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[Los gobiernos humanos] no pudieron otorgar los derechos esenciales para la felicidad. . . Los reclamamos de una fuente superior: del Rey de reyes y Señor de toda la tierra. No están anexados a nosotros por pergaminos y sellos. Son creados en nosotros por los decretos de la Providencia, que establecen las leyes de nuestra naturaleza. Nacen con nosotros; existir con nosotros; y no puede ser arrebatado de nosotros por ningún poder humano, sin quitarnos la vida.
—John Dickinson, Firmante de la Constitución
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Los Derechos inalienables son:
no se debe buscar entre pergaminos viejos o registros mohosos. Están escritos, como con un rayo de sol, en todo el volumen de la naturaleza humana, por la mano de la divinidad misma; y nunca puede ser borrado u oscurecido por el poder mortal.
—Alexander Hamilton, Firmante de la Constitución y co autor de Federalist Papers
impresos por el dedo de Dios en el corazón del hombre.
—Samuel Adams, Firmante de la Declaración
antecedente de todo gobierno terrenal; derechos que no pueden ser derogados o restringidos por la ley humana; derechos derivados del gran Legislador del Universo.
—John Adams, Firmante de la Declaración
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El Congreso no hará ninguna ley con respecto al establecimiento de una religión, o que prohíba el libre ejercicio de la misma . . . . 1
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“Religion is the only solid basis of good morals. Therefore, education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man toward God.”4
– Gouverneur Morris, Signer of the Constitution
“Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.”6
– James Wilson, Signer of the Constitution
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“We should be very cautious of violating the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men and to Him only they are answerable.”
– George Washington
“For what business, in the name of common sense, has the magistrate with our religion? The state does not have any concern in the matter. In what manner does it affect society in what outward form we think it best to pay our adoration to God? The consciences of men are not the objects of human legislation. In contrast with this spiritual tyranny, how beautiful appears our constitution in disclaiming all jurisdiction over the souls of men, securing by a never-to-be-repealed section the voluntary, unchecked moral persuasion of every person by his own self- directed communication with the Father of spirits!”
– William Livingston, Constitution Signer
“Security under our constitution is given to the rights of conscience and private judgment. They are by nature subject to no control but that of Deity, and in that free situation they are now left.”
– John Jay, first Supreme Court Chief Justice
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… select from all the people able men … to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. – Exodus 18:21
For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and the people should seek the law from his mouth… – Malachi 2:7
“Resistance to sudden violence for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I never surrendered to the public by the compact of society and which, perhaps, I could not surrender if I would.… [T]he maxims of the law and the precepts of Christianity are precisely coincident in relation to this subject.”7
– John Adams, Signer of The Declaration
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“[T]o preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them…”
– Richard Henry Lee, Declaration Signer
“Government is instituted to protect property. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own. It is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where arbitrary restrictions deny to part of its citizens that free use of their faculties or where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.”
– James Madison
VIDEO ADICIONAL DE ESTA SEMANA PARA VER POR TU CUENTA:
- U.S. Const. Amend. I.
- U.S. Const. Art. I, § 5, cl. 3.
- William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkins Cutler, Life, Journal, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler (Cincinnati: Colin Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), Vol. II, p. 66, 119, letter to Joseph Torrey, January 4, 1802. Cutler meant that Jefferson attended church on January 3, 1802, for the first time as President. Bishop Claggett’s letter of February 18, 1801, already revealed that as Vice-President, Jefferson went to church services in the House.
- Jared Sparks, The Life of Governeur Morris (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1832), Vol. III, p. 483, from his “Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France.”
- Constitutions (1813), p. 364, “An Ordinance of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio,” Article III.
- James Wilson, The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, Bird Wilson, editor (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), Vol. I, pp. 104–106, “Of the General Principles of Law and Obligation.”
- John Adams, “On Private Revenge,” Boston Gazette, September 5, 1763.