The United States Constitution begins with the words “We the People.” It expresses the assumption, basic to American constitutionalism that “ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone” [Federalist No 46 (James Madison)]. The Covenanters met this assumption head on. In [Samuel] Wylie’s words, “Civil government does not, as some modern politicians affirm, originate either in the people, as its fountain, or in the vices consequent upon the fall. . . . [I]t is among the all things committed to him [Christ] by the donation of the Father.” To state the principle positively, “God the supreme Governor, is the fountain of all power and authority, and civil magistrates are his deputies.” Fundamental constitutional authority was not in the people; it was from the divine mediator Jesus Christ, granted “universal dominion” by the Father. Thus, for the Covenanters, American governments, founded by federal and state constitutions alike, rested upon an erroneous and corrupt principle. From this basic flaw flowed the Covenanters’ criticisms of American constitutional government, and their recommendations of what was necessary to reform the American constitutional system.

“Church and State in the Early Republic: The Covenanters’ Radical Critique” by Robert Emery in Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 25, Issue 2 (2009), 493-494.