In 1787, Alexander Hamilton wrote that it had fallen to the American people to settle one question: can a free people choose their own government by reflection and choice, or are we forever stuck with governments made by accident and force?
In the first episode of Series One, I go back to that question, because I’m convinced we are forgetting the answer.
In this episode
Why the most dangerous thing that can happen to a nation isn’t defeat. It’s forgetting. (Exodus 1:8)
The movements on the left and the right trying to re-found America, and why both end in bigger government
What the Declaration of Independence says government is actually for
Why America was a creed, not a bloodline
The covenant hidden in the Declaration’s last sentence
Why the founders said a free country needs a moral and religious people
Live Q&A: why the right is divided, and how to love your country without blind trust
The sources
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1 (1787): “...whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”
Exodus 1:8: “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”
The Declaration of Independence (1776): the opening line, “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,” and the closing pledge.
Abraham Lincoln, speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858: “blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration.”
John Adams, letter to the Massachusetts militia, October 11, 1798: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
George Washington, Farewell Address (1796): “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835): “Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”
John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law (1765): “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”
Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address (1989): “As government expands, liberty contracts.”
I promised to look this up: who asked Franklin what kind of government they’d made? Maryland delegate James McHenry recorded that as Franklin left the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a woman asked him, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” She is usually identified as Elizabeth Willing Powel of Philadelphia. Franklin answered: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
