Lecture Summary
American political history is defined by three great crises. The first crisis was the American Revolution, which was declared on July 4, 1776 but whose roots can be traced back at least to 1763. That period of crisis ended with the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in what has become known as the Revolution of 1800.
The second crisis was the crisis over slavery that culminated in the Civil War. While the Founders had opposed slavery in principle, but had been forced to compromise with the institution in practice for the sake of the Union, the rise of the positive good school of slavery in the South marked a turn away from the Founders principles, and their practice. In response, Abraham Lincoln explained and defended the Founders approach.
The third great crisis, which continues today, is the challenge of Progressivism, a movement founded by Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and others. The Progressives rejected the Founders principles, including their notions of a fixed human nature and inalienable natural rights. Instead, they believed in a human nature that evolved and changed, which in turn justified their efforts to break down separation of powers in order to expand the size and scope of government far beyond the Founders intent.
In order to understand fully the previous crises, and to be able to respond well to the current crisis, we must understand the causes of America.
America has four causesa material cause: primarily the land and the people; an efficient cause: the Founding Founders who led the Revolution in the name of the American people; a formal cause: the Constitution, especially the structure of government it establishes; and a final cause: the principles of free government outlined in the Declaration of Independence.
With this background, we can answer the question: Was the American Founding revolutionary or conservative? In fact it was both: It sought to conserve the oldest and highest law, which according to the Declaration of Independence is the Laws of Nature and of Natures God. The Founders compared the natural law to the conventional law under which they lived, andas described so eloquently and succinctly in the Declaration of Independencedetermined that a revolution was justified in the name of this higher law.
