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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
November, 1937
deliberately denies to majority-rule govern ment any right and any power to restrict individual liberty. The citizen is the sov ereign, not the subject, of the government. Alexander Hamilton said, “ An elective despotism is not the government that we fought for.” Ours is a government by bal lots, and not by bullets. But the ballot box may not be used to accomplish immoral ends. In other words, the ballot box may not be used to authorize the use of bullets. A majority may not vote death to a mi nority; the majority may not vote to place a minority before a firing squad. The ma jority may not “ elect” an administration which uses force and violence to persecute a minority or even an individual. All elected public officials are “ under the Con stitution,” and the Constitution puts them under divine moral law. They may not deprive minorities of life and liberty, even if it should be the will of the majority that they do this. Our form of government guarantees liberty to the citizen. No ma jority can convert it into a despotism. The Constitution outlaws an “ elective despot ism,” just as it outlaws all other kinds of despotism. We are a nation of free men. In ordering our national life, the will of the majority of free men is supreme, with the limitation that the majority may not rule in such a way as to destroy freedom. The foundation of any free society is that “one man’s freedom ends where an other’s begins.” The right of an individual to exercise his right arm, for instance, ends where the nose of another man begins! There can be no real freedom unless each man, in exercising his liberty, respects the right of his fellow man to the same liberty. Now, this principle applies to groups of men, just as it applies to individuals. The majority rules; it has freedom—yes, but it must not use its freedom to destroy the lib erty of minority groups. In a democracy, the majority has the greatest power—but it must not use that power in such a way as to infringe upon the rights and liberties of groups which, numerically, have less power. In one of its famous decisions, our Su preme Court said that a “ despotism of the majority” was even worse than a “ despotism of one man.” The reason for this, it pointed out, is that a despotic rule of a mob or ma jority is harder to get rid of I Dictatorship by one man can be overthrown by assassi nating the tyrant or otherwise destroying the power of the one individual. But a despot ism of the majority can only be overthrown —if at all—by a mass massacre. It is cus tomary to hear people say that the “minority doesn’t count” ; they urge that if the rights of the minority stand in the way of the wel fare of the majority, then let them be wiped out. This idea is founded, however, on bad morality and worse logic. In the long run, the majority cannot benefit itself by exer cising despotism over the minority. History proves that, when the minority is denied democratic rights, it resorts to revolution. When the majority^oppresses the minority, it is simply starting the fires of bloody [Continued on page 457] Perils of Majority Rule
Benjamin Franklin Proposes Prayer in the Constitutional
tious manner, the brain and religious sense given them by the Creator. Fascist and Communist governments refuse to function “ under God.” They refuse to recognize the authority of God. They refuse to respect the rights given man by his Creator. Com munism denies utterly the citizen’s right to worship God. Fascism denies the citizen’s right to worship God according to his con science; it lays down pagan rules for re ligious worship, denying to the citizen the right to worship according to the Bible and and his own conscience. Instead of recognizing that Deity makes moral law and ordains human rights, in stead of recognizing that the function of government is to secure and safeguard the moral order established by the Creator, Communism and Fascism claim for them selves the prerogative of making moral law. These forms of dictatorship go so far as to take unto themselves the right to take away life itself. If a group of citizens, in Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, incur the dis pleasure of the dictator, they are simply put out of the way. Fascism and Communism do not respect the right and duty of an independent judiciary to determine the right or wrong of an act of government. Whole bodies of men are jailed or murdered at the whim of the dictator—according to his “ decree.” They are not accorded a fair trial. Their guilt or innocence does not matter. They may be guiltless in the eyes of Divine Justice. But both Fascist and Com munist “justice” operate according to their own ungodly “moral” or immoral rules. “ Government by decree” is sheer lawless ness; it is organized violence. It respects neither the demands of justice nor of mo rality. It is based, not on divine moral law, but rather upon the will and whim, the ego, of the dictator. Now, a dictatorship, based on force and the denial of moral law, is a dictatorship whether it expresses the will of one man, one group or clique of men, or even the majority of men. Immorality—confiscation and murder—practiced by a majority can be no different from theft and violence practiced by a minority or a single man. The Ten Commandments apply to a mob, just as they apply to an individual. They are binding on a government of the ma jority, just as they are binding on a govern ment of a minority. Our Constitution estab lished a government “of,” “by,” and “for the people.” It recognizes the right of the majority to rule. But it requires that the majority must rule according to moral law ; the majority must not deprive the minority or the individual of life, liberty, or prop erty. The Constitution affirms the Scrip tural fact that God made individuals. Deity gave to each man an individual soul; He also gave to each soul certain individual rights. As set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the purpose of government is to secure to each individual his heritage of life and liberty derived from God. As set forth in the Constitution, the purpose of our “government by majority-rule” is to protect individual rights. The Constitution What Rights Has a Minority?
Convention June 28, 1787
• Mr. President: • The small progress we have made after four or five weeks’ close attendance and continual reasonings with each other — our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last pro ducing as many noes as ayes— is me- thinks a melancholy proof of the imper fection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the differ ent forms of those republics which, hav ing been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their con stitutions suitable to our circumstances. • In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to dis tinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly apply ing to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine pro tection. . . . to that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consult ing in peace on the means of establish ing our future national felicity. • And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth— THAT GOD GOV ERNS IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that "except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no bet ter than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local in terests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a re proach and byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may here after from this unfortunate instance, de spair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. • I therefore beg leave to move— that henceforth prayers imploring the assist ance of heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to offi ciate in that service.
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