Three essays for the Fourth
Spiritedness in America; neglected lessons of the Declaration of Independence; and "equality" and "diversity" rightly understood
Some Fourth of July reading from yours truly:
Yesterday, City Journal published THE SPIRITEDNESS OF 1776, developed from a talk I gave at NatCon Miami last fall. By “spiritedness,” I do in fact mean thumos. We are all familiar with Jefferson’s articulation of “the American mind.” But what good is the American mind without an American heart—or, in C.S. Lewis’s phrase, “Chest”—to match it?
And today, for the Albertus Magnus Institute: THREE LESSONS FOR THE FOURTH, on some under-appreciated features of the Declaration of Independence:
Communities Have Rights, Too
Self-Government Requires Virtue
There’s More than One Legitimate Form of Government
My original plan was to write four lessons for the Fourth; and the fourth was to be that “the people retain the right to revolution.” Perhaps it’s good that I ran out of space. It is poor form to fedpost too often, especially so if it is on someone else’s platform.
Speaking of which: let me here put in a plug for the Albertus Magnus Institute, a great and relatively new organization that provides a tuition-free (and “proudly unaccredited”) online education in the liberal arts to genuine lifelong learners: amateurs in the original sense of the term. I’m teaching a course on Plato’s Republic for AMI this summer; last year, I offered a course on Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. You can also listen to a podcast I recorded with them on Tocqueville last summer, and another on democracy and monarchy this spring.
Finally, last week in the Wyoming News Chronicle: GETTING “EQUALITY” (AND “DIVERSITY”) RIGHT IN THE EQUALITY STATE, a brief discussion of two foundational political concepts as understood by the American Founders and the framers of the Wyoming Constitution.
Conservatives, especially in Wyoming, need to reclaim the language of “equality” and “diversity.” For far too long, those terms—like “rights” and “justice”—have been surrendered to the Left, which has twisted them and wielded them against conservative policies and ordinary Americans. We won’t live up to our Seal, or our Constitution, until we recover the true meaning of “The Equality State.”
If I were to propose a common thread between these three pieces, it would be that they are all written in the spirit of ressourcement. Which, I think, should be the spirit that we always bring to our heritage, and especially our Founding, when we reflect upon it. Certainly not the disdain (or cynicism) of the left; but not the unthinking (or cynical!) repetition of empty mantras so prevalent on the establishment right, either.
As for Independence Day itself, I hope you’ll join me in faithfully obeying the plan for the day prescribed to us by John Adams:
It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
Happy Fourth!
Read the first part of the second essay...great stuff, need to look at those Bible passages. Have you thought much about how the collective right works, or doesn't, with Lockean theory? As you know, there is question raised by the Declaration when it speaks of the collective right of a people to revolt and choose government, as to what "a people" is defined by. Jay will tackle this slightly in Fed No. 2, but it was the issue that gave America such trouble with respect to blacks, esp. free blacks, as reflected in the Dred Scott case, and also, with Native Americans. And we might pose another question: is there a natural case, by the Dec's logic, as there must be for "individuals" and "peoples" having rights, for states having rights, or even, townships? Could the Anti-Federalists, if more theoretical, made a claim for small community rights? Spitballing...