John Witherspoon Quotes
No moderate man views it in any other light than as an axiom, or self-evident truth, namely, that if any excuse for disobedience were once admitted, or any indulgence granted to these tender-conscienced inferiors there would be an end of all government in an instant; neither commands nor obedience could proceed one step further, but every individual instrument of power in that fatal society, astonished at the monstrous phenomenon, would stare at one another; all the wheels of the political machine would stop at once. nay would split into ten thou-sand pieces; every relation and connection of their parts would be instantly dissolved, and the beautiful whole would rush into a wild chaos of anarchy and confusion.
those engaging in civil disobedience This was written in Scotland before Witherspoon emigrated to America. A major issue of political and religious debate at the time in Scotland was civil disobedience. “Reform” religious advocates argued for the moral propriety of civil disobedience where the protester’s conscience felt that the laws were immoral and unjust. The were referred to as “Moderates.” Witherspoon, early in his career, was one of the conservatives who argued then, against the Moderates, that civil disobedience should be punished very severely. The conservative rhetoric at the time sarcastically referred to protestors as having “tender consciences.” The issue was contentious then, later in America, and is so even today.
John Witherspoon, 1723-1794, Presbyterian minister, President of Princeton University, Member of the Continental Congress (NJ) & Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Ecclesiastical Characteristics or The Arcana of Church Policy
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Manava Dharma Shastra. This text is a part of the Hindu Holy Texts. Hindus believe that Manu was a prophet whose text is revealed or inspired.
The term “magistrates” refers to chief executives such as Governors, Mayors, Kings, etc. and not members of a judicial branch per se. For example the President of the United States is sometimes referred to as the Chief Magistrate of the Nation.”
John Witherspoon was a Scottish American Presbyterian minister and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (1768–1794; now Princeton University), became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. Later, he signed the Articles of Confederation and supported ratification of the Constitution. In 1789 he was convening moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
