The Source of Our Rights

In his latest column Hadley Arkes elucidates on the natural law principles that underlay the American Republic.  Arkes on the nature of the Union and the source of our rights:

 

As Abraham Lincoln understood, the American republic did not begin with the Constitution. What we have come to know as the Constitution is really our second Constitution, coming in 1788. The American regime began with the Declaration of Independence, with the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” with the Creator who “endowed” us with certain natural, “unalienable rights.”  

The task of a Constitution was to arrange a practical structure of governance that would be consistent with those underlying principles. And that was why some of the most notable Founders were resistant to adding a “Bill of Rights.” The Constitution was not the source of our rights, and there was a concern that the mention of some rights would imply the lesser importance of those not mentioned.

These teachings are what should be providing the ground of opposition to the politics and policies of the Obama Administration.