WHAT OUR FOUNDING FATHERS 

THOUGHT ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS

 Approximately one hundred years after  George Fox wrote about the value of all people, our Founding Fathers wrote about value of people and their  human rights. Here are some of the things that they believed.

*A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong; the most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.

*Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.

*All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible. All mankind were created equal. 

The Founders knew that in these three ways, all mankind are  treated as: 1. Equal before God. 2. Equal before the law. 3. Equal in their rights.

*The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.

*Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights. These  rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson understood “unalienable rights” as fixed rights given to us by our Creator rather than by government. Also the rights are inseparable from us: they are part of our humanity.

In a word, the government did not give them and therefore cannot take them away, but the government still strains at ways to suppress them.

TRUMP AND THE FOUNDING FATHERS

It is sometimes said that a people get the leaders that they deserve. Trump certainly is not a virtuous man.

Trump has spoken against minorities in a disparaging way. People who have a lot money and oil stocks are the only ones who seem to have equal rights.