Thomas Jefferson and many of his contemporaries understood
that the natural rights of man depended upon teleological considerations.
So viewed, and accepting the premise that man's goal is being
with his Creator for eternity, man has the duty to abide by His will
and directions, because they are necessary to satisfy man's duties.
Jefferson wrote that "the true office is to declare and enforce our
natural rights and duties."24 The existence of natural duties and the
relationship of rights to duties were quite apparent to Jefferson, and
anyone who has studied the man should realize that the only natural
duties Jefferson acknowledged were not to temporal kings, but to
the Creator.
James Madison was even more explicit that the source of rights
exists in man's duty to his Creator. Writing of the unalienable right
of religion in his Memorial and Remonstrance, he stated that the
right is unalienable
"because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards
the creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator
such homeage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to
Him. His duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree
of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man
can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be
considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe: And
if a member of Civil Society, who enters into any subordinate
Association, must always do it with a reservation of his duty
to the general authority; much more must every man who becomes
a member of any particular Civil Society, do it with a
saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign." 25
Another leading Virginian, George Mason, was equally clear in
asserting that the obligation of man to his Maker was the source of natural
rights. In 1772 he wrote:
"Now all acts of legislature apparently contrary to natural right
and justice, are, in our laws, and must be in the nature of
things, considered as void. The laws of nature are the laws of
God: A legislature must not obstruct our obedience to him from
whose punishments they cannot protect us. All human constitutions
which contradict His laws, we are in conscience
bound to disobey. Such have been the adjudications of our
courts of justice." 26
The imperative necessity of understanding ends and duties in
order to delineate natural rights was appreciated not only by Messrs.
Jefferson, Madison, and Mason, but also by Virginians generally in
our formative period. The members of the Virginia convention that
ratified the United States Constitution saw and stated that the natural
rights of conscience and religion are predicated upon an obligation
to God. They contended that it was because of "the duty which we
owe to our Creator," that "all men have an equal, natural and unalienable
right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates
of conscience." 27
Founding Fathers were anti-atheist
