Mark Levin Quotes

Madison was a deist, but was firm that religion was to be an individual matter and not an area in which the state ought be involced.

Note that in addition to getting rid of the authority of the King, New York—over a decade before the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, provided for a ban on an established church or favoring one Christian sect over another. Even then New York was a multi religious and multi ethnic society with its strong Dutch tradition along with the English tradition. New York did not go as far as the First Amendment would do later in terms of freedom of religion. NY only mentioned Christian sects. However they did implement separation of church and state and an establishment clause. See {621429} for another clause that ensures separation of church and state.

This was a very interesting quotation in that there was no scripture of any religion that even mentions the United States nor which nations would lead the world and which should follow.

The preamble to this declaration of womens’ rights cleverly beginy s with the words of the Declaration of Independence with the single change that “all men” is replaced with “all men and women.” The message was clear. If the founders had a moral right and duty to revolt for these objectives women would be justified and duty bound to make similar efforts. That message terrified many men of the era.

Stephani had written a legal analysis of the 1555 “Peace of Augsburg” and used the phrase of the quotation to describe the most basic and important legal agreement. It was that the recognized religion of a nation would be determined by the religion of the king or other ruler. Prior, Protestant and Catholic nations were constantly warring with each other and supporting insurrections in another country of its co-religionists and often warring with the other country where some towns were mostly Protestant and others, mostly Catholic. The treaty which dealt with Europe initially allowed Catholic citizens of a nation ruled by a Protestant to emigrate to a Catholic nation and the reverse. Those who chose to remain, would therefore be a minority of the country where their king was of a different faith. This principle is one of the reasons that English law requires the King or Queen to be the Head of the Church of England. In effect the Protestants controlling England at the time guaranteed that the sovereign was a Protestant and could not have a Catholic spouse in line for the throne. This then guaranteed that England would remain Protestant since the ruler was Protestant. Other European nations, Protestant and Catholic, had similar schemes and many still have them to this day.

This is a very important political, historical, and philosophical quotation. This is a view that is very common amongst many Americans—especially those who are religious. As a factual matter, it is not clear that ALL the founding fathers personally believed in the creator--God. All the views have never been discerned. However it is almost certain that the majority of the Founders so believed. The complication with taking this viewpoint too literally is that while our rights may have come from God, it is men who determined exactly what rights would be enumerated on our constitution. For example. the original draft of the Constitution did not include, the right to a free press, the right of due process, the right of being free from religious compulsion and others. Yet it passed. Then other men and women wanted more rights added and the Constitution was ratified on condition that the Bill or Rights would be incorporated as the first 10 amendments. There were other rights that were not explicitly mentioned. For example, there is no right to an education mentioned in the Constitution or any of the amendments. Blacks had no rights until additional amendments were passed. And later there was an amendment that denied Americans the right to drink alcohol. Then another that gave the rights back. There are rights that other nations have which we do not—ie the right to medical care. Which if these did God grant and which, not? So even if we assume that every one of the founding fathers not only believed in God, but believed the rights were all God given, we would still be in the practical dilemma of having to specify the language of each right and always to, by amendment, adding additional rights or modifying or even deleting older rights. Many believe that Americans were divinely inspired when we added (or changed) rights. Others, not. However, regardless, we must go through the same procedures of enumerating American rights and amending the constitution. So the process is the same for both those who believe that our rights come from God and those who do not. To change rights, we need the action of Americans divinely inspired or otherwise, but they can and have been changed. For example, before 1963 Americans did not have a right to use birth control devices. After the Supreme Court Griswald v. Conn. We did and now have a right to use birth control devices. The mode that rights are manifested, defined, enumerated and implemented is a political one—one that in our American system allows us all to implement that system whether or not we believe that our rights come from our Creator.

In 1848 a number of revolutions flared throughout Europe with a call for democracy rather than monarchy. The Prussian king was one of those who really believed that he was selected by God to rule, was very frightened and tried to enlist the Queen and England to present a united front against the revolutionaries. England, which had already had a strong functioning parliament and extensive voting suffrage, protected most of the rights of its citizens and was a Constitutional Monarchy where there were limits to the power of the monarch. Further, Victoria was extremely popular and in many ways was far ahead of the electorate in terms of modern democratic reforms. So she was not in the panic of many of the other crowned heads of Europe were in. Somewhat following the example of England, King William IV allowed a parliament and minimized the strong military role that characterized Prussia. Most of the 1848 revolutions failed to sieze governments but, as with Prussia, forced reforms in what was a long movement to European democracy that would take another 150 years. Note also the logic about religion. Since the revolutionists did not believe in the divine right of kings, they opposed God’s will on earth. Therefore, they opposed God and must be atheists. Almost all counter revolutionary accusations included the claim—often not true—that the revolutionaries were atheists.

Bartolomeo Fiadóni -- Tolomeo da Lucca -- Bartholomew of Lucca

This was the first contact between the colonists and the French government. The French agent was very non committal and the parties were just feeling each other out. Franklin made it perfectly clear that the colonists would not trade the English King for a French one and become part of the French empire.