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logo    A Nation of Laws


The current controversy over illegal immigration has given this phrase a prominence it has not had for some time. The phrase itself is credited to John Adams, our second president, who is thought to have written it in a draft of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1779. His exact expression is, A government of laws, and not of men. He is thought to have coined it by altering a more common English expression, not men, but measures which was used by Edmund Burke and others. Subsequently, many Americans of political stature have used this phrase as especially descriptive of America.

Now, because the Federal Government has failed to enforce our immigration statutes for many decades, many Conservative groups are calling into question whether this phrase any longer epitomizes our country, especially since advocates of lax immigration reform are openly suggesting that the illegal aliens who have broken the immigration laws that our government has refused to enforce should be absolved of their illegal actions.

But the phrase itself is not all that special, because there is nothing special about laws. All laws are not conducive of goodness. Laws are often ill-conceived, discriminatory, inhumane, unjust, and sometimes just plain nonsensical. And often, such laws are often enforced with vengeance when, in reality, they should be repealed. So just because a nation has a government of laws and not of men means very little. Such governments can be evil, predatory, and cruel even more easily that they can be virtuous, compassionate, and kind. And in a sense, that is the real criticism of what America has become. Rather than being virtuous, compassionate, and kind, we appear to have become evil, predatory, and cruel. America appears to have become the elephant in the earth's china shop. Had we ever been able to describe the United States of America as a just nation rather than as a nation of laws, how much better off might both we and the world be today than we are. (3/28/07)