An American Mutt Contemplates Independence Day

In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue… Today, I will celebrate Independence Day but I will be more contemplative than most.  I am an American Mutt and proud of that.  My ancestors came from England (by way of Bermuda and directly), Germany, Scotland, and North America.  Because I am a Mutt, I do not see the history of the Americas from a simplistic view.

North America, what is now the United States, was “settled” (arguably re-settled) and most definitely colonized by those from many European nations and it wasn’t a nice process by any means.  The early English settlers came looking for gold, for wealth.  They were not the Puritans we tell children about, they were mostly from the London Company.  Then came those who were looking for religious freedoms.  “English and Dutch colonies… tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans, English Catholics, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as well as Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians and Jews of various nationalities…  A strong believer in the notion of rule by divine right, England's Charles I persecuted religious dissenters. Waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New England between 1629 and 1642…  Later in the century…  Baptists, Quakers and German and Swiss Protestants flocked to Pennsylvania.”  We tend to ignore the influence of Native Americans but, of course, it did exist as well.  I celebrate this wonderful diversity of peoples and religions for the broad body of thought made available to our founders.

We often speak of Constitutional rights as though they sprang into being with the US Constitution but their roots are much older than that, buried much more deeply in our souls.  The Brehon Laws, early Irish law, is considered to be some of the oldest law in Northern Europe.  “Early Irish law mentions in a number of places recht aicned”, natural law.  “Neil McLeod [a legal scholar]… suggested that most of the specific laws mentioned [in early Irish law] have passed the test of time and thus their truth has been confirmed, while other provisions are justified in other ways because they are younger and have not been tested over time.”  I would suggest that is a truism; that the concept of “natural law” is itself a truism, a self-evident, obvious truth.

Historians may speak of Brehon Laws as some of the oldest but my Great Grandmother would disagree.  Her parents came to the US from Scotland and they considered themselves American, Scottish, and (most importantly) Irish or Celtic.  When I was young, my Great Grandmother told me much of what had been passed down in our familial oral history.  She spoke being entirely Irish.  She spoke of the loss of religious rights in Scotland that prompted the family move to the US where they found little more religious tolerance than in Scotland.  She spoke of English law that stole away the rights of women under older laws.  She spoke of law much older than Brehon Law, of a time when women sat equitably with men in society.  She never spoke of men and women as equals but of a law that was equitable to both and considered the differences between men and women as something of great value, to be celebrated.  She was speaking of natural laws, of equity rather than equality.  Equity is what most of us seek even when we use the term equality but these are not the same.

Laws and rules are how families and societies work things out.  It doesn’t always matter if they are spelled out or not and there are certain fundamentals that will inevitably resurface because they represent that hard to define equity we all seek.  These are those older laws that have survived the test of time.  No matter how often they are impinged, no matter how long impinged, they are always there waiting to be recognized and triumphed yet again.

“No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” is what our modern law says.  This has its roots in natural law as we will always object when deprived of these fundamentals.  Nearly 600 years earlier and a King granted about the same.  “No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned,...or in any other way destroyed... except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice.”  The Magna Carta was confirmed in 1297 by King Edward I.  That confirmation wasn’t exactly voluntary.  “By 1215, some of the most important barons in England had had enough…”  They rebelled and force King Edward to confirm the Magna Carta.  The Magna Carta was written in Latin and even the English translation is a bit of a challenge to understand for a modern reader.  Even so, it is one of the documents I enjoy reading from time to time and I like reading about the Magna Carta and other information that influenced our founders.  Over 100 years before the Magna Carta, was the Charter of Liberties.

The pendulum has always swung between the powerful, dictatorial, greedy… and these fundamental rights and probably will always keep swinging back and forth.  Make some time in your life to learn about independence, about fundamental freedoms, about natural law that likely predates all our modern religions.  Learn a bit more about the history of the US than is taught in public schools.  While reading and learning, always remember that every right is balanced with a duty.  Personally, I’m especially fond of starting with Wikipedia these days and then searching for more specific information on the areas I find of particular interest.  Here’s where I’ve been surfing the last few days:

I am particularly fond of the period between 1777 and 1790.  Those who wrote in 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.”

Modern translation: We’re outta here any time we want to be.  A year later, the same folks included “the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State” in the Articles of Confederation.  The Confederate Congress approved the Constitution in 1787 despite the clause allowing it to be ratified by a mere 9 states instead of every states.  (See how far back the disregard for fundamental law goes if Congress finds it inconvenient.)

The Confederate Congress set a timeline for full transition from the Confederation to the Constitution to be complete by March 4, 1989.  It doesn’t appear they were terribly concerned even if 9 states hadn’t ratified by then as they intended to change over anyway.  Rhode Island always takes the hit for being the “hold out”, the last state to ratify the Constitution and submit to it.  In fact, there was a little internal war that went on for those couple of years and some states started taxing imports/exports to coerce the reluctant states to ratify.  It seems they reverted to their 1777 position of being able to leave any time they wanted no matter what they’d agreed to in the Articles. 

I get a giggle when I read something like this: “The Convention submitted the Constitution to the Congress of the Confederation, where it received approval according to Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation.”  They just ignore the second requirement of ratification by all the states.  Hm, what was I saying yesterday about lies by omission?  Oh, yeah, those are just plain lies.  The founders effectively and efficiently overthrew their own government and we’ve been twisting this part of history ever since because we don’t like the real truth.  “When in the course…”  I’m OK with what the founders did as the end result was something special.  The ends alone never justify the means but sometimes, in exceptional circumstances, we have to accept reality and move on.  The founders were trying to create something truly new and unique and that’s pretty exceptional circumstances so no wonder it took at bit of twisting to get there and they were pretty far from secretive about what they were doing.

We have a similar war going on today but it is far less honest.  There are those who would violate/ignore the Constitution but they aren’t making an open attempt to replace it, no pretense to amend it as was the pretense when the Constitution was being considered.  We are living under a government that has become more de facto (in practice) than de jure (in theory, in law).  Our founders were not perfect, heck they overthrew themselves at least once, but they did end by providing us with a de jure government that allowed for reasonable change by amendment.  We must demand that those who want to change the fundamentals do so in accord with that process; seek and obtain amendments openly rather than pass laws or simply act in complete violation of the supreme Law of the Land.

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies…”  In my opinion, only an enemy would violate the supreme law of the land.  A patriot would abide the supreme law and use its provisions like free speech to advocate change of the supreme law rather than violate it.  Be a patriot, learn the supreme law and abide it.  If you don’t agree with its provisions, advocate for changing it and continue to abide it until the change is made.  It is this civilized process that makes us special, unique.

All you patriots out there have a GREAT Independence Day.

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