Who is the King in America?
William Federer, renowned historian and consistent guest on Face The Culture asks this question in his 8/17/22 AmericanMinutes.com blog. This is a concept that is so little known today that the history of “the people as King” needs to be talked about. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Want to be called an idiot? In ancient Athens, just neglect your duty as a citizen and not show up daily in the marketplace to hear the politics of the day and not participate in decisions regarding what would become law. Talk about limiting the size of government.
Let’s define what a democracy is, and its limitations and why a republic is a more suitable replacement, especially when populations grow. A democracy is a great idea that works well in smaller populations where people are able to go to the marketplace daily to participate in representing themselves in the political discussions of the day. As populations grow, that becomes impractical as you have people who are often in a position where they cannot attend daily. A republic is where citizens send someone to represent their interest-a representative-who speaks for them in the marketplace.
When we pledge allegiance to the flag, which is a symbol of our republic, we are essentially pledging allegiance to ourselves! Think about that the next time you see someone burning a flag. They are stating that they do not want to participate in self government and are willing to cede their personal government to someone or something else.
Let’s copy the definition of republic as stated in Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary
“…a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people…”
The power is lodged in representatives elected by citizens. But that is not all! The United States is a Constitutional Republic w3hereby the elected class is subject to the same laws as citizens are. Bill Federer takes us back to 1635 and 100 church members of Rev. Thomas Hooker asked him how their government should be set up. He responded by quoting Deuteronomy 1:13-15
Choose some wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.” You answered me, “What you propose to do is good.” So, I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials.
Rev. John Wise, of Massachusetts, wrote the following which you can see these ideas in our Declaration of Independence
‘Every man must be acknowledged equal to every man.’
Again, ‘The end of all good government is to cultivate humanity and promote the happiness of all and the good of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, honor, and so forth ...’
The idea of spreading power among many and keeping it local as much as possible comes from the Bible which was sought after and quoted many times by those who wrote out founding documents.
Purchase the book by William Federer, The People are the King here.