Friday, October 14, 2011

Federalist 51

The difficulty that James Madison poses is the fact that when men govern men there tends to be a struggle to be the most powerful. Through the constitution this difficulty is solved. In Federalist 51 it states that the governing people must be untied, "all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government." Although there are many different separations in the setup of the government, they must somehow communicate a common goal. The auxiliary precautions established a body of fundamental law which clearly limited the power of the government.They were specifically forbidden from doing certain things. This establishes the common ground.  It also works as a system of checks and balances. 

Checks and balances

Friday, October 7, 2011

What about the U.S. Constitution was inspired? How is it that the U.S. Constitution was inspired?

Inspire: (adjective) aroused, animated, or imbued with the spirit to do something, by or as if by supernatural or divine influence. There is no question as to IF the U.S. Constitution was inspired by God, but HOW was it inspired? The Lord said that he would save "wise" men to come at a specific time to fulfill his will. Those men were our founding fathers, men such as George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and many more. Not only were they living in a righteous manner, but they were educated or "wise" as to the dealings of government. They could put the inspiration they were receiving  with their worldly knowledge to create something truly impressive. 
 
Within the document itself, there are many examples of divine inspiration. Elder Dallin H. Oaks stated that there are five "great fundamentals." The first is the separating of powers, the act of separating the government guarantees integrity from each of the three branches (executive, legislative, judicial). Second is the writing of the Bill of Rights. Each of the principles expressed allows the U.S. citizens to be free and with this freedom comes the right to exercise our religion. The third fundamental is the dividing of powers between national and state. This separation of powers left certain rights to the state to decide upon; most important of these powers being personal relationships or in other words: family, which unit the church is based upon. The fourth is popular sovereignty; "the people are the source of government power." This is referring to the God-given rights of all mankind; as well as taking responsibility for ones' actions. (This is a princile taught in accordance to agency). The filth and final fundamental is the Rule of Law. The whole of the Constitution is based upon this principle that no man, not even the president, is above the law. These laws give us freedom through teaching us self-control. This Rule of Law is also in accordance with Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness, to have agency and face the consequences of our choices. 
As we can see there was not only inspiration from God in the coming about of the U.S. Constitution, but there is pure inspiration within the Constitution itself.