> -----Original Message----- > From: Gruss Gott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 12:01 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: [QUAR] Re: McCain - US is a Christian Nation,a President > should be a Judeo Christian. > > > Mo wrote: > > The Declaration was not written as an establishment document, but > > rather a document of severance from England. > > Which is the foundations of establishment IMO, but tomato/tomahto
Sorta, kinda? The Declaration's main purpose was to inform the world of our intent to claim independence. The document was drafted quickly (with relatively little input), delivered, read and generally served its purpose very well. It did not, however, define any aspect of the society to be formed (nor should it have). The decision to separate and create a nation is very different from the process of creating that nation. The founders, wisely, didn't "put the cart before the horse" so to speak. They dealt with things as they came: let's get our independence first and then we'll take on the challenge of forming a reasonable, acceptable, lasting government. In that sense I would (personally) define the Declaration as a foundational document, but NOT as a definitional one. In other words I would say the Declaration was essential to the initial creation of this country, but is not CURRENTLY essential. A poor analogy might be to consider how much your birth certificate affects your daily life. Or perhaps your college acceptance letter. These are important documents, to be sure, but aren't truly useful (beyond nostalgia or the respect they deserve as artifacts of your life) to you now. To put it in business terms they're "Event documentation" not "Steady-state documentation". This is why something like the Treaty of Tripoli that Larry mentioned is much more important than the Declaration of Independence for purposes of this discussion: that's a definitional document. It defines (codifies) a national behavior and as such has a lasting, formative, impact where the Declaration does not. It can be arguing that the Declaration MIGHT have had an impact on the founders decisions, however the proof of that would have been to see its influence in the Constitution and, at least in this aspect, we don't see such an influence. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:262334 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
