It is no quirk in that the Declaration precedes the Constitution. It is of immense importance.
1.The Declaration of Independence gave birth to the nation in 1776, the Constitution was written in 1787. By itself, the Declaration did not specify any particular form of government. The only thing that makes our government legitimate is that it secures those natural rights from our Creator, and that said government continues to be regularly validated by consent of the governed.
As the first Republican President put it, government of, by, and for the people.
Government proves it is for the people as long as it secures those natural rights.
2.The great debate for America is where, exactly, the line drawn between those natural rights each individual has as their birthright, and the authority of the society to make laws that are necessary and proper to allow the nation to function.
While natural rights are affirmed by the Declaration of independence, but majority rule is the mode directed by the Constitution. It is important to recognize which came first and has priority.
The Declaration is the preface, and gives the purpose of the Constitution: to secure each American’s unalienable rights.
3.Timothy Sandefur’s The Conscience of the Constitution [states] that “American constitutional history has always hovered in the mutual resistance of two principles: the right of each individual to be free, and the power of the majority to make rules.” For Sandefur adherence to the natural rights theory of Declaration of Independence manages the tension between the two principles. Indeed, the Declaration is “more than a merely rhetorical statement.” It “sets the framework for reading our fundamental law…” “‘This Republic of Federalism:’ A Review of Timothy Sandefur’s The Conscience of the Constitution,” By Adam Tate
4. “Drawing upon biblical language, Lincoln describes the Declaration of Independence as an “apple of gold,” and the Constitution as the “frame of silver” around it. We cannot consider the Constitution independently of the purpose which it was designed to serve. The Constitution acts to guard the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.” https://online.hillsdale.edu/document.doc?id=279
Without an understanding of the proper order of authority, meaning that the natural rights of individuals are ahead of majority rule, America fades into a tyranny of the majority.
“Freedom is the starting point of politics; government’s powers are secondary and derivative, and therefore, limited…” Sandefur, “The Conscience of the Constitution,” p.2
In Thoreau’s On the duty of Civil Disobedience, he states: “ There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all of its own power and authority are derived.”
If the history, and what makes our country truly exceptional, were to be taught in government school, would there be the necessity to have a Supreme Court even consider whether bakers could be forced to create a cake they find objectionable, or a group of nuns forced to give out birth control?
What have we become under Democrat/Progressive rule????
1.The Declaration of Independence gave birth to the nation in 1776, the Constitution was written in 1787. By itself, the Declaration did not specify any particular form of government. The only thing that makes our government legitimate is that it secures those natural rights from our Creator, and that said government continues to be regularly validated by consent of the governed.
As the first Republican President put it, government of, by, and for the people.
Government proves it is for the people as long as it secures those natural rights.
2.The great debate for America is where, exactly, the line drawn between those natural rights each individual has as their birthright, and the authority of the society to make laws that are necessary and proper to allow the nation to function.
While natural rights are affirmed by the Declaration of independence, but majority rule is the mode directed by the Constitution. It is important to recognize which came first and has priority.
The Declaration is the preface, and gives the purpose of the Constitution: to secure each American’s unalienable rights.
3.Timothy Sandefur’s The Conscience of the Constitution [states] that “American constitutional history has always hovered in the mutual resistance of two principles: the right of each individual to be free, and the power of the majority to make rules.” For Sandefur adherence to the natural rights theory of Declaration of Independence manages the tension between the two principles. Indeed, the Declaration is “more than a merely rhetorical statement.” It “sets the framework for reading our fundamental law…” “‘This Republic of Federalism:’ A Review of Timothy Sandefur’s The Conscience of the Constitution,” By Adam Tate
4. “Drawing upon biblical language, Lincoln describes the Declaration of Independence as an “apple of gold,” and the Constitution as the “frame of silver” around it. We cannot consider the Constitution independently of the purpose which it was designed to serve. The Constitution acts to guard the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.” https://online.hillsdale.edu/document.doc?id=279
Without an understanding of the proper order of authority, meaning that the natural rights of individuals are ahead of majority rule, America fades into a tyranny of the majority.
“Freedom is the starting point of politics; government’s powers are secondary and derivative, and therefore, limited…” Sandefur, “The Conscience of the Constitution,” p.2
In Thoreau’s On the duty of Civil Disobedience, he states: “ There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all of its own power and authority are derived.”
If the history, and what makes our country truly exceptional, were to be taught in government school, would there be the necessity to have a Supreme Court even consider whether bakers could be forced to create a cake they find objectionable, or a group of nuns forced to give out birth control?
What have we become under Democrat/Progressive rule????