I came across a quote that I thought very important. In America so many have forgotten that our legal traditions come to us via the English system. I love how this is described. in the quote below.
"The English law was fundamentally different from the Continental in that, on the Continent, ‘all laws take into account human rights’ whereas English law ‘took the view that you took into account the rights of individuals’. On the Continent, rights existed only when proclaimed by law. In Britain, they existed automatically, without government fiat, unless the law abridged them."
Charles Moore - Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands
Notice that the rights exist apart from government. This is what Jefferson was talking about in the Declaration of Independence. A right is not given by the government, it is unalienable.
"The English law was fundamentally different from the Continental in that, on the Continent, ‘all laws take into account human rights’ whereas English law ‘took the view that you took into account the rights of individuals’. On the Continent, rights existed only when proclaimed by law. In Britain, they existed automatically, without government fiat, unless the law abridged them."
Charles Moore - Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands
Notice that the rights exist apart from government. This is what Jefferson was talking about in the Declaration of Independence. A right is not given by the government, it is unalienable.
Now look at the language used by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration:
"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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Notice that government is created to secure these rights. Government does not grant them. When the Constitution was going through the ratification process the biggest argument against it was that there was no Bill of Rights. This was a crucial issue. This was one of the reasons that George Mason and Patrick Henry opposed the Constitution. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were both disturbed by the lack of a Bill of Rights. Adams was perplexed because he had included a Bill of Rights when he almost single handedly wrote the Constitution of Massachusetts. Mason had written the initial draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. If you read that Declaration you can see the foundation for both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.
Of course these concepts go back even further. The principles here can also be found in the English Bill of Rights that was presented to William and Mary after the Glorious Revolution. The English Bill of Rights was influenced by the writings and thought of John Locke. Locke acknowledged that much of his thought came from his reading of scripture. There is so much more here and I will have to study it a lot more.
