Lesson One | The Connection Between the Constitution and the Declaration — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:07you're gonna have a free government
3. 0:09you're gonna have to have a form of the
4. 0:11government because a free government
5. 0:13requires a lot of people participate in
6. 0:16the government the government have to
7. 0:17participate in the government and to do
8. 0:20that you have to have a form you have to
9. 0:21have some established way by which
10. 0:23people participate it has to stay the
11. 0:26same over time or else they'll be
12. 0:28changing it all the time and then soon
13. 0:29enough just a few will run it well our
14. 0:32Constitution is the most successful
15. 0:33thing like that in human history and
16. 0:35decent things like that have been known
17. 0:37since the ancient world none has lasted
18. 0:39so long as ours the Constitution is
19. 0:42authoritative or it's supposed to be and
20. 0:45so why would the Declaration of
21. 0:47Independence matter
22. 0:48my own belief is that you would never
23. 0:51give a full account of the United States
24. 0:53of America without a rich understanding
25. 0:57of those two things and the relationship
26. 1:00between them one of them being the
27. 1:03formal cause of the United States of
28. 1:05America and one of them being the final
29. 1:07cause
30. 1:10[Music]
31. 1:16are you showing off morning okay so
32. 1:29what's the country a country has borders
33. 1:34that's the latest days in it yeah and
34. 1:37okay so that's the edge of a country
35. 1:41what's inside there it's a group of
36. 1:44citizens that have engaged in a contract
37. 1:48together to be ruled by the same
38. 1:50government so it takes contract
39. 1:53according to modern political thought
40. 1:57but there's an interesting sentence in
41. 2:00the Declaration of Independence that we
42. 2:03will read so we can find it so it says
43. 2:08whenever any form of government becomes
44. 2:10destructive of these ends it is the
45. 2:13right of the people to alter or to
46. 2:15abolish it and to institute new
47. 2:17government laying its foundation on such
48. 2:19principles so we can change the
49. 2:21government it's a right but then what
50. 2:25follows from that kind of a duty to
51. 2:29establish a new set of rules in law so
52. 2:32the Declaration finish doesn't
53. 2:34contemplate life without government does
54. 2:38it right and what's the first objection
55. 2:41against the king he hasn't he hasn't
56. 2:46given those laws he's refused his assent
57. 2:50to laws most wholesome and necessary so
58. 2:55that's like something classical isn't it
59. 2:57because in the classical world mankind
60. 3:01men human beings are the social and
61. 3:05political animals and then they don't
62. 3:08talk of having a right to make a
63. 3:10contract to establish a government and
64. 3:14this does and yet on the other hand this
65. 3:19other thing in here that we need made to
66. 3:24live under law
67. 3:27and it's worth for marking that because
68. 3:30it means we're talking about something
69. 3:32important here at Hillsdale colleges you
70. 3:37all know right you all have different
71. 3:38majors everybody studies everything
72. 3:41fundamental this is something
73. 3:44fundamental you're going to live under
74. 3:48laws because of the kind of thing you
75. 3:51are and if you live under bad laws
76. 3:53you're going to be miserable and it's
77. 3:55very common for people to live under bad
78. 3:57laws and that's one of the points of
79. 4:00this document the Declaration of
80. 4:01Independence we need good laws and if we
81. 4:06don't get them we have a right to rebel
82. 4:10and that means kill the people who deny
83. 4:14them to us which is what they proceeded
84. 4:18to do after this document and the people
85. 4:21were very strong who were ruling America
86. 4:24this he who has refused his assent to
87. 4:27laws the most wholesome and necessary is
88. 4:30a really important guy he's the King of
89. 4:32England the strongest power on earth and
90. 4:35we have a right and a duty to kick him
91. 4:41out of here and we're going to do it so
92. 4:44that's that's what the document is about
93. 4:46what does it say declaration
94. 4:50independence is one of the most
95. 4:52influential documents in all of human
96. 4:54history it gives a picture of the whole
97. 4:56order of nature and it proceeds from
98. 4:59that whole order down finally to what
99. 5:03the class is called the utmost
100. 5:05particular the definite thing to be done
101. 5:08right now how's it begin it begins in
102. 5:13very general terms and that it can be
103. 5:16applied it's not specific to America it
104. 5:18can be applied human events means really
105. 5:20anytime one people the ending people
106. 5:24universally right in that interesting so
107. 5:27who are these guys and where are these
108. 5:30guys when they do this they're all guys
109. 5:34one of them was John Adams who was a
110. 5:37really brilliant and great man but
111. 5:40is brilliant or great as his wife who
112. 5:43gave him happily in writing detailed
113. 5:46advice about everything he did and he
114. 5:49mostly took it really great man
115. 5:53so where are they
116. 5:56apart from the ones that are oppressing
117. 5:59them separated by an ocean yeah I mean
118. 6:01they're when they're right in this
119. 6:02document right they're in Philadelphia
120. 6:05and Philadelphia is on the sea and
121. 6:07Britain is a great sea power risky place
122. 6:10to be
123. 6:11there were people looking for them a
124. 6:13writ had been issued for their arrest
125. 6:16and if they had been found by the army
126. 6:19not a police force they were not gonna
127. 6:22be dragged up in front of local courts
128. 6:24independent from the king they were
129. 6:25gonna be taken back to England ripped
130. 6:28from their families months away right to
131. 6:32be tried in front of strangers which is
132. 6:34what was going on which is one of the
133. 6:36complaints in the middle and what's
134. 6:38interesting about this is they begin to
135. 6:41universally but how does it end let's
136. 6:43look at the last sentence and for the
137. 6:47support somebody read this and for the
138. 6:49support of this declaration with a firm
139. 6:51reliance on the protection of divine
140. 6:52providence we mutually pledge to each
141. 6:55other Our Lives our Fortunes and our
142. 6:57sacred honor what else do they have to
143. 7:00pledge except those things that's a
144. 7:03pledge of everything right we pledge all
145. 7:07of that and who did they pledge it to
146. 7:09each other
147. 7:11yeah you know the war literature right
148. 7:13people do uncommonly brave things on
149. 7:16battlefields and many many people do it
150. 7:19and most of those people didn't think
151. 7:22they could before they did one of the
152. 7:25themes that emerges from the battlefield
153. 7:27literature is they do it for each other
154. 7:30they don't want to get shot they can't
155. 7:33stand the image of their friend getting
156. 7:36shot can't bear it
157. 7:39they love right these guys are in this
158. 7:42room is actually the room where the
159. 7:46Constitution was written to later
160. 7:48they're in this room and they're
161. 7:51promising each other
162. 7:53see that's a big pledge and a pledge of
163. 7:56everything and in the name of who do
164. 8:01they make this pledge divine providence
165. 8:05yeah who's that
166. 8:07their creator yeah as was mentioned in
167. 8:10the beginning of decoration okay so God
168. 8:12right they swear to God and to each
169. 8:17other that we have returned of these in
170. 8:21Hillsdale collagen I won't say that
171. 8:23they're not sometimes a little naughty
172. 8:25and and they all take pledges owes to
173. 8:32join the fraternity and the O's are all
174. 8:34the same they're all 19th century
175. 8:36Christian organizations these
176. 8:37fraternities and we're big of takers
177. 8:40around here as you know we're just like
178. 8:41these guys right the deck boys Finn Finn
179. 8:42it's so so all you got to do is remind
180. 8:45you of their oath you know what you do
181. 8:47they you know okay well you know what
182. 8:52you promised to do and your oath to your
183. 8:54fraternity and it's always there all of
184. 8:56us are to God and each other many of
185. 8:59them to the college dude that means I
186. 9:00really got right they got a straighten
187. 9:04up now and and that's a it's a big deal
188. 9:08with war pending right and this is
189. 9:11particular right the people in the room
190. 9:15you know about four times as many as is
191. 9:18around this table swear to each other I
192. 9:22swear to Emily and Emily swears to me
193. 9:24and that means later we don't do it we
194. 9:30know the name and can picture the face
195. 9:32of the person who's going to disapprove
196. 9:34who's been betrayed right and that's as
197. 9:38particular as it can possibly get but it
198. 9:42begins was a Casey you said that
199. 9:47universally that wasn't once garrison
200. 9:49good job yeah it begins universally it
201. 9:53begins without reference to any place or
202. 9:55any people but to every place and every
203. 9:58people and it ends with the utmost
204. 10:00particularity you know if you think
205. 10:03every choice you make
206. 10:06you've always got some sense of right
207. 10:09when you make a choice
208. 10:10this document moves from this ultimate
209. 10:14sense of right that we all carry down to
210. 10:17the particular circumstances in which
211. 10:20they are going to act right now and the
212. 10:24whole document is a connected chain from
213. 10:27the general to the particular and it's
214. 10:30exactly the process every one of us goes
215. 10:33through every time we make a hard choice
216. 10:35that interesting
217. 10:37yeah and and what are they doing except
218. 10:41making a really hard choice what's in
219. 10:45the middle that connects the very
220. 10:47beginning the universal part with this
221. 10:51final conclusion that they make is the
222. 10:56list of particulars and so what kinds of
223. 11:00things are those imposing taxes on us
224. 11:04without consent quartering troops homes
225. 11:10dissolving representative houses
226. 11:11repeatedly think of those all three of
227. 11:14those are the same thing all three of
228. 11:16those are failing to represent they put
229. 11:22their troops up in our houses which
230. 11:23means they're taking our houses when
231. 11:26were we going to live right and they
232. 11:28disband the legislature and we're gonna
233. 11:32talk about these more when we get to the
234. 11:34Constitution but I mentioned them here
235. 11:36now because there's actually an outline
236. 11:38of the Constitution of the United States
237. 11:39in the middle of the Declaration of
238. 11:41Independence it's an amazing thing and
239. 11:43the chief elements of the Constitution
240. 11:45are listed here in the negative sense
241. 11:48that the king violated them