Quotes from the Founders on the Constitution

“The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can and undoubtedly will be recalled.” – George Washington, Letter to Bushrod Washington, 1787.

“The Constitution is the guide, which I will never abandon.” – George Washington, Letter to The Boston Selectmen, July 28, 1795.

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” – James Madison, Federalist No. 45 (1788)

“The "Federalist" may fairly enough be regarded as the most authentic exposition of the text of the federal Constitution as understood by the Body [Constitutional Convention] which prepared & and the Authorities [state ratifying conventions] which accepted it.” –James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, February 8, 1825. 

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That "all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” – Thomas Jefferson, Opinion against the constitutionality of a National Bank (1791).

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” –Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820.

"Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people. They fix, too, for the people the principles of their political creed." –Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, 1802. Writings, Memorial Edition (“ME”), 1905, 10:325.

"I am persuaded no Constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self-government." –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1809. ME 12:277.

"If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws -- the first growing out of the last. ... A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government." –Alexander Hamilton, Essay in the American Daily Advertiser, 1794.

“I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the following interesting particulars: ‑‑ The utility of the UNION to your political prosperity ‑‑ The insufficiency of the present Confederation to preserve that Union ‑‑ The necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed, to the attainment of this object ‑‑ The conformity of the  proposed Constitution to the true principles of republican government ‑‑ Its analogy to your own State constitution ‑‑ and lastly, The additional security which its adoption will afford the preservation of that species of government, to liberty, and to property.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1 (1788).

“I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies.” – Benjamin Franklin, Speech for Adoption of the Constitution, September 17, 1787.

“Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution … wherever our Influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavours to the means of having it well administered.” – Benjamin Franklin, Id.

“We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams to the Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798.

“Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.” – John Adams letter to Abigail Adams, July 7, 1775

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue…” – Samuel Adams, Essay published in the American Daily Advertiser, 1848.

“The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While, on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.” – Samuel Adams, Id.

Celebrate Constitution Day September 17th!

The Buena Vista and Lexington, Virginia Celebration of Constitution Day will be held Tuesday evening, September 17th from 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at the historic Wesley Chapel in Lexington. The event is co-sponsored by the local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Virginia Frontier-Lexington and Natural Bridge) (https://www.dar.org/) and by the George Washington Center for Constitutional Studies (GWCCS) (http://georgewashingtoncenter.org/). GWCCS is a nonpartisan academic institute that promotes Civic Education, and the instruction, study, and ideological defense of the principles of the American Founding, the Constitution of the United States of America, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, based on natural law principles using primary sources.

The Daughters of the American Revolution ask local government leaders to issue annual proclamations honoring Constitution Day and have also established the tradition of the “Ringing of the Bells” at 4:00 p.m. EDT on that day.  The mayors of both Lexington and Buena Vista and the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors will be issuing proclamations. Lee Chapel at Washington & Lee University and several local churches have agreed to toll their bells. 

Music for the event will be provided by students from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and Southern Virginia University.  Additionally, there will be two speakers:

Tony Williams will speak on the statesmanship of James Madison and the art of compromise. He is currently employed as a Senior Fellow at the Bill of Rights Institute in Washington D.C. and  is the Program Director of the Washington, Jefferson & Madison Institute. Tony attended Syracuse University where he earned a B.A. in history and Ohio State University where he earned an M.A. in American history.  He has written six books on colonial and Revolutionary America: Hamilton: An American Biography (2018), Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America (2015)(co-authored with Stephen P. Knott), The Jamestown Experiment (2011), America’s Beginnings (2010), The Pox and the Covenant (2010) and Hurricane of Independence(2008). He has taught history at the secondary school level for fifteen years. 

J. David Gowdy will speak on the relationship between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He is the President and Executive Director of the George Washington Center for Constitutional Studies.  He received his B.A. from Kansas State University and his J. D. degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He is also the founder of the Washington, Jefferson & Madison Institute which has been providing continuing education courses to Virginia U.S. government and history teachers since 2007. He currently serves on the Board of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society (Charlottesville). 

The public is invited to attend.

Civil and Religious Liberty

“In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights.” – James Madison (Federalist No. 51, 1788).

The history of the connection between civil and religious liberty extends back to England in the 1600’s. “The parliamentarians of the English civil war fought against grievances on two fronts: political and religious. In politics they fought for ‘liberty’, in religion for ‘reformation’…Over the course of the revolution, the two causes became linked, so that by 1659–60 the phrase ‘civil and religious liberty’ had become ubiquitous. It would be a defining feature of English political vocabulary for a quarter of a millennium,”[1]  and it extended into the heart of the American Revolution in the 1700’s. “American colonists widely agreed with this sentiment. “Civil and religious liberty” went together, but religious liberty was more fundamental, as it dealt with eternal matters, not just temporal ones. Moreover, many believed that the loss of civil liberty generally preceded the loss of religious freedom. As one pastor put it in 1766, “We could not long expect to enjoy our religious liberties, when once our civil liberties were gone.”[2]

To the Founders and most American colonists, both civil liberty and religious liberty were viewed as companion “natural rights,” inherent in the divine nature of man. They firmly believed, fought, and bled for the self-evident truth in the Declaration of Independence that, “...that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” In this regard, the revolutionary war was as much a battle against “the corruption of 18th century British high society,”[3]  as it was against financial oppression. While the Founders and American colonists were very concerned with their civil liberty and economic freedom, demanding “no taxation without representation,” they were as much or more concerned with their religious liberty, particularly in preserving their rights of individual conscience and public morality.[4]  In fact, as General, George Washington confirmed that, “the establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive that induced me to the field of battle.”[5]

Our first two Presidents, George Washington and John Adams, were patrons of religion (Washington was an Episcopal vestryman, and Adams was a devoted Congregationalist and Unitarian) and both offered strong rhetorical support for religion and morality as the basis for civil liberty and freedom. In his Farewell Address of September 1796, Washington stated, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens,” and concluded that “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Adams wrote that statesmen “may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.”[6]  With respect to freedom of conscience, Washington stated, “While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the conscience of others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only in this case are they answerable.”[7]  Our third President, Thomas Jefferson, agreed with Washington and his language became part of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia: “[T]hat the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty.”[8]

While the Founders and colonists were concerned that the loss of their civil liberties would precede the loss of their religious liberties, the opposite may now be true. In our day, there is a concerted effort by some to elevate civil liberties or secular rights above religious liberties, including the right of conscience. For example, according to Chairman Martin R. Castro of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, phrases such as ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ should now be considered “code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, …or any other form of intolerance.” In this document (issued in September 2016), the United States Commission on Civil Rights—purportedly a bipartisan, independent federal commission—makes the unambiguous determination that status-based civil liberties should supersede religious liberties.[9]  More recently, the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act (H.R. 5, 116th Congress). The Equality Act provides no protections for religious freedom. It would instead repeal long-standing religious rights under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. Such efforts tend to undermine the crucial, stabilizing influence of religion in public life and may jeopardize the equal rights of each individual under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

All citizens should study and lend their voices and opinions to these critical issues. As we do so, we would be wise and prudent to consider the historical and long-held conviction that in our nation civil rights and religious rights are inextricably connected, rely on one another, and must be maintained in balance. While sometimes difficult, fairness for all may be achieved. We, as Americans who have inherited both civil and religious liberty, and whose principles and traditions set our nation apart from all others, should reflect on the timeless precept that, “The constitutional freedom of religion [is] the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights.”[10]
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Footnotes:
 [1] Blair Worden, “Civil and Religious Liberty”, Chapter 8 in God's Instruments: Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell (Oxford Scholarship Online, May 2012). https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570492.001.0001/acprof-9780199570492-chapter-9 
 [2] Thomas Kidd, The American Founding: Understanding the Connection between Religious and Civil Liberties-Religious Freedom Institute (June 4, 2016).
 [3] Marvin Olasky, Fighting for Liberty and Virtue (Regnery Publishing, Washington D.C., 1996) p. 142.
 [4] See, e.g., Id., Olasky, Fighting for Liberty and Virtue; Richard Vetterli and Gary Bryner, In Search of the Republic: Public Virtue and the Roots of American Government (Rowman & Littlefield, New Jersey, 1987).
 [5] Letter to the Ministers, Elders, Deacons, and Members of the Reformed German Congregation of New York, November 27, 1783, in John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, 37 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1931-1940), 27:249.
 [6] Adams to Zabdiel Adams, Philadelphia June 21. 1776; see also Library of Congress, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Religion and the Federal Government, Part 1, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06.html 
 [7] Letter to Benedict Arnold, September 14, 1775.
 [8] Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779); Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (Virginia, 1777).
 [9] Deseret News, U.S. Civil Rights Commission chairman says religious freedoms 'stand for nothing except hypocrisy':
 https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865662326/US-Civil-Rights-Commission-chairman-says-religious-freedoms-stand-for-nothing-except-hypocrisy.html; https://www.usccr.gov/press/2016/PR-09-07-16.pdf
[10] Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Board of Visitors Minutes, 1819, Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, Washington, D.C., 1905), 19:416.

The Preamble to the Constitution

"...the Constitution is the guide,
that I will never abandon." 

--George Washington to The Boston Selectmen, July 28, 1795

The Preamble to the Constitution has no force in law, nor is it a grant of power -- instead, it establishes the "Why" of the Constitution. Why did the Constitution come to be? It reflects the desires of the Framers to improve upon their previous government (to be "more perfect" than the Articles of Confederation), to ensure that that government would be just, and would protect its citizens from internal strife and from any foreign attacks. It is based on principles of natural law. It is intended to secure the blessings of liberty to the people and all future generations of Americans. We should become familiar both with the Preamble and the Constitution itself.

WE the People of the United States… “The Framers of our Constitution were trained and experienced in the Common Law. They remembered [the Magna Carta forged by] the barons and King John at Runnymede. They were thoroughly indoctrinated in the principle that true sovereignty rests in the people.” (J. Reuben Clark, Jr.). It confirms this truth in the Declaration of Independence that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;” and, it was “a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal …a government, of the people, by the people, for the people.” (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address).

…in Order to form a more perfect Union The Framers were dissatisfied with the United States under the Articles of Confederation, and they were striving for something better. The framers desired that the new Constitution would form a more perfect union of both the states and the people. They knew that unity would prove essential to their future political success. George Washington stated, “you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness …accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the Palladium [safeguard] of your political safety and prosperity” (Farewell Address).

…establish Justice Injustice, unfairness of criminal and civil laws, especially in trade and taxation, was of great concern to the citizens of 1787. They wanted a nation of equal justice -- where courts would be established with uniformity, the laws administered with fairness and equity, and where trade within and outside the borders of the country would be open and unmolested. They longed for judges who would do their duty as faithful guardians of the Constitution.

…insure domestic Tranquility One of the events that caused the Constitutional Convention to be held was the revolt of Massachusetts farmers known as Shays' Rebellion. The taking up of arms by war veterans revolting against the state government was a shock to the system. Keeping the peace was on everyone's mind, and tranquility at home was a prime concern. The framers hoped that the new powers granted to the federal government in the Constitution would thwart seditions and such rebellions in the future.

…provide for the common defense The new nation was fearful of attack from all sides —and no one state was really capable of fending off an attack from land or sea by itself. With a wary eye on Britain and Spain, and ever-watchful for Indian attack, no state in the new United States could survive such attacks alone. The people and the states needed to bond together in order to survive in the harsh world of international intrigue and aggression.

…promote the general Welfare The whole point of having tranquility, justice, and a common defense was to promote the general welfare — to allow every state and every citizen of those states the benefits that the new republic could provide. The framers looked forward to the expansion of agriculture, manufacturing, trade and investment, and they knew that a strong national government would be the precursor. However, it is not a granting clause – i.e., it does not grant Congress (or any other branch) the power to legislate for the general welfare of the country, but is merely intended as a guidepost for the federal government to carry out its enumerated powers in promoting the common good.

…and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity The framers sought for the blessings of both civil and religious liberty — something they had all fought hard for in the Revolutionary War just a decade before. They desired to create a virtuous nation that would secure the unalienable rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to all citizens, and remain free from tyranny. And more than for themselves, they wanted to be sure that their children and future generations of Americans would enjoy the same.

…do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. In the final clause of the Preamble, "We the People" delegate and invest their authority in the new government, pronounce the official name for this great charter of liberty, and restate the name of the new nation for whom they are adopting the Constitution.

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See also: http://www.liberty1.org/ConstitutionBrief.pdf

Reference: http://www.usconstitution.net/constquick.html