By Joseph R. Wood
In the Federalist Papers, John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton argued that although the new Constitution was imperfect—as all fundamental laws are—it offered the prospect of preventing tyranny and securing the unity of the country. The prospect, however, was uncertain, as in all human affairs.
They hoped the union would endure, but they seemed to understand that all political systems eventually fail, a lesson from the ancient political thinkers who observed in political communities a tendency toward corruption, decay and final collapse, sometimes followed by renewal, sometimes not. That tendency was especially pronounced in democracies, which Aristotle considered a deviant form of government.
The Founders shared that skepticism and proposed a republic with different elements of government, some aristocratic and others broadly inclusive. This was the kind of “mixed regime” that Aristotle thought was the best available in most situations.
But even with that weight of philosophy and history behind them, Jay wrote:
I sincerely wish that every good citizen may clearly foresee that whenever the dissolution of the Union arrives, the United States will have reason to exclaim, in the words of the poet: “FAREWELL! A LONG FAREWELL TO ALL MY GREATNESS!”. (Federalist 2)
The quotation is from Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, the words of Cardinal Wolsey, whose distinguished political career ended in tears.
This summer I made a road trip that crossed the country, which began at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Church in Ocean City, Maryland, a few steps from the Atlantic Ocean, and ended at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Church in Oceanside, California, a few steps from the Pacific Ocean.
I was struck once again during the trip by both the natural beauty of the country and the human and material achievements made possible by the political system devised by the Founders. Neither was a surprise, but seeing them again was wonderful.
The political divisions in the country are deep and spring from irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences about the true ends of human life, and about whether there is a moral order that we ourselves did not create, but must seek to understand and follow.
I was not able to discern on this trip whether the moment Jay imagined has arrived, when we look back on the greatness of the United States as something of the past.
But one thing is clear. As Fr. Stanley Jaki wrote, when the “storms of moral destruction” blow, the Church is in reality an archipelago of islands of holiness and truth rather than a continental whole. The saints sustain these islands through the centuries, even as their locations shift amid the contingencies of history.
He was referring to Europe, his own place of birth. But from the churches of the U.S. on the coasts and every few miles between them, to the abbeys in the Ozarks and the mountains of California, through the Orthodox monasteries in the Appalachians of West Virginia and the desert of Arizona, there are silently thriving islands of that archipelago in the United States today. These places often attract intentional communities of laity around them. They share truths that reach far beyond 250 years, to the beginning of time and before. Unlike political arrangements, those truths will endure until time ends, and beyond.
About the author:
Joseph Wood is a collegiate assistant professor in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He is a philosopher pilgrim and an accessible hermit.