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Jun 30, 2013

Not An Accident

Series: Daniel: Overcoming Under Siege

Category: History

Keywords: history, constitution, freedom, founding, fathers christ, old, magna carta, england

Summary:

The Constitution was not merely a new idea thought up by a bunch of old guys in powdery wigs. It is the result of hundreds of years of work and developing in a struggle for continued freedom inspired by the truth of the Gospel of Christ.

Detail:

NOT AN ACCIDENT

Historical Underpinnings of the US Constitution

That’s So OLD!

v We live in a culture that is constantly focused on PROGRESS

v Technological

v Scientific/Philosophical

v Political

v Sociological

v Spiritual/Religious

v We have a hard time understanding how old things can have any relevance to us TODAY!

 

That’s  So OLD

v Consider the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights

 

v Declaration – Adopted July 4, 1776

 

v Constitution – Ratified & Signed September 17, 1787

 

v Bill of Rights – Ratified December 15, 1791

 

v Clearly these are OLD!

That’s So OLD!

v Consider these statements…

That’s So OLD

v Does looking to the PAST hinder PROGRESS?

That’s So Old!

v Does looking to the PAST hinder PROGRESS?

 

You Don’t Know OLD

v It’s time to get in the WAYBAC Machine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v We’re going back over 900 years!

WAYBAC Stop #1: 1066 AD

v England has some sense of representative government

v Ruled by a King and the Witan

v Autonomous shires overseen by sheriffs

v William of Normandy conquers England

v Centralizes control of the shires

v Eliminates most of the ruling nobles

v Confiscates land

v Integrates feudalism (Lords, Vassals, Fiefs)

 

 

WAYBAC Stop #2: 1100 AD

v King William II (William Rufus or Red-Face) dies

v Despised by the people

v Poorly regarded by the church

v Your basic tyrant

v King Henry I

v Seeks favor after William II

v Offers concessions to nobles and barons

v Concessions are written down!

1100 Charter of Liberties

v Referred to rule of William II as “oppressive and evil”

v Formally bound the Monarchy to certain laws

v Example:  If any of my barons or men commit a crime, he shall not bind himself to a payment at the king's mercy as he has been doing in the time of my father or my brother; but he shall make amends according to the extent of the crime as he would have done before the time of my father in the time of my other predecessors.

v Seeds of Liberty Planted

WAYBAC Stop #3: 1213 AD

v Monarchs have routinely disregarded the 1100 Charter of Liberties

v Along comes King John

v Tries to replace elected Archbishop John Langston

v Gets into dispute with Pope Innocent III

v Archbishop Langston rallies the barons

v 1st Council reasserts 1100 Charter of Liberties

v 2nd Council pushes the envelope

The Magna Carta of 1215

v King John was forced to sign

v The framers leveraged the 1100 Charter of Liberties

v Established committee of 25 barons

v Precursor to Parliament

v Forced the king to accept “the law of the land”

v Example: No free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, no shall we go against him or send against him unless by legal judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land.

WAYBAC Stop #4: 1627 AD

v Parliament summoned by crown to levy and collect taxes

v Parliament could be dissolved by crown at any time

v Along comes Charles I

v Sends Duke of Buckingham on mission to help the French Huguenots

v Epic Fail

v Parliament moves to impeach Buckingham

v Charles dissolves Parliament

v Charles can’t raise money without Parliament

 

Petition of Right of 1628

v Charles assembles new Parliament

v New Parliament forces Charles to make concessions to obtain tax revenues

v Petition defined specific protected liberties

v Taxes only levied by Parliament

v Martial law verboten during peacetime

v No quartering of troops against will of people

v Prisoners can challenge detention with writ of Habeas Corpus

v “…your subjects have inherited this freedom…”

WAYBAC STOP #5: 1641 AD

v Charles I is back and he needs money

v Summons Parliament to raise money for royal army to fight in Scotland

v Parliament refuses and is dissolved in May

v Charles sends army to Scotland – Epic Fail!

v Charles assembles Parliament in November

v Parliament still uncooperative

 

The Grand Remonstrance of 1641

v Parliament puts together long list of issues

v 204 to be exact

v Example:  “The desperate design of engrossing all the gunpowder into one hand, keeping it in the Tower of London, and setting so high a rate upon it that the poorer sort were not able to buy it, nor could any have it without licence, thereby to leave the several parts of the kingdom destitute of their necessary defence,”

v Charles delays response and tries to moderate

v Civil War ensues from 1642 to 1651

v Parlimentarians win!

v Charles I tried for treason and executed

WAYBAC Stop #6: 1688 AD

v King James II takes the throne in 1685

v Goes head-to-head with Parliament

v Parliament engineers his ouster

v Imports new king William III (William of Orange)

v And Queen Mary II (daughter of James II from 1st wife)

v William III invades on November 5th

v James II deserts and flees to France

v William III does not take throne

v Summons Parliament

English Bill of Rights of 1689

v Established monarchy by consent of parliament

v Asserted “ancient rights and liberties”

v No taxation without consent of Parliament

v Right to petition king for redress of grievances

v No quartering troops in peacetime

v The right to keep and bear arms

v Freedom of speech

v Right to trial by jury

v Right to due process

WAYBAC Stop #7: 1776 AD

v American colonists know their history and see tyranny rising

 

Declaration of Independence of 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Declaration of Independence of 1776

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such 

Declaration of Independence of 1776

principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a

Declaration of Independence of 1776

design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.