Modern history

The Founders' Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It

The Founders' Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It

Today the integrity and unity of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are under attack by the Progressive political movement. And yet, writes Larry P. Arnn:

“The words of the Declaration of Independence ring across the ages. The arrangements of the Constitution have a way of organizing our actions so as to produce certain desirable results, and they have done this more reliably than any governing instrument in the history of man. Connect these arrangements to the beauty of the Declaration and one has something inspiring and commanding.”

From Chapter 2, The Founders’ Key

Dr. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, reveals this integral unity of the Declaration and the Constitution. Together, they form the pillars upon which the liberties and rights of the American people stand. United, they have guided history’s first self-governing nation, forming our government under certain universal and eternal principles. Unfortunately, the effort to redefine government to reflect “the changing and growing social order” has gone very far toward success. Politicians such as Franklin Roosevelt found ways to condemn and discard the Constitution and to redefine the Declaration to justify government without limit. As a result, both documents have been weakened, their influence diminished, and their meaning obscured―paving the way for the modern administrative state, unaccountable to the will of the people.

The Founders’ Key is a powerful call to rediscover the connection between these two mighty documents, and thereby restore our political faith and revive our free institutions.

PART I: THE ARGUMENT

Chapter 1. Eternal, Yet New

Chapter 2. Divide and Conquer

Chapter 3. Divorce: The Declaration and the Constitution Estranged?

Chapter 4. The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God

Chapter 5. That All Men Are Created Equal

Chapter 6. Hypocrisy

Chapter 7. The Marriage of Many Causes

Chapter 8. The Soul Writ Large

Conclusion

PART II: FOUNDATIONAL READINGS

The Declaration of Independence

The Constitution of the United States of America

Federalist No. 10: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (Continued)

Federalist No. 39: The Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles

Federalist No. 48: These Departments Should Not Be So Far Separated as to Have No Constitutional Control Over Each Other

Federalist No. 49: Method of Guarding Against the Encroachments of Any One Department of Government by Appealing to the People Through a Convention

Federalist No. 51: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments

“Property” by James Madison

Notes

Suggested Further Reading

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