THE PIECE THAT HOLDS IT ALL TOGETHER
When I was a child I was fascinated with the wooden puzzle I was given by my father. It looked solid and complete. It seemed to be easily deconstructed and reformed… until it was taken apart and the reassembly was begun.
Then the once regular shapes that formed so easily into the perfect cube were not so easily reassembled. The genius of the designer of the puzzle became evident, and it took some time to recreate the cube using every piece with perfect balance and harmony.
That is an excellent metaphor for our Constitutional Republic. The kindergarten version of the balance of powers is that we have three branches of government – Legislative, Executive and Judicial. Of course, that is true, but it is far too simplistic to understand the intricate inner workings and the genius of the inner structure of our Constitutional Republic.
When we look carefully at the US Constitution of 1787, we see that with every designation of power and responsibility there follows a limitation on that power. Nowhere is power given without a balancing limitation. This is the secret to the inner workings of the “puzzle” of our Constitution, the checks and balances throughout, hidden within the structure.
Those who are unaware, or choose to ignore the intricate inner workings of the structure have tried to remove, alter, or ignore the parts, and have tried to form the remains into the solid cube that the Founders created. It is impossible to do.
When constructing the wooden puzzle there is the last piece, which slipped into place, holds the cube together. In the Constitution of 1787 that piece was self-government. Each man and woman being accountable to God governing their own conduct in the light of Eternity.
John Adams said in a speech to the military in 1798, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams said in a speech to the military in 1798, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Noah Webster, Father of American Scholarship and Education stated, “[T]he Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government… and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence.”
Likewise, George Washington, General of the Revolutionary Army, President of the Constitutional Convention, First President of the United States of America and the Father of our Nation underscored the connection between self-government under God and the stability of the nation by saying, “Religion and morality are the essential pillars of a civil society.”
Remove this key piece from the intricate structure of the Republic created by the Founders, and their words become true, “no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable.” [Note: the word republican is not used here to denote any party (i.e., Democrat or Republican), but to refer to the fact that the United States is a republic and not a democracy].
