p. 3 | Unalienable Rights by John S. Wightman

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 17, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 29.

Unalienable Rights

By John S. Wightman

"God . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men." Acts 17:24-26.

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36.

All men are created equal. . . . They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.—Declaration of Independence.

Unalienable Rights

By John S. Wightman

"CERTAIN unalienable rights." If it were sought to give intelligent expression in less than half a dozen words as to what was the very corner-stone of our American system of government, the phrase with which this article opens might be considered all-sufficient. At least "the recognition of certain unalienable rights" would briefly state that which constituted "a new order of things"—a new order designed and accomplished in the American Revolution; a new order so vastly different, so widely separated from the old order of national existence, and the well-established notion of "the divine right of kings" and "sovereignty of government," that its intent and extent may alone be realized in the expression of the two distinct ideas. First, that government is of the people; and second, that civil government is of right entirely separate from religion.

The First Example in All History.

Never before in the history of the world had these two fundamental principles of just and equitable civil government received recognition and become a corporeal part of the fundamental laws of a national entity, until the constitution of the United States and its adoption in 1787. True, Valley Forge, Bunker Hill, and Yorktown—the pouring out of the virgin continent's best blood and richest treasure—were the price paid to secure the general recognition of the great principle that "all men are created equal," and this, in a word, was the new order of things.

And was it not, after all, a new order of things well worth the price paid to secure it? The long, dark history of the past; the history of kingly, despotic rule, what was it but a tale of infamy and of shame, of cruel oppression and intolerable injustice, and of misrule! Without the recognition of the inalienable rights of the individual, there could be no real happiness, no genuine liberty, no guarantee even of life itself. Notwithstanding the nation of the United States became established on the principles of freedom and equality by the adoption of the Constitution, we must remember that the soul of that instrument is found in the Declaration of Independence. The order of government, the system, the organization, the power which is defined in the Constitution, may all be found within, and traced directly to, the Declaration of Independence. The rights of the people are thus briefly comprehended in the following words of 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 when any government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a 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."

Thus, in two sentences, was annihilated the despotic doctrine of the divine right of rulers; and, in place of the theory, which had became venerable, if not absolutely hallowed, by the precedents of a thousand years,—the theory of the sovereignty of the government and the subjection of the people,—there was declared the self-evident truth of the subjection of government to the sovereignty of the people.

The Great Principle of Religious Freedom.

And it is not difficult to see that the second of the two distinct ideas of "the new order of things" is that government is of right entirely separate from religion; that religion could not receive a proper place in civil law, nor obtain in any way; that the interest of each and every individual might be properly conserved to the extent that each and every individual was left absolutely free "to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience" (or not to worship, as might seem fit), and be under no obligation to answer to any man for his religious faith so long as he conducted himself as a good citizen. When the first of these distinct ideas—that government is of the people—had been firmly enthroned upon the very pinnacle of the fundamental and organic law of the land, the people must rule that religion should be kept entirely separate from the civil state. The salvation of the latter of the two principles depended upon the triumph of the former principle—the right of the people to govern, the supreme and absolute sovereignty of the people. We find in the Constitution of the United States that all authority is derived from the people, and because of this the United States became, and is, "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Did Providence Design It?

Can it be thought a thing incredible that Providence designed that a people, far removed from the scenes of bloodshed and bigotry of by-gone ages, and profiting by its mistakes, realizing themselves to be the true governors; and, in recognition of the self-evident truth "that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," should set up a government true to their conceptions of equality and justice, wherein the spheres of the civil and religious

were entirely and widely separated, the conscience made free, and the individual left undisturbed in his worship and faith, whatever it might be, or whatever it might not be? In view of all the circumstances attendant upon the birth of our country, who can doubt? "No hooded monk, no crowned despot, was to rule here." A benign Providence had strangely ruled "the new order of things"—the absolute sovereignty of the individual in matters religious! And the world clearly saw the bright flame leap from the white-hot crucibles of time and experience, and the dull, leaden skies of dark and medieval days were lightened with its glory! Today the light has penetrated to the farthermost corners of the earth, "to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people;" and the trembling nations may read as if written in letters of fire and emblazoned upon the crest of every mountain,

"All Men Are Created Equal!"

Having been created equal, not a living soul owes any apology or explanation to any other soul or any number of souls for his religious belief and practises, so long as he is a good citizen, and "renders unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's."

Governor Pownal, an English statesman, in 1780, speaking of the establishment of this country as a free and sovereign power, calls it "a revolution that has stronger marks of divine interposition superseding the ordinary course of human affairs than any other event which this world has experienced." John Adams wrote: "Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over into the new world for conscience' sake." Very true; and that apparently trivial incident—coming for conscience' sake; to secure that certain inalienable right to freedom of conscience, that inward and silent attribute of man with which God alone can properly deal—it was this, the transcendental and paramount, not the trivial, that primarily gave birth to our nation and its peculiar and heretofore unknown form of self-government!

The nation exists because of humanity's desire to be free from the religious proscriptions and persecutions of bigoted and misguided men. To escape such a reasonable conclusion is impossible.

The Light of Contemporary Discussion.

In jurisprudence, to discover the exact meaning of a law misunderstood, the intent of the lawmaker must be ascertained. In like manner, a clearer understanding of the

provisions of the Constitution may be had by an examination of the writings concerning it by its framers, and of the contemporary discussions of its time.

An undeniable major premise may be set forth: “to secure certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” To follow on, we find that the country was agitated for a number of years prior to the adoption of the Constitution with the discussion of religious rights. While Virginia was yet a colony, and the Church of England was the established church of the colony, the colonial House of Burgesses, June 12, 1776, adopted a Declaration of Rights, composed of sixteen sections, every one of which, in substance, afterward formed a place in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The sixteenth section, in part, reads thus:

“That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore ALL MEN ARE EQUALLY entitled to the FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION, according to THE DICTATES OF CONSCIENCE.”

July 4 following, the Declaration of Independence was made, wherein this principle is embodied in the statement that “governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” As another has said: “As governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed; as governments can not justly exercise any power not delegated; and as it is impossible for any person in any way to delegate any power in things religious, it follows conclusively that the Declaration of Independence logically excludes religion in every way from the jurisdiction and from the notice of every form of government that has resulted from the Declaration.” This was precisely the view taken of it as the Declaration was published.

Concurrent Religious Declarations of Freedom.

Rapidly following came the statement of the famous Presbytery of Hanover that we must be left free to follow “the dictates of our own consciences;” that it is an inalienable right; and in addition to this we have the statements and writings of Madison, the father of the Constitution, and of Jefferson, the chief exponent of the total separation of Church and State, the memorial of the Baptists and the Quakers, the public utterances of George Washington and eminent citizens of the period, all of which tends clearly to show that the paramount object of the framers of our government was to secure religious freedom for all. And as there can be no proper civil liberty without first religious liberty, chief among the “certain unalienable rights” was the right to worship.

This great truth was clearly recognized. Hence, we find in the American Constitution these words:

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

And again:

“No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust in the United States.”

Thus, almost with the stroke of a pen, involuntary servitude and abject slavery to ecclesiasticism and its unjust demands was prevented, and the new nation, vigorous and self-reliant, stood before the world free and independent, the very highest and noblest exponent of the principles of the Nazarene, the Author of liberty. Indeed, the new nation demonstrated the possibility of government itself obeying literally the divine injunction, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

Upon the passage of the Bill of Rights in Virginia, Madison happily exclaimed:

“Thus in Virginia was extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.”

And the same principle that became fixed in the Code of Virginia, became triumphantly fixed in the organic union—the Constitution—of the Federal States! As Madison has said, “There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a flagrant usurpation.”

In the United States Senate Report of 1829, it was stated: “What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights of which government can not deprive any portion of citizens, however small.”

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, each and all these world empires essayed to rule the consciences of men. The effort of the United States has, indeed, been “a new undertaking;” it has been successful; “a State without a king and a Church without a pope.” In its separation of Church and State, exercising no authority over conscience, it stands preeminent! Its future glory and achievements as a government will depend upon strict adherence to its fundamental principles, a rigid protection and defense of the “certain unalienable rights;” “among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” paramount to all, the right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience, without the least interference upon the part of the magistrate, or upon the part of the ecclesiastic. Such is the ideal nation! Such might make the ideal world!