George Washington (1732–1799) - Amazon Web Services · George Washington was a Virginia farmer who commanded the Virginia militia and the Continental Army. Washington was chosen

Founders and the Constitution: In Their Own Words—Volume 2

George Washington(1732–1799)

The time is now and near at hand which mustprobably determine whether Americans areto be freemen or slaves. . . . Our cruel and

unrelenting enemy leaves us the only choice ofbrave resistance, or the most abject submission.We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.

—George Washington, 1776

IntroductionAmericans have long appreciated the importance of George Washington to their nation’shistory. Deemed “the indispensable man” by one historian, Washington secured Americanindependence as commander of the Continental Army and established republican traditionsas the nation’s first president. His unblemished character and force of personality steeledmen’s hearts in combat and stirred their souls in peace. But only recently have historiansbegun to recognize Washington’s intellectual contributions to the formation of the Americanrepublic. Though never a systematic thinker, Washington understood the relationship betweenpolitical theory and practice and was a close associate of many of the leading statesmen ofthe day, such as James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, thefriendship between Washington and Madison is one of the most important political partnershipsof the Founding Era.

During the 1780s, Washington’s home at Mount Vernon served as a crossroads for ideasthat led to the shaping of the Constitution in 1787 at Philadelphia. Representatives of theConfederation Congress, delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and members of stateratifying conventions all stopped at Mount Vernon during the decade on their journeysnorth and south. Few of these conversations are recorded in detail, but no other privatehome in America was the scene of so many discussions among the politically powerful. Itcould justly be said that the outlines of the new republic were largely drawn one hundredfeet above the Potomac River on a farm whose location marked the exact geographic mid-point between North and South.

Relevant Thematic Essays for George Washington• Republican Government• Limited Government

r

r

15 128-137 Found2 Wash 9/13/07 11:23 AM Page 128

In His Own Words:George Washington

ON THE CONSTITUTION

George Washington

Standards

CCE (9–12): IIA1, IIC1, IIIA1, IIIA2NCHS (5–12): Era III, Standards 1C,3A, 3B, 3DNCSS: Strands 2, 5, 6, and 10

MaterialsStudent Handouts

• Handout A—George Washington(1732–1799)

• Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions

• Handout C—In His Own Words:George Washington on theConstitution

Additional Teacher Resource

• Answer Key

Recommended Time

One 45-minute class period.Additional time as needed forhomework.

OverviewIn this lesson, students will learn about GeorgeWashington. They should first read as homeworkHandout A—George Washington (1732–1799) andanswer the Reading Comprehension Questions. Afterdiscussing the answers to those in class, the teacher shouldhave students answer the Critical Thinking Questionsas a class. Next, the teacher should introduce the primarysource activity, Handout C—In His Own Words:George Washington on the Constitution in whichWashington admonishes citizens of the new nation to cherish the Constitution. As a preface, there isHandout B—Vocabulary and Context Questions,which will help the students understand the document.

There are Follow-Up Homework Options, whichask students to analyze Washington’s leadership qualities,or to reflect further on additional sections of Washington’saddress. The Extensions option asks students to compareWashington to other historical figures.

ObjectivesStudents will:

• explain why Washington is known as “Father ofHis Country.”

• explain Washington’s reasons for not seeking athird term as President.

• understand the historical significance ofWashington’s home, Mount Vernon.

• understand the purposes of Washington’s FarewellAddress.

• analyze how the admonitions of Washington’sFarewell Address apply to modern society.

• appreciate the various roles Washington played indefending and creating the new nation and itsgovernment.


I. Background HomeworkAsk students to read Handout A—George Washington (1732–1799) and answer theReading Comprehension Questions.

II. Warm-Up [10 minutes]A. Review answers to homework questions.B. Conduct a whole-class discussion to answer the Critical Thinking Questions.C. Ask a student to summarize the historical significance of George Washington.

George Washington was a Virginia farmer who commanded the Virginia militia andthe Continental Army. Washington was chosen to preside over the PhiladelphiaConstitutional Convention in 1787. He was then unanimously elected as the firstpresident. He is known as the “Father of His Country.”

III. Context [5 minutes]Explain to students that Washington’s Farewell Address to the nation was written withJames Madison and Alexander Hamilton, and was never delivered orally. Rather, it waspublished in newspapers throughout the nation. The Address represents Washington’slegacy of service to the nation, and the excerpt on Handout C is a representative excerptof a much longer (seventeen-page) document. Tell students that in his first paragraph,Washington is referring to the Articles of Confederation when he says “your first essay.”

IV. In His Own Words [20 minutes]A. Distribute Handout B—Vocabulary and Context Questions and Handout C—In His

Own Words: George Washington on the Constitution.B. Divide students into six groups and have them read Handout C and complete

Handout B.C. Assign each group one paragraph from the speech and have them rewrite the

paragraph in their own words.D. Ask students to then write one or two discussion questions about the other paragraphs.E. When students have finished, ask the group that worked on the first paragraph to stand

at the front of the classroom and have a spokesperson read aloud the original paragraph.F. Next, have a different student from the group present the group’s new paragraph.G. The class should then present their discussion questions to the remaining students

in the group.H. Have each group in turn go to the front of the class and continue with the “speech”

and discussion questions.

Suggested discussion questions/answers:

Paragraph One: Why will the new Constitution better unify the country?/It will forma closer union and address common concerns of the people.

Paragraph Two: Why is the Constitution worthy of Americans’ confidence?/It wascarefully crafted, balances government power with liberty, and provides within itselfthe means for constitutional change.

Paragraph Three: What is necessary for liberty?/Respect for the Constitution and the law.

Paragraph Four: What is one basis of American government?/The people’s right to changetheir government. Can people ignore the law because they don’t agree with it?/No—theConstitution as it exists should be respected, unless and until it is changed by the people.

LESSON PLAN



Paragraph Five: What does the people’s power depend on?/The responsibility of peopleto obey the law.

Paragraph Six: What is one reason the country needs a strong government?/Its“extensive” size. What is the significance of “powers properly distributed?”/Separationof powers checks government abuse of liberty.

I. After all groups have presented, ask each student to write a one-sentence summaryof Washington’s message. Students should then share their sentences with the class.

Suggested responses:• The Constitution is worthy of Americans’ confidence.• Liberty depends on citizens obeying the law and the Constitution.• The Constitution should be respected and cherished.

V. Wrap-Up Discussion [10 minutes]Tell students that in his Address, Washington warned Americans to “resist with care thespirit of innovation” regarding the principles of the Constitution. Ask the class if theybelieve Washington’s message is relevant today. Why or why not?

Students may cite modern controversies about the separation of powers and which branchesof government have the authority to do certain things such as declare war, outlaw certainpractices, etc. Students may discuss calls for constitutional amendments and whether specificproposed amendments undermine or strengthen the spirit of the Constitution.

VI. Follow-Up Homework OptionsA. Ask students to list five qualities that George Washington had as a leader and write

two or three sentences about how Washington embodied these traits.B. Have students choose one of the following quotes from Washington’s Farewell

Address and write a paragraph explaining whether they agree or disagree withWashington’s idea.

1. “And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintainedwithout religion. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessaryspring of popular government.”

2. “Promote . . . as an object of primary importance, institutions for the generaldiffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives forceto public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

3. “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of theforeign world.”

VII. ExtensionsA. Have students research other historical and/or contemporary figures whom they

believe embody the same kinds of leadership qualities as George Washington.Students should explain why they chose the leader(s) they did and provide specificexamples of the characteristics these leaders have in common with Washington.

B. Have students read more of Washington’s Farewell Address and use it as theinspiration for their own Farewell Address that they might deliver to their schoolupon graduation. The text of George Washington’s Farewell Address can be found at:<http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm>.

George Washington

LESSON PLAN


Resources

PrintAllen, W.B. George Washington: A Collection. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1988.Brookhiser, Richard. Founding Father. New York: The Free Press, 1997.Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Knopf, 2004.Flexner, James Thomas. Washington: The Indispensable Man. Reprint. Boston: Back Bay Books, 1994.Leibiger, Stuart. Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison and the Creation of the American

Republic. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.McDonald, Forrest. The Presidency of George Washington. Lawrence: The University Press of Kansas, 1974.

InternetGeorge Washington’s Mount Vernon. <http://www.mountvernon.org/>.George Washington Papers at The Library of Congress, 1741–1799. <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/

gwhtml/gwhome.html>.Historic Valley Forge. USHistory.org. <http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/washington/>.The Papers of George Washington at The University of Virginia. <http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/>.“Rediscovering George Washington.” PBS. <http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/>.

Selected Works by George Washington• Circular to the States (1783)• First Inaugural Address (1789)• Second Inaugural Address (1793)• Farewell Address (1796)

LESSON PLAN



When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.

—George Washington

George Washington had called this gathering, but the officers of theContinental Army did not expect their commander-in-chief to appear inperson at the meetinghouse at Newburgh, New York. The year was1783, and though the War for Independence had been won, Congresshad failed to pay their salaries. They had been whispering for weeksabout marching on Philadelphia and taking control of thegovernment at gunpoint. Washington hoped that he could squelch thetreasonous plans.

An officer was in the middle of a fiery speech when Washingtonappeared at the door. The room fell silent as the great commanderstrode to the front of the assembly and stepped onto a makeshift platform.Washington said he would read a letter from a congressman that promisedthe army would receive its due. Washington pulled the letter from his pocketand unfolded it. Then he hesitated and squinted at the paper in front of him. Themen shuffled uneasily as their commander reached into his pocket again and removed apair of reading glasses. Eyeglasses were considered a sign of physical weakness in the era,and Washington had worn his only in the presence of family. But now the general putthem on in front of his officers for the first time. “Gentlemen,” Washington said, “youwill permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but nearly blindin the service of my country.” Many officers, reminded of the sacrifices made by theirhonorable commander, began to weep. With that, the Newburgh Conspiracy was over.

BackgroundGeorge Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia.His father was a prominent planter who died when Washington was eleven years old.After his father’s death, Washington spent much of his time with his older half-brother,Lawrence, at his plantation home, Mount Vernon.

In 1752, Lawrence died, and Washington inherited the Mount Vernon Estate, whichhe eventually expanded to 8,000 acres. Washington owned thirty-six slaves at the timehe acquired Mount Vernon. By the end of his life, he would own more than 300.

Love and WarSoon after Lawrence’s death, Washington became a major in the Virginia militia.Washington gained recognition for his bravery in combat during the French and IndianWar. He was soon made commander of the entire Virginia militia. But Washington wasdenied the commission in the regular British army that he so desired. Disappointed, heresigned from the militia in 1758 and returned to Mount Vernon.

The next year Washington married the wealthy widow, Martha Dandridge Custis.Martha brought twenty slaves and two children to Mount Vernon. Washington spent thenext fifteen years as a gentleman farmer, concentrating on expanding his plantation andimproving farming methods. He also served in the House of Burgesses.

George Washington

GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732–1799)

Handout A

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

r

r


RevolutionIn 1774, Washington represented Virginia at the Continental Congress. The followingyear, Congress selected him to be commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.Washington was a logical choice. His honored character was respected by all. He lookedthe part of a warrior, standing well over six feet tall with a martial demeanor. He was aVirginian, and his appointment rallied southerners to the Patriot cause.

For the next six years, Washington kept the American army alive in the face of asuperior British force. In 1778, France signed a treaty of alliance with America. Threeyears later, Washington’s force and the French navy joined together to bottle up the mainBritish force under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. With Cornwallis’s surrender,the American Revolution was essentially over.

American Cato, American CincinnatusIn 1783, Washington resigned his commission. Many observers in foreign nations wereshocked. It was almost unprecedented for a victorious general to give up powervoluntarily. But Washington had tried all his life to imitate two virtuous characters ofancient history.

Washington’s favorite play was Cato, written by the Englishman Joseph Addison.The title character of the play was a Roman who died resisting the tyranny of JuliusCaesar. Another ancient figure whom Washington admired was the legendaryCincinnatus. He was a Roman farmer who was called upon to take command of therepublic’s armies and repel Rome’s enemies. After their defeat, Cincinnatus put down hissword and became a farmer once more.

Crossroads and ConventionWashington did not have a quiet retirement when he returned to Mount Vernon in 1783.Mount Vernon was a crossroads for political discussion. Guests such as James Madisonand Gouverneur Morris spent hours in conversation with Washington about the state ofthe young nation. During these talks, Washington became convinced that the Articles ofConfederation needed revision. “The confederation,” Washington wrote in 1785,“appears to me to be little more than a shadow without substance.”

Washington was chosen to preside over the Constitutional Convention of 1787,which was called to strengthen the central government. Though he said almost nothingduring the debates, Washington’s presence had important effects. First, it caused thedelegates to be on their best behavior and reassured the country. It is also likely that thepresidency would never have been entrusted to one person had the delegates inIndependence Hall not known that Washington was certain to be the first chief executive.

The PresidencyWashington declared that the Constitution produced by the Convention was “little shortof a miracle.” He accepted the electoral college’s unanimous decision that he be the firstpresident. During his first term in office, Washington proved to be a nationalist ondomestic issues, usually siding with his secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton.The opposition to Hamilton’s economic program was headed by the secretary of state,Thomas Jefferson. Political parties began to form around these two men, a developmentthat Washington strongly disliked.

Washington’s second term as president was challenged by foreign and domestic troubles.Party conflict worsened as Americans chose sides in the war between Britain and France


Handout A

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute


that broke out in 1793. But Washington was able to maintain official neutrality and keepthe United States out of war. The president was also compelled to put down the WhiskeyRebellion, a tax revolt by distillers in western Pennsylvania.

“First in the Hearts of His Countrymen”At the end of his second term as president in 1797, Washington retired to Mount Vernonfor the third and final time. Tired of partisan politics, committed to rotation in the officeof president, and concerned that if he died in office he would set an example that thepresident should serve for life, Washington chose not to seek a third term. It is often saidthat by doing so, he established the two-term tradition for presidents.

Washington’s prediction that he would not survive another four years provedaccurate. He died of an inflamed throat on December 14, 1799. In his will, he providedfor the freeing of all his slaves once Martha died. His death brought an outpouring ofgrief throughout America. Mock funerals were held in nearly every city, and hundredsof eulogies were given in his honor. Washington had justly earned the title, “Father ofHis Country.”

George Washington

Handout A

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

Reading Comprehension Questions

1. Why was Washington a logical choice to be commander-in-chief of theContinental Army?

2. What two ancient figures did Washington admire? Who were these men?

3. What important political role did Mount Vernon fulfill during the 1780s?

Critical Thinking Questions

4. How did George Washington’s actions at crucial times change the courseof history?

5. In a eulogy for Washington, Henry Lee declared that the great Virginian was“first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Whatdo you think Lee meant by this?


Excerpts from the Farewell Address (1796)

1. Vocabulary: Use context clues to determine the meaning or significance of each ofthese words and write their definitions:

a. calculated

b. efficacious

c. unawed

d. acquiescence

e. enjoined

f. obligatory

g. presuppose

h. extensive

i. vigor

j. indispensable

2. Context: Answer the following questions.

a. When was this document written?

b. Who wrote this document?

c. What type of document is this?

d. What was the purpose of this document?


VOCABULARY AND CONTEXT QUESTIONS

Handout B

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute


Excerpts from the Farewell Address (1796)

1. . . . You have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution ofgovernment better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for theefficacious management of your common concerns.

2. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed,adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in itsprinciples, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, andcontaining within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim toyour confidence and your support.

3. Respect for [the Constitution’s] authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescencein its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty.

4. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to altertheir constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists,till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredlyobligatory upon all.

5. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish governmentpresupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. . . .

6. In a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistentwith the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such agovernment, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian.

Source: “Washington’s Farewell Address 1796.” The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.<http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm>.

George Washington

IN HIS OWN WORDS: GEORGE WASHINGTON ON THE CONSTITUTION

Handout C

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute


As Benjamin Franklin left Philadelphia’s ConventionHall in September 1787, upon the completion of thework of the Framers of the Constitution, a womanapproached him and asked the old sage of theRevolution what the delegates had created. Franklinresponded, “A republic, Madame, if you can keepit.” The woman’s reaction to Franklin’s reply is left unrecorded by history,but she might well haveasked Franklin for a moredetailed answer. Thoughthe word “republic” wascommon currency inAmerica at the time, themeaning of the term wasimprecise, encompassingvarious and diverse formsof government.

Broadly, a republicmeant a country not governed by a king. The rootof the word is the Latin, res publica, meaning “thepublic things.” “The word republic,” Thomas Painewrote, “means the public good, or the good of thewhole, in contradistinction to the despotic form,which makes the good of the sovereign, or of oneman, the only object of the government.” In arepublic, the people are sovereign, delegatingcertain powers to the government whose duty is tolook to the general welfare of society. That citizensof a republic ought to place the common goodbefore individual self-interest was a key assumptionamong Americans of the eighteenth century.“Every man in a republic,” proclaimed BenjaminRush, “is public property. His time and talents—his youth—his manhood—his old age, nay more,life, all belong to his country.”

Republicanism was not an American invention.In shaping their governments, Americans looked tohistory, first to the ancient world, and specifically tothe Israel of the Old Testament, the Roman republic,and the Greek city-states. New Englanders inparticular often cited the ancient state of Israel as theworld’s first experiment in republican governmentand sometimes drew a parallel between the TwelveTribes of Israel and the thirteen American states. In1788, while ratification of the Constitution wasbeing debated, one Yankee preacher gave a sermonentitled,“The Republic of the Israelites an Example

to the American States.” Indeed, the Bible was citedby American authors in the eighteenth centurymore often than any other single source.

Americans not only knew their Bible, but alsothe history of the Greeks and Romans. The eliteclass mastered ancient languages and literature, arequirement of colleges at the time. To these men

of the eighteenth century,ancient languages were notdead, nor were ancientevents distant; rather,the worlds of Pericles and Polybius, Sallust andCicero were vibrant and near. The relativelyminor advancements intechnology across 2,000years—people still traveledby horse and sailing ship—

served to reinforce the bond eighteenth-centuryAmericans felt with the ancients.

Like the Greeks and Romans of antiquity,Americans believed that government must concernitself with the character of its citizenry. Indeed,virtue was “the Soul of a republican Government,”as Samuel Adams put it. Virtue had twoconnotations, one secular and the other sacred.The root of the word was the Latin, vir, meaning“man,” and indeed republican virtue often referredto the display of such “manly” traits as courage andself-sacrifice for the common good. These qualitieswere deemed essential for a republic’s survival. “Apopular government,” Patrick Henry proclaimed,“cannot flourish without virtue in the people.” Butvirtue could also mean the traditional Judeo-Christian virtues, and many Americans feared thatGod would punish the entire nation for the sins ofits people. “Without morals,” Charles Carrollproclaimed, “a republic cannot subsist any lengthof time.” New Englanders in particular sought tohave society’s institutions—government andschools as well as churches—inculcate such qualitiesas industry, frugality, temperance, and chastity inthe citizenry. The Massachusetts Constitution of1780, for example, provided for “public instructionsin piety, religion, and morality.”

The second ingredient of a good republic was awell-constructed government with good institutions.

Republican Government

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT� �

04 011-015 Found2 Repub 9/13/07 10:55 AM Page 11

“If the foundation is badly laid,” George Washingtonsaid of the American government,“the superstructuremust be bad.” Americans adhered to a modifiedversion of the idea of “mixed”government, advocatedby the Greek thinker Polybius and later republicantheorists. A mixed republic combined the threebasic parts of society—monarchy (the one ruler),aristocracy (the rich few), and democracy (thepeople)—in a proper formula so that no one partcould tyrannize the others. But Americans believedthat the people of a republic were sovereign, so theysought to create institutions that approximated themonarchical and aristocraticelements of society. TheFramers of the Constitutiondid just this by fashioning asingle executive and a Senateonce removed from thepeople. The problem, as JohnAdams pointed out in hisThoughts on Government, wasthat “the possible combinations of the powers ofsociety are capable of innumerable variations.”

Americans had every reason to be pessimisticabout their experiment in republicanism. Historytaught that republics were inherently unstable andvulnerable to decay. The Roman republic and thecity-state of Athens, for instance, had succumbed tothe temptations of empire and lost their liberty. Thehistories of the Florentine and Venetian republicsof Renaissance Italy too had been glorious but short-lived. Theorists from the ancient Greek thinkerPolybius to the seventeenth-century English radicalAlgernon Sidney warned that republics suffer fromparticular dangers that monarchies and despotismsdo not. Republics were assumed to burn brightlybut briefly because of their inherent instability.One element of society always usurped power andestablished a tyranny.

The great danger to republics, it was generallybelieved, stemmed from corruption, which, likevirtue, had both a religious and a worldly meaning.Corruption referred, first, to the prevalence ofimmorality among the people. “Liberty,” SamuelAdams asserted, “will not long survive the totalExtinction of Morals.”

“If the Morals of the people” were neglected,Elbridge Gerry cautioned during the crisis withEngland, American independence would notproduce liberty but “a Slavery, far exceeding that ofevery other Nation.”

This kind of corruption most often resultedfrom avarice, the greed for material wealth. SeveralAmerican colonial legislatures therefore passed

sumptuary laws, which prohibited ostentatiousdisplays of wealth. “Luxury . . . leads tocorruption,” a South Carolinian declared duringthe Revolutionary era, “and whoever encouragesgreat luxury in a free state must be a bad citizen.”Another writer warned of the “ill effect ofsuperfluous riches” on republican society. Avaricewas seen as a “feminine” weakness; the lust forwealth rotted away “masculine” virtues. JohnAdams bemoaned “vanities, levities, and fopperies,which are real antidotes to all great, manly, andwarlike virtues.”

The second meaning ofcorruption referred toplacing private interest abovethe common good. Thistemptation plagued publicofficials most of all, who hadample opportunity tomisappropriate public fundsand to expand their power.

“Government was instituted for the general good,”Charles Carroll wrote,“but officers instrusted with itspowers have most commonly perverted them to theselfish views of avarice and ambition.” Increasinglyin the eighteenth century, Americans came to seegovernment itself as the primary source of corruption.

Fear of government’s tendency to expand itspower at the expense of the people’s liberty waspart of Americans’ English political heritage. Theyimbibed the writings of late-seventeenth-centuryEnglish radicals and eighteenth-century “country”politicians who were suspicious of the power of British officials (the “court”). Governmentcorruption was manifested in patronage (theawarding of political office to friends), faction (theformation of parties whose interests were opposed tothe common good), standing (permanent) armies,established churches, and the promotion of an eliteclass. Power, these country writers argued, waspossessed by the government; it was aggressive andexpansionist. Liberty was the property of thegoverned; it was sacred and delicate. The history ofliberty in the world was a history of defeat by theforces of tyranny.

Though the history of republicanism was adismal one, the lessons of history as well as theirown colonial experience convinced the AmericanFounders that they possessed sufficient informationon which to base a new science of politics.“Experience must be our only guide,”John Dickinsonproclaimed at the Philadelphia Convention; “reasonmay mislead us.” The Framers of the United StatesConstitution all had experience as public servants,


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

Fear of government’s tendency to expand its power at the expense of thepeople’s liberty was part of Americans’

English political heritage.


and it must be remembered that the documentthey produced did not spring forth as somethingentirely new in the American experience. Rather,the Founders had learned much from the operationof their colonial charters, state constitutions, andthe Articles of Confederation.

At Philadelphia, the Founders focused on theproper construction of the machinery of governmentas the key to the building of a stable republic. TheConstitution makes no mention of the need for virtueamong the people, nor does it make broad appealsfor self-sacrifice on behalf of the common good. It isa hard-headed documentforged by practical men whohad too often witnessedavarice and ambition amongtheir peers in the statehouse, the courtroom, andthe counting house. A goodconstitution, the Foundersheld, was the key to goodgovernment. Corruption and decay could beovercome primarily through the creation of a writtenconstitution—something England lacked—thatcarefully detailed a system in which powers wereseparated and set in opposition to each other sothat none could dominate the others.

James Madison, often called “The Father of theConstitution” because of the great influence of hisideas at Philadelphia, proposed to arrange themachinery of government in such a fashion as notto make virtue or “better motives” critical to theadvancement of the common good. Acknowledgingin The Federalist Papers that “enlightened statesmenwill not always be at the helm,” Madison believedthat the separate powers of government—legislative,executive, and judicial—must be set in oppositionto one another, so that “ambition must be made tocounteract ambition.”

“In framing a government which is to beadministered by men over men,” Madison asserted,“the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enablethe government to control the governed; and in thenext place oblige it to control itself.”

James Wilson, representing Pennsylvania atthe Philadelphia Convention, declared that theConstitution’s separation of powers and checksand balances made “it advantageous even for badmen to act for the public good.” This is not to saythat the delegates believed that the republic couldsurvive if corruption vanquished virtue in society.Madison himself emphasized the importance ofrepublican virtue when defending the newgovernment in The Federalist Papers. But the Framers

agreed with Madison that men were not angels, andmost were satisfied that the Constitution, as GeorgeWashington put it,“is provided with more checks andbarriers against the introduction of Tyranny . . . thanany Government hitherto instituted among mortals.”

The question remained, however, whether onepart of society would come to dominate. No matterhow perfect the design, the danger remained that afaction would amass enough political power to takeaway the liberty of others. To combat this problem,classical republican theory called for creating auniformity of opinion among the republican

citizenry so that factionscould not develop. Theancient Greek city-states, forexample, feared anythingthat caused differentiationamong citizens, includingcommerce, which tended tocreate inequalities of wealthand opposing interests. In

contrast, Madison and the Founders recognizedthat factionalism would be inherent in a commercialrepublic that protected freedom of religion, speech,press, and assembly. They sought only to mediatethe deleterious effects of faction.

Republics also were traditionally thought to bedurable only when a small amount of territory wasinvolved. The Greek city-states, the Roman republic,the Italian republics, and the American states allencompassed relatively small areas. When the Romanrepublic expanded in its quest for empire, tyrannywas the result. Madison turned this traditionalthinking on its head in The Federalist Papers, arguingthat a large republic was more conducive to libertybecause it encompassed so many interests that nosingle one, or combination of several, could gaincontrol of the government.

Not all Americans accepted the Madisoniansolution. Agrarians, such as Thomas Jefferson, wereuncomfortable with the idea of a commercial republiccentered on industry and sought to perpetuate anation of independent farmers through the expansionof the frontier. Though uneasy about the “energeticgovernment” created by the Constitution, Jeffersonendorsed the Framers’ work after a bill of rightswas added to the document. “Old republicans” likeSamuel Adams and George Mason opposed theConstitution, even after the addition of a bill ofrights, fearing that the power granted to the centralgovernment was too great and wistfully looking backto the Revolutionary era when virtue, not ambition,was the animating principle of government. But in1789, as the new government went into operation,

Republican Government

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

[The Constitution] is a hard-headeddocument forged by practical men whohad too often witnessed avarice and

ambition among their peers.


most Americans shared the optimism of BenjaminFranklin, who had decided at the conclusion of thePhiladelphia Convention that the sun carved intothe back of the chair used by George Washingtonwas a rising—not a setting—sun, and therebyindicative of the bright prospects of the nation.

“We have it in our power to begin the worldover again,” Thomas Paine had written in 1776,during the heady days of American independence.And indeed the American Founders in 1787 werekeenly aware that they possessed a rare opportunity.

Like the legendary Lycurgus of Ancient Greece,they were to be the supreme lawgivers of a newrepublic, a novus ordo seclorum or new order of theages. The American Founders were aware that theeyes of the world and future generations were uponthem, and they were determined to build an eternalrepublic founded in liberty, a shining city upon ahill, as an example to all nations for all time.

Stephen M. Klugewicz, Ph.D.Consulting Scholar, Bill of Rights Institute


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

Suggestions for Further ReadingAdair, Douglass. Fame and the Founding Fathers: Essays by Douglass Adair. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998.Bailyn, Bernard. The Origins of American Politics. New York: Vintage Books, 1968.McDonald, Forrest. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution. Lawrence: University

Press of Kansas, 1985.Pocock, J.G.A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.Rahe, Paul A. Republics Ancient and Modern, 3 vols. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994.Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1969.


Thomas Jefferson accurately represented theconvictions of his fellow colonists when heobserved in the Declaration of Independence thata government, to be considered legitimate, must bebased on the consent of the people and respect theirnatural rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit ofhappiness.”Along with other leading members of thefounding generation, Jeffersonunderstood that these principlesdictated that the government begiven only limited powers that,ideally, are carefully described inwritten charters or constitutions.

Modern theorists like JohnLocke and the Baron deMontesquieu had been makingthe case for limited governmentand separation of powers duringthe century prior to the AmericanRevolution. Colonial Americanswere quite familiar with Locke’sargument from his Two Treatisesof Government that “AbsoluteArbitrary Power, or Governing without settledstanding Laws, can neither of them consist with theends of Society and Government. . . .” Locke addedthat the reason people “quit the freedom of thestate of Nature [is] to preserve their Lives, Libertiesand Fortunes.” Civil society has no higher end thanto provide for the safety and happiness of thepeople, and this is best done under a system ofknown rules or laws that apply equally to “the Rich and Poor, . . . the Favorite at Court, and theCountry Man at plough.” For his part, Montesquieuargued that only where governmental power islimited in scope, and then parceled out amongdifferent departments, will people be free fromoppression. Constitutional government, formodern natural rights theorists, should be limitedgovernment dedicated to the comfortablepreservation of the people—that is, to theirsecurity, freedom, and prosperity.

John Adams echoed the beliefs of manyAmericans when he argued that only by creating abalance of forces within the government could thepeople hope to escape despotism and misery. Anunchecked legislature, he observed, would becapable not only of making tyrannical laws, but of

executing them in a tyrannical manner as well. In hisfamous draft of a constitution for the commonwealthof Massachusetts, Adams declared that the“legislative, executive and judicial power shall beplaced in separate departments, to the end that itmight be a government of laws, and not of men.”This document, along with his Defence of the

Constitutions of Government ofthe United States of America,containing a strong case for checksand balances in government,were well known to the delegateswho attended the ConstitutionalConvention of 1787.

James Wilson, one of theforemost legal scholars of thefounding period and a delegatefrom Pennsylvania at theConstitutional Convention, agreedwith Adams’ insistence that thepower of government should bedivided to the end of advancingthe peace and happiness of the

people. In the words of Wilson, “In government,the perfection of the whole depends on the balanceof the parts, and the balance of the parts consists inthe independent exercise of their separate powers,and, when their powers are separately exercised,then in their mutual influence and operation onone another. Each part acts and is acted upon,supports and is supported, regulates and isregulated by the rest.”

Both the Articles of Confederation and theConstitution of the United States provided forgovernments with limited powers. As John Jay haddiscovered as America’s secretary of foreign affairs,the power of the central government was severelylimited under the Articles and, hence, could betrusted to a unitary legislative department. Fear ofgovernmental tyranny and a desire to preserve thepower enjoyed by the new states resulted in thecreation of a central government that could noteffectively oversee interstate commerce or do otherthings that were critical to ensuring the safety andhappiness of the people. In a letter to EdmundRandolph at the end of 1786, George Washingtonbemoaned the “awful situation of our affairs”which he attributed to “the want of sufficient power

LIMITED GOVERNMENT� �


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

03 008-010 Found2 Limit 9/13/07 10:54 AM Page 8

in the foederal head.”Washington quickly joined themovement to create a new governmental systemthat was equal to “the exigencies of Union,” toquote from the instructions given the delegates tothe Constitutional Convention of 1787.

The Constitution of 1787 grew out of a plandrafted largely by James Madison during the winterand spring before the Convention. The “VirginiaPlan” proposed a central government that wassupreme over the states. Evidence that the nationalgovernment was to be entrusted with considerablepower could be found in the provisions for abicameral legislature andindependent executive andjudicial departments.

The delegates whoattended the ConstitutionalConvention were sufficientlyversed in modern politicaltheory to understand thatthey would have to dividethe power of the national government if theyintended to entrust it with real authority over thelives of the people and the states. They understoodthe dangers of imparting considerable politicalpower to a unitary sovereign. In this connection,there was never any doubt in their minds that theyshould create a government of “delegated andenumerated” powers, that is, that the governmentshould only be entrusted with specified(enumerated) powers that derived directly fromthe people. While they worried about the“turbulence and follies” of democracy, theyrecognized that government had to be based on theconsent of the people to be legitimate.

The Virginia Plan anticipated the bicamerallegislature and independent executive and judicialdepartments found in the United States Constitutiontoday. Building on Madison’s model, the delegatesassigned responsibilities to the departments basedon their peculiar characteristics. The six-year termof senators, for example, seemed to make this aproper institution to involve in foreign policy (e.g.,ratification of treaties) since senators would havemore time than members of the House ofRepresentatives to acquaint themselves withinternational affairs and their longer terms andlarger constituencies (entire states) also would givethem more freedom to attend to matters otherthan the immediate interests of constituents backhome. The House of Representatives was entrustedwith the important power to initiate revenue(taxation) bills precisely because the members of

this chamber are tied so closely to the people byshort terms and small districts.

In addition to matching powers andgovernmental responsibilities, the delegates werecareful to position each department to “check andbalance” the other departments. Examples are the executive’s veto power, the congressionalimpeachment power, and the judicial review powerentrusted to the Supreme Court, the only nationalcourt formally established by the Constitution.Although in good Lockean fashion the legislativedepartment was designed to be the preeminent

department, it was stillsubjected to checks by theother branches of thegovernment. Separation ofpowers as well as the systemof checks and balances weredevices for reducing the threatof governmental tyranny, notexcluding legislative tyranny.

However, the constitutional arrangement, putinto its final wording by Gouverneur Morris, wasnot driven entirely by a desire to eliminate thethreat of tyrannical government. The system ofseparated and divided powers also was intended topromote competence in government. Thepresident can employ his veto not only to checklegislative action that he considers irresponsible,but to provoke Congress to improve a legislativeenactment. The Senate can use its authority toratify presidential nominations of cabinet officersor judges to ensure that qualified candidates arenamed to fill these positions.

Writing in Federalist No. 9, Alexander Hamiltonidentified the principle of separated and dividedpowers, along with checks and balances, as amongthe inventions of the new science of politics thathad made republican government defensible.Madison described in Federalist No. 51 the benefitsof the governmental arrangement represented inthe new Constitution: “In the compound republicof America, the power surrendered by the people isfirst divided between two distinct governments,and then the portion allotted to each subdividedamong distinct and separate departments. Hence adouble security arises to the rights of the people.The different governments will control each other,at the same time that each will be controlled byitself.” Significantly, Anti-Federalists as well asFederalists agreed that governmental powersshould be limited and that these powers should besubject to internal as well as external checks.

Limited Government

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

There was never any doubt in theirminds that they should create agovernment of “delegated and

enumerated” powers . . .


It is important to emphasize that the Framerssettled on an arrangement that divided yet blendedthe legislative, executive, and judicial powers. Thisfacilitates interdepartmental checking whilepromoting mature deliberation. Their aim was tocreate a decent and competent democracy, somethingbeyond mere non-tyrannical government. Theyplaced the whole of the government, and even thepeople, under constitutional limitations. TheConstitution is the supreme law of the land, notthe enactments of Congress or the order of thepresident or the momentary will of the people. AsChief Justice Marshall declared in Marbury v.Madison (1803), “The distinction between agovernment with limited and unlimited powers isabolished, if those limits do not confine the personson whom they are imposed, and if acts prohibitedand acts allowed, are of equal obligation.” Even the

desires of the people are held in check by theConstitution. The political system still meets thecriteria of democratic government, however, sincethe people hold the power, through theirrepresentatives, to amend the Constitution.

The paradigm of constitutional governmentembraced by the American people in 1787, that is,limited government based on the consent of thepeople and committed to the protection offundamental rights, has become the dominant modelthroughout the world. The rhetoric of rights, whethercouched in the language of natural rights or humanrights, is universally appealing. Also universallyaccepted is the argument that rights are most securewhen governmental powers are limited in scopeand subject to internal and external checks.

David E. Marion, Ph.D.Hampden-Sydney College


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

Suggestions for Further ReadingFrohnen, Bruce (ed.). The American Republic: Primary Sources. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002.Kurland, Philip B. and Ralph Lerner (eds.) The Founders’ Constitution. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987.Mansfield, Harvey C., Jr. Taming the Prince. New York: The Free Press, 1989.McDonald, Forrest. A Constitutional History of the United States. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982.Storing, Herbert J. What the Anti-Federalists Were For. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

In 1760, what was to become the United States ofAmerica consisted of a small group of coloniesstrung out along the eastern seaboard of NorthAmerica. Although they had experienced significanteconomic and demographic growth in theeighteenth century and had just helped Britaindefeat France and take control of most of NorthAmerica, they remained politically and economicallydependent upon London. Yet, in the next twenty-five years, they would challenge the political controlof Britain, declare independence, wage a bloody war,and lay the foundations fora trans-continental, federalrepublican state. In thesecrucial years, the colonieswould be led by a newgeneration of politicians,men who combinedpractical political skillswith a firm grasp ofpolitical ideas. In order to better understand theseextraordinary events, the Founders who madethem possible, and the new Constitution that theycreated, it is necessary first to understand thepolitical ideas that influenced colonial Americansin the crucial years before the Revolution.

The Common Law and the Rightsof EnglishmenThe political theory of the American colonists inthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was deeplyinfluenced by English common law and its idea ofrights. In a guide for religious dissenters written inthe late seventeenth century, William Penn, thefounder of Pennsylvania, offered one the bestcontemporary summaries of this common-lawview of rights. According to Penn, all Englishmenhad three central rights or privileges by commonlaw: those of life, liberty, and property. For Penn,these English rights meant that every subject was“to be freed in Person & Estate from ArbitraryViolence and Oppression.” In the widely usedlanguage of the day, these rights of “Liberty andProperty” were an Englishman’s “Birthright.”

In Penn’s view, the English system of governmentpreserved liberty and limited arbitrary power byallowing the subjects to express their consent to thelaws that bound them through two institutions:

“Parliaments and Juries.”“By the first,” Penn argued,“the subject has a share by his chosen Representativesin the Legislative (or Law making) Power.” Penn feltthat the granting of consent through Parliamentwas important because it ensured that “no new Lawsbind the People of England, but such as are bycommon consent agreed on in that great Council.”

In Penn’s view, juries were an equally importantmeans of limiting arbitrary power. By serving onjuries, Penn argued, every freeman “has a share in theExecutive part of the Law, no Causes being tried, nor

any man adjudged to loose[sic] Life, member orEstate, but upon the Verdictof his Peers or Equals.” ForPenn, “These two grandPillars of English Liberty”were “the Fundamentalvital Priviledges [sic]” ofEnglishmen.

The other aspect of their government thatseventeenth-century Englishmen celebrated was asystem that was ruled by laws and not by men. AsPenn rather colorfully put it: “In France, and otherNations, the meer [sic] Will of the Prince is Law, hisWord takes off any mans Head, imposeth Taxes, orseizes a mans Estate, when, how and as often as helists; and if one be accussed [sic], or but so much assuspected of any Crime, he may either presentlyExecute him, or banish, or Imprison him atpleasure.” By contrast, “In England,” Penn argued,“the Law is both the measure and the bound ofevery Subject’s Duty and Allegiance, each manhaving a fixed Fundamental-Right born with him,as to Freedom of his Person and Property in hisEstate, which he cannot be deprived of, but eitherby his Consent, or some Crime, for which the Lawhas impos’d such a penalty or forfeiture.”

This common law view of politics understoodpolitical power as fundamentally limited byEnglishmen’s rights and privileges. As a result, itheld that English kings were bound to ruleaccording to known laws and by respecting theinherent rights of their subjects. It also enshrinedthe concept of consent as the major means to theend of protecting these rights. According to Pennand his contemporaries, this system ofgovernment—protecting as it did the “unparallel’d

Explaining the Founding

Introductory Essay:Explaining the Founding

� �

01 001-005 Founders Intro 7/17/04 9:37 AM Page 1

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

Priviledge [sic] of Liberty and Property”—hadmade the English nation “more free and happythan any other People in the World.”

The Founders imbibed this view of Englishrights through the legal training that was commonfor elites in the eighteenth-century Anglo-Americanworld. This legal education also made them awareof the history of England in the seventeenth century,a time when the Stuart kings had repeatedlythreatened their subjects’ rights. In response, manyEnglishmen drew on the common law to argue thatall political power, even that of a monarch, should belimited by law. Colonial Americans in the eighteenthcentury viewed the defeat of the Stuarts and thesubsequent triumph of Parliament (which was seen asthe representative ofsubjects’ rights) in theGlorious Revolution of 1688as a key moment in Englishhistory. They believed that ithad enshrined in England’sunwritten constitution therule of law and the sanctityof subjects’ rights. Thisawareness of English history instilled in theFounders a strong fear of arbitrary power and aconsequent desire to create a constitutional formof government that limited the possibility of rulersviolating the fundamental liberties of the people.

The seriousness with which the colonists tookthese ideas can be seen in their strong opposition toParliament’s attempt to tax or legislate for themwithout their consent in the 1760s and 1770s. Afterthe Revolution, when the colonists formed their owngovernments, they wrote constitutions that includedmany of the legal guarantees that Englishmen hadfought for in the seventeenth century as a means oflimiting governmental power. As a consequence,both the state and federal constitutions typicallycontained bills of rights that enshrined coreEnglish legal rights as fundamental law.

Natural RightsThe seventeenth century witnessed a revolution inEuropean political thought, one that was to proveprofoundly influential on the political ideas ofthe American Founders. Beginning with the Dutchwriter Hugo Grotius in the early 1600s, severalimportant European thinkers began to construct anew understanding of political theory that arguedthat all men by nature had equal rights, and thatgovernments were formed for the sole purpose ofprotecting these natural rights.

The leading proponent of this theory in theEnglish-speaking world was John Locke (1632–1704).Deeply involved in the opposition to the Stuartkings in the 1670s and 1680s, Locke wrote a book onpolitical theory to justify armed resistance toCharles II and his brother James. “To understandpolitical power right,” Locke wrote, “and derive itfrom its original, we must consider, what state allmen are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfectfreedom to order their actions, and dispose of theirpossessions and persons, as they think fit, within thebounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, ordepending upon the will of any other man.” ForLocke, the state of nature was “a state also ofequality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is

reciprocal, no one havingmore than another.”

Although thispregovernmental state ofnature was a state of perfectfreedom, Locke contendedthat it also lacked animpartial judge or umpire toregulate disputes among

men. As a result, men in this state of naturegathered together and consented to create agovernment in order that their natural rightswould be better secured. Locke further argued that,because it was the people who had created thegovernment, the people had a right to resist itsauthority if it violated their rights. They could thenjoin together and exercise their collective orpopular sovereignty to create a new government oftheir own devising. This revolutionary politicaltheory meant that ultimate political authoritybelonged to the people and not to the king.

This idea of natural rights became a centralcomponent of political theory in the Americancolonies in the eighteenth century, appearing innumerous political pamphlets, newspapers, andsermons. Its emphasis on individual freedom andgovernment by consent combined powerfully withthe older idea of common law rights to shape thepolitical theory of the Founders. When faced withthe claims of the British Parliament in the 1760sand 1770s to legislate for them without theirconsent, American patriots invoked both thecommon law and Lockean natural rights theory toargue that they had a right to resist Britain.

Thomas Jefferson offers the best example ofthe impact that these political ideas had on thefounding. As he so eloquently argued in theDeclaration of Independence: “We hold these


The political theory of the Americancolonists in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries was deeplyinfluenced by English common

law and its idea of rights.


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

truths to be self-evident, that all men are createdequal, that they are endowed by their Creatorwith certain unalienable Rights, that among theseare Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments areinstituted among Men, deriving their just powersfrom the consent of the governed, That wheneverany Form of Government becomes destructive ofthese ends, it is the Right of the People to alter orabolish it, and to institute new Government,laying its foundations on such principles andorganizing its powers in such form, as to themshall seem most likely to effect their Safety andHappiness.”

This idea of natural rights also influenced thecourse of political events inthe crucial years after 1776.All the state governments putthis new political theoryinto practice, basing theirauthority on the people,and establishing writtenconstitutions that protectednatural rights. As GeorgeMason, the principal author of the influentialVirginia Bill of Rights (1776), stated in thedocument’s first section: “All men are by natureequally free and independent, and have certaininherent rights, of which, when they enter into astate of society, they cannot, by any compact, depriveor divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment oflife and liberty, with the means of acquiring andpossessing property, and pursuing and obtaininghappiness and safety.” The radical implications ofthis insistence on equal natural rights would slowlybecome apparent in postrevolutionary Americansociety as previously downtrodden groups began toinvoke these ideals to challenge slavery, argue for awider franchise, end female legal inequality, and fullyseparate church and state.

In 1780, under the influence of John Adams,Massachusetts created a mechanism by which thepeople themselves could exercise their sovereignpower to constitute governments: a specialconvention convened solely for the purpose ofwriting a constitution, followed by a process ofratification. This American innovation allowed theideas of philosophers like Locke to be put intopractice. In particular, it made the people’s naturalrights secure by enshrining them in a constitutionwhich was not changeable by ordinary legislation.This method was to influence the authors of thenew federal Constitution in 1787.

Religious Toleration and theSeparation of Church and State

A related development in seventeenth-centuryEuropean political theory was the emergence ofarguments for religious toleration and theseparation of church and state. As a result of thebloody religious wars between Catholics andProtestants that followed the Reformation, a fewthinkers in both England and Europe argued thatgovernments should not attempt to force individualsto conform to one form of worship. Rather, theyinsisted that such coercion was both unjust anddangerous. It was unjust because true faithrequired voluntary belief; it was dangerous becausethe attempts to enforce religious beliefs in Europe

had led not to religiousuniformity, but to civil war.These thinkers furtherargued that if governmentsceased to enforce religiousbelief, the result would becivil peace and prosperity.

Once again the Englishphilosopher John Locke

played a major role in the development of these newideas. Building on the work of earlier writers, Lockepublished in 1689 A Letter Concerning Toleration, inwhich he contended that there was a natural rightof conscience that no government could infringe.As he put it: “The care of Souls cannot belong to theCivil Magistrate, because his Power consists only inoutward force; but true and saving Religion consistsin the inward perswasion [sic] of the Mind, withoutwhich nothing can be acceptable to God. And suchis the nature of the Understanding, that it cannotbe compell’d to the belief of any thing by outwardforce. Confiscation of Estate, Imprisonment,Torments, nothing of that nature can have anysuch Efficacy as to make Men change the inwardJudgment that they have formed of things.”

These ideas about the rights of conscience andreligious toleration resonated powerfully in theEnglish colonies in America. Although thePuritans in the seventeenth century had originallyattempted to set up an intolerant commonwealthwhere unorthodox religious belief would beprohibited, dissenters like Roger Williamschallenged them and argued that true faith couldnot be the product of coercion. Forced to flee bythe Puritans, Williams established the colony ofRhode Island, which offered religious toleration toall and had no state-supported church. As thePuritan Cotton Mather sarcastically remarked,


Natural rights became a centralcomponent of political theory in theAmerican colonies . . . , appearing in

numerous political pamphlets,newspapers, and sermons.


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

Rhode Island contained “everything in the worldbut Roman Catholics and real Christians.” Inaddition, Maryland, founded in the 1630s, andPennsylvania, founded in the 1680s, both providedan extraordinary degree of religious freedom bythe standard of the time.

In the eighteenth century, as these arguments forreligious toleration spread throughout the English-speaking Protestant world, the American colonies,becoming ever more religiously pluralistic, provedparticularly receptive to them.As a result, the idea thatthe government should not enforce religious beliefhad become an important element of Americanpolitical theory by the lateeighteenth century. After theRevolution, it was enshrinedas a formal right in many ofthe state constitutions, aswell as most famously in theFirst Amendment to thefederal Constitution.

Colonial Self-GovernmentThe political thinking of the Founders in the lateeighteenth century was also deeply influenced bythe long experience of colonial self-government.Since their founding in the early seventeenthcentury, most of the English colonies in theAmericas (unlike the French and Spanish colonies)had governed themselves to a large extent in localassemblies that were modeled on the EnglishParliament. In these colonial assemblies theyexercised their English common law right toconsent to all laws that bound them.

The existence of these strong local governmentsin each colony also explains in part the speed withwhich the Founders were able to create viableindependent republican governments in the yearsafter 1776. This long-standing practice of self-government also helped to create an indigenouspolitical class in the American colonies with therequisite experience for the difficult task of nationbuilding.

In addition to the various charters and royalinstructions that governed the English colonies,Americans also wrote their own Foundingdocuments. These settler covenants were an earlytype of written constitution and they provided animportant model for the Founders in the lateeighteenth century as they sought to craft a newconstitutional system based on popular consent.

Classical RepublicanismNot all the intellectual influences on the Foundersoriginated in the seventeenth century. Becausemany of the Founders received a classicaleducation in colonial colleges in the eighteenthcentury, they were heavily influenced by thewritings of the great political thinkers andhistorians of ancient Greece and Rome.

Antiquity shaped the Founders’ politicalthought in several important ways. First, itintroduced them to the idea of republicanism, orgovernment by the people. Ancient political thinkersfrom Aristotle to Cicero had praised republican

self-government as the bestpolitical system. Thisclassical political thoughtwas important for theFounders as it gave themgrounds to dissent from theheavily monarchical politicalculture of eighteenth-centuryEngland, where even thecommon law jurists who

defended subjects’ rights against royal powerbelieved strongly in monarchy. By reading theclassics, the American Founders were introducedto an alternate political vision, one that legitimizedrepublicanism.

The second legacy of this classical idea ofrepublicanism was the emphasis that it put on themoral foundations of liberty. Though ancientwriters believed that a republic was the best formof government, they were intensely aware of itsfragility. In particular, they argued that because thepeople governed themselves, republics required fortheir very survival a high degree of civic virtue intheir citizenry. Citizens had to be able to put thegood of the whole (the res publica) ahead of theirown private interests. If they failed to do this, therepublic would fall prey to men of power andambition, and liberty would ultimately be lost.

As a result of this need for an exceptionallyvirtuous citizenry, ancient writers also taught thatrepublics had to be small. Only in a small andrelatively homogeneous society, they argued,would the necessary degree of civic virtue beforthcoming. In part, it was this classical teachingabout the weakness of large republics thatanimated the contentious debate over theproposed federal Constitution in the 1780s.

In addition to their reading of ancient authors,the Founders also encountered republican ideas in


By reading the classics, the AmericanFounders were introduced to an

alternate political vision, one thatlegitimated republicanism.


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

the political theory of a group of eighteenth-century English writers called the “radical Whigs.”These writers kept alive the republican legacy ofthe English Civil War at a time when mostEnglishmen believed that their constitutionalmonarchy was the best form of government in theworld. Crucially for the Founding, these radicalWhigs combined classical republican thought withthe newer Lockean ideas of natural rights andpopular sovereignty. They thus became animportant conduit for a modern type ofrepublicanism to enter American political thought,one that combined the ancient concern with avirtuous citizenry and the modern insistence onthe importance of individual rights.

These radical Whigs also provided theFounders with an important critique of theeighteenth-century British constitution. Instead ofseeing it as the best form of government possible,the radical Whigs argued that it was both corrupt

and tyrannical. In order to reform it, they called fora written constitution and a formal separation ofthe executive branch from the legislature. Thisclassically inspired radical Whig constitutionalismwas an important influence on the development ofAmerican republicanism in the late eighteenthcentury.

ConclusionDrawing on all these intellectual traditions, theFounders were able to create a new kind ofrepublicanism in America based on equal rights,consent, popular sovereignty, and the separation ofchurch and state. Having set this broad context forthe Founding, we now turn to a more detailedexamination of important aspects of the Founders’political theory, followed by detailed biographicalstudies of the Founders themselves.

Craig Yirush, Ph.D.University of California, Los Angeles


Suggestions for Further ReadingBailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

Press, 1967.Lutz, Donald. Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History. Indianapolis, Ind.:

Liberty Fund, 1998.Reid, John Phillip. The Constitutional History of the American Revolution. Abridged Edition. Madison: The

University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.Rossiter, Clinton. Seedtime of the Republic: The Origins of the American Tradition of Political Liberty. New

York: Harcourt Brace, 1953.Zuckert, Michael. Natural Rights and the New Republicanism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,

1994.

01 001-005 Founders Intro 7/29/04 2:28 PM Page 5

Visual Assessment1. Founders Posters—Have students create posters for either an individual Founder,

a group of Founders, or an event. Ask them to include at least one quotation(different from classroom posters that accompany this volume) and one image.

2. Coat of Arms—Draw a coat of arms template and divide into6 quadrants (see example). Photocopy and hand out to theclass. Ask them to create a coat of arms for a particularFounder with a different criterion for each quadrant (e.g.,occupation, key contribution, etc.). Include in the assignmentan explanation sheet in which they describe why they chosecertain colors, images, and symbols.

3. Individual Illustrated Timeline—Ask each student to create a visual timeline ofat least ten key points in the life of a particular Founder. In class, put the studentsin groups and have them discuss the intersections and juxtapositions in each oftheir timelines.

4. Full Class Illustrated Timeline—Along a full classroom wall, tape poster paper inone long line. Draw in a middle line and years (i.e., 1760, 1770, 1780, etc.). Putstudents in pairs and assign each pair one Founder. Ask them to put together tenkey points in the life of the Founder. Have each pair draw in the key points on themaster timeline.

5. Political Cartoon—Provide students with examples of good political cartoons,contemporary or historical. A good resource for finding historical cartoons on theWeb is <http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/political_cartoons.html>. Askthem to create a political cartoon based on an event or idea in the Founding period.

Performance Assessments1. Meeting of the Minds—Divide the class into five groups and assign a Founder to

each group. Ask the group to discuss the Founder’s views on a variety of pre-determined topics. Then, have a representative from each group come to the frontof the classroom and role-play as the Founder, dialoguing with Founders fromother groups. The teacher will act as moderator, reading aloud topic questions(based on the pre-determined topics given to the groups) and encouragingdiscussion from the students in character. At the teacher’s discretion, questioningcan be opened up to the class as a whole. For advanced students, do not provide alist of topics—ask them to know their character well enough to present himproperly on all topics.

2. Create a Song or Rap—Individually or in groups, have students create a songor rap about a Founder based on a familiar song, incorporating at least five keyevents or ideas of the Founder in their project. Have students perform their songin class. (Optional: Ask the students to bring in a recording of the song forbackground music.)

Web/Technology Assessments1. Founders PowerPoint Presentation—Divide students into groups. Have each

group create a PowerPoint presentation about a Founder or event. Determine thenumber of slides, and assign a theme to each slide (e.g., basic biographicinformation, major contributions, political philosophy, quotations, repercussionsof the event, participants in the event, etc.). Have them hand out copies of theslides and give the presentation to the class. You may also ask for a copy of the

ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES


19 180-186 Founders EM 7/17/04 11:03 AM Page 180

presentation to give you the opportunity to combine all the presentations into anend-of-semester review.

2. Evaluate Web sites—Have students search the Web for three sites related to aFounder or the Founding period (you may provide them with a “start list” from theresource list at the end of each lesson). Create a Web site evaluation sheet thatincludes such questions as: Are the facts on this site correct in comparison to othersites? What sources does this site draw on to produce its information? Who are themain contributors to this site? When was the site last updated? Ask students tograde the site according to the evaluation sheet and give it a grade for reliability,accuracy, etc. They should write a 2–3 sentence explanation for their grade.

3. Web Quest—Choose a Web site(s) on the Constitution, Founders, or Foundingperiod. (See suggestions below.) Go to the Web site(s) and create a list of questionstaken from various pages within the site. Provide students with the Web addressand list of questions, and ask them to find answers to the questions on the site,documenting on which page they found their answer. Web site suggestions:

• The Avalon Project <http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm>• The Founders’ Constitution <http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/>• Founding.com <http://www.founding.com/>• National Archives Charters of Freedom

<http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters.html>• The Library of Congress American Memory Page <http://memory.loc.gov/>• Our Documents <http://www.ourdocuments.gov/>• Teaching American History <http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/>

A good site to help you construct the Web Quest is: <http://trackstar.hprtec.org>

Verbal Assessments1. Contingency in History—In a one-to-two page essay, have students answer the

question, “How would history have been different if [Founder] had not beenborn?” They should consider repercussions for later events in the political world.

2. Letters Between Founders—Ask students to each choose a “CorrespondencePartner” and decide which two Founders they will be representing. Have themread the appropriate Founders essays and primary source activities. Over a periodof time, the pair should then write at least three letters back and forth (with a copybeing given to the teacher for review and feedback). Instruct them to be mindfulof their Founders’ tone and writing style, life experience, and political views inconstructing the letters.

3. Categorize the Founders—Create five categories for the Founders (e.g., slave-holders vs. non-slaveholders, northern vs. southern, opponents of theConstitution vs. proponents of the Constitution, etc.) and a list of Foundersstudied. Ask students to place each Founder in the appropriate category. Foradvanced students, ask them to create the five categories in addition tocategorizing the Founders.

4. Obituaries and Gravestones—Have students write a short obituary or gravestoneengraving that captures the major accomplishments of a Founder (e.g., ThomasJefferson’s gravestone). Ask them to consider for what the Founder wished to beremembered.

5. “I Am” Poem—Instruct students to select a Founder and write a poem that refersto specific historical events in his life (number of lines at the teacher’s discretion).



Each line of the poem must begin with “I” (i.e., “I am…,” “I wonder…,” “I see…,”etc.). Have them present their poem with an illustration of the Founder.

6. Founder’s Journal—Have students construct a journal of a Founder at a certainperiod in time. Ask them to pick out at least five important days. In the journalentry, make sure they include the major events of the day, the Founder’s feelingsabout the events, and any other pertinent facts (e.g., when writing a journal aboutthe winter at Valley Forge, Washington may have included information about thetroops’ morale, supplies, etc.).

7. Résumé for a Founder—Ask students to create a resume for a particular Founder.Make sure they include standard resume information (e.g., work experience,education, skills, accomplishments/honors, etc.). You can also have them researchand bring in a writing sample (primary source) to accompany the resume.

8. Cast of Characters—Choose an event in the Founding Period (e.g., the signing ofthe Declaration of Independence, the debate about the Constitution in a stateratifying convention, etc.) and make a list of individuals related to the incident.Tell students that they are working for a major film studio in Hollywood that hasdecided to make a movie about this event. They have been hired to cast actors foreach part. Have students fill in your list of individuals with actors/actresses (pastor present) with an explanation of why that particular actor/actress was chosen forthe role. (Ask the students to focus on personality traits, previous roles, etc.)

Review Activities1. Founders Jeopardy—Create a Jeopardy board on an overhead sheet or handout

(six columns and five rows). Label the column heads with categories and fill in allother squares with a dollar amount. Make a sheet that corresponds to the Jeopardyboard with the answers that you will be revealing to the class. (Be sure to includeDaily Doubles.)

a. Possible categories may include:• Thomas Jefferson (or the name of any Founder)• Revolutionary Quirks (fun Founders facts)• Potpourri (miscellaneous)• Pen is Mightier (writings of the Founders)

b. Example answers:• This Founder drafted and introduced the first formal proposal for a

permanent union of the thirteen colonies. Question: Who is BenjaminFranklin?

• This Founder was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration ofIndependence. Question: Who is Charles Carroll?

2. Who Am I?—For homework, give each student a different Founder essay. Ask eachstudent to compile a list of five-to-ten facts about his/her Founder. In class, askindividuals to come to the front of the classroom and read off the facts one at atime, prompting the rest of the class to guess the appropriate Founder.

3. Around the World—Develop a list of questions about the Founders and plot a“travel route” around the classroom in preparation for this game. Ask one studentto volunteer to go first. The student will get up from his/her desk and “travel”along the route plotted to an adjacent student’s desk, standing next to it. Read aquestion aloud, and the first student of the two to answer correctly advances to thenext stop on the travel route. Have the students keep track of how many placesthey advance. Whoever advances the furthest wins.

ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES



Common Good: General conditions that are equally to everyone’s advantage. In arepublic, held to be superior to the good of the individual, though its attainment oughtnever to violate the natural rights of any individual.

Democracy: From the Greek, demos, meaning “rule of the people.” Had a negativeconnotation among most Founders, who equated the term with mob rule. The Foundersconsidered it to be a form of government into which poorly-governed republicsdegenerated.

English Rights: Considered by Americans to be part of their inheritance as Englishmen;included such rights as property, petition, and trials by jury. Believed to exist from timeimmemorial and recognized by various English charters as the Magna Carta, the Petitionof Right of 1628, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

Equality: Believed to be the condition of all people, who possessed an equality of rights.In practical matters, restricted largely to land-owning white men during the FoundingEra, but the principle worked to undermine ideas of deference among classes.

Faction: A small group that seeks to benefit its members at the expense of the commongood. The Founders discouraged the formation of factions, which they equated withpolitical parties.

Federalism: A political system in which power is divided between two levels ofgovernment, each supreme in its own sphere. Intended to avoid the concentration ofpower in the central government and to preserve the power of local government.

Government: Political power fundamentally limited by citizens’ rights and privileges.This limiting was accomplished by written charters or constitutions and bills of rights.

Happiness: The ultimate end of government. Attained by living in liberty and bypracticing virtue.

Inalienable Rights: Rights that can never justly be taken away.

Independence: The condition of living in liberty without being subject to the unjustrule of another.

Liberty: To live in the enjoyment of one’s rights without dependence upon anyone else.Its enjoyment led to happiness.

Natural Rights: Rights individuals possess by virtue of their humanity. Were thought tobe “inalienable.” Protected by written constitutions and bills of rights that restrainedgovernment.

Property: Referred not only to material possessions, but also to the ownership of one’sbody and rights. Jealously guarded by Americans as the foundation of liberty during thecrisis with Britain.


© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GLOSSARY

18 164-165 Found2 Glos 9/13/07 11:28 AM Page 164

Reason: Human intellectual capacity and rationality. Believed by the Founders to be thedefining characteristic of humans, and the means by which they could understand theworld and improve their lives.

Religious Toleration: The indulgence shown to one religion while maintaining aprivileged position for another. In pluralistic America, religious uniformity could not beenforced so religious toleration became the norm.

Representation: Believed to be central to republican government and the preservationof liberty. Citizens, entitled to vote, elect officials who are responsible to them, and whogovern according to the law.

Republic: From the Latin, res publica, meaning “the public things.” A government systemin which power resides in the people who elect representatives responsible to them andwho govern according to the law. A form of government dedicated to promoting thecommon good. Based on the people, but distinct from a democracy.

Separation of Church and State: The doctrine that government should not enforcereligious belief. Part of the concept of religious toleration and freedom of conscience.

Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances: A way to restrain the power of governmentby balancing the interests of one section of government against the competing interestsof another section. A key component of the federal Constitution. A means of slowingdown the operation of government, so it did not possess too much energy and thusendanger the rights of the people.

Slavery: Referred both to chattel slavery and political slavery. Politically, the fate that befellthose who did not guard their rights against governments. Socially and economically, aninstitution that challenged the belief of the Founders in natural rights.

Taxes: Considered in English tradition to be the free gift of the people to the government.Americans refused to pay them without their consent, which meant actual representationin Parliament.

Tyranny: The condition in which liberty is lost and one is governed by the arbitrarywill of another. Related to the idea of political slavery.

Virtue: The animating principle of a republic and the quality essential for a republic’ssurvival. From the Latin, vir, meaning “man.” Referred to the display of such “manly”traits as courage and self-sacrifice for the common good.

© T

he B

ill o

fRi

ghts

Inst

itute

An Eighteenth-Century Glossary

18 164-165 Found2 Glos 9/13/07 11:28 AM Page 165

Answer Key

Answer Key

3. Religion is needed to teach virtue, andvirtue is required for the liberty ofrepublican society.

4. Citizens must actively participate inrepublican government, which is notthe case in monarchies.

5. History, commerce, and economicsshould be taught.

6. In addition to regular female educationsubjects, women should learn aboutgovernment. As wives and mothers,they are men’s support systems, andthey mold young children into repub-lican citizens.

7. Religion, liberty, and learning are insep-arable, and have immeasurable positiveeffects on the happiness of society.

Handout D—Analysis: ContrastingIdeas of EducationSuggested answers for goals of educationin Rush’s time: a homogeneous society;creating citizens who can participate inrepublican government; instilling virtue;teaching history, commerce, and eco-nomics; preparing girls for the roles aswives and mothers; mixing religion andlearning; creating a happy society.

GeorgeWashingtonHandout A—George Washington(1732–1799)1. Washington’s great character was

respected by all. He looked the part ofa warrior, standing well over six feet talland possessing a martial demeanor. Hewas a Virginian, and his appointmentto command an army made up largelyof New Englanders rallied southernersto the Patriot cause. Also, as a legislator,he had the confidence of the Congress,who knew that he would ensure mili-tary obedience to civilian authority.

2. Washington admired Cato and Cincin-natus. Cato was a Roman who diedresisting the tyranny of Julius Caesar.

Washington also emulated the legendaryCincinnatus. He was a Roman farmerwho was called upon to take commandof the republic’s armies and repel Rome’senemies. After helping to secure victory,Cincinnatus put down his sword andbecame a farmer once more.

3. Mount Vernon was a crossroads forpolitical discussion during the 1780s.Prominent guests, such as James Madi-son and Gouverneur Morris, spenthours in conversation with Washing-ton about the state of the young nation.During these talks, Washington becameconvinced that the Articles of Confed-eration needed revision.

4. Students might mention the followingevents: the Newburgh Conspiracy,Washington’s leadership of the Conti-nental Army, his attendance at the Con-stitutional Convention, his acceptanceof the presidency.

5. Lee meant that Washington was alwaysa leader. Washington commanded theContinental Army during the Revolu-tionary War and was primarily respon-sible for the success of the cause. Healso led Americans in peace, presidingat the Constitutional Convention andserving as the nation’s first president.Washington was certainly “first in thehearts of his countrymen,” beloved bynearly all Americans.

Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions1. Vocabulary

a. purposefully designedb. effectivec. freely maded. passive compliancee. taskedf. requiredg. assume beforehandh. broadi. strengthj. absolutely necessary

17 150-163 Found2 AK 9/13/07 11:27 AM Page 161

Answer Key


2. Contexta. This document was written in

1796, near the end of Washing-ton’s second term as President.

b. George Washington wrote thisdocument with AlexanderHamilton and James Madison.

c. This is a speech—though it wasnever delivered aloud. Rather, itwas printed in newspapersacross the country.

d. The purpose of this documentwas for Washington to advisethe new country on how best tosustain its new government.

James WilsonHandout A—James Wilson(1742–1798)1. James Wilson asserted that the Consti-

tution was as close to perfection as sucha document could be. He and otherFederalists did not believe a separatebill of rights was needed. If only certainrights were spelled out in a bill of rights,it would be too easy to assume rightsnot listed were relinquished.

2. James Wilson is credited with the com-promise of the Electoral College. Thissystem of presidential election blendedstate authority with popular sovereigntyand made sure that states did not havecomplete power over choosing thepresident.

3. President Washington appointed JamesWilson as Associate Justice of theSupreme Court. Wilson had lobbied forthe office of Chief Justice. Washington,however, felt Wilson’s reputation wastoo tainted to serve in that high position.

4. Wilson’s idea that, with the Declarationof Independence, states gave up theirpower to the people, was radical becauseit meant that the citizens of the variousstates were ultimately all citizens of theUnited States. Wilson’s position that thenew national government should be

seen as based on popular sovereigntyand not state sovereignty represented asignificant shift from the situation thatexisted under the Articles of Confedera-tion. Some, such as Patrick Henry andThomas Jefferson, disagreed withWilson and continued to argue longafter the Convention that substantialpower should be reserved to the indi-vidual states.

5. Students should explain why they do ordo not feel like citizens of their specificstate. Some students will be interestedin their state’s chief industries, some stu-dents will enjoy the common pastimesof their state: going to the beach inFlorida, going skiing in Colorado, andso on. Others will feel that the valuesthat unite Americans outweigh the spe-cific interests of their state.

Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions1. Vocabulary

a. justice systemb. approvec. deterrentsd. restrainte. lessenedf. baselessg. contraryh. discoveringi. cowardlyj. hatefulk. well-being

2. Contexta. James Wilson wrote this

document.b. This document was written in

1791.c. This is a set of instructions to a

grand jury, explaining Wilson’sviews on punishment.

d. The purpose of this documentwas to explain Wilson’s view onthe importance of mild andmoderate punishment.

17 150-163 Found2 AK 9/13/07 11:27 AM Page 162