Freedom Survey


Answering Question # 9



9.    Which form of government provides the most freedom?

        a    Democracy
        b    Monarchy
        c    Republic
        d    Communism



     The dangers inherent in democracies played a large part in the process that led our founders to establish our nation as a republic. This is why Article IV, Sec. 4 of the Constitution guarantees a republican form of government:

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government...” 19

     Though the founders understood that power was inherent in the people, they also understood that not all men were angels. They understood that a simple majority was subject to momentary passion and that public opinion could be swayed by deception and propaganda. For that reason, they chose the form of government called a republic, which in its essence means “ruled by law.” They understood that laws had to be in place to provide stability in the event that popular rage rose up in the form of a mob.

     The founders also understood that, even in a republic, democratically elected representatives can also grow corrupt. This is why the founders provided added protection by dividing the powers of government into three separate branches. This is also why we must know and adhere to the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land.

     The next logical question is: “Where do laws come from?” As we all know, laws can be either good or bad. How did the founders decide which ideas were good and which were bad? We can see the answer when we see their source for dividing government into three separate branches. The Bible says, “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king...” (Isaiah 33:22). The founders knew that God alone could carry out these functions properly. For man to have any chance of doing these things correctly, the powers would have to be divided up. The courts serve as judges, the Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate) serve as the law givers, and the President serves as the executive, as a king would. The powers and limits of each of these branches are spelled out in Article I, Article II, and Article III of the Constitution.

Noah Webster, the father of American education, said this:

“…our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion” 20

     Webster was not alone regarding the source of good law and the Christian roots of our nation. John Adams said:

“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were ...the general principles of Christianity...Now I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”21

     Many more examples could be sited, but the historical evidence is abundant and clear that the founders established our republic upon precepts derived from the Christian Scriptures.
Both the Democrat and Republican parties, in many cases, seem to have forgotten that our nation is a republic, and the principles that our republic was founded upon. It is up to us, “we the people,” to restore this foundational understanding.

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Answers Index                                                   Answering Question #10

19.    Article IV, Section 4, United States Constitution
20.    Noah Webster’s Early American History, p. xviii; 1841
21.    The Works of John Adams, by his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, 1856; page 45; and John Adams to Zabdiel Adams , June 21, 1776, in The Works of John Adams, 9:401

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