Likewise, in privacy of voting booths, some people ask government to do things that they would never – on moral or criminal grounds – do themselves. As well, most politicians call for government to do things that it has no authority to do. For example, if we as individuals have no right to use force to make others quit smoking, then we cannot delegate this lack of authority to our agents in government. The sum total of zero authority is zero.

If government derives its just powers from governed, then there is no place in a just society for prohibition of individual vice, except in public areas that our governments constitutionally may regulate. (There is some dispute whether a city such as Bloomington, Indiana may regulate smoking in commercial areas.)

Outside these prescribed areas, there is no moral, practical or constitutional authority for citizens to use government force against others’ honest nonviolent behavior, such as smoking. Bullying is not solution to vice. We cannot coerce virtue into others when coercion is not virtuous. The best approach is to treat all vice as we do alcohol and tobacco cigarettes.

Unlike Republican Party that he inspired, Abraham Lincoln understood that prohibition of vice is rule by brute force of bullies with no moral authority. He said: “Prohibition will work great injury to cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at very principles upon which our government was founded."

Dr. Phil said best way to enfeeble bullies is to not stand with them.

On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia resolved before Congress that “These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” A committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman was formed to draft a formal declaration of independence. The draft, almost wholly Jefferson’s work, passed on July 2, with 12 colonies voting in favor and New York temporarily abstaining. The ensuing debate made most significant changes in omitting clauses condemning British people as well as their government, and, in deference to Southern delegates, an article denouncing slave trade.

In Europe, including Britain, Declaration was greeted as inaugurating a new age of freedom and self-government. As a manifesto for revolution it yielded to French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, although its importance increased in United States. After federal union was organized in 1789, it came to be considered as a statement of basic political principles, not just of independence. And rest is American history.

The Declaration of Independence is on display for public in National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. Stop by sometime and view it. It is a remarkable document. Pastor T.