OPINION:
As we celebrate Constitution Day on Sept. 17 — the 238th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution — we should reflect on the significance of this extraordinary document in the human pursuit of freedom and self-government.
Eleven years earlier, in 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. This remarkable philosophical document remains one of history’s greatest statements on the moral and religious foundations of freedom.
The Declaration’s assertion that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness stands as the most radical assertion of the relationship between God, humanity and liberty ever expressed.
With the Declaration, the divine right of kings and the dominance of powerful elites were replaced by the belief that power flows from God directly to individuals. It is impossible to overstate how profound a shift this represented. The Declaration moved the source of legitimacy from the state and the monarch to a direct relationship between the individual and God, recognizing individual rights as paramount.
While the Declaration of Independence provided the moral basis for rebellion against British rule, it did not provide a practical system for self-government.
The Articles of Confederation, which had unified the colonies in their struggle for independence, proved overly complex and lacked strength as a framework for government.
By 1787, the Founding Fathers had gained considerable experience crafting effective governance at the state level. Notably, 11 of the 55 delegates (20%) had actively participated in writing state constitutions to replace colonial systems inherited from British rule. This group included many influential figures, such as James Madison and George Mason of Virginia, and Alexander Hamilton of New York; these three men played crucial roles in drafting the U.S. Constitution. Madison and Hamilton were also two of the three authors behind the Federalist Papers arguably the most sophisticated political essays ever written.
Reading the 85 papers of the Federalist, authored by Hamilton, Madison and John Jay, we gain a deeper appreciation of the sheer genius behind the system they developed.
If the Declaration of Independence is moral poetry, then the Constitution is the meticulous result of political engineering. It outlines a carefully constructed machinery of self-government.
The Founding Fathers sought to address two different challenges simultaneously. First, America required a strong national government to defend against potential threats from Britain, France and Spain powers eager to dominate or divide the young nation.
Second, they needed to ensure that a government robust enough for national defense would not evolve into a dictatorship but maintain governance by the people.
In thinking through these dual challenges, the Founding Fathers drew wisdom from three primary sources: The first was their personal experiences in drafting and implementing state constitutions.
The second was their extensive studies of the Roman Republic, and to a much lesser extent, Greek democracy. They were skeptical of direct democracy, fearing it could devolve into mob rule. Instead, they favored the Roman model of an elected republic, governed by law rather than by personality, viewing it as more stable and more protective of individual rights.
Third, they carefully studied Charles Baron de Montesquieu’s “The Spirit of the Laws,” first published in 1750.
Montesquieu wrestled with the challenge of creating effective governance while protecting individuals from tyranny. He concluded that dividing governmental powers into three separate branches legislative, executive and judicial provided the safest and most stable system and would prevent any single branch from achieving dominance.
Much of Americans’ frustration with contemporary government arises precisely from the Founders’ determination to avoid dictatorship. They intentionally crafted a system so deliberately inefficient that no dictator could easily seize control. In fact, their system of distributed power can be so cumbersome that it barely functions smoothly, even with willing participants. The Founders would likely smile at modern complaints, reminding us, “That is the cost of freedom.”
Ultimately, the American Constitution translates the moral poetry of the Declaration of Independence into the routine, often repetitive, and frequently frustrating reality of self-government. It remains unequivocally the greatest system of self-governance ever developed.
• Newt Gingrich is a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the architect of the 1994 Contract with America. He was a Republican candidate for President of the United States in 2012, and is a best-selling author, a Fox News contributor, and chairman of the board for Gingrich 360.
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