Natural Law in America

"The inhabitants of the English colonies in North-America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts [....] are entitled to life, liberty and property: and they have never ceded to any foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent." - Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress, 1774.

What was "Natural Law" in British colonial North America?

A ten year study of over 15,000 founding era political writings found the most cited sources, respectively, were:

⦁ 1. The Bible
⦁ 2. Charles Montesquieu
⦁ 3. William Blackstone
⦁ 4. John Locke

This study has been criticized by some for citing religious pamphlets. But it should be understood that churches were the community centers of the day, and the most efficient means of disseminating information throughout the populace. When the Great and General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1776, proclaimed that "when kings, ministers, governors, or legislators, prostitute those powers to the purposes of oppression [...] they [...] ought to be resisted," it likewise "recommended to the several ministers of the Gospel, throughout this colony, to read the same (proclamation) in their respective assemblies on the Lord's day next after receiving it, immediately after divine service." There was no conflict of interest therein. Contrary to the state imposing a political agenda upon a secular church, the movement for American independence was a religiously motivated movement that began in America's churches. The state's disposition was derived from the church, as opposed to the church's disposition being derived from the state. 

"The reverential regard for the clergy of the early colonial times had not much waned in New England at the time of the revolution." (1) The clergy of the period "taught hearers to reject with abhorrence the divine right of kings, passive obedience and non-resistance, and to hold that civil power is originally with the people." (2) The election sermons "showed what the natural rights of man were, and how these rights became modified when men gathered into communities - how all laws and regulations were designed to be for the good of the governed - that the object of concentrated power was to protect, not invade, personal liberty, and when it failed to do this and oppressed instead of protected, assailed instead of defending rights, resistance became lawful, nay, obligatory." (3)

"The spark of liberty, afterwards fanned to a flame in the halls of Congress, came first from (Scotch-Irish Presbyterian) alters." (4) And the Presbyterian Church is credited as being the first to declare independence from England over a year before the Declaration of the thirteen united colonies.  

"Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people - are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the congress." - The Convention of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, May 31, 1775.

Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke were all Christian legal philosophers who repeatedly mentioned God in their work. Here are some excerpts from their writings on law and government.

"God is related to the universe, as Creator and Preserver; the laws by which He created all things are those by which He preserves them. He acts according to these rules, because He knows them; He knows them, because He made them; and He made them, because they are in relation to His wisdom and power. [....] The law, which, impressing on our minds the idea of a Creator, inclines us towards Him, is the first in importance, though not in order, of natural laws." - Charles Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, Book I, Of the Relation of Laws to different Beings, Of the Laws of Nature, 1748. 

"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. [...] And consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his maker for every thing, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his maker's will. [...] This will of his maker is called the law of nature. For as God, when he created matter, and endued it with a principle of mobility, established certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion; so, when he created man, and endued him with freewill to conduct himself in all parts of life, he laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that freewill is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport of those laws. [...] This law of nature, being coeval with mankind and 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 force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original." - William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Section the Second: Of the Nature of Laws in General, 1765-69.

"The law of nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men's actions, must, as well as their own and other men's actions, be conformable to the law of nature, i.e. to the will of God, of which that is a declaration, and the fundamental law of nature being the preservation of mankind, no human sanction can be good, or valid against it." - John Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government, Of the Extent of the Legislative Power, 1689.

Though they were all foreigners, and two of the three already dead at the time of the American Revolution, their work is still important to us today. Why? Because this philosophy is also that of the men who formed our nation and is the foundation for our system of law and government. Blackstone's work, for example, was said by Thomas Jefferson to be used by American lawyers like Muslims used the Koran.

"The opinion seems to be that Blackstone is to us what the Alcoran is to the Mahometans, that everything which is necessary is in him, and what is not in him is not necessary." - Thomas Jefferson, to Governor John Tyler on May 26, 1810.

His work was also said, by United States Supreme Court Justice James Iredell, appointed by George Washington, to have been used in the formation of our Bill of Rights, and to be the “manual of almost every student of law in the United States.” (5) American United States Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, also appointed by George Washignton, in his writings on "Natural Law" states:

"In compassion to the imperfection of our internal powers, our all-gracious Creator, Preserver, and Ruler has been pleased to discover and enforce his laws, by a revelation given to us immediately and directly from himself. This revelation is contained in the holy scriptures. The moral precepts delivered in the sacred oracles form a part of the law of nature, are of the same origin, and of the same obligation, operating universally and perpetually." - James Wilson, The Works of The Honourable James Wilson, "Of The Law of Nature," 1790.

Founder and signer of the Constitution Rufus King's comments on "natural law:" 

"The law of nature,* a law established by the creator, which has existed from the beginning, extends over the whole globe, is everywhere, and at all times, binding upon mankind: A law which applies to nations, because their members are still men; a law which is the foundation of all Constitutional, conventional & civil laws, none of which are valid if contrary to the law of nature; that according to this law all men are born free, and justly entitled to the possession of life and liberty and to the free pursuit of happiness. [...] No act of the state, no treaty concluded by it, no law which it might ordain, if contrary to natural law, could be valid." - Rufus King, signer of the Constitution, in a letter to C. Gore on February 17, 1820.  

* "I hold that all laws and compacts imposing any such condition (slavery) upon any human being are absolutely void, because contrary to the law of nature, which is the law of God, by which he makes his way known to man, and is paramount to all human control."

The sentiments of Wilson and King are plainly similar to, and derived from, the works of men like Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke.

"How shall we, in particular cases, discover the will of God? We discover it by our conscience, by our reason, and by the Holy Scriptures. The law of nature and the law of revelation are both divine: they flow, though in different channels, from the same adorable source. It is, indeed, preposterous to separate them from each other. The object of both is—to discover the will of God—and both are necessary for the accomplishment of that end." - James Wilson, The Works of The Honourable James Wilson, "Of The Law of Nature," 1790.

Founder and signer of the Declaration of Independence Noah Webster, who created America's first dictionary (used to teach generations of early American children), defines (6) "nature" and "law" as such:

"NATURE: 1. In a general sense, whatever is made or produced; a word that comprehends all the works of God; the universe." 

"LAW: 1. The laws which enjoin the duties of piety and morality, are prescribed by God and found in the Scriptures." 

"3. Law of nature, is a rule of conduct arising out of the natural relations of human beings established by the Creator, and existing prior to any positive precept." 

"6. Physical laws, or laws of nature. The invariable tendency or determination of any species of matter to a particular form with definite properties, and the determination of a body to certain motions, changes, and relations, which uniformly take place in the same circumstances, is called a physical law. These tendencies or determinations, whether called laws or affections of matter, have been established by the Creator, and are, with a peculiar felicity of expression, denominated in Scripture, ordinances of heaven." 

"17. The word of God; the doctrines and precepts of God, or his revealed will."

Where did our founders get their philosophy on "natural law?"

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." - Rom 1:20.

James Otis, an early proponent for American independence, expounds upon the basis of government:

"Has it (government) any solid foundation? Any chief cornerstone? [...] I think it has an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God, the author of nature, whose laws never vary. The same omnificent, omnipotent, infinitely good and gracious creator of the universe. [....] It is by no means an arbitrary thing, depending merely on compact or human will for its existence. [....] 
The power of GOD almighty is the only power that can properly and strictly be called supreme and absolute. In the order of nature immediately under him, comes the power of a simple democracy, or the power of the whole over the whole. [....] Let the origin of government be placed where it may, the end of it is manifestly the good of the whole. Salus populi supreme lex esto, is of the law of nature, and part of that grand charter given the human race, (tho’ too many of them are afraid to assert it,) by the only monarch in the universe, who has a clear and indisputable right to absolute power; because he is the only One who is omniscient as well as omnipotent. It is evidently contrary to the first principles of reason, that supreme unlimited power should be in the hands of one man. It is the greatest "idolatry." [....] Government is founded immediately on the necessities of human nature, and ultimately on the will of God, the author of nature." - James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, 1764.

Remember that God's laws, as Otis stated, do not change.

"For I am the LORD, I change not;" - Malachi 3:6. 

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17. 

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." - Hebrews 13:8.

This is a concept important to governance which shall be addressed subsequently.

1. Daniel Dorchester, Christianity in the United States, 1888.
2. B.F. Morris, Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, 1864.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. James Iredell, Charge to the Grand Jury in the Case of Fries.
6. Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.