The American Founding: Revolutionary or Conservative? lecture notes

Three National Crises:

1. The American Revolution. When the Democrat-Republican party won the election over the Federalists party it was the first time a different type of gov’t came into power without crises.
2. The Civil War. The first time in American history that slavery was declared a good practice. Before that the Founders and people at that time condemned it. The human being is a product of time and circumstances. Not of nature or God’s providence. Time and circumstances made slaves inferior and slave owners get to own them.
3. Progressivism. Human beings are evolving. Societies are evolving.

What caused America? See Aristotle’s Four Causes.

1. The material cause- the land and the people.
2. The efficient cause- the Founders.
3. The formal cause- the Constitution.
4. The final cause- the principles in the Declaration of Independence.

Is the Constitution a revolutionary or a conservative document? It’s both. It’s conservative because of God’s law doesn’t change and is eternal. Also, the Founders talked about reason controlling the passions of men. The Constitution is revolutionary because it said nobody is born to be king. No-one can own another person. We are responsible for ourselves.

Source: The American Founding: Revolutionary or Conservative? from Hillsdale.edu.