TO comprehend the constitutional rights of Christian Scientists, who do not elect to employ medical doctors, it is necessary to bear in mind certain fundamental principles of American government. While these ought to be familiar to all American citizens, an accurate statement thereof, from recognized authorities, will help to clarify the subject under discussion. As certain State constitutions say, "A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of civil government is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty."
The first and most important consideration is that the American system of government is founded upon the individual and his independence. The constructive statesmen who brought this nation forth, conceived government or the State to exist "merely as a legal entity, created and organized solely for the protection of the individual." (Thorpe, Constitutional History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 43.) "In the revision and new definition of the State by Adams, Jefferson, and their associates, the individual was recognized as the center of the political system.... The American Revolution differed from all preceding revolutions in the history of the world in its enthronement of the individual and its subordination of the State to him. For a proper understanding of the character of the American constitutions of government, this idea cannot be too well mastered." (Idem, p. 42.) In the United States, "organized government has for its object the protection of the individual against undue interference on the part of others with his enjoyment of life and the beneficial employment of his faculties.... The purposes of government will not be carried out in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Independence, unless all men are guaranteed equality before the law, that is, the equal right to protection under the law in the enjoyment of individual liberty, so far as it can be secured without depriving others of substantially the same degree of freedom and opportunity." (McClain, Constitutional Law, pp. 289, 290.)
The underlying basis is that men are endowed with rights, "not by grace of emperors or kings, or by force of legislative or constitutional enactments, but by their Creator; and to secure them, not to grant them, governments are instituted among men." (Powell v. Pennsylvania, 127 U. S. 678.)
