1. Looking back several millennia, the origins of justice can be found in Judeo-Christian beliefs.But history is a complex and curious process. While the Enlightenment may be seen as a reaction to the abuses of clerical authority, it must be remembered that the biblical imprecation that all humanity was equal, having been fashioned in the image of God, provided the template for liberty.
a. Unlike France, thinkers in Britain and America embraced religion as an amalgamation with social virture, in the former and political liberty, in the latter.
b. John Locke thought that mans duty to God to preserve mankind as part of Creation was the basic moral law of nature.
2. But, pagan cultures also saw the universal basis for government, as well. The Founders understood that in Ciceros books on the Republic and the Laws, could be found the essence of a society based on Natural Law. Therein lay the ingredients for their model society.
a. Thomas Jefferson explicitly names Cicero as one of a handful of major figures who contributed to a tradition of public right that informed his draft of the Declaration of Independence and shaped American understandings of the common sense basis for the right of revolution. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825, in The Political Thought of American Statesmen, eds. Morton Frisch and Richard Stevens p. 12.
b. When the U.S. Constitution was completed, its framers looked upon it as an expression of this higher law. According to Madison, it was a product of "the transcendent law of nature." Alexander Hamilton called it "a fundamental law" and concluded that "no legislative act... contrary to the Constitution can be valid." (Federalist Papers, Nos. 43 & 78) Natural Law: The Basis of Moral Government
3. Ciceros view required the building of a society that combine the rules of right conduct with the laws of the Supreme Creator of the universe. Men must eliminate the depravity lodged in society. We must return to the high road of Natural Law. We must obey the mandates of our Creator. John's Essay on Principle One
4. Cicero had comprehended the magnificence of the first great commandment to love, respect, and obey the all-wise Creator. He put this precept on proper perspective y saying that Gods law is right reason. When perfectly understood it is called wisdom. When applied by government in regulating human relations it is called justice.
Skousen, The 5000-Year Leap, p. 42
5. True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrong-doing by its prohibitions. It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is, God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst penalties, even if he escapes what is commonly considered punishment.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, De Re Publica , book 3, paragraph 22.De Re Publica, De Legibus, trans. Clinton W. Keyes, p. 211 .
6. Hence...."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 ..."
a. Unlike France, thinkers in Britain and America embraced religion as an amalgamation with social virture, in the former and political liberty, in the latter.
b. John Locke thought that mans duty to God to preserve mankind as part of Creation was the basic moral law of nature.
2. But, pagan cultures also saw the universal basis for government, as well. The Founders understood that in Ciceros books on the Republic and the Laws, could be found the essence of a society based on Natural Law. Therein lay the ingredients for their model society.
a. Thomas Jefferson explicitly names Cicero as one of a handful of major figures who contributed to a tradition of public right that informed his draft of the Declaration of Independence and shaped American understandings of the common sense basis for the right of revolution. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825, in The Political Thought of American Statesmen, eds. Morton Frisch and Richard Stevens p. 12.
b. When the U.S. Constitution was completed, its framers looked upon it as an expression of this higher law. According to Madison, it was a product of "the transcendent law of nature." Alexander Hamilton called it "a fundamental law" and concluded that "no legislative act... contrary to the Constitution can be valid." (Federalist Papers, Nos. 43 & 78) Natural Law: The Basis of Moral Government
3. Ciceros view required the building of a society that combine the rules of right conduct with the laws of the Supreme Creator of the universe. Men must eliminate the depravity lodged in society. We must return to the high road of Natural Law. We must obey the mandates of our Creator. John's Essay on Principle One
4. Cicero had comprehended the magnificence of the first great commandment to love, respect, and obey the all-wise Creator. He put this precept on proper perspective y saying that Gods law is right reason. When perfectly understood it is called wisdom. When applied by government in regulating human relations it is called justice.
Skousen, The 5000-Year Leap, p. 42
5. True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrong-doing by its prohibitions. It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is, God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst penalties, even if he escapes what is commonly considered punishment.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, De Re Publica , book 3, paragraph 22.De Re Publica, De Legibus, trans. Clinton W. Keyes, p. 211 .
6. Hence...."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 ..."
