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From Hillsdale College:
Overview:
Overview:
Welcome to Week 2
“The Declaration of Independence”
Overview
The soul of the American founding is located in the universal political principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The meaning of equality and liberty in the Declaration is decisively different than the definition given to those principles by modern liberalism.
Liberty is the right to be free from the coercive interference of other people. It is derived from nature itself, and is a natural right—something possessed simply because one is a human being.
Equality means that no one is by nature the ruler of any other person. Each human being is equal in his right to life, liberty, and property, which the Declaration calls “the pursuit of happiness.”
Equality, liberty, and natural rights require a certain form of government: republicanism, based on the consent of the governed. Legitimate government, based on the consent of the governed, must accomplish three things: the establishment of civil laws that protect man’s natural rights; the punishment of those who infringe on others’ natural rights; and the protection of natural rights through a strong national defense.
The people themselves also play a vital role in protecting their rights. They must be educated in “religion, morality, and knowledge.”
Modern liberalism uses the same language of “liberty” and “equality” as the Declaration of Independence. Yet modern liberals mean something other than what the Founders meant by those words. For the Progressives, “equality” means equal access to resources and wealth, while “liberty” means the ability to utilize a right, rather than the right in itself. Both of these ideas necessitate government programs that help mankind free itself from its “natural limitations.”
The Declaration of Independence and modern Progressivism are fundamentally opposed to each other. The modern misunderstanding of “equality” and “liberty” threaten not just the Declaration of Independence, but the whole of the American constitutional and moral order.
Thomas G. West is the Paul and Dawn Potter Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he has taught since 2011. Dr. West teaches courses in American politics, with a focus on the U.S. Constitution, civil rights, foreign policy, and the political thought of the American founding. He also teaches courses in political philosophy, with particular emphasis on Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke.
Prior to joining the faculty at Hillsdale, Dr. West was Professor of Politics at the University of Dallas, where he taught from 1974 to 2011. Formerly a visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation and at Claremont McKenna College, Dr. West is a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, where he teaches in the Institute’s Publius and Lincoln Fellows summer programs. He is the author of the best-selling Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, and co-translator of Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and Aristophanes’ Clouds, of which there are more than 180,000 copies in print. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate University.
Lecture:
Welcome to Week 2
“The Declaration of Independence”
Lecture
About the Lecturer:
Thomas G. West is the Paul and Dawn Potter Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he has taught since 2011. Dr. West teaches courses in American politics, with a focus on the U.S. Constitution, civil rights, foreign policy, and the political thought of the American founding. He also teaches courses in political philosophy, with particular emphasis on Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke.
Prior to joining the faculty at Hillsdale, Dr. West was Professor of Politics at the University of Dallas, where he taught from 1974 to 2011. Formerly a visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation and at Claremont McKenna College, Dr. West is a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, where he teaches in the Institute’s Publius and Lincoln Fellows summer programs. He is the author of the best-selling Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, and co-translator of Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and Aristophanes’ Clouds, of which there are more than 180,000 copies in print. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate University.
Readings:
Readings
- “The Declaration of Independence”
- “Letter to Henry Lee” – Thomas Jefferson
- “An Election Sermon” – Gad Hitchcock
- “Common Sense” – Thomas Paine
- “Virginia Declaration of Rights” – George Mason
- “Northwest Ordinance”
- “Annual Message to Congress” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Do you want to go beyond the readings for Constitution 101? OrderThe U.S. Constitution: A Reader today!
Study Guide
Q&A Reminder: You may submit questions from Monday at noon when the new week's material is available, until Wednesday at noon. “Question & Answer” videos will be posted on Thursdays. Like the lectures, these sessions are not live, and are available to view at your convenience.
You may submit questions to constitution@hillsdale.edu, or viaFacebook or Twitter. Please include your name, city, and state with your email so we can identify your question. We will do our best to answer as many questions as possible during the time allotted, but we will not be able to answer all questions.
You may submit questions to constitution@hillsdale.edu, or viaFacebook or Twitter. Please include your name, city, and state with your email so we can identify your question. We will do our best to answer as many questions as possible during the time allotted, but we will not be able to answer all questions.
Quiz
- According to Dr. West, what is the “soul” of the American Founding? Hint: it is expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
- God is invoked four times in the Declaration. Identify the quartet of references that is correct.
- What grave contradiction of the Declaration’s universal political principles existed during the Founding?
- True/False: When the Founders used the word “equality” in the Declaration of Independence, they meant that everyone should have the same resources as everyone else.
- The Founders defined liberty as the right to be free from ________.
- The Virginia Declaration of Rights, in language similar to that of the Declaration of Independence, states that men are “equally ______ and independent.”
- True/False: The idea of natural rights implies that every person has a corresponding duty not to violate others’ rights.
- True/False: The Declaration of Independence treats government as a necessary evil.
- Dr. West, paraphrasing the Declaration, says that government must do three things: protect persons and property, create laws that punish criminals, and _________.
- “It’s not enough for government to have the right goals; it’s also necessary for government to be structured on the right foundation” in the population. What is the “right foundation,” according to Dr. West? Hint: the Northwest Ordinance states this explicitly.
- How did the Founders reconcile man’s natural right to liberty with the coercive power of government?
- The Founding generation often used Scripture to support what form of government?
- How many states had abolished slavery by the early 1800s?
- True/False: The Founders created a system where, so long as people followed the rules, they could live however they wanted.
- FDR’s “Second Bill of Rights” contains a list of many new proposed rights, including:
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