Everyone loves the American Revolution. Radicals on both the
left and the right see themselves as the true inheritors of the Declaration of
Independence. The Articles of
Confederation are more popular on the right, but everyone thinks that they are
proper interpreters of the Constitution – even those who claim not to
“interpret” it at all. For
everyone who cites a Founder to show that America was created as a Christian
nation, another person quotes a different Founder to demonstrate that it was
not. What is the truth?
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| Jefferson's Collection at the Library of Congress |
“Of the many
generalizations customarily made about the Founding Fathers, one of the most
common but least defensible is that they all thought pretty much of the same
things about the nature of man, society, and government. On one level of
consciousness, we know better. Had there been such unanimity of opinion the
American public would scarcely have taken so long to work out an acceptable
governmental system.
[…]
"On the other hand,
despite their differences the Revolutionary generation did achieve independence, they did write a number of
strikingly similar state constitutions, and they did draft and put into
operation the federal Constitution. What underlay and made possible these
monumental accomplishments, however, was not a universally accepted set of
philosophical principles. Rather, I suggest, most Americans shared a common matrix of ideas and assumptions about government and society, about liberty
and property, about politics and law." -- Forrest McDonald, Literature of
Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought ,
vol. 1, no. 1 January/March 1978 published
by the Cato Institute (1978-1979) and the Institute for Humane Studies
(1980-1982).
What was that “matrix
of ideas and assumptions”?
Donald S. Lutz also
compiled an inventory of the works most often cited by the Founders. His “Top 40” (actually 37) can be found here at the Online Library of Liberty, sponsored by The Liberty Fund, Inc. The same
site also carries Forrest McDonald’s essay here.
Prof. Lutz’s Top 10
are:
- St. Paul
- Montesquieu
- Sir William Blackstone
- John Locke
- David Hume
- Plutarch
- Cesare Beccaria
- John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon
- Delolme
- Samuel Pufendorf
Among the works by
Montesquieu was Reflections
on the Causes of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (1734). Edward Gibbons’ Decline and Fall was only being produced 1776-1788. Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans (also called Parallel Lives) provided details about
the ancient world. Seeking to sever the political bands that tied them to a
medieval government, the Founders had few other models, and the ancient
histories provided many lessons.
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| From the Library of Congress Homepage |
Moreover, it is
important to bear in mind that their opinions
necessarily changed with experience. So, the conflicts were not just between or
among them, but also within them. That ambiguity leaves us with more quotable
quotes with which to support our arguments.
- “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” -- John Adams
- “The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” – John Adams
Of course, context
is important. The first quote came
from “Message from John Adams to the Officers of the First Brigade of the
Third Division of the Militia of Massacusetts” (October 11, 1798) available on Belief.net here.
The second came
from Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United
States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary.
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims]; and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. (Wikipedia here. The article also provides an image of the original treaty.)
The context is
clear, and a subsequent treaty (1803) did not contain that key phrase.
The Founders also expressed
an ambivalent or conflicted set of beliefs about property and commerce. Many of
them were merchants, of course. But for those merchants, the hallmark of regal
over-reach was the creation of crown charter corporations, beginning with the
Bank of England. In the words of
Forrest McDonald: “… the
Americans developed a deep-seated reverence toward the sanctity of private
property and simultaneously developed a strong anticapitalistic bias.”
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