Restore U.S. confidence: accept the Founders’ humble-integrity, the Framers’ disciplined human independence, the Signers’ appreciation to posterity, and this 2020 “ourselves and our Posterity.”
To
reform today’s U.S. chaos into achievable confidence, the entity We the People
of the United States may reinstate the integrity the founders expressed in the 1776
Declaration of Independence, the framers affirmed in the 1787 U.S. Constitution,
and the Signers’ invited to posterity. Congress, in 1791, betrayed U.S.
humble-integrity and has preserved the tyranny over citizens ever since.
U.S. citizens in 2020 are
constrained to consider, some perhaps for the first time, why the U.S. is the venerated
hope to the world. In fact, the U.S. culture has withstood religious-tyranny
since 1789, when Congress was seated with 11 states in the union.
It is no surprise that most living
members of We the People of the United States do not relate to “the good
People” who declared that the 13 British colonies “are, and of Right ought to
be Free and Independent States.” The good people claimed their intentions
before “the Supreme Judge of the world.” They did not attempt to usurp
spiritual power, accepted responsibility to establish civic independence, and
admitted that some fellow-citizens favored dependence.
The British Empire rules under the
Machiavellian,[1]
constitutional partnership between Church and Parliament. Magna Carta, 1215,
was negotiated by a Roman Catholic Cardinal to protect the Church.[2]
After centuries of struggle with Roman
Catholicism, the monarchy must be Protestant.[3]
Unfortunately, the U.S. subjects itself to religious squabble---has not matured
to psychological independence from British-colonial tradition.
Most U.S. citizens accept that
governments do not dictate the spiritual beliefs of human beings. Some human
beings accept that their humble-integrity cannot be consigned---to God or to government:
the human being is “and of right ought to be free and independent” (borrowing
from the Declaration). Government has no say in whether a citizen is Catholic
or Protestant; European-Christian or Ethiopian-Christian[4];
believer or non-believer; theist or philosopher. A civic culture needs fellow-citizens who behave
for equity under statutory human-justice, leaving spiritual pursuits to
privacy.
The 1776 founders expressed these
principles in the Declaration of Independence, without appealing to
supernatural power; for example, England’s Trinity, Rome’s Trinity, Unitarianism’s
One God, or none. The founders used 4 civic terms to appeal to world
power: Nature’s God, Creator, Supreme
Judge of the world, and Providence. These terms express no arrogance toward
whatever controls the unfolding of the-ineluctable-truth, whether metaphysics
is involved or not. The founders expressed both civic responsibility and
spiritual humility. Neither the framers nor the signers rejected that wisdom,
but Congress usurped the spiritual realm with arrogance: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Neither the Supreme Judge of the world nor the good people yielded that authority
to Congress.
The 1787 framers wrote nothing to
lessen the humble-integrity of the founders’ 1776 Declaration. However, 16 of
55 framers did not sign the 1787 U.S. Constitution for their reasons. The
proffered constitution expressed “the good People” as “We the People of the
United States” accepting dissidents as nonetheless fellow-citizens, replaced
the confederation with a union of states, did not object to the Supreme Judge
of the world, and specified the world’s first federal republic wherein the
disciplined-people hold both their state and the union accountable to the laws
the engaged-people authorize.
The articles provide for amendment
when the people discover statutory injustice. The preamble proffers 5 public
disciplines “in order to” promote responsible human independence “to ourselves
and our Posterity,” leaving religion a private pursuit. The framers accepted
that they could not resolve every concern they faced, but provided the
intentions and framework for resolution by posterity. For example, with 8
slave-states of 13, they scheduled the end of the Atlantic slave-trade 20 years
after ratification and left emancipation to posterity. Emancipation came when
the free-states outnumbered the slave states.
In the 1787-88 state conventions,
at least two states demanded a Bill of Rights to ratify the constitution. The
First Congress would negotiate the amendments. Two states joined after the
required nine states ratified, and Congress was seated in 1789. There were 14
states when Congress ratified the Bill of Rights in 1791. Humble-integrity would
have been served if the states who were willing to ratify the 1787 Constitution
without amendment had waited for others to join.
Usurping supernatural powers, Congresses
First Amendment religion-clauses unconstitutionally restored Protestant-American
Chapter-XI-Machiavellianism by tradition; factional American-Protestant
churches with Congress mimic the Church of England’s partnership with Parliament.
Congress usurped the individual’s choice respecting civil supernatural power or
none; they also defied Genesis 1:28, the 1776 Supreme Judge of the world,
France’s 1778 military providence, and the 1787 responsible human independence
to “our Posterity.” When humans invite woe, consequences are often harsh.
Christian v Christian woe came in the U.S. Civil war.
In 1852, fellow-citizen Frederick
Douglass shamed the framers’ posterity who conducted domestic slave-trade.[5]
During 1854 to 1859, white Christians killed white Christians over
slavery-abolition establishments in Kansas.[6]
R. E. Lee wrote to his wife in December, 1856 about the abolitionist’s “evil
Course” and followed with “Is it not strange that the descendants of those
pilgrim fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom of
opinion, have always proved themselves intolerant of the spiritual liberty[7]
of others.”[8]
After listing complaints, the South Carolina Declaration of Secession
concludes, “.
. . public opinion at the North has
invested a great political error with the sanction of more erroneous religious
belief.”[9]
In February, 1861, the CSA held a 7 state to 27 state disadvantage and relied
on their Christian beliefs. Addressing national divide on white, Christian
opinion, Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, recalled both 1776
and 1787 humble-integrity, citing “the
Almighty Ruler of Nations” and “the judgment of this great tribunal of the
American people.” [10]
President
Donald Trump said, "I've done more for the black
community than any President since Abraham Lincoln,"[11] I recall Lincoln’s perhaps unintentional affirmation
of Genesis 1:28: “Why should there not be a patient
confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal
hope in the world?” Aware or not, Trump fulfills the civic charge expressed in
Genesis 1:28 without debating whether the charge came from God, the Supreme Judge
of the world, or the Almighty Ruler of Nations. When civic chaos appears, Trump
takes action.
Meanwhile,
Trump’s opponent, Vice-President Joe Biden pledges he will “restore the soul of
America.”[12] Biden’s
civic duty is to aid We the People of the United States to constrain chaos in
the USA. Like Lincoln and Trump, I rely on the humble-integrity of We the
People of the United States for responsible human independence “to ourselves
and our Posterity.”
U.S.
families cannot stand by while dissidents dabble in soul-metaphysics to
distract from each citizen’s responsibility to establish peace on earth. Let We
the People of the United States accept the Founders, the Framers, the Signers,
and “ourselves and our Posterity” in order to hold Congress responsible to humble-integrity
rather than religion: amend the First Amendment to promote integrity.
Let this season
of goodwill establish “2020 humble vision” for an achievable better future.
Copyright©2020 by Phillip R. Beaver. All
rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the publication of all or
portions of this paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included.
[1]
Nicolo Machiavelli, in “The Prince,” Chapter XI, wrote, “[E]cclesiastical principalities . . . sustained by the
ordinances of religion, which are so all-powerful, and of such a character that
the principalities may be held no matter how their princes behave and live.
These princes alone have states and do not defend them, they have subjects and
do not rule them; and the states, although unguarded, are not taken from them,
and the subjects, although not ruled, do not care, and they have neither the
desire nor the ability to [emigrate]. [B]eing exalted and maintained by God, it
would be the act of a presumptuous and rash man to discuss them.”
[2]
Online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta.
[3]
Online at https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/english-bill-of-rights.
[4]
Online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Orthodox_Tewahedo_Church.
[5] Online
at https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2945.
[6]
Online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Kansas.
[7]
“Liberty” usages such as this influence me to prefer “independence.” Liberty is
a synonym for “license” which no human or institution can grant regarding an
individual’s spirituality or none. Also, when my group takes the liberty to
cause or incite harm, I want the independence to depart and report them to
first responders.
[8]
Online at https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Letter_from_Robert_E_Lee_to_Mary_Randolph_Custis_Lee_December_27_1856.
[9]
Online at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp.
[10]
Online at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp.
[11]
Online video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCeydSqYxSM.
[12]
Online report at https://www.ft.com/content/95268089-1178-4bbe-b41f-ce3e3d5dac8a.
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