SOURCES OF AMERICAN FOUNDING
1. Greek source-Athens –the vocabulary of politics
Man is by nature a political animal- Aristotle,
Politics
POLIS=CITY>village
(a collection of households), family,
individual
politikos=political=that which concerns the city
politikos=politician=statesman
polites=citizen=one who has a share in ruling and
being ruled
politike=political science=having expertise in
politics, political science is the master science
politeia=constitution=organizing principle of the city
democracy=rule by the people
aristocracy=rule by the few
kingship(monarchy)=rule by one
philia=friendship, love=necessary condition for
citizenship
2. Religious source-Puritan Founding-the voluntary ideal, covenant theology and the origin of American liberty
For the work we have in hand, it is by a mutual
consent through a special overruling providence, and a more than ordinary
approbation of the Churches of Christ to seek out a place of cohabitation and
consorteship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical. In
such cases as this the care of the public must oversway all private respects,
by which not only conscience, but mere civil policy doth bind us; for it is a
true rule that particular estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the
public.
----------- Kingdom of Heaven
|
|
CITY ON A
HILL
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|
----------Kingdom of Man
1630 - John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts
Bay Colony, wrote A Model of Christian Charity, a guide to
Puritan political/religious thought
-the source of Puritan ideas is the Protestant
Reformation, especially Calvinism –grace, faith and the problem of politics
-the purpose of Puritan politics is to found a city
on a hill-a light unto the nations, a model political order
-the basis of proper political order is charity from
Latin charitas=love, friendship
-civil liberty is to do that which is good, just,
honest
3. Liberal source-John
Locke-natural rights and the origin
of American liberty
I esteem it above all things necessary to distinguish
exactly the Business of Civil Government from that of Religion¼The care of Souls cannot belong to the Civil Magistrate¼the Power of Civil Government relates only to Men’s
Civil Interests, is confined to the care of the things of this world, and hath
nothing to do with the world to come. Locke,
A Letter Concerning Toleration
1632-1704-Locke, a philosopher whose works influenced
such diverse areas as politics, economics, psychology, and religion.
-Second
Treatise of Government shaped the
thinking and language of the Declaration of Independence.
-people are born free and equal into a peaceful state
of nature-there is no government
-in the state of
nature all people have natural
rights granted by the Creator: life, liberty and property
-government is created by people, through the consent
of the people
-the purpose of government is to secure natural
rights: life, liberty and property
-the purpose of government is not to care for the
souls of the citizens-calls for religious toleration
-if government seeks to deprive us of rights we have
the right of revolution
4. The American Revolution-1775-1781: How the religious and liberal traditions influenced the ideas and politics of the American Revolution
We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Declaration of Independence
-1775 the Revolutionary War begins with the
Continental Congress’ declaration of the Articles of War. Initially, the Congress declares its intent
to reunite with Great Britain
-1776 Thomas Jefferson authors the Declaration of
Independence declaring the basis for a legitimate government and justifying
independence and Revolution
-1776 John Adams publishes Thoughts on Government, a
pamphlet explaining the best form of government. This influences many of the state
constitutions that are soon adopted
-1777 Articles of Confederation, adopted by the
Continental Congress providing the form of national government lasting
until the adoption of the Constitution in 1789.
The goal of the War reflects both the liberal and religious traditions.
Liberal: Government by the consent of the
people/purpose of government is securing individual rights: life, liberty and
property /revolution justified by denial of Natural Rights---Evidence:
Declaration of Independence/ state constitutions/ use of Locke’s writings to
justify and support Revolution
Religious: Purpose
of government is, through mutual consent, to establish a City on a Hill/
charity or friendship as basis for political order---Evidence: Bible is most
cited text used to justify Revolution/state constitutions/von Steuben and
training of Continental Army/Articles of Confederation and friendship
5. The
Constitution and the Problem of Liberty and Order
The
radical infirmity of the Articles of Confederation was the dependence of
Congress on the voluntary an simultaneous compliance with its requisitions, by
so many independent communities, each consulting more or less its particular
interests and convenience and distrusting the compliance of the others.
Madison,
-Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention
-The limits of the voluntary ideal and the
failure of the revolutionary idea of citizenship
-The
Federalist Papers (Madison, Hamilton and Jay)
-Federalist 10- “Liberty is to faction what
air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires.”
-The Federalist solution to the problem of liberty and
order (representative government, large territory, and bloodless war of
commerce)
-why liberty encourages factions and threatens
political order
-how the new representative government provides an
answer to the problem of liberty and order
-compromises of the Constitutional Convention
-why did the framers of the Constitution consider knowledge
of ancient Greece, Rome and the Italian city-states important for creation of
the new American Republic ?
-the idea of representative government in the
Constitution reject the old idea of citizenship and civic virtue?
6. Federalism
and the Idea of liberty
I think, then,
that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is
unlike anything that ever before existed in the world; our contemporaries will
find no prototype of it in their memories. I seek in vain for an expression that
will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it; the old words
despotism and tyranny are inappropriate: the thing itself is new, and since I
cannot name, I must attempt to define it.
I seek to trace
the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first
thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all
equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry
pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a
stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends
constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens,
he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not
feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred
still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.
Above this race
of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to
secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is
absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority
of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood;
but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well
content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but
rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it
chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it
provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities,
facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their
industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances:
what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of
living?
Thus it every day
renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent;
it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of
all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these
things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as
benefits.
Alexis de Tocqueville,
Democracy in America Volume II
Section
4: Influence of Democratic Ideas and Feelings on Political Society.
Chapter
VI: What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear
-
Why did the founders create a federal system of government?
-dual
federalism
-modern
federalism
-why
does Tocqueville fear that a strong national government and welfare state will
emerge in American politics?
-Separation
of powers & change over time
-Checks
and balances & changes over time