NOTE: Several readers ordered the video "A More Perfect Union" from the May issue. This is the best recreation video of that four month period in 1787 when the Constitution of the United States was written, signed and sent to the 13 states for ratification. For those who lost the number it is 1-800-388-4512 - or to review the books and other supportive constitutional history materials available on line at NCCS go to http://www.nccs.net - dsc

While the Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson he was only one of five members of the committee assigned by the Continental Congress to draft this document. The other four members were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. The situation: the Revolutionary War had already begun, on April 19 1775, at Lexington, Mass, the Continental Congress was still trying to come to an agreement with King Charles III of England, and on June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee introduced the resolution in congress calling for complete separation from Great Britain. This committee’s job: to justify this separation!

Times were tense. Decision time had arrived. The Congress needed a document. Jefferson, at age 31, was assigned the task to write the document. Two years earlier, in 1774, Jefferson had written ‘A Summary View of the Rights of British America.’ This pamphlet outlined 29 abuses the king had heaped upon the colonies. While drafting the Declaration of Independence Jefferson used these 29 items of abuse as the justification for British America to become the independent United States of America. These 29 items make up the second and largest segment of the this document. This segment is seldom ever mentioned, or even remembered by historians. These were the Founding Father’s justification for seeking their own freedom, and assuming their rightful place among the powers on earth.

The first segment is the first two paragraphs and is the heart and sole of this celebrated document. Jefferson spent 17 days drafting these first two paragraphs. Paragraph one begins with "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to dissolve the political bands... 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....." (Note how Jefferson draws on the use of Nature’s Law or God’s Law to support this political break)

Paragraph two is the most quoted part of the document. This is where we find the words "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." This is followed by eight principles the Founding Fathers had borrowed from the teachings of Moses. These 8 principles were:

Sound government should be based on self-evident truths. These truths should be so obvious, so rational, and so morally sound that their authenticity is beyond reasonable dispute.

This presupposes (as a self-evident truth) that the Creator made human beings equal in their rights, equal before the bar of justice, and equal in His sight. (Of course, individual attributes and personal circumstances in life vary widely.)

These rights have been bestowed by the Creator on each individual and are unalienable, that is, they cannot be taken away or violated without the offender coming under the judgement and wrath of the Creator...

Among the most important of the unalienable rights are the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to pursue whatever course of life a person may desire in search of happiness, so long as it does not invade the inherent rights of others.

The most basic reason for a community or a nation to set up a system of government is to assure its inhabitants that the rights of the people shall be protected and preserved.

And because this is so, it follows that no office or agency of the government has any right to exist except with the common consent of the people or their representatives.

It also follows that if a government either by malfeasance or neglect, fails to protect those rights - or, even worse, if the government itself begins to violate those rights - then it is the right and duty of the people to regain control of their affairs and set up a form of government which will serve the people better.

It is in this document that we first read the words "United States of America." It is here that Jefferson, and the Congress, "appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world..." to justify their actions, and in closing Jefferson calls "for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence," and then "pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." 59 men signed this divinely inspired document. Men we revere as the Founding Fathers.