American Founding
The Mindset of the American Founding Up and down the coast of America a brand new era was stirring. There were ideals that were prevalent throughout the new territories that would soon come into the form of a stated government. The men at this time felt obliged to lay before mankind their admission of certain fundamental truths. These men recognized as well as voiced that the principles at hand, in and of themselves, were not original. What was original was the way in which they were about to be applied to human nature and government. This is what would make them, the government and the time revolutionary. Jefferson tells us through a letter written to Henry Lee on May 8, 1825, that, “All American Whigs thought alike on these subjects.” These subjects included issues such as: equality, state of nature, government by consent, divine right of kings, absolute monarchy, tyranny, majority rule, representation, republicanism, liberty, law of nature, property, social compact, natural rights, civil rig!Equality was an idea that was not unfamiliar to the men who founded this country. They had been given equality by the king in England through what became known as the “Great Charter.” T
Thomas Jefferson in A Summary view of the Rights of British America in 1774 refers to the injustice done by the monarchial British government “…upon those rights which God and the laws have given equally and independently to all (159). These are 1) Ambition, 2) Personal Interest, and 3) Desire to ensure the public good. Although the American mind was more inclined to recognize respect for a Creator that entitled them with rights in which to found legitimate free government, they recognized the danger of removing the liberty to do so. This Law teaches mankind, by means of reason (which is that Law), that “…no one ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty or Possessions (72). Where that much is true, the founders also recognized the liberty of choice that must be retained among citizens of just government. Locke points out in his Second Treatise that while humans are in a State of Nature they are governed by the Law of Nature. Americans often discussed the inclusion of Religious Liberty in addition to these basic fundamental liberties of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. These principles were the driving force behind many Americans as they sacrificed their lives to secure a land in which human beings could flourish as nature had intended them to, without unjust oppression. Ultimately this idea about inherent, fundamental, liberties would find itself in the heart of the United States Declaration of Rights in 1776 because it reflected an expression of the American mind at that time. The idea of universal equality had been embedded in American’s minds as seed. This ideal rationally leads to the fa!ct that a nature given right is given for all men by nature. The recognition of universal equality and the ideas of fundamental rights as axioms of the American mind at the time of the founding directly pointed toward the belief in a creator that entitled all men to these truths. Similarly, John Tucker in An Election Sermon in 1771 states that,All men are naturally in a state of freedom, and have an equal claim to liberty. Americans at the time of the founding would have almost unanimously conferred on the discussions of the preceding principles. These rights were not seen as natural to all men but instead as a privilege that the gracious King allowed and recognized in Englishmen.
Common topics in this essay:
United Federalist,
Almighty God,
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Locke Hume,
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Election Sermon,
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# 10,
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madison notes,
federalist # 10,
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Acceptance Essays
