Protective Barrier Number 3:

Fathers as Disciplinarians and Protectors; Self-Defense

Reader Discretion Advised: The belief that this is a necessary barrier that
protects us from the evil side of people is no longer the dominant view, and it
is for you to decide whether or not this belief still remains valid today.

Activity 4: The Political Purpose of the Family is to Protect the Person and Property of
Citizens from the Evil Side of People

“--He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the people” (Declaration of Independence, 1776)

“[We declare] that no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any
people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by
frequent recurrence to fundamental principles” (Virginia Declaration of Rights and Constitution,
12 and 29 June 1776 in Lloyd, The Essential Bill of Rights, 188).

“The simultaneous rise of out-of-wedlock births and other forms of social/economic distress such
as crime, drug abuse, and poverty … [is] well documented by Anderson [1990], Wilson [1987],
and others…). Rising out-of-wedlock birthrates are of social policy concern because children
reared in single-parent households are more likely to be impoverished and to experience
difficulties in later life. (A substantial literature documents that single parenthood results in a
variety of adverse consequences for children—see, for example, Manski, Sandefur, McLanahan,
and Powers [1992]).”

Source: Akerlof, Yellen, and Katz, “An Analysis of Out-Of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United
States,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1996.

A. Based on this statement, how does the traditional family make person and property
more secure? What is the connection between the family and obtaining the goal of human
life?

A further consideration is, that in the human species the young need not only bodily nutrition, as
animals do, but also the training of the soul. Other animals have their natural instincts (suas
prudentias) to provide for themselves: but man lives by reason, which [read quam] takes the
experience of a long time to arrive at discretion. Hence children need instruction by the
confirmed experience of their parents: nor are they capable of such instruction as soon as they
are born, but after a long time, the time in fact taken to arrive at the years of discretion. For this
instruction again a long time is needed; and then moreover, because of the assaults of passion,
whereby the judgement of prudence is thwarted, there is need not of instruction only, but also of
repression (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 3, Ch. 122, tr. Joseph Rickaby,
S.J.). .
B. Based on this statement, how does the traditional family make person and property
more secure? What is the role of men? What is the connection between the family and
obtaining the goal of human life?

For [the] purpose [of repression] the woman by herself is not competent, but at this point
especially there is requisite the concurrence of the man, in whom there is at once reason more
perfect to instruct, and force more potent to chastise. Therefore in the human race the
advancement of the young in good must last, not for a short time, as in birds, but for a long
period of life. Hence, whereas it is necessary in all animals for the male to stand by the female
for such time as the father's concurrence is requisite for bringing up of the progeny, it is natural
for man to be tied to the society of one fixed woman for a long period, not a short one. This
social tie we call marriage. Marriage then is natural to man, and an irregular connexion outside
of marriage is contrary to the good of man; and therefore fornication must be sinful” (Thomas
Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 3, Ch. 122, tr. Joseph Rickaby, S.J.).

C. Based on these statements, how does the traditional family make person and property
more secure? What is the role of men? What is the connection between the family and
obtaining the goal of human life?

 “THE duty of parents to provide for the maintenance of their children is a principle of
natural law … for they would be in the highest manner injurious to their issue, if they
only gave the children life, that they might afterwards see them perish…. And the
president Montesquieu has a very just observation upon this head: that the establishment
of marriage in all civilized states is built on this natural obligation of the father to provide
for his children…. The main end and design of marriage therefore [is] to ascertain and
fix upon some certain person, to whom the protection … of the children should belong”
(William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book I, Chapter 16, 1765-
1769).

 “Marriage … secures the peace of society, by cutting off a great source of contention, by
assigning to one man the exclusive right to one woman” (Joseph Story, “Natural Law,
American Encyclopedia, 1832).

D. Based on this statement, how does the traditional family make person and property
more secure? What is the role of men? What is the connection between the family and
obtaining the goal of human life?

“THE defence of one’s self, or the mutual and reciprocal defence of such as stand in the relations
of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant. In these cases, if the party himself, or
any of these his relations, be forcibly attacked in his person or property, it is lawful for him to
repel force by force; and the breach of the peace, which happens, is chargeable upon him only
who began the affray…. Self-defence therefore as it is justly called the primary law of nature, so
it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the law of society” (Sir William Blackstone,
Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765, Book III, Chapter 1).
Note: “The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the
palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation
and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance,
enable the people to resist and triumph over them.” (Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice,
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833)

For more on discipline, see:

“The formidable power of a Roman father is unknown to the common law. But it vests in the
parent such authority as is conducive to the advantage of the child. When it is necessary—and a
real necessity exists much more rarely than is often imagined—a moderate chastening may be
administered; but every milder means should be previously used. Part of his authority he may
delegate to the person intrusted with his child’s education; that person acts then in the place, and
he ought to act with the disposition, of a parent. The legal power of a father ceases, when the
child attains the age of twenty one years (James Wilson, Lectures on Law, Part 2, Chapter XII).

For more on the family, see:

“The … disorganization of the modern family is … simply an erosion of its natural authority, the
consequence … of the absorption of its functions by other bodies, chiefly the state” (Robert A.
Nisbet, Quest for Community, xiv).

“Marriage is an institution, which may properly be deemed to arise from the law of nature. It
promotes the private comfort of both parties, and especially of the female sex. It tends to the
procreation of the greatest number of healthy citizens, and to their proper maintenance and
education. It secures the peace of society, by cutting off a great source of contention, by
assigning to one man the exclusive right to one woman. It promotes the cause of sound morals,
by cultivating domestic affections and virtues. It distributes the whole of society into families,
and creates a permanent union of interests, and a mutual guardianship of the same. It binds
children by indissoluble ties, and adds new securities to the good order of society, by connecting
the happiness of the whole family with the good behavior of all. It furnishes additional motives
for honest industry and economy in private life, and for a deeper love of the country of our birth”
(Joseph Story, “Natural Law, American Encyclopedia, 1832).