A True Foundation

 In 2004, my first year of college, the University required freshmen to take a series of lecture classes.  You had to pick 4 lectures to attend.  The titles of these lectures were vast in their variety.  Many of these talks were to increase your thinking (groom your thoughts), and add diversity to your worldview (brainwash you).  Why do I say groom your thoughts and brainwash you? First of all I'm not against hearing differing opinions and viewpoints.  Many of these lectures were just that, differing opinions and viewpoints.  Some of these lectures did not use accurate information and did not tell the whole story.  Some had the intention to make you think a certain way, one way.

I decided to go to a lecture on the Founding Fathers of this great nation.  I ended up walking out early because all I heard was how awful they were.  This was the first time I saw/heard these arguments.  This "side" of the story eventually became the 1619 project.  The lecturer painted a very specific picture of the founders:  they were ALL deist or atheist, rich, selfish, slave owners and the only reason they did what they did was for their own gain and own interests.  They were all wealthy business owners out to save their own interests.  I won't argue that many were wealthy business owners, after all who funded the Revolution?  I won't argue that many were slave owners or that they were concerned for their own interests, of course they were!  I won't argue that there were a FEW, like 2, that were truly atheist, BUT they also signed these documents that acknowledged God numerous times!  Why did they do that?  Maybe because even though, they were atheists, they too saw these ideas as revolutionary, moral, and good for everyone?  Yes, you can set aside religious belief to agree that some rights are not socially engineered and that these rights come from a higher power, or nature, not man, and that they belong to all human kind.  These are the right to life, the right to liberty and the right to the pursuit of happiness.

"The Constitution of the United States of America is the longest standing constitution in the world today. It truly has been a firm foundation and has retained a stability that most Americans are unaware of.   America has remained under the same piece of paper since 1776 and has not had a revolution since.  We are the longest ongoing Constitutional Republic in the history of the world.  That is not the case for many other countries.  France had a revolution more than 10 years after America and they have had 15 constitutions since.  Brazil has had 7 constitutions since 1822.  Poland has had 6 constitutions since 1921.  Afganistan has had 5 constitutions since 1923, Russia has had 4 since 1918, and the story is similar for many other countries.  Many other countries have tried to model their constitutions after the US Constitution.  This, in part, is American Exceptionalism along with the great and very revolutionary ideas that were crafted into the foundation of this country.  The founders took this term 'American Exceptionalism' in humility.  John Adams wrote that the 'only source of national security is our recognition of our humble dependency on the Almighty God.' "- paraphrased from American Heritage Series, David Barton

They were forming a government, a necessary evil, in order to protect these rights of the individual.  What is

liberty?  It's the right to live free while doing the right thing.  What is right?  Where do our morals ultimately come from?  I would argue it all goes back to God and the Bible.  All our morals do rest on just that.  Before the Declaration of Independence was written the founders heard most moral ideas spoken from the pulpit first.  Everything in the Declaration of Independence was first written and spoken in churches before 1763.  All sermons were written down and some even published in books, as were Reverend John Wise's sermons.  His sermons had a great impact on the things written in our founding documents.  A Vindication of the Government of New England Churches of 1717, wise's most famous work was a blueprint for the Declaration of Independence that was adopted in 1776.  He was the first preacher to show, out of the Bible, ideas like taxation without representation is tyranny, consent of the governed was the basis for Biblical government, that all men are created equal,  and that all people were endowed by their creator with certain rights. 

What made America exceptional in 1776?  The term "Unalienable Rights" was not found in any government document in history until the American Constitution.  Our constitution draws a clear line between what the government can and cannot do.  The idea that there are rights that the government cannot touch is unique among ideas.  The idea that the government has to have the consent of the governed was a brand new idea.  There was no such thing as consent of the governed at that time. The separation of powers was a very radical idea.  No other government had that.  There was always one head or King at the top of all bodies of government.  Checks and balances for each branch of government was a new thing as well.  Each branch had a way to defend itself from being taken over by another branch.  Alexander Hamilton called this "Constitutional Arms of self defense."  The novel idea of Republicanism was introduced.  This is the idea that we get to have elections at the local, county, state and federal levels.  No other country was doing that at the time.

Where did these ideas come from?  John Locke was one who inspired these ideas.  He had a huge political influence in America.  He is also said to be a deist, but this is a false claim.  He was considered a theologian by previous generations.   He was known for writing a verse by verse commentary on Paul's Epistles in the Bible. He also wrote A Common Place-Book to the Holy Bible, which was a defense for Christianity.  He then wrote another 2 books called  A Vindication of the Reasonalbeness of Christianity.  Of all of John Locke's writings the book that had the most impact on the Declaration of Independence and was the primary source used to write the Declaration was the Two Treatises of Government.  Locke refers to the Bible 1500 times in this book.  He uses the Bible in order to show the proper operation of civil government.

The University of Houston gathered 15,000 writings from the era of the founders. They searched those writings for 10 years and isolated 3,154 direct quotes, tracing them back to their original sources.  From this they could identify the most frequently cited sources of many of the unique ideas of the era.  The results are published in The Origins of American Constitutionalism.  They discovered that the founders and many writings of the time most often quoted Charles de Montesquieu the political philosopher.  Sir William Blackstone was the second most cited individual and he was a legal scholar.  Political philosopher and theologian John Locke was the 3rd most cited.  The single most cited source among these individuals and founders in that era was the Bible.  Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws from 1766 and more of his works were heavily influenced by the Bible.  Blackstone not only covered many legal concepts, but also presented the biblical ideas on which the laws were based.  Some law students who studied his works converted to Christianity by the end because they had read so much of the Bible through his works.  Blackstone's works were the basis of law and the courts in the early days of our country, and they are still used today.  The writings of Montesquieu and Locke show a similar pattern for the Bible being their biggest influence in forming their ideas. Thirty four percent of the founder's writings contained quotes that came directly from the Bible.  Many of the other quotes taken from men, such as Blackstone, were shown to have the Bible as their primary source leading to their conclusions and forming their ideas.  

Switching gears to slavery.......Prior to 1700, slavery existed around the world and there were more whites

enslaved than blacks.  The expansion of the North Atlantic Slave trade is what made slavery possible in America at the time that it was adopted and more black slaves became predominant globally and in America. Portuguese, Muslim, and Spanish traders set up trade on the coasts of Africa and would trade in gold and silver and eventually slaves.  In this conquest era the leaders in Africa would conquer each other and trade their prisoners as slaves to the traders on the coast.  12.5 million slaves were shipped off of the coasts of Africa over the period of about 350 years.  The 13 colonies received 2.4% of these slaves.   Most were going to South America during this time.  Slavery was globally accepted at this time, this certainly does not make it right.   

Slavery was eventually adopted in Jamestown, but before Jamestown was in existence slavery existed in other groups that were in America before.  Some of these groups were Native Americans and the Spanish.  When the first ships of slaves came to Jamestown from Africa, Jamestown treated them the same as white indentured servants.  They were able to work for a certain time to earn their freedom and were given clothes, and land when they were set free.  Prior to 1661, blacks were not slaves.  Anthony Johnson was one of these indentured servants.  An Angolan born man that came to Virginia.  After his servitude ended he became very wealthy and had indentured servants.  Johnson was the first African born man to gain the favor of the court granting him a laborer for life.  That laborer was indentured servant, John Casor, also of African descent.  Casor was the first African to be declared a laborer for life in Virginia after the civil case.  They called it labor for life instead of labor for time, as if that would separate if from slavery.  This was 1655, slavery was more widely adopted later in 1661 with the first slave law.  Slavery was a common practice in the world prior to 1700 and it actually took awhile for the 13 colonies to adopt it.

By 1804 every Northern state had passed laws abolishing slavery.  By 1810 99% of all Africans had been freed in the northern states.  These northern states were among the first in the world to abolish slavery. The US Congress and England outlawed the Atlantic slave trade in 1807.  This banned the importation of slaves.  Prior to that, the Americans and British were stopping the trade ships from reaching their coasts.  There was great effort by the Americans and the British to stop the Atlantic slave trade.  It was an uphill battle to abolish it in all of the states.  It is important to note that one reason why the 13 colonies wanted to separate from England was because the King would not allow them to get rid of slavery before the revolution.  In Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence he mentions that the king is enslaving all of these people and that the colonies were not allowed to free them.  After the Revolutionary war slavery started declining and became unprofitable in the North altogether. While America was making great strides the English did abolish it in the meantime in 1833.  It was not until 1865 that America essentially abolished it with the 13th amendment.   

It is true that some of the founders were slave owners.  There were even a few who were pro slave.  Slavery was a very dark and horrible part of our history and it should be taught.  I have nothing against it being taught, but the whole truth needs to be taught.  Many of the founders who owned slaves set them free during or after the war. It's true that the majority of the founders owned slaves at some point in their lives.  Some grew up where there family owned slaves, but we don't know if they themselves inherited them or not.   The question we fail to ask is, well, how many ended up letting their slaves go and joining abolition groups?  During a time when no one was ending slavery, these men were letting their slaves go.  Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush were two of these examples.  They started the first abolition groups in the northern states and tried to make their group national.  The revolutionary war period was known as the 1st emancipation.  In 1791 John Hancock hosted an equality ball encouraging the ending of slavery and promoting equality among African Americans. What most people don't know is that the majority of the founders became anti slavery over the years prior to and after the war.   

America being one of the first to end slavery becomes significant even today when there are 90 current nations in the UN where slavery is still legal.  There are no laws on their books banning or abolishing slavery.  Many of those nations have slaves today in some form. There are more people enslaved today than there ever were in America's entire history.  Slavery is wrong and always has been.  There is no justification for slavery at anytime or any place.  I'm not justifying it, but would like to point out that it is dishonest to teach that America was the worst and most horrible for doing something so wrong and pretend like we were the only ones starting it and doing it.  In reality, America was just one among many that had slavery.  Even before America adopted it, it was a widely accepted practice.  

The idea that the majority of the founders were deist......I think not.  This can easily be proven wrong.  David Barton the founder of Wall builders proves this wrong in under 30 minutes in one episode of his series American Heritage.  I would highly recommend watching it.  This one episode is the source of much of the information here.  I feel a duty to pass it along this Independence Day!   The information on slavery came from One Room Schoolhouse at Wallbuilders.  These videos can be watched at Wallbuilders.com, or on Youtube. 

 I would encourage you to get truthful information about America's history! Our history has been lost and gets further lost with political agendas like the 1619 project.  I love this country and I'm so grateful to people like David Barton who tell the true history!

Happy Independence Day!!!!

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