Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1949
Publication Information
35 A.B.A. J. 461 (1949)
Abstract
Where did the Founding Fathers get the principles upon which they established our government? What was the source of their faith? The bedrock of their convictions? What was the political evolution of our Constitution? The legal philosophy of our Bill of Rights? The discussion of these questions by Dean Manion is timely for it is necessary now to make soundings and take bearings if the Ship of State is to continue on its true course. Whereas the Revolution of 1688 brought the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty to England, the American colonists resisted that doctrine and adhered to the true natural law doctrine of constitutionalism which had come down from the Middle Ages through the writings of Bracton, Fortescue and Coke. Dean Manion shows that the principles on which Otis, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Mason, Madison and Wilson relied are still the basic need of our day.
Recommended Citation
Clarence E. Manion,
Founding Fathers and the Natural Law: A Study of the Source of our Legal Institutions, The,
35 A.B.A. J. 461 (1949).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1003
