Lesson One | The Connection Between the Constitution and the Declaration

[Music] you're gonna have a free government you're gonna have to have a form of the government because a free government requires a lot of people participate in the government the government have to participate in the government and to do that you have to have a form you have to have some established way by which people participate it has to stay the same over time or else they'll be changing it all the time and then soon enough just a few will run it well our Constitution is the most successful thing like that in human history and decent things like that have been known since the ancient world none has lasted so long as ours the Constitution is authoritative or it's supposed to be and so why would the Declaration of Independence matter my own belief is that you would never give a full account of the United States of America without a rich understanding of those two things and the relationship between them one of them being the formal cause of the United States of America and one of them being the final cause [Music] are you showing off morning okay so what's the country a country has borders that's the latest days in it yeah and okay so that's the edge of a country what's inside there it's a group of citizens that have engaged in a contract together to be ruled by the same government so it takes contract according to modern political thought but there's an interesting sentence in the Declaration of Independence that we will read so we can find it so it says whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundation on such principles so we can change the government it's a right but then what follows from that kind of a duty to establish a new set of rules in law so the Declaration finish doesn't contemplate life without government does it right and what's the first objection against the king he hasn't he hasn't given those laws he's refused his assent to laws most wholesome and necessary so that's like something classical isn't it because in the classical world mankind men human beings are the social and political animals and then they don't talk of having a right to make a contract to establish a government and this does and yet on the other hand this other thing in here that we need made to live under law and it's worth for marking that because it means we're talking about something important here at Hillsdale colleges you all know right you all have different majors everybody studies everything fundamental this is something fundamental you're going to live under laws because of the kind of thing you are and if you live under bad laws you're going to be miserable and it's very common for people to live under bad laws and that's one of the points of this document the Declaration of Independence we need good laws and if we don't get them we have a right to rebel and that means kill the people who deny them to us which is what they proceeded to do after this document and the people were very strong who were ruling America this he who has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary is a really important guy he's the King of England the strongest power on earth and we have a right and a duty to kick him out of here and we're going to do it so that's that's what the document is about what does it say declaration independence is one of the most influential documents in all of human history it gives a picture of the whole order of nature and it proceeds from that whole order down finally to what the class is called the utmost particular the definite thing to be done right now how's it begin it begins in very general terms and that it can be applied it's not specific to America it can be applied human events means really anytime one people the ending people universally right in that interesting so who are these guys and where are these guys when they do this they're all guys one of them was John Adams who was a really brilliant and great man but is brilliant or great as his wife who gave him happily in writing detailed advice about everything he did and he mostly took it really great man so where are they apart from the ones that are oppressing them separated by an ocean yeah I mean they're when they're right in this document right they're in Philadelphia and Philadelphia is on the sea and Britain is a great sea power risky place to be there were people looking for them a writ had been issued for their arrest and if they had been found by the army not a police force they were not gonna be dragged up in front of local courts independent from the king they were gonna be taken back to England ripped from their families months away right to be tried in front of strangers which is what was going on which is one of the complaints in the middle and what's interesting about this is they begin to universally but how does it end let's look at the last sentence and for the support somebody read this and for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other Our Lives our Fortunes and our sacred honor what else do they have to pledge except those things that's a pledge of everything right we pledge all of that and who did they pledge it to each other yeah you know the war literature right people do uncommonly brave things on battlefields and many many people do it and most of those people didn't think they could before they did one of the themes that emerges from the battlefield literature is they do it for each other they don't want to get shot they can't stand the image of their friend getting shot can't bear it they love right these guys are in this room is actually the room where the Constitution was written to later they're in this room and they're promising each other see that's a big pledge and a pledge of everything and in the name of who do they make this pledge divine providence yeah who's that their creator yeah as was mentioned in the beginning of decoration okay so God right they swear to God and to each other that we have returned of these in Hillsdale collagen I won't say that they're not sometimes a little naughty and and they all take pledges owes to join the fraternity and the O's are all the same they're all 19th century Christian organizations these fraternities and we're big of takers around here as you know we're just like these guys right the deck boys Finn Finn it's so so all you got to do is remind you of their oath you know what you do they you know okay well you know what you promised to do and your oath to your fraternity and it's always there all of us are to God and each other many of them to the college dude that means I really got right they got a straighten up now and and that's a it's a big deal with war pending right and this is particular right the people in the room you know about four times as many as is around this table swear to each other I swear to Emily and Emily swears to me and that means later we don't do it we know the name and can picture the face of the person who's going to disapprove who's been betrayed right and that's as particular as it can possibly get but it begins was a Casey you said that universally that wasn't once garrison good job yeah it begins universally it begins without reference to any place or any people but to every place and every people and it ends with the utmost particularity you know if you think every choice you make you've always got some sense of right when you make a choice this document moves from this ultimate sense of right that we all carry down to the particular circumstances in which they are going to act right now and the whole document is a connected chain from the general to the particular and it's exactly the process every one of us goes through every time we make a hard choice that interesting yeah and and what are they doing except making a really hard choice what's in the middle that connects the very beginning the universal part with this final conclusion that they make is the list of particulars and so what kinds of things are those imposing taxes on us without consent quartering troops homes dissolving representative houses repeatedly think of those all three of those are the same thing all three of those are failing to represent they put their troops up in our houses which means they're taking our houses when were we going to live right and they disband the legislature and we're gonna talk about these more when we get to the Constitution but I mentioned them here now because there's actually an outline of the Constitution of the United States in the middle of the Declaration of Independence it's an amazing thing and the chief elements of the Constitution are listed here in the negative sense that the king violated them

Channel: Hillsdale College

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Keywords: hillsdale, college, intro to the constitution, constitution, larry p arnn, arnn, america, politics, declaration, freedom, founders, online course, class, education

Id: vGGx7sTDnMY

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2019