The 28 Great Ideas That Changed The

WorldFrom “The 5,000 Year Leap”

By W.Cleon Skousen

One of the most amazing aspects of the American story is that while the nation's founders came from widely divergent backgrounds, their fundamental beliefs were virtually identical. They quarreled bitterly over the most practical plan of implementing those beliefs, but rarely, if ever, disputed about their final objectives or basic convictions.

The Founders' Common Denominator of Basic Beliefs

Although the level of their formal training varied from spasmodic doses of home tutoring to the rigorous regimen of Harvard's classical studies, the debates in the Constitutional Convention and the writings of the Founders reflect a far broader knowledge of religious, political, historical, economic, and philosophical studies than would be found in any cross-section of American leaders today.

The Founders' Common Denominator of Basic Beliefs cont..

The relative uniformity of fundamental thought shared by these men included strong and unusually well-defined convictions concerning religious principles, political precepts, economic fundamentals, and long-range social goals. On particulars, of course, they quarreled, but when discussing fundamental precepts and ultimate objectives they seemed practically unanimous.

Fundamental Principles

We will now proceed to carefully examine the 28 major principles on which the American Founders established the first free people in modern times. These are great ideas which provided the intellectual, political, and economic climate for the 5,000-year leap.

Fundamental Principles cont…

The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.◦ "As one and the same Nature holds together and

supports the universe, all of whose parts are in harmony with one another, so men are united in Nature; but by reason of their depravity they quarrel, not realizing that they are of one blood and subject to one and the same protecting power. If this fact were understood, surely man would live the life of the gods!“ Cicero

Idea #1

To Cicero, the building of a society on principles of Natural Law was nothing more nor less than recognizing and identifying the rules of "right conduct" with the laws of the Supreme Creator of the universe.

The Law of Nature or Nature's God is eternal in its basic goodness; it is universal in its application. It is a code of "right reason" from the Creator himself. It cannot be altered. It cannot be repealed. It cannot be abandoned by legislators or the people themselves, even though they may pretend to do so. In Natural Law we are dealing with factors of absolute reality. It is basic in its principles, comprehensible to the human mind, and totally correct and morally right in its general operation.

Idea #1 cont…

A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.◦ Benjamin Franklin wrote: "Only a virtuous people

are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.“

◦ The people had an instinctive thirst for independence, but there remained a haunting fear that they might not be "good enough" to make it work.

Idea #2

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.“ John Adams

Idea #2 cont…

Samuel Adams, who is sometimes called the "father of the revolution," wrote to Richard Henry Lee:

"I thank God that I have lived to see my country independent and free. She may long enjoy her independence and freedom if she will. It depends on her virtue."

Samuel Adams wrote:"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."

A Warning from Samuel Adams

The most promising method of securing a virtuous and morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.◦ A favorite scripture of the day was Proverbs 29:2, which

says: "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.“

◦ “I never engaged in public affairs for my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice, or ambition, or even the desire of fame. If any of these had been my motive, my conduct would have been very different. In every considerable transaction of my public life, I have invariably acted according to my best judgment, and I can look up to God for the sincerity of my intentions.“ John Adams

Idea #3

Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.◦ President George Washington from his Farewell

Address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion ... Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.”

Idea #4

All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.◦ The Founders vigorously affirm throughout their

writings that the foundation of all reality is the existence of the Creator, who is the designer of all things in nature and the promulgator of all the laws which govern nature.

Idea #5

All men are created equal.◦ The Founders wrote in the Declaration of

Independence that some truths are self-evident, and one of these is the fact that all men are created equal.

◦ Since people are different they can only be treated as equals in the sight of God, in the sight of the law, and in the protection of their rights.

Idea #6

The Founders distinguished between equal rights and other areas where equality is impossible. They recognized that society should seek to provide equal opportunity but not expect equal results; provide equal freedom but not expect equal capacity; provide equal rights but not equal possessions; provide equal protection but not equal status; provide equal educational opportunities but not equal grades.

As Alexander Hamilton said: "Inequality would exist as long as liberty existed.... It would unavoidably result from that very liberty itself."

Idea #6 cont…

The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.◦ The Founders recognized that the people cannot

delegate to their government the power to do anything except that which they have the lawful right to do themselves.

◦ By excluding the national government from intervening in the local affairs of the people, the Founders felt they were protecting the unalienable rights of the people from abuse by an over-aggressive government.

Idea #7

Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.◦ The Founders did not believe that the basic rights of

mankind originated from any social compact, king, emperor, or governmental authority. Those rights, they believed, came directly and exclusively from God.

◦ John Adams said: "All men are born free and independent, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness."

Idea #8

Idea #8 Cont…

"The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which ... teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions; for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by His order and about His business; they are His property.... "And, being furnished with like faculties, sharing all in one community of Nature, there cannot be supposed any such subordination among us that may authorize us to destroy one another.“ John Locke

To protect man's rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.◦ Blackstone said it was necessary for God to

disclose these laws to man by direct revelation: "The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity."

Idea #9

An analysis of the essential elements of God's code of divine law reveals that it is designed to promote, preserve, and protect man's unalienable rights.

These principles will be immediately recognized as the famous Ten Commandments. There are many additional laws set forth in the Bible which clarify and define these principles

Idea #9 Cont…

The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.◦ The Founders subscribed to the concept that

rulers are servants of the people and all sovereign authority to appoint or remove a ruler rests with the people.

◦ Alexander Hamilton declared: "The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.“

Idea #10

James Madison declared: "The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasonings on this subject; and to have viewed these different establishments not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each other. These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone."

Idea #10 cont…

The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.◦ "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long

established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. "But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.“ Declaration of Independence

Idea #11

The United States of America shall be a republic.◦ This principle is highlighted in the pledge of

allegiance when it says:I pledge allegiance to the flagOf the United States of AmericaAnd to the RepublicFor which it [the flag] stands....

Idea #12

Idea #12 cont…

James Madison A Contrast

Democracy

◦ spectacles of turbulence and contention

◦ incompatible with personal security or the rights of property

◦ short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths

Republic◦ a government in which

the scheme of representation takes place

◦ promises the cure for which we are seeking

◦ extended over a large region

A constitution should be structured to permanently protect the people from the human frailties of their rulers.◦ At the Constitutional Convention, the Founding

Fathers were concerned with the one tantalizing question which no political scientist in any age had yet been able to answer with complete satisfaction. The question was, "How can you have an efficient government but still protect the freedom and unalienable rights of the people?"

Idea #13

Life and liberty are secure only so long as the right to property is secure.◦ John Locke pointed out that the human family

originally received the planet earth as a common gift and that mankind was given the capacity and responsibility to improve it. Said he:

"God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience."

Idea #14