Isaac Hecker and the Fourth of July
Here are some short pieces from Hecker’s last book, The Church and the Age (1887). I think they speak for themselves as Hecker the citizen talks about the founding principles of the nation.
Father Paul Robichaud CSP
“That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among them are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”
That some of these {declarations} are divine and fundamental truths and all are practical verities having a ground in both reason and revelation. They are divine inasmuch as they declare the rights of the Creator in His creature; they are fundamental, for without the enjoyment of the natural rights which they proclaim, man is not a man but a slave or a chattel; they are practical for man is, or ought to be, under his Creator, the master of his own destiny and free from any dominion not founded in divine right. The Creator invested man with these rights in order that he might fulfill the duties inseparably attached to them. For these rights put man in the possession of himself and leave him free to reach the end for which his Creator called him into existence. He therefore who denies or violates these rights offends God, acts the tyrant and is an enemy of mankind. And if there is any superior merit in the republican policy of the United States, it consists chiefly in this: that while it adds nothing and can add nothing to man’s natural rights; it expresses them more clearly, guards them more securely, and protects them more effectually; so that man under its popular institutions, enjoys greater liberty in working out his true destiny.
Universal suffrage is the most efficient school to awaken general intelligence, to teach a people their rights and to arouse in their bosoms a sense of their human dignity. For what is a vote? It is the recognition of our intelligence and liberty and responsibility; the qualities that constitute our human dignity. What is a vote? It is the admission that our human rights are a factor in political society, and that we have the right to shape and the bounden duty to shape so far as our ability extends, the course of the destiny of our country. A vote is a practical means by which every voter can exercise their rights and fulfill their duty by making their voice heard in the councils of the nation, it is the practical application of the truth, “that all men” have an equal right “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and armed with a ballot we have the power of maintaining and protecting these rights.
Servant of God Isaac Thomas Hecker
Here are some short pieces from Hecker’s last book, The Church and the Age (1887). I think they speak for themselves as Hecker the citizen talks about the founding principles of the nation.
Father Paul Robichaud CSP
“That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among them are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”
That some of these {declarations} are divine and fundamental truths and all are practical verities having a ground in both reason and revelation. They are divine inasmuch as they declare the rights of the Creator in His creature; they are fundamental, for without the enjoyment of the natural rights which they proclaim, man is not a man but a slave or a chattel; they are practical for man is, or ought to be, under his Creator, the master of his own destiny and free from any dominion not founded in divine right. The Creator invested man with these rights in order that he might fulfill the duties inseparably attached to them. For these rights put man in the possession of himself and leave him free to reach the end for which his Creator called him into existence. He therefore who denies or violates these rights offends God, acts the tyrant and is an enemy of mankind. And if there is any superior merit in the republican policy of the United States, it consists chiefly in this: that while it adds nothing and can add nothing to man’s natural rights; it expresses them more clearly, guards them more securely, and protects them more effectually; so that man under its popular institutions, enjoys greater liberty in working out his true destiny.
Universal suffrage is the most efficient school to awaken general intelligence, to teach a people their rights and to arouse in their bosoms a sense of their human dignity. For what is a vote? It is the recognition of our intelligence and liberty and responsibility; the qualities that constitute our human dignity. What is a vote? It is the admission that our human rights are a factor in political society, and that we have the right to shape and the bounden duty to shape so far as our ability extends, the course of the destiny of our country. A vote is a practical means by which every voter can exercise their rights and fulfill their duty by making their voice heard in the councils of the nation, it is the practical application of the truth, “that all men” have an equal right “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and armed with a ballot we have the power of maintaining and protecting these rights.
Servant of God Isaac Thomas Hecker
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