"Several ideas in the Constitution were new. These were associated with the combination of consolidated government along with federal relationships with constituent states.
The Due Process Clause of the Constitution was partly based on common law and on Magna Carta (1215), which had become a foundation of English liberty against arbitrary power wielded by a tyrant.
Both the influence of Edward Coke and William Blackstone were evident at the Convention. In his Institutes of the Lawes of England, Edward Coke interpreted Magna Carta protections and rights to apply not just to nobles, but to all British subjects. In writing the Virginia Charter of 1606, he enabled the King in Parliament to give those to be born in the colonies all rights and liberties as though they were born in England. William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England were the most influential books on law in the new republic.
British political philosopher John Locke following the Glorious Revolution was a major influence expanding on the contract theory of government advanced by Thomas Hobbes. Locke advanced the principle of consent of the governed in his Two Treatises of Government. Government's duty under a social contract among the sovereign people was to serve them by protecting their rights. These basic rights were life, liberty and property.
Montesquieu emphasized the need for balanced forces pushing against each other to prevent tyranny (reflecting the influence of Polybius's 2nd century BC treatise on the checks and balances of the Roman Republic). In his The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu argues that the separation of state powers should be by its service to the people's liberty: legislative, executive and judicial.
Division of power in a republic was informed by the British experience with mixed government, as well as the study of republics ancient and modern. A substantial body of thought had been developed from the literature of republicanism in the United States, including work by John Adams and applied to the creation of state constitutions." From wikipedia
Nothing biblical went into the framing of our constitution. It was the study of other governments and what their failures/shortcomings were that went into the framing, not some biblical doctrine. I see a lot of philosophical reasoning and references to greece and rome in the above excerpt, not one thing about biblical principles. They (biblical principles) weren't what our founding fathers were looking at when making the constitution, I am sorry to burst your bubbles.
Last edited by dirkdaddy; 02/12/15 10:53 AM.
