July 4, 2021

It seems appropriate to pause the textual analysis of the Constitution long enough for some Independence Day thoughts.

We agree with the British statesman, William Gladstone: “The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.”  Indeed, many in our classical liberal community regard it as more than a work of genius; they regard it as literally inspired. Other classical liberals are nontheists, and we do not wish to exclude any from an appreciation for the Constitution, but today we invite the nontheist to view the Constitution in light of whatever transcendence he or she finds meaningful.

It is the characteristic of true works of genius that they are greater than those to whom they are given, or even those who create them. Einstein himself did not fully appreciate the majesty of his Theory of General Relativity, which was worked out by succeeding generations of physicists and remains a work in progress today. So, too, the Constitution was greater than the men who framed it, and better than the nation that received it. This is not to deny that its framers were men of genius or that the nation it was set up to govern was blessed by Providence. But those men and that nation were imperfect (the most recent controversy being over the keeping, by some of them, of slaves). Martin Luther King., Jr., was right to call the Declaration of Independence a promissory note whose redemption for his “race” was long overdue.

(We must explain why “race” is in quotes. It is our view that the concept of race, as applied to Homo sapiens, is nearly devoid of scientific content and was invented by evil men, for malign purposes, relatively recently in human history. We believe firmly that the way to deal with “race” is to eliminate the entire concept from our thinking as swiftly as possible. We acknowledge our idiosyncrasy in this matter but hold fast to our conviction.)

We do not worship the Constitution, nor consider all the amendments to it to be improvements. But some of us worship the God whose mind we see reflected in the Constitutional framework, and we believe we would do vastly better to move our country more in the direction of the original vision of the Constitution than to move the Constitution more in the present direction of our country.