The Power in the People by Felix Morley

Author:Felix Morley [Morley, Felix]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Democracy, Political Science, General, Political Ideologies
ISBN: 9781351476614
Google: YRwuDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 35864937
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1972-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

IV

The aspiration of bringing earthly government into conformity with Divine Law has always been particularly pronounced among the American people. It could scarcely have been otherwise, considering the important part which the passion for religious freedom played in the settlement of the colonies.

Nathaniel Morton, contemporary historian of the first years of the Plymouth settlement, has left us the wording [in New England’s Memorial] of the social contract by which the Pilgrims established the first political community of white men in New England. Its stated purposes were, in descending order, “for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of our King and country.” When, “in the course of human events,” it became necessary to dissolve the political bonds connecting America and Britain, the task was easier because the primary American political allegiance had from the outset been given to Divine Authority. Loyalty to the British sovereign had always been secondary in the minds of most colonial Americans.

The importance of the role played by the clergy during the period immediately preceding the Revolution is more than interesting. It is also convincing evidence that our government during its formative period was being directed toward the fulfillment of Divine Law, so far as this can be understood by earnest Christians. In his book entitled They Preached Liberty the Reverend Franklin P. Cole has collected an anthology of quotations from the sermons of New England Ministers during the middle decades of the eighteenth century. These divines sought diligently to confirm a connection between Christian doctrine and political arrangement.

A favorite text, Mr. Cole observes, was: “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” It was utilized, in particular, by Jonathan Mayhew. On January 30, 1750—the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I—Mayhew preached a remarkable sermon, in the West Church of Boston, afterward widely circulated under the title of: “A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission.” It asserted that:

Those in authority may abuse their trust and power to such a degree that neither the law of reason nor of religion requires that any obedience or submission be paid to them; but on the contrary that they should be totally discarded, and the authority which they were before vested with transferred to others, who may exercise more to those good purposes for which it is given.

The belief that civil power is only provisional, and should at all times be subordinate to intangible Authority, of course led to, and will always lead to, many difficult political problems. Civil law can be codified and given a relatively uniform judicial interpretation much more easily than is possible with Divine Law. The only practical way to make the latter effective as a form of jurisprudence is either to give political allegiance to a universal church, with a governing head more powerful than any national potentate, or else to create a theocracy in which a qualified priesthood exercises political command. Mankind has tried both of these methods, but not in this country. From the beginning,

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