My dear friend and college roommate posted this book excerpt on her FB page this morning. I LOVE it! This is the classic meaning of “Good” vs. “Great” and why striving for the “highest good” (the pursuit of happiness) is referenced everywhere in the founding documents of America and is THE AIM of the American republic. This purpose makes America unique or exceptional – the exception to the rule – among all the nations.
Excerpt from Gregg Braden’s book “The Turning Point”
John Trumbull’s “Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776”
Cicero, a favorite political philosopher of the Founding Fathers, was the first to speak of Natural Law as a moral or political law. In his books on the Republic and the Laws, he projected the grandeur and promise of a future society based on Natural Law. The American Founders had a profound appreciation for Cicero because they shared his vision of a commonwealth of prosperity and justice for themselves and their posterity. In his writings the Founders recognized the necessary ingredients for the model society they hoped to build. According to Cicero, true law is “right reason.” Constant and eternal, it is in accordance with nature. He characterized the universal law this way:
“There will not be one law at Rome and another at Athens, one now and another later; but all nations at all times will be bound by this one eternal and unchangeable law, and the god will be the one common master and general of all people. He is the author, expounder, and mover of this law; and the person who does not obey it will be in exile from himself. Insofar as he scorns his nature as a human being, by this very fact he will pay the greatest penalty, even if he escapes all the other things that are generally recognized as punishments . . .”
Belief in the moral truth of Natural Law inspired the Founders and spurred their quest for independence. In fact, The Declaration is “an act of obedience to a law that persists beyond the English law and beyond any law that the Founders themselves might make, notes Dr. Arynn, President of Hillsdale College. It is an act of obedience to the ‘Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,’ and to certain self-evident truths,” primarily the equal and unalienable Rights of all human beings. To live in ignorance and disregard for the moral principles of Natural Law is to risk exile from life’s ultimate goods like the inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty.
Just government is an ultimate good and the aim of the constitutional ordering of separate and arranged powers
Identify target, take aim, fire! Archery has as its effect the focusing and synchronizing of individual efforts into a common aim at a desired target of highest value. Even when the mark (bullseye) is missed, the presence of the target produces the likelihood of better outcomes than those that exist in the absence of it. Aristotle used the archer’s example to illustrate Natural Law. His Hierarchy of Goods composes the rings of the target, culminating in the ultimate good. The ordering of goods is as follows:
1. The good is that at which all things aim
2. The good is in each thing
3. The things – and so, the good in each – are arranged in a hierarchy (known as the Creator’s natural order of things)
4. The ultimate goods – highest ordered – are pursued for their own sake
The founders of America believed just government to be an ultimate good. This is the aim of the Constitutional ordering of separate and arranged powers. The Constitution prescribes the optimal arrangement of political power to achieve a government of, by, and for the people.
Cicero (c. 106-43 B.C.)
The founders favorite expositor of Natural Law
Natural Law interests me as it relates to the founding of America. References to it recur frequently in the founding documents of our country, perhaps most notably in the Declaration of Independence as “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Cicero, a favorite political philosopher of the founders, was the first to speak of Natural Law as a moral or political law. As such, he believed it to be the only reliable basis for good government and just human relations. Because man shares the gift of reason with his Creator the only rational, common sense approach to governing is through the laws already established by the Creator. The Creator’s order of things is called Natural Law.
So what then is the natural order of things? While I can’t efficiently articulate this yet, I believe I recognized an example of it recently. During a conversation with Aunt Ginger, who recently lost a grown child, she said that of all the people that she’d loved and lost – husband, parents and friends – the loss of her youngest son was the worst. “It is just different than the others” she remarked before tearing up. Confirming what I’ve heard before, the death of a child is the worst loss a human being may experience. This speaks to the natural order of things. Regardless of any moral or religious beliefs, it is unnatural for a child to precede his parent in death. It’s a violation of the Creator’s order of things.
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