"May I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle, that the destined career of my country will exhibit a government pursuing the public good as its sole object, and regulating its means by those great principles consecrated in its charter, and by those moral principles to which they are so well allied. [....] A Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may bespeak the most noble of ambitions-- that of promoting peace on earth and good will to man." - James Madison, State of The Union Address, December 3, 1816. (Last clause derived from Luk 2:14.)
"The Declaration of Independence was founded upon the direct reverse of all these propositions. It did not recognize, but implicitly denied, the unlimited nature of sovereignty. By the affirmation that the principal natural rights of mankind are unalienable, it placed them beyond the reach of organized human power; and by affirming that governments are instituted to secure them, and may and ought to be abolished if they become destructive of those ends, they made all government subordinate to the moral supremacy of the People. [...] The elements and the principles for the formation of the new government were all contained in the Declaration of Independence. [...] The Declaration had laid the foundation of all civil government, in the unalienable natural rights of individual man, of which it had specifically named three:—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,—declaring them to be among others not enumerated. - John Quincy Adams, July 04, 1837.
"Independence was declared. The colonies were transformed into States [...] Thenceforth their charter was the Declaration of Independence. Their rights, the natural rights of mankind. Their government, such as should be instituted by themselves, under the solemn mutual pledges of perpetual union, founded on the self-evident truths proclaimed in the Declaration. [....] The virtue which had been infused into the Constitution of the United States [...] was no other than the concretion of those abstract principles which had been first proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence – namely, the self-evident truths of the natural and unalienable rights of man, of the indefeasible constituent and dissolvent sovereignty of the people, always subordinate to a rule of right and wrong, and always responsible to the Supreme Ruler of the universe for the rightful exercise of that sovereign, constituent, and dissolvent power. [...] This was the platform upon which the Constitution of the United States had been erected. Its virtues, its republican character, consisted in its conformity to the principles proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence [...] or in other words, of those principles, proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Constitution of the United States." - John Quincy Adams, A Discourse Delivered at the Request of the New York Historical Society, in the City of New York, on Tuesday, the 30th of April, 1839; Being the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States, on Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789.
"In order to determine whether the United States meant by the term union, to establish a supreme power or a limited association, we must commence our inquiry at their political birth, and accommodate our arguments with the principles they avowed in proclaiming their political existence. These are stated in the declaration of independence. [....] If the declaration of independence is not obligatory, our entire political fabric has lost its magna charta, and is without any solid foundation." - John Taylor, New Views of Constitution of The United States, 1823.
"The latter (the Constitution) is but the body and the letter of which the former (the Declaration of Independence) is the thought and the spirit, and it is always safe to read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence." - United States Supreme Court, Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Ellis, 1891. (Parentheses mine.)Okay, so the Constitution is based upon "natural law," but aren't there any more overt indicators that it's founded on Biblical principles?
Article 2, Section 1:
"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President;"Deu 17:15:
"Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite."Article 3, Section 3:
"No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted."Deu 17:6, Eze 18:20:
"On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness."
"The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him."Our government was designed with three branches; the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive. This is found in The Bible.
"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us." - Isa 33:22.The Constitution also incorporates observance of the Christian Sabbath.
"If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law." - Constitution of the United States.
"Recognition is accorded to the Sabbath in our Federal Constitution. The President of the United States in the discharge of the high functions of his legislative department is expressly relieved from all embarrassment on Sunday. The business of the Supreme court, the highest judicial tribunal of the country, is by law directed to suspend its session on Sunday. Both houses of Congress, the offices of the State, Treasury, War, and Navy Departments, are all closed on Sunday. - Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen, resolution concerning Sabbath mails in the Senate of the United States, May 8, 1830.
"The framers of the Constitution, and those who for many years administered it, doubtless had in their eyes the first day - the Sabbath of the Christian religion. They 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. [...] The constitution provides that the President need do no work on Sunday: see article 1, section 7. The delegates who adopted it kept a Sabbath, and it was the Christian, not the Jewish Sabbath. The same is true of all succeeding Congresses." - Harmon Kingsbury, petition to the Senate and House of Representatives, December 14, 1837.
"Even the Constitution of the United States, which is supposed to have little touch upon the private life of the individual [...] provides in Article I, Section 7, a provision common to many constitutions, that the executive shall have ten days (Sundays excepted) within which to determine whether he will approve or veto a bill. [....] The laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business, and the closing of courts, legislatures, and other similar public assemblies on that day. [...] These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." - United States Supreme Court, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892.
"Another significant matter is the recognition of Sunday. That day is the Christian Sabbath. [...] It would be impossible within the limits of a lecture to point out all the ways in which that day is recognized. The following illustrations must suffice: By the United States Constitution the President is required to approve all bills passed by Congress. If he disapproves he returns it with his veto. And then specifically it is provided that if not returned by him within ten days, 'Sundays excepted,' after it shall have been presented to him it becomes a law. Similar provisions are found in the Constitutions of most of the States, and in thirty-six out of forty-five is the same expression, 'Sundays excepted.' By the general course of decision no judicial proceedings can be held on Sunday. All legislative bodies, whether municipal, state or national, abstain from work on that day. Indeed, the vast volume of official action, legislative and judicial, recognizes Sunday as a day separate and apart from the others, a day devoted not to ordinary pursuits of life." - David J. Brewer, United States Supreme Court Justice, The United States: A Christian Nation, 1905.Laws requiring observance of the Christian Sabbath, or "Blue Laws," were in place across the country.
"Whereas the observation of the Sabbath is an affair of public interest; inasmuch as it produces a necessary suspension of labor, leads men to reflect upon the duties of life and the errors to which human nature is liable, and provides for the public and private worship of God, the Creator and Governor of the universe. [....] Be it enacted and ordained by the Governor, Council, and Representatives convened in General Court of Assembly, that: 1. No one will be permitted on Sunday to keep his store or workshop open. No one will be permitted on that day to look after any business, to go to a concert, dance, or show of any sort, or to engage in any kind of hunting, game, recreation, without penalty of fine. [...] 2. No traveler, conductor, or driver shall be allowed to travel on Sunday unless necessary, under the same penalty. 3. Tavernkeepers, storekeepers, and innkeepers will prevent anyone living in their district from coming to pass the time there for pleasure or business. The innkeeper and his guest will pay a fine in case of disobedience. Furthermore, the innkeeper may lose his license. [...] The tything-men are to stop travelers, and require of them their reason for being on the road on Sunday; anyone refusing to answer, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five pounds sterling. If the reason given by the traveler be not deemed by the tything-man sufficient, he may bring the traveler before the justice of the peace of the district." - General Laws of Massachusetts, March 8, 1792. (On the 11th of March 1797 a new law increased the amount of fines. On the 16th of February 1816 a new law confirmed these same measures.)
"It is still true, however, that nothing strikes a foreigner on his arrival in America more forcibly than the regard paid to the Sabbath. There is one, in particular, of the large American cities, in which all social movements begin to be suspended even on Saturday evening. You traverse its streets at the hour at which you expect men in the middle of life to be engaged in business, and young people in pleasure; and you meet with solitude and silence. Not only have all ceased to work, but they appear to have ceased to exist. Neither the movements of industry are heard, nor the accents of joy, nor even the confused murmur which arises from the midst of a great city. Chains are hung across the streets in the neighborhood of the churches; the half-closed shutters of the houses scarcely admit a ray of sun into the dwellings of the citizens." - Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835, Vol II, Appendix E.Tocqueville observes similar laws in place in New York.
"Similar enactments exist in the laws of the state of New York, revised in 1827 and 1828. In these it is declared that no one is allowed on the Sabbath to hunt, to fish, to play at games, or to frequent houses where liquor is sold. No one can travel, except in case of necessity. And this is not the only trace which the religious strictness and austere manners of the first emigrants have left behind them in the American laws." - Ibidem.The Constitution also ends with "in the year of our Lord."
"Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth." - Constitution of the United States.The phrase "in the year of our Lord" is a feature of a Christian document, acknowledging God and his dominion, which can also be found in multitudes of official Christian proclamations of fasting and prayer by our government at every level.
One should also understand that the dating of the Constitution is two fold:
⦁ From the birth of Jesus Christ.
⦁ From the birth of our nation (the date of our independence).
To assert the former is not recognized by the document, or has no significance, likewise renders the latter not recognized or of no significance.
In fact a group of Muslim students attending Trinity College, in 2010, demanded that the phrase "in the year of our Lord" be removed from their diplomas.
Their reason?
"A diploma is a very personal item, and people want to proudly display it in their offices and homes," said Sidra Qureshi, president of Trinity Diversity Connection. "By having the phrase ‘In the Year of Our Lord,' it is directly referencing Jesus Christ, and not everyone believes in Jesus Christ."Muslims (being theists also) clearly understand the significance of this phrase on official documents; that it's specifically acknowledging the dominion of Christ. Only secular leftist historical revisionists contend it has no significance or refers to some non-specified deity or religion. A notion utterly refuted by Justice David Brewer.
"We constantly speak of this republic as a Christian nation- in fact, as the leading Christian nation in the world. This popular use of term certainly has significance. It is not a mere creation of the imagination. [....] In no charter or constitution is there anything to even suggest that any other than the Christian is the religion of this country. In none of them is Mohammed or Confucius or Buddha in any manner noticed. In none of them is Judaism recognized other than by way of tolerance of its special creed. [...] There is nowhere a repudiation of Christianity as one of the institutions as well as benedictions of society. In short, there is no charter or constitution that is either infidel, agnostic, or anti-Christian. Wherever there is a declaration in favor of any religion it is of the Christian. You will have noticed that I have presented no doubtful facts. Nothing has been stated which is debatable." - David J. Brewer, United States Supreme Court Justice, The United States: A Christian Nation, 1905.
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