This Assignment requires you to review several additional resources, consider the nature of law and its ability to affect justice and write a short essay (2-3 pages) reflecting on the following passage from Founder John Adams sentiment in his October 11, 1798 Letter to the Massachusetts Militia:
“Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by … morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
You should consider the following additional resources to aid your understanding of the material presented in Chapter 1 of the eText and to provide a more complete context in which to consider the sources of law set forth in that Chapter. When considering where one’s rights come from and how we can function well in a just society, a discussion of the Natural Law and the conduct of reasonable persons, classically understood as “virtue,” can serve to enhance one’s understanding of the foundations upon which the Constitution and the law that flows from it are based. Perhaps the positive law needs a solid foundation of morality and virtue in order to achieve justice as Adams suggests. What do you think as you reflect on Adams’ quote and the current state of affairs in America today?
Additional Resources:
Positive Law and Natural Law ExplainedLinks to an external site. (Video – 3 mins)
Where Do Our Natural Rights Come From?Links to an external site. (Video – 6 mins)
Natural Law and the American Founding. Were the Founders Confused?Links to an external site. (Video – 35 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJalB78qaB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k1dtI1-zm8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OsL3svQAJc
