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Readings for the Seminar:
America's Founding Principles
Instructor: Christopher Flannery, Azusa Pacific University
Saturday, April 13, 2002
Primary Reading Materials
- Ashbrook Center pamphlet: Declaration of Independence, Selections from Jefferson letters to Henry Lee and to Roger Weightman; Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Second Inaugural, and Fragment on the Constitution and Union.
- Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas. New York: Vintage Books, 1922; 1942. "Drafting the Declaration," 135-193.
- Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. "The Declaration of Independence: The Jefferson draft with Congress's Editorial Changes," Appendix C, Maier, 235-241.
- Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders' Constitution. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/, selections as indicated below.
Reading Assignments
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Session One
(83 minutes)
RealAudio:
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Session One (10:00 am)
Topic: "Apple of Gold": The Centrality of the Declaration of Independence in American Political Life
Focus: Why is it important to understand the Declaration of Independence? What does the Declaration say, and why and how does it say it? What does the Declaration not say, and why and how does it not say it? What is the significance of Jefferson's draft of the Declaration?
Reading:
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Session Two
(108 minutes)
RealAudio:
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Session Two (12:15 pm)
Topic: The American Mind and "Good and Wise Men, in All Ages"
Focus: What is the logic of the argument of the Declaration? What does the Declaration mean, and what does the Declaration not mean? What is the philosophical and historical heritage on which the Declaration draws? Reflections (time permitting) on the course of human events, people, the laws of nature and of nature's God, decent respect for the opinions of mankind, self evident truths, equality, rights, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, people, consent, prudence, the ends of government, the right to abolish government and institute new government, facts submitted to a candid world, sacred honor, and more.
Reading:
From The Founders' Constitution (Volume I):
Equality, Liberty, and Government by Consent:
- Chapter 1, Document 3, Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 12, 1776;
- Chapter 1, Document 6, Massachusetts Constitution (Preamble and Part the First. A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.), March 2, 1780
- Chapter 2, Document 1, John Locke, Second Treatise, §§ 4-15, 54, 119-22, 163, 1689
- Chapter 2, Document 4, David Hume, Of the Original Contract, 1752
- Chapter 2, Document 5, James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, 1764
- Chapter 4, Document 1, John Locke, Second Treatise, §§ 95-99, 1689
Right of Revolution:
- Chapter 3, Document 1, Algernon Sidney, Discourses Concerning Government, 1698 (posthumous)
- Chapter 3, Document 2, John Locke, Second Treatise, §§ 149, 155, 168, 207-10, 220-31, 240-43, 1689
- Chapter 3, Document 3, William Blackstone, The Farmer Refuted, 23 Feb. 1775
The Character of a Free People:
- Chapter 18, Document 1, James McHenry, Anecdote, 18—
- Chapter 18, Document 6, Samuel Adams to James Warren, 4 Nov. 1775
- Chapter 18, Document 7, John Adams to Mercy Warren, 8 Jan. 1776
- Chapter 18, Document 11, Thomas Jefferson, Preamble to a Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, Fall 1778
- Chapter 18, Document 19, A Proposal for Reviving Christian Conviction, 11 Oct. 1787
- Chapter 18, Document 22, James Madison, Federalist, no. 55, 375-78, 13 Feb. 1788
- Chapter 18, Document 29, George Washington, Farewell Address, 19 Sept. 1796
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