Constitutional Wisdom

Beyond the din of political struggles, Americans would be wisely served to examine the documents and processes that gave us presidential politics.

On November 4th, voters will exercise the unique role we have as personal participants in our republic. As dictated by the United States Constitution, we elect a president every four years, where are right now. The formation of that document stands as one of the historic political wonders of the world. In 1787, state representatives met in Philadelphia to produce a new governing document. They had no pattern except the negative recollections of dictatorial and royal European forms of government. They were on their own, and, as they had been in drafting and signing the Declaration of Independence thirteen years before, they were a disparate group of state representatives with personal desires and sectional concerns.

However, when it was over, they had produced a stunning document, which, when later expanded in the Bill of Rights, gave us a government system still surviving today—the oldest working constitution in the world.

British statesman William E. Gladstone declared, "…the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." President Calvin Coolidge agreed. "To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race."

Section 4 of Article 4 states, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…." By definition, this form of government is that in which the supreme power rests in all the citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives elected by them (Webster’s Dictionary). Abraham Lincoln reiterated this at Gettysburg when he spoke of "government of the people, by the people and for the people."

Further, our government is divided into three branches: legislative, judicial and executive. The legislative branch is divided into the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the differences are significant.

The number of House members is proportioned on population, and they are elected every two years. That’s right. Every two years the citizens can completely change the composition of the House. Legislation on funding arises only from this body.

There are two senators from each state, no matter what the state’s size, serving six-year terms with one-third of the Senate up for election every two years. Lifetime Supreme Court members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

After a bill passes both House and Senate, it goes to the President for signing into law or veto. In the case of a presidential veto, the House and Senate may override it by a two-thirds majority vote.

A slight crossover between the executive and legislative branches occurs since the Vice President presides over the Senate and may break a tie vote.

There are more considerations of the Constitution’s uniqueness, but the pressing question is: How could these men deliberating 211 years ago come up with such an amazing document that has stood the tests of time and still governs our country?

It seems to be a matter of prayer and the Bible. When America was coming to birth, leaders besought God in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia in 1774. At an impasse during the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin called for prayer to provide continuance. "We have been assured, Sir in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it … I beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven, and it blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."

Our founders knew that power was corrupting and absolute power would absolutely corrupt. They were conversant in Scripture and often sought its guidance. Some analysts believe our tri-partite form of government was formed as a system of checks and balances on our defective human nature. It is thought that Isaiah 33:22 gave them the political framework. "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us." There, in order, we have the judicial, legislative and executive elements of our long lived Constitution. If this is not the source of their scriptural guidance, they must have hit the formula through spiritual character arising from the prevailing general principles.

It has been said that there is no mention of dependence on God in the Constitution as in the quartet of references in the Declaration of Independence. But just above the signatories of the Constitution it reads, "Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present the seventeenth day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names."

"…the Year of our Lord" means the year since the birth of Jesus Christ who forever altered human history. Giving Him credit was probably the reason He gave our constitution permanence.

Dave Virkler