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| An Issues Advocacy Group For Congressional Term Limits |
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America
America's Greatness And Goodness: There is a quote that surfaces every now and then from politicians or academics either trying to inspire us or admonish us, depending on their political worldview. The quote is normally attributed to the nineteenth-century French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, but whether or not de Tocqueville actually said it, or if someone’s cleaning lady said it, does not detract from the simple, powerful, and profound observation:
“America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. “
Since the quote refers to the highly subjective term ‘good’ the phrase is cast in the context relative to the speaker. But what is ‘good’? What does it mean in the context of not just an individual, but to the American society as a whole? And where do these twin virtues – goodness and greatness – come from? The answer lies in our history.
Even as the first European settlers began arriving in North America in the 1600s to escape the tyranny of their homelands, they clearly understood that a cornerstone of their very survival was their ability to rely on each other to do their part; that meant their best efforts in planting and harvesting, building new homes and fortifications, hunting, and getting along with others at an interpersonal level. Self-government without self-control is impossible. The colonists knew they could not survive if they couldn’t manage these societal basics.
The Mayflower Compact, a simple 196-word document penned in 1620 by the first settlers on board the Mayflower before they ever set foot onto the soil of the New World,
gives us great insight
on what they considered the social foundation should be, and
defined for them what it meant to be ‘good’. Their multiple
references to God make it clear that the backdrop for the colony
to be established, and by extension the entire New World, would
be formed by Faith in God. Passages such as “In the name of God,
Amen.” and “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and
Advancement of the Christian Faith…” leave no doubt to any
reader that their concept of ‘good’ was indeed Judeo-Christian
morality. That document set the social, moral, and ethical tone
for the next 150 years in the New World.
Fast forward to colonial America in 1776. In congress with representatives of all the colonies Thomas Jefferson pens, with a little help from a couple of friends named Adams and Franklin, perhaps the most audacious and astonishing document in all of world history: The Declaration of Independence.
In it, Jefferson declared to the world that man’s personal liberty – and by extension his aggregate social freedom – is from God alone when he writes, “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.” Jefferson again references God by concluding, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
In the darkest hours of the Revolutionary War George Washington and his commanders and soldiers often prayed to God to lead them to the ultimate victory over the British. Washington firmly believed that without faith in Almighty God the Revolution would surely fail. Finally, at the conclusion of the war in1783, Washington pens a letter to the governors of the states announcing the disbanding of the Continental Army. In it he wrote very simply and humbly,
“I now
make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State
over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would
incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of
subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a
brotherly affection and love for one another, for their
fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly
for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that He
would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do
justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that
charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the
characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion,
and without an humble imitation of whose example in these
things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
During the American Civil War, in 1863, when it appeared the country might be torn to shreds forever, President Abraham Lincoln, a profound man of faith, instituted a National Day of Prayer and urged the country to repent, confess their national sins, and turn back to God. The Confederate side also prayed to God for the wisdom to adjust to the unthinkable idea of losing the war, and the strength to endure the unendurable during the period of reconstruction. Though we were a nation at war, brother against brother, we were all Americans in the end.
America's Greatness And Goodness: There is a quote that surfaces every now and then from politicians or academics either trying to inspire us or admonish us, depending on their political worldview. The quote is normally attributed to the nineteenth-century French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, but whether or not de Tocqueville actually said it, or if someone’s cleaning lady said it, does not detract from the simple, powerful, and profound observation:
“America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. “
Since the quote refers to the highly subjective term ‘good’ the phrase is cast in the context relative to the speaker. But what is ‘good’? What does it mean in the context of not just an individual, but to the American society as a whole? And where do these twin virtues – goodness and greatness – come from? The answer lies in our history.
Even as the first European settlers began arriving in North America in the 1600s to escape the tyranny of their homelands, they clearly understood that a cornerstone of their very survival was their ability to rely on each other to do their part; that meant their best efforts in planting and harvesting, building new homes and fortifications, hunting, and getting along with others at an interpersonal level. Self-government without self-control is impossible. The colonists knew they could not survive if they couldn’t manage these societal basics.
The Mayflower Compact, a simple 196-word document penned in 1620 by the first settlers on board the Mayflower before they ever set foot onto the soil of the New World,
gives us great insight
on what they considered the social foundation should be, and
defined for them what it meant to be ‘good’. Their multiple
references to God make it clear that the backdrop for the colony
to be established, and by extension the entire New World, would
be formed by Faith in God. Passages such as “In the name of God,
Amen.” and “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and
Advancement of the Christian Faith…” leave no doubt to any
reader that their concept of ‘good’ was indeed Judeo-Christian
morality. That document set the social, moral, and ethical tone
for the next 150 years in the New World.Fast forward to colonial America in 1776. In congress with representatives of all the colonies Thomas Jefferson pens, with a little help from a couple of friends named Adams and Franklin, perhaps the most audacious and astonishing document in all of world history: The Declaration of Independence.
In it, Jefferson declared to the world that man’s personal liberty – and by extension his aggregate social freedom – is from God alone when he writes, “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.” Jefferson again references God by concluding, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
In the darkest hours of the Revolutionary War George Washington and his commanders and soldiers often prayed to God to lead them to the ultimate victory over the British. Washington firmly believed that without faith in Almighty God the Revolution would surely fail. Finally, at the conclusion of the war in1783, Washington pens a letter to the governors of the states announcing the disbanding of the Continental Army. In it he wrote very simply and humbly,
“I now
make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State
over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would
incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of
subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a
brotherly affection and love for one another, for their
fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly
for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that He
would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do
justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that
charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the
characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion,
and without an humble imitation of whose example in these
things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”During the American Civil War, in 1863, when it appeared the country might be torn to shreds forever, President Abraham Lincoln, a profound man of faith, instituted a National Day of Prayer and urged the country to repent, confess their national sins, and turn back to God. The Confederate side also prayed to God for the wisdom to adjust to the unthinkable idea of losing the war, and the strength to endure the unendurable during the period of reconstruction. Though we were a nation at war, brother against brother, we were all Americans in the end.