded by Tacitus, who stated that “in free governments we see a constellation of orators” (Tacitus, 59); he described “demagogues” citing the “powers of persuasion” as the factor responsible for successful governments (Tacitus, 60). Tacitus writes it was the Romans who described “democracies, republics, citizens, magistrates, liberty, demagoguery, and revolutions in government;” ancient concepts used as the foundation for America’s Constitutional Republic. Biblically, it was His Holy Spirit who reminds us to obey government, written in epistle to Rome; “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” Romans 13:1 (NASB).
Historian James McClellan describes the Declaration of Independence, specifically Sir William Blackstone’s indictment of George III, as the origin of the terminology found in our U.S. Constitution. McClellan writes that “[s]uch terms in the American Constitution as ‘’crimes and misdemeanors,’ ‘ex post facto laws,’ ‘judicial power,’ ‘due process,’ and ‘levying war’ were used in the same sense in which Blackstone had employed them.” The public revolution against England and its tyrannical ruler King George III produced the literary vigor and legislative tenacity that gave America an unrivaled Constitution; one that guaranteed the government acknowledged our God-given freedoms and prevented the government from a self-proclaimed divine right to rule. As James McClellan writes, “[m]uch of the written Constitution of the United States is derived from the ‘unwritten’ English Constitution;” adding that “[b]oth are based on the principle that liberty, order, and justice are difficult to achieve and must be preserved through fundamental laws that should be respected and not easily cast aside...” America’s Constitutional Republic is dependent on these same principles; to defend the people’s independent liberty and civic justice; recognizing inherent God-given human rights.
The Magna Charta, first published in 1215, is responsible for due process of U.S. law. Historian James McClellan states that “the ‘law of the land’ clause in Magna Charta…came to be known as ‘due process of law,’” that are “found in the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution” (McClellan, 23). America’s own Bill of Rights rightly paid homage to the Magna Charta’s law of the land; although the colonists were fleeing a tyrannical corrupt system of government, they recognized where England’s legal system had got it right, transposing that logic into the foundations of our nation.
The English Bill of Rights, written in 1689, was created in the image of the Protestant Christian religion. This granted followers of Jesus Christ protection from tyrannical religious persecution, simultaneously putting papists in their place. This meant there would no longer be gatekeepers to God, and human rights began to be recognized through writing as a personal covenant between man and his Creator. America would become influenced by the same British governance many opposed, fought, and died to evade, ratifying its own Bill of Rights nearly a century later in its image.
The Mayflower Compact was written in 1620, and began with the words “in the name of God, Amen,” adding that “[h]aving undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country;” 41 signatures represented what they would consider “a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia,” (McClellan, 167). This same compact declared King James of England, et al., as a “Sovereign Lord,” revealing an evident allegiance to England; yet simultaneously sought to establish basic laws for a new colony.
On January 14th, 1639, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the first physical Constitution was ratified, describing “the word of God requires that to mayntayne [sic] the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God,” (McClellan, 168). America’s founding documents defaulted their own authority to God, calling for peace and unity; alongside a government established to the Kingdom’s divine order, demanding a call to action for personal accountability.
Donald S. Lutz reveals that the American constitutional system developed from initial local covenants, described by the Acts and Orders of 1647 as a “Tenure of the promise,” (Lutz, D.S., 4255). Following covenants, America began the implementation of charters to represent a universal concurrence of common laws that everyone agreed to abide by; Lutz writes that “[l]ocal government in colonial America was the seedbed of American constitutionalism,” (Lutz, D.S., 385). America’s Constitutional system was developed from the same principles of the divine covenant that each Founding Father was raised. According to Historian Mark David Hall, “In 1776, every colonist, with the exception of about two thousand Jews, identified himself or herself as a Christian. Approximately 98 percent of them were Protestants, and the remaining 2 percent were Roman Catholics” (Hall, M.D., xxi) While these statistics do not guarantee each was a devout disciple of Jesus Christ, it does suggest that America’s Founders at one point held a Biblical worldview, regardless of their consistent individual compliance; this intrinsic characteristic is observable in the context of our founding documents.
The Founding Fathers exhibited specific, major political ideas based on and borrowed from British common law and tradition. In 1765, the first standard was published and was recognized by lawyers in both England and America (McClellan, J. 32). “The American system of property and contract law, to cite just two examples, may be traced back to general rules based on common sense, habit, and custom that gradually evolved in the English courts,” writes McClellan.
Through historic evidence, it’s clear nearly all our revolutionary ideas were adapted from other forms of working foreign legislative actions, common laws, and traditional practices. America may possess the world’s oldest functioning constitution, but it owes the document itself to the trials and errors of other nations; attributes likely responsible for our Constitution’s longevity and modern relevance. America remains a nation unlike any other, yet its successful founding would not have been possible without hundreds of years of first-hand trials of other nations and their despotic rulers.
–July 3rd, 2023
Bibliography
Hall, Mark David. (2019). Did America Have a Christian Founding? Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
McClellan, James. (1989, 1991, 2000). Liberty, Order, and Justice: An Introduction to the Constitutional Principles of American Government. Liberty Fund: Indianapolis, Indiana.
Lutz, Donald S. (1998). Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History . Liberty Fund Inc. Kindle Edition.
Plato; Aristotle. Complete Collection of Plato - 31 Works (With Bonus of The Poetics and Politics by Aristotle). Ageless Reads. Kindle Edition.
Tacitus, Cornelius. The Complete Works of Cornelius Tacitus. Shrine of Knowledge. Kindle Edition.