The True Standard of Human Legislation.
By B.
The divine law revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is not and should not be the basis of civil legislation. The law of nature, written in the very constitution of things, not dependent upon a written revelation, but revealing itself in all the relations of life, is all-sufficient for the ends of civil justice. Of this law Blackstone wrote: “This will of his [man’s] Maker is called the law of nature. This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and being dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.” The same principle is set forth in the Declaration of Independence, in these words: “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.” This endowment was not subsequent to man’s creation, but coincident with it. By the very act of making man what he is, the Creator endowed him with the rights which belong to him by the laws of his being. “Those rights, then,” says Blackstone, “which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by municipal laws to be inviolable.” Lock, in his essay on “Civil Government,” says that “nothing is more evident than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection.” “The sayings and doings of daily life continually imply some intuitive belief of this kind,” remarks Herbert Spencer. “We take for granted its universality, when we appeal to men’s sense of justice. In moments of irritation it shows itself in such expressions as ‘How would you like it?’ ‘What is that to you?’ ‘I’ve as good a right as you,’ etc. Our praises of liberty are pervaded by it; and it gives bitterness to the invectives with which we assail the oppressors of mankind. Nay, indeed, so spontaneous is this faith in the equality of human rights, that our very language embodies it. Equity and equal are from the same root; and equity literally means equalness. ” Rights are not a matter of opinion but of fact; they exist in the very nature of things. In recognition of this principle Lord Coke remarks: “When anything is grounded upon the law of nature, they say that reason will that such a thing be done; and if it be prohibited by the law of nature, they say that it is against reason, or reason will not suffer it to be done.” The one universal basis of civil legislation is, therefore, the inherent rights of man. These rights are self-evident. They are not dependent upon a written revelation, but appeal to all men everywhere, and are discoverable alike by pagan and Christian. The Code of Justinian influences in large measure the legislation of to-day in both England and America. It is true that it was compiled in the 6th century of this era, but that in it which is best and most in accord with the demands of civil justice, is traceable to purely pagan times. Well would it have been for the world had no effort ever been made to model civil law after the supernaturally revealed law of the Creator; the law which he gave for the government of his own peculiar people, and which according to his own divine arrangement was to be administered by men divinely guided; but never to be the sport of contending political factions, or to be re-enacted by human legislatures. The legitimate sphere of human government is limited to guaranteeing natural rights and enforcing natural duties. It does not include the domain of morals. Moral government should be left with the only Being qualified to administer it, namely, the Creator.