Natural Law and our founding documents

In present day America the Constitution is viewed as the only pertinent document regarding government at the federal level. In reality, in order to understand the Constitution, one must understand and incorporate The Declaration of Independence into their interpretation. The latter is now almost completely disregarded however, and through this omission of phraseology from the Declaration, the legal basis of the Constitution and its meaning become obscured.

The Declaration of Independence states:

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. [....]

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States,... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

The phrase "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" in the Declaration is a direct reference to a legal philosophy rooted in Christian precept. Far from being secularists, the Founders are in the Declaration of Independence explicitly acknowledging Biblical principle as the basis for their "Independent" government, by declaring that God and His laws allow its establishment. John Adams, who signed the Declaration, explains which principles produced the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

"The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved Independence, were the only principles in which, that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite, and these principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer. And what were these general principles? I answer, the general principles of Christianity, in which all those sects were united. [...] Now I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the existence and attributes of God." - John Adams, to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813.

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. [...] Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, October 11, 1798.

Numerous other examples of this truth exist. The following are a small sampling.

"From the day of the Declaration, the people of the North American union, and of its constituent States, were associated bodies of civilized men and Christians in a state of nature. [...] They were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rules of their conduct." - John Quincy Adams, An Address Delivered at the Request of the Committee of Arrangements for the Celebrating the Anniversary of Independence at the City of Washington on the Fourth of July 1821 upon the Occasion of Reading The Declaration of Independence. 

"The Declaration of Independence announced the One People, assuming their station among the powers of the earth, as a civilized, religious, and Christian people,—acknowledging themselves bound by the obligations, and claiming the rights to which they were entitled by the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. They had formed a subordinate portion of an European Christian nation, in the condition of Colonies. The laws of social intercourse between sovereign communities constitute the laws of nations, all derived from three sources:—the laws of nature [...] the laws of humanity and mutual benevolence taught in the gospel of Christ. The European Colonies in America had all been settled by Christian nations. [....] The United States of America were no longer Colonies. They were an independent Nation of Christians, recognizing the general principles of the European law of nations." - John Quincy Adams, July 4, 1837. 

"This wise legislature framed this great body of laws for a Christian country and Christian people. [....] This is the Christianity of the common law [...] and thus it is irrefragably proved that the laws and institutions of this State are built on the foundation of reverence for Christianity. On this the Constitution of the United States has made no alteration, nor in the great body of the laws, which was an incorporation of the common-law doctrine of Christianity. [....] No society can tolerate a willful and despiteful attempt to subvert its religion, any more than it would to break down its laws; a general, malicious, and deliberate intent to overthrow Christianity, general Christianity. This is the line of indication where crime commences, and the offence becomes the subject of penal visitation." - Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Updegraph v. The Commonwealth, 1824. 

"What gave us this noble safeguard of religious toleration? It was Christianity... But this toleration, thus granted, is a religious toleration; it is the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, with two provisos, one of which, that which guards against acts of licentiousness, testifies to the Christian construction. [....] What constitutes the standards of good morals? Is it not Christianity? There certainly is none other. [...] The day of moral virtue in which we live would, in an instant, if that standard were abolished, lapse into the dark and murky night of pagan immorality. In the Courts over which we preside, we daily acknowledge Christianity as the most solemn part of our administration. A Christian witness, having no religious scruples about placing his hand upon the book, is sworn upon the holy Evangelists - the books of the New Testament which testify our Savior's birth, life, death, and resurrection; this is so common a matter that it is little thought of as an evidence of the part which Christianity has in the common law. I agree fully to what is beautifully and appropriately said in Updegraph v. The Commonwealth... - Christianity, general Christianity, is, and always has been, a part of the common law." - Supreme Court of South Carolina, City of Charleston v. S. A. Benjamin,1846 (citing the above ruling). 

"This is a Christian nation. Ninety-nine hundreths, if not a larger proportion, of our whole population, believe in the general doctrines of the Christian religion. Our government depends for its being on the virtue of the people - on that virtue that has its foundation in the morality of the Christian religion; and that religion is the common and prevailing faith of the people. There are, it is true, exceptions to this belief; but general laws are not made for excepted cases. There are to be found, here and there, the world over, individuals who entertain opinions hostile to the common sense of mankind on subjects of honesty, humanity, and decency; but it would be a kind of republicanism with which we are not acquainted in this country, which would require that the great mass of mankind to yield to and be governed by this few. It is quite unnecessary to enter into a detailed review of all the evidences that Christianity is the common creed of this nation. We know it, and we feel it, as we know and feel any other unquestioned and admitted truth; the evidence is all around us, and before us, and with us. We know, too, that the exceptions to this general belief are rare - so very rare that they are sufficient only, like other exceptions, to prove a general rule." - Legislature of New York, 1838.

Contrary to the modern portrayal, in which the Revolutionary War was motivated purely by economic issues like excessive taxation, religion was a significant factor. North America was colonized by Christian fundamentalists, and as such the Founders designed a Constitution with them and their way of life in mind.

"The framers of the Constitution [...] were legislating not for Jews, Mohammedans, infidels, pagans, atheists, but for Christians. And, believing the Christian religion the only one calculated to sustain and perpetuate the government about to be formed, they adopted it as the basis of the infant republic. This nation had a religion, and it was the Christian religion." - Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen, resolution concerning Sabbath mails in the Senate of the United States, May 8, 1830.