This month’s issue: The "Basic Standards" required for a "Free People" to remain Free... Principle # 2 ...

Question: What did the Founding Father’s (FF’s) feel were the "Basic Standards" of a "Free People"?

Editor’s NOTE: Like today, as we listen to the increasingly hostile debates on Capital Hill, many wish for the those days when honorable men (the FF’s) were able to come to a consensus on issues without rancor. It did not happen then, and it does not happen today. Free people, people with personal agency, often differ in their opinions. Fierce debates took place then as now. The difference: the FF’s respected one another for their contributions. Only through long debate did the final words of the Constitution finally emerge during those final days prior to its signing on September 17, 1787. But they were unanimous on what the "Basic Standards" were for a "Free People."

Answer: Virtue and Morality. ..<<>>..

Skousen, in his book "The Five Thousand Year Leap" wrote: "A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong." A basic principle that needs no clarification. But these were not Skousen’s words, they were the words of the FF’s themselves. ..<<>>..

As we listen to today’s heated debates over issues many Americans forget, or perhaps were never taught, about the heated debates that took place in the days of the original 13 colonies. The question that hung precariously over their heads, just as it hangs over our heads today, is "whether or not the people (us) were (are)sufficiently ‘virtuous and moral’ to govern themselves. Self-government then was often referred to as ‘republicanism,’ and it was universally acknowledged that a corrupt and selfish people could never make the principles of republicanism operate successfully." ..<<>>..

The FF’s were clear on this issue. Franklin wrote: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters (dictators or kings)." Washington, after praising the Constitution as a "palladium of human rights" pointed out America could survive only "so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people." ..<<>>..

But what is virtue, particularly what is public virtue? Given the resurgence in recent months of posting of the 10 Commandments as a part of a historical display in court houses in Georgia these words by Sr. Skousen provide a definition: "Morality is identified with the Ten Commandments and obedience to the Creator’s mandate for ‘right conduct,’ but the early Americans identified ‘public virtue’ as a special quality of human maturity in character and service closely akin to the Golden Rule." Gordon S. Wood wrote: "In a republic ... each man must somehow be persuaded to submerge his personal wants into the greater needs of the whole. ... such patriotism or love of country was what the eighteenth century termed public virtue ... and they were convinced that a popularly based government ‘cannot be supported without virtue.’" ..<<>>..

Thomas Paine’s wrote in his Common Sense pamphlets that Americans were "industrious, frugal, and honest (virtue)" while the European society wanted only "luxury, amusement, and pleasure(debilitated)." John Adams wrote: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Samuel Adams wrote: "The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; ... if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves." ..<<>>..

The following quotes from Washington and Franklin are as pertinent to our nation today as they were at the time they were written. Washington, in his 1797 farewell address, said: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to support these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. ... Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligations desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education ... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." Franklin wrote: "I think also, that general virtue is more probably to be expected and obtained from the education of youth, than from the exhortations of adult persons; bad habits and vices of the mind being, like diseases of the body, are more easily prevented in youth than in adults." ..<<>>..

These are powerful thoughts for all Americans to ponder. Decisions by our elected leaders today, like at the time of the Revolution, will determine the future of our individual freedoms, and of our nation’s freedoms. ..<<>>..

To review the past 19 issues of Constitutional Observations go to www.cacp.info . To order Skousen’s books on government go to www.nccs.net , www.cacp.info or call 800-388-4512. Become involved in preserving America’s Freedoms - e-forward this e-newsletter to a few friends, family or associates. Help inform and educate them. Now, until December - DSC