Efforts to Muddle History of the Founding Don’t Change Its Facts

By Shelli Dawdy

This is the second of  a three part piece examining an article in the Lincoln Journal Star on July 4 entitled “Whose side are the Founding Fathers on?” Just click the title to read the first part: “The Founding? Move Along Folks, Nothing to See There. Onward Progress!

There is a related piece in the works focuses in more detail on a couple of  specific issues raised by the LJS piece.

Why so much focus on the article? GiN’s primary mission is to promote a return to limited Constitutional governance as originally intended by the Founders. The LJS is a study in why a return is necessary and how we’ve gone so far astray.

LJS Article – click to read

Whatever the motivations, those who wish to render the basic philosophies of the Founding irrelevant for today employ mostly the same arguments and methods. Prime among them is the muddling of up of history.

The events between the Continental Congress’ Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the convening of the Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 that produced the Constitution are of critical importance. Further, events that occurred from the end of the convention through the ratification period provide vital insights into the thinking of those men who were involved in shaping the Constitution. Important original sources from this period include the series of letters published in newspapers by those advocating for and against ratifying the Constitution (Federalists and Anti-Federalists), personal diaries and letters.

The author of the article compressed the time line he labels “the Founding” as if it all happened in a short span, thereby disregarding the important intervening years altogether. The article is dated July 4, a national holiday commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, yet that document only gets passing references. Instead the Constitution was the focus. The Constitutional Convention did not take place until eleven years after the Declaration, and four years after the end of the Revolutionary War.

If the author had space constraints, what aspect of the Founding should be the focus on July 4? The document commemorated or one resulting over a decade later? And if the obvious choice is avoided, the question should be, why?

This muddling of the Founding’s timeline is typical of those who argue that the U.S. was not founded on any spiritual basis. In order to make that point, The Declaration must be avoided – it’s basis is Natural Law and includes “God” and “Creator”. Avoiding the Declaration’s contents allows the writer to give the impression there was no influence from a higher power; he points out that the Constitution does not mention the word “God” anywhere. In so doing, the author engages in what he himself calls “cherry picking”. He fails to mention that the First Amendment specifically references “religion”.

Original Bill of Rights. Click to read more

But more than the Bill of Rights is overlooked. The article makes it appear as if George Washington was the only man involved with the Founding of the country who believed morality was a necessity for the new Republic, which in turn necessitated religion. There’s ample evidence that the there were many involved in both the Congress of the Confederation government (the governing body during the Revolutionary War through the ratification of the Constitution) and U.S. Congress who thought morality and even religion necessary to the health of the country and its future. Examples include a declaration in the creation of the Northwest Territory stating, “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government…” and the approval by both the U.S. House and Senate to conduct regular church services in the Capitol building – several years before it was regularly used by Congress.

The author attempted to create the impression he is just a side-line observer in what is permanent debate.  However, taking on that position is an adoption of a particular point of view – it is the one that dominates in education and in most books written about the Founding by the most popular historians for decades. This view point subscribes to the notion that there are essentially two positions taken about the Founding; either the ideas found in the Declaration or the Constitution dominate. One must choose.

By adopting the “perpetual debate” position, these theorists discard the possibility that an entirely different view point could exist; it is the one that believes it isn’t a matter of choosing either document – it embraces both. It embraces the available evidence that there were a number of important philosophical concepts about which the Founders agreed.

John Locke influenced many of the Founders – click to read more about him

Chief among them was the source of man’s rights. There is simply no evidence in the primary source materials to support the idea that between the writing of the Declaration and the Constitution that the men engaged in these discussions were attempting to excise spiritual influence or to substitute powerful government as the source of rights. There is no evidence of disagreement on that point. In fact, lack of evidence of the notion being discarded, couple with no inclusion of it in the Constitution gives weight to the belief this principle was so dominating, it didn’t even need to be stated. Primary source material, particularly as pertains to the debate over including a bill of rights, bears this out. People like James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution, were concerned any overt statements about specific rights would result later in limitations on them.

Among the philosophies dominating the Founding one is very clear; government exists only to protect man’s natural rights. The goal in both establishing the Articles of Confederation and the effort to correct that structure’s deficits was to provide the most limited federal government that could be contrived while providing the colonies with particular needs virtually impossible attain on their own.

To be concluded in part three, which will be released tomorrow. It focuses on the results of thinking that the Founding can be rendered irrelevant.

Stubborn_Facts

Shelli Dawdy is first and foremost the mother of three children whom she has taught at home via the classical method since removing her children from school in 2001. During her early years as a homeschool mother, she worked part-time as a freelance writer. Born and raised in the Iowa, Shelli and her husband moved to the state of South Dakota in 1997, attracted to its more limited government and friendly tax environment. In 2006, Shelli and her family relocated to Lincoln, Nebraska, when her husband’s employer offered a new position. She took a break from work and politics for a time, recognizing the need to focus solely on her childrens’ schooling with two now of high school age. Distressed by many things she was witnessing on the national political scene and disillusioned about the Republican Party, she decided to start writing again, this time online. Motivated to get involved with others at the grassroots level, she networked with activists on the social media tool, Twitter. She was involved in organizing the first tea party rallies inspired by Rick Santelli’s “rant” on CNBC in February 2009. Recognizing that activism should generate on the local level, she founded Grassroots in Nebraska in March of 2009. The group’s mission is a return to Constitutional, limited government, according to its original meaning. While the group has held several tea party rallies, it’s focus is to take effective action. Among its many projects, GiN successfully coordinated testimony for the hearing of the Nebraska Sovereignty Resolution, networked with other groups to ensure a large show of public support at the hearing, and coordinated follow up support to ensure its passage in April 2010. While working to build up GiN throughout 2009, she was asked to work as writer and producer of the documentary film, A New America, which lays out how Progressivism is responsible for how America has moved away from its Constitutional roots. You can see more of her work on Grassroots in Nebraska (GiN) and StubbornFacts