Signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776 (Photo by Art Images via Getty Images)
As the nation watches a new presidency unfold, there will be a re-setting of priorities. Every new president would be wise to look back at our nation's origins to get a feel for what our Founders had in mind.
First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country, by Thomas Ricks, is an excellent place to start. Ricks, a former war correspondent turned historian, presents a study of the education of our first four presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison. All save for Washington were college-educated, a rarity in that time. Washington did not, and as Ricks notes, sometimes felt himself lacking in his learning. Washington was even mocked by others (behind his back, of course) by his contemporaries.
What played a significant role in these men's education was the notion of public service. It was gleaned from the Scottish Enlightenment, which was directly influenced by the French political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu's ideas. Many instructors in American colleges—Harvard, William & Mary and Princeton—were themselves Scots. They brought with them a broader world view and an impetus for change in the social order.A fundamental principle of these times was the concept of virtue.
As Ricks told me in an interview for my LinkedIn Live show, GRACE under pressure, the word “virtue” appears more often than even the word liberty, by a sizeable margin. Virtue for these men was a commitment to the greater good. It meant creating a society where men (all men in those days) of good character set the example and rule unselfishly for the people.
Washington, the least educated, believed that such virtue alone would be enough to hold the nation together, but over time came to realize that human nature was required more discipline in the form of rules and regulations to keep it together. Part of that thinking is contained, of course, in the U.S. Constitution.
Lessons for now
“One of the great things about this country,” Ricks said, “is that somebody who became a citizen yesterday, as many rights as somebody whose family has been here hundreds of years. And that's because you have a Constitution that tells us who we are, how we work, how we're supposed to operate.”
Ricks expands upon these thoughts in the Epilogue of First Principles with ten suggestions for applying the Founder's intentions to today's problems. Among the recommendations are to fix issues like campaign financing and re-invigorate Congress and commit to the notion of public virtue.
This notion indeed came to the fore during the past election when electors, many of whom were Republican, stood up to repeated attacks on their integrity. Public virtue, the sense of country over party, is essential to the American value system.
Not surprisingly, Ricks advises, "Know your history." With that knowledge comes the awareness of the good and the shortcomings, notably slavery, that were essential at odds with the notion of equality and justice for all.
Amid this contradiction, a nation was born and has survived and thrived. However, it will only continue if we as a people are committed to the tolerance of opposing views, a sense of public decency, and a relentless commitment to making a better, not a perfect, society. Something no doubt the Founders would approve.
