Our 16 year old daughter is reading Roots of American Order and writing a daily essay. Here's her fifth essay on the book, regarding English government forms evident in America's founding:
The United States in its infancy was called New England. But it was New England in more than people, although nearly all her first inhabitants were former English citizens. The young country differed from England in many ways, but in many ways she also held fast to her mother country. English government was the nearest example that our founding fathers had to learn from, so it is natural that many of our government procedures etcetera should be derived from England's system.
The Romans and the Greeks and the Israelites had known little to nothing about the green lands that waited in the North. Although Rome had brought Europe under her flag, she had little time to devote to its civilization. And when her troops were withdrawn, England was left to its own methods. Through it all, Roman order retained its influence, but the government in England and the surrounding countries was largely original. The inhabitants created their own Common Law over the years, and tended it carefully. It was honored by most, and respected by all. And gradually, as the Middle Ages went on, a true government was brought into the light, after the political simplicity of the Dark Ages. This government included a judicial system with a jury, which held justice as its highest goal, as a judicial system should. The king was supreme ruler of the land at first, until King John and the Magna Carta, when the people realized they needed an accountability system of sorts. So onto the scene came the Parliament. A house of commons and a house of lords, created for the purpose of upholding the king as far as he obeyed the Common Law, and to throw him down when he assumed more power than was right. This home-grown government endured many trials and changes, but when the religious dissidents sailed to America, it still held sway.
So, in the creation of American government, English government was first in the minds of the creators. Because they didn't wish to repeat the trials of England, the founders disregarded many aspects of the British system, primarily the idea of a King. And they went far back to Rome's example for help in establishing a Senate and a House. But the Common Law of the old England reigned still in the new, and even in our world today it permeates society invisibly. Plenty of politicians have forgotten to look at what already stands and try to explain concepts in new terms that can't hold a candle to the old. But the truth is, the Common Law was just an extension of God's Moral Law, which lives in each of our hearts and cannot be shaken. Pure right and wrong will never change with the times. They will only be worded differently.
