One of the issues that Jefferson Davis was forced to deal with was that of ‘higher law’. This is the idea put forth at that time that there was a law higher than the Bible and Constitution. The laws the promoters came up with were based on social convention or faulty human logic and not on established legal precedents. Abraham Lincoln found new interpretations in the founding document for the “war powers” he assumed even before being sworn in. Other spokesmen of the day found laws where previous generations had not. Jefferson Davis addressed the issue:

“They say, it is true that the Constitution dictates this, the BIble inculcates that, but there is a hither law than those; and they call upon you to obey that higher law of which they are the inspired givers. Men who are traitors to the compact of their fathers-men who have perjured the oaths they have themselves taken-they who wish to steep their hands in the blood of their brothers; these are the moral law-givers who proclaim a higher law than the Bible or Constitution, and the laws of the land…What security have you for your own safety if every man of vile temper, of low instincts, of base purpose, can find in his own heart a law higher than that which is the rule of society, the Constitution and the Bible?”

If you think that the hair brained ideas of previous generations are long past, consider that today’s lawmakers are often claiming that global warming, overpopulation and other issues necessitate making bizarre laws, when there is no legal precedent for their actions either. Lawmakers no longer use the Constitution or the Bible to guide them in making the laws they pass.
Free Texas!

J Murrah

Constitution, Culture, Current Affairs, jefferson davis higher law, Political Well Being, the Bible, the BIble as authority

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