America's Birthday

Calvin Coolidge's 4th of July speech sums up the remarkable event that was the founding of the United States and why we celebrate the principles that still guide it.

It is not so much then for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound. Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken.

Comments

[Dave]

Those were the days. Wish we had them back again.

[Mike Westfall]

Yep. Definitely not firm and unshaken these days.

[Sage S]

And yet, the American experiment in self-government is a social contract that is only as "firm and unshaken" as its defenders. The course of our representative democracy resides in the hands of people to determine; our government remains accountable and in-check only inasmuch as The People continue their role of restraining government abuses. If the American people lose the resolve to safeguard their freedoms, then what good is a Constitution?

The written word will not spare our liberty's removal if we allow it to be taken from us. No Constitution can ensure peace and freedom without men and women enforcing its statutes. The Constitution is strong enough, with firm enough foundations to handle even fundamental challenges like the Civil War. Yet it always requires individuals unwilling to surrender their God-given freedoms who will collectively oppose threats to the Constitution. We are its defenders, for we see in it the hope of attaining the greatest practicable ends for human society (or at least for ourselves).

If people cease believing that the government is accountable to us, that the people in government gain their authority from the consent of the governed, and that the duties and rights of the officials we elect are constrained by an innate and Constitutional obligation to ensure liberty and justice toward all, then the Constitution will have been undermined.

[RonH]

"I, , do declare that I do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of the bread and wine, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever."

- Test Act of 1672: "An act for preventing dangers which may happen from popish recusants" (English Law)

England finally got around to removing these laws in 1828. Their advance toward secular principles was no doubt inspired by our Framers:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

- Article VI, section 3, US Constitution

[Todd]

Amen Brother,

Nor should there be a "atheist" test.

[Sage S]

RonH,

We could simply begin and end with the First Amendment -

'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'

Requiring a religious test would be tantamount to establishing a religion. The Founders, primarily Protestants and members of Biblical Societies, regarded the individual freedom of religion as inviolably sacred, and so saw the coercive enforcement of any religious standards as the most pernicious evil under the sun. Of course, prohibiting any one person from freely pursuing their chosen religious beliefs fell into the same category of religious coercion. The first freedom and primary right of man is, Constitutionally, the freedom of religion from government interference.

The glory of America is that all men are treated as equal before the law (speaking in principle, not in practice). These rights not being conferred by the governing authority but rather innately possessed by virtue of being human, they cannot be abridged by any other person, whether by governmental restriction or through physical force. A person is free to believe and worship regardless of any encroaching statutes, and in fact will continue to do so even when under duress. At any rate, I presume you see the prohibition against a religious litmus test for public office as some clever flaw in the Christian presentation of our Founders as a decidedly Protestant bunch? You fail to see that it is testimony to their utmost reverence for religion.

[Dan]

We can only celebrate our history. The American spirit has long since gone dormant.

[Louis Kuhelj]

Guard the freedom of religion well, for without it, this country would be on the same level as some of the worst states in the world today and indeed the history of the world itself. It is only this one liberty that makes America better. Apart from that it is way worse.