By Brad Miner
I don’t remember much about Mesopotamia, but they say it’s where civilization began. As has been the case throughout history, it was good for those at the top but not for everyone else. This was true of the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome, although, unlike Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt, the Greco-Roman legacy remains very much with us. It has always been so.
You can see that legacy in the Constitution of the United States. You can also see there the Fall of Man, after which no civilization was or could be a City of God. I’m thinking here of the Three-Fifths Compromise, a pact with the devil if there ever was one.
But name me a society before the U.S. that was able to correct its course in less than two centuries and restore friendship.
We know we will never be perfect. Still, as G.K. Chesterton wrote about the United States, ours is “the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed”:
That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature. It enunciates that all men are equal in their right to justice, and that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just. (What I Saw in America)
Today we celebrate the semicentennial of the signing of that Declaration. And, setting aside all current controversies, the document and its creed have stood the test of time.
Yes, that founding document is a promissory note, and the framers of our imperfect Constitution knew that it was not enough simply to address a structure of government, so they added reminders for future rulers, none more powerful than this:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Mr. Lincoln put it best:
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless. (Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862)
About the Author
Brad Miner, husband and father, is senior editor of The Catholic Thing and a senior fellow of the Faith & Reason Institute. He was literary editor of National Review and had a long career in the book-publishing industry. His most recent book is Sons of St. Patrick, written with George J. Marlin. His best-selling The Compleat Gentleman is now available in a third revised edition and also as an Audible audiobook edition (read by Bob Souer). Mr. Miner served on the board of directors of Aid to the Church in Need USA and also on the Selective Service board in Westchester County, New York.