Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), was the renowned English jurist who played a leading role in forming the basis of law in America. Blackstone lectured at Oxford, and between 1765 and 1770 published his highly influential work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, which by 1775 sold more copies in America than in England.

His Commentaries, which almost served as the "bible" of American Lawyers, set the foundation for our great legal minds, including Chief Justice John Marshall. When scholars examined nearly 15,000 items written by the Founding Fathers between the years 1760 and 1805, (including books, newspapers articles, monographs, pamphlets. etc.), it was found the Sir William Blackstone was quoted more than any other author except one.

James Madison, the "Chief Architect of the Constitution," endorsed Blackstone, saying:

"I very cheerfully express my approbation of the proposed edition of Blackstone's Commentaries." ¹

Blackstone expressed the presuppositional base for law:

"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being.... And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will... this will of his Maker is called the law of nature." ²

"These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil.... This law of nature dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this...." ³

"The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures... [and] are found upon comparison to be really part of the original law of nature. Upon these two foundation, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these." 4

"Blasphemy against the Almighty is denying his being or providence, or uttering contumelious reproaches on our Savior Christ. It is punished, at common law by fine and imprisonment, for Christianity is part of the laws of the land." 5

"If [the legislature] will positively enact a thing to be done, the judges are not at liberty to reject it, for that were to set the judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government." 6

"To deny the possibility, nay, actual existence, of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once to contradict the revealed Word of God in various passages both of the Old and New Testament." 7

"The preservation of Christianity as a national religion is abstracted from its own intrinsic truth, of the utmost consequence to the civil state, which a single instance will sufficiently demonstrate.

"The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, the entertaining just ideas of the main attributes of the Supreme Being, and a firm persuasion that He superintends and will finally compensate every action in human life (all which are revealed in the doctrines of our Savior, Christ), these are the grand foundations of all judicial oaths, which call God to witness the truth of those facts which perhaps may be only known to Him and the party attesting;

"all moral evidences, therefore, all confidence in human veracity, must be weakened by apostasy, and overthrown by total infidelity.

"Wherefore, all affronts to Christianity, or endeavors to depreciate its efficacy, in those who have once professed it, are highly deserving of censure." 8

¹ 1821, Thomas Jefferson commenting on Blackstone.  Verna M. Hall, The Christian History of the United States of America (San Francisco: Foundation for America Christian Education, 1966), p. 130A.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 197.

² Commentaries on the Laws of England (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Col, 1879), Vol. I, p. 39.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 197.  John Whitehead, The Second American Revolution (Elgin, IL: David C. Cook, 1982), pp. 30-32.  Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 86-87.

³ Commentaries on the Laws of England (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Col, 1879), Vol. I, p. 41-42.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 197.  David Barton, The Wallbuilder Report (Aledo, TX: WallBuilders, Inc. Winter, 1993), p. 2.

4 Commentaries on the Laws of England (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Col, 1879), Vol. I, p. 41-42.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 197.  David Barton, The Wallbuilder Report (Aledo, TX: WallBuilders, Inc. Winter, 1993), p. 2.  John Whitehead, The Second American Revolution (Elgin, IL: David C. Cook, 1982), pp. 30-32.  Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 86-87.

5 Commentaries on the Laws of England (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Col, 1879), Vol. II, p. 59.  Updegraph v. The Commonwealth, 11 Ser. & R. 369 (1824).  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 52.

6 Commentaries on the Law.  Robert K. Dorman and Csaba Vedlik, Jr. Judicial Supremacy: The Supreme Court of Trial (MA: Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1986), p. 10.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 223.

7 Wendell's Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. IV, p. 59.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 33.

8 Wendell's Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. IV, p. 43.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 33.