Calhoun & McAtee On Government

“For just in proportion as a people are ignorant, stupid, debased, corrupt, exposed to violence within and danger from without, the power necessary for government to possess, in order to preserve society against anarchy and destruction becomes greater and greater, and individual liberty less and less, until the lowest condition is reached, when absolute and despotic power becomes necessary on the part of government, and individual liberty extinct. So, on the contrary, just as a people rise in the scale of intelligence, virtue, and patriotism, and the more perfectly they become acquainted with the nature of government, the ends for which it was ordered, and how it ought to be administered, and the less the tendency to violence and disorder within, and danger from abroad, the power necessary for government becomes less and less, and individual liberty greater and greater. Instead, then, of all men having the same right to liberty and equality, as is claimed by those who hold that they are all born free and equal, liberty is the noble and highest reward bestowed on mental and moral development, combined with favorable circumstances. Instead, then, of liberty and equality being born with man; instead of all men and all classes and descriptions being equally entitled to them, they are prizes to be won, and are in their most perfect state, not only the highest reward that can be bestowed on our race, but the most difficult to be won—and when won, the most difficult to be preserved.”

John C. Calhoun

Apart from Christ people, at least on a civilizational wide scale, will be ignorant, stupid, debased, corrupt and exposed to violence. He could have lifted those descriptors right out of Ephesians 4,

17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, [m]excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality [n]for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Of course the simple idea contained in the Calhoun quote is that people can only have liberty to the extent that they are Biblical Christians. Apart from Biblical Christianity, where self-government, in keeping with God’s law word, is the foundational block for all other government (Civil, Church, Family, etc.), what must be introduced to keep a people in line is force. And all civil Government is, in a pagan context, is organized force.

There is no liberty for social orders where Christ is hated. In such social orders the organizing principle will always be slavery as a people enslaved to their own sin and to the devil will not be a people who can create cultural Institutions that are characterized by liberty. People who are in bondage to their sin create social orders where the theme is bondage and slavery.

This is true regardless of their political organization be it Libertarian, Democratic Socialist, Labor, Whig, Republican, or Democrat. People enslaved to sin can not create social orders that are characterized by Liberty.

Slightly disagreeing with Calhoun, I would say that Liberty is not only a prize to be won but a grace to be given. Sure enough that Liberty must be protected once obtained but I would insist that Liberty is a grace given because it always begins with men set free from the dominion of darkness.

Thus, in the end, this quote reminds us that political or economic liberty can never be obtained apart from a people who are spiritually free. We, as Americans, have lost our political and economic liberty and those will never be re-claimed until we rediscover the truths of God’s majesty and our sin and His provision of Christ to release us from our spiritual bondage. Only a people set free from themselves can build a civilization that is characterized by Governments with boundaries and social orders characterized by Liberty.

As long as we are given over to our sin we will have powerful enslaving Governments.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane