We've heard a lot about the 1776 Commission over the past several months. From the mainstream media, you’ve heard lies and slander: It was a racist panel put together by President Trump to peddle a whitewashed version of American history. In reality, the 1776 Commission was established by President Trump in the fall of 2020 with the purpose of promoting “patriotic education.” Not to mandate it, not to propose legislation – simply to PROMOTE it. The media and academia lost their minds over this now controversial idea that we should teach young Americans to appreciate the nation they’ve inherited. And predictably, just hours after Biden took the oath of office, he signed an executive order to dissolve the 1776 Commission, calling the commission's report “offensive and counterfactual.” Glenn presents the 1776 Commission's report in its entirety, because unlike the media and President Biden who want to hide it from you, Glenn wants you to seek the truth and celebrate Independence Day with pride.
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Welcome to this special presentation of this
seventeen. Seventy six report, you may recall
that the seventeen seventy six commission was established by President Trump in the fall of twenty twenty with the purpose.
of promoting patriotic education that I was suicidal executive order establishing a national commission to promote patriotic education. It will be called the seventeen seventy six commission, while the media and academia almost lost their minds over this now controversial idea that we should teach young Americans do actually
I appreciate the nation they inherited by telling them
The whole truth
the one thousand seven hundred and seventy six commission had to rush the development of this report because they knew as soon as Joe Biden was sworn in as president. The commission's days would likely be numbered. The one thousand seven hundred and seventy six report was instantly demonized by the media, mostly because it was commissioned by the Trump administration. But it was clear from the avalanche of criticism that virtually no one actually read the report or even gave it a
Ants, predictably,
just hours after Biden took the oath of office. He signed an executive order to dissolve the one thousand seven hundred and seventy six commission. It was one of his first acts in office. President Biden had an opportunity to work toward his campaign promise to be a uniter like keeping the commission going. Instead, he squash the commission on day one and it
and a clear signal about his true priorities and his belief of America and our founding
all the seventeen seventy six commission's work quote offensive and counterfactual end quote:
not sure how
county real truth in american history and teaching somebody to love ones, nation. I don't know why
I became offensive, but that is now, unfortunately, where we find ourselves. So
I am presenting the seventeen seventy six report in its entirety. Well, for one because
want to encourage you to actually here the report for yourself, unlike the media,
President Biden. They will hide it from you, so I'm gonna show it to you.
And I'd love. If you would share this series far and wide
Do you hear the entire report for yourself?
you can decide if anything, it is offensive in counterfactual, as the President now says. Secondly,
I know how busy you are with family and work. You might not be able to spare the time it takes to read the whole one thousand seven hundred and seventy six report, but you might be.
Watch it or listen to it instead and share it with your family.
This report is about baseline principles that most Americans used to agree on
It is a sounding of the alarm to say: look a lot
Our fellow Americans don't believe in baseline principles anymore,
that's partly because they never knew them in the first place. I believe this project is worth doing,
because we must try to get back to the commonality of american principles. We must make the effort, because
our forces now hard at work like the purveyors of critical race theory or things like the one thousand six hundred and nineteen project, where they want you to reimagine american history
We are trying to derail the grand experiment of America in charge, a completely different course for the nation leader.
Two further bitterness and divide. I believe America's founding was good,
but because it was implemented by men. It is imperfect.
Because implementation has faltered
Does it mean the principles themselves are flawed? We are trying to be a more perfect nation America's,
to dangerously close to the edge. Far
from its mission statement in the
coloration of independence. We must get back to basics,
So without further ado here
is the seventeen seventy six report,
in the course of human events, their vote
he's been those who deny or reject human
freedom, but America.
And will never falter in defending the fundamental truths of human liberty that was proclaimed on July. Fourth, seventeen
Seventy six. We must always pulled these trees they declared per
price of the president's advisory. One thousand seven hundred and seventy six commission is to enable a rising generation, do understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in one thousand seven hundred and seventy six, and to strive to form a more perfect union
requires, a restoration of american education, which can only be ground
on a history of those principles that is accurate, honest unifying in
firing and ennobling.
Rediscovery of our shared identity rooted in our founding principles is the path to a renewed american unity and confident american future
since first responsibility is to produce
port summarizing the principles of the american Founding and how
principles have shaped our country. That can only be
done by truthfully recounting the aspirations and actions of them
and women who saw
to build America as a shining city on a hill and exemplary nation, one that protects the safety and promotes the happiness of its people
as an example to be admired and emulated by nations of the world that wish to steer their government towards greater liberty and justice. The record of our founders striving
and the nation they built is
our shared inheritance- and it remains a beacon
as Abraham Lincoln said, not for one people or one time, but for all people for all time
today. However, Americans, are deeply divided about the meaning of their country, its history, how we
should be governed.
division is severe enough to call to mind the disagreements between the colonists and King George and those between the confederate and the union forces in
civil war,
to dispute over, not only the history of our country, but also its present purpose and future direction,
facts of our founding, are not partisan.
they are a matter of truth in fact, and history
proceeds about the meaning of the founding can
begin to be resolved by looking at the facts of our nations founding properly
understood. These facts address the concerns and aspirations of Americans of all social classes, income levels, races and religions, regions and all why,
civil life. As
well. These facts provide necessary and wise cautions against unrealistic hopes and checks against press
and partisan claims or utopian agendas too hard or too far the principles of the
confounding, can be learned by studying the abundant documents contained in the record red fully and carefully. They should
how the american people have ever pursued freedom and justice, which are the political conditions for living. Well,
to learn. This history is to become a better person. A better citizen, a better partner in the american experiment of self government,
promoting actions by imperfect human beings. The american story has had its share of missteps errors, contradictions and wrongs.
These wrongs have always met resistance from clear principles of the nation.
for our history- is far more
far more one of self sacrifice: courage, Nobility America's print
Apples are named at the outset to be
Universal
applying to everyone and eternal existing for all time.
The remarkable american story unfolds under and because of these great prince
Of course, neither America nor any other nation, as perfectly lived up to the universal truths of equality, liberty, justice
and government by consent, no nation before America, even
state those truths as the formal basis for its politics,
No one has strived harder or done more to achieve them like an apple.
described the american governments, fundamental principles as a standard maxim for a free society, which should be familiar to all and revered. By all constantly look too
Finally, labored bore and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated and looked very attempted
tandem every attempt to obtain would Lincoln
Adrian constantly spread and deepen the influence of these principles and augment they
happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere and quote the story of Amerika
is the story of this ennobling struggle?
the President's advisory. Seventeen. Seventy six commission presents this first report with the intention:
of cultivating a better education among Americans in the principles and history of our nation,
and in the hope that a rediscovery of those principles and the forms of constitutional government will lead to a more perfect union.
Part, two, the meaning of the declaration
The United States of America is in most respects a nation like any other. It embraces a people who inhabit the territory,
governed by laws administered by human beings. Like other
countries. Our country has borders, resources, industry, cities, towns, farms, factories, home school and houses of worship.
And though, although a relatively young country, its people, have a shared history of a com
struggle and achievement from
carving communities out of fast untamed, wilderness twinning
dependence in forming a new government through wars,
industrialization waves of immigration, technological progress and political change,
However, in other respects, the United States
This is why
Oddly unusual, it is a republic
that is to say its government was designed to be directed by the will of the people. Rather than
the wishes of a single individual or a narrow class, some elites republicanism
is an ancient form of government, but one
uncommon throughout history, in part because of its fragility,
has tended to make republics short lived.
contemporary Americans tend to forget how historically rare republicanism has been in part, because of
The success of our republic in
or time which
derived in no small part. From the very example and success of Amerika.
two decisive respects. The United States of America is unique. First, it has a definite birthday July
Seventeen. Seventy six seconds.
it declares from the moment of its founding, not nearly the principles on which a new government will be based
but it is search those principles to be true and universal, applicable.
to all men and all times as Lincoln said,
the other nations may have birthdays, for instance,
would eventually evolve into the French Republic, was born in
Nineteen, eighty nine in prisons stormed the hated prison and the law
the downfall of the french monarchy and its aristocratic regime. The people's Republic of China was born in nineteen. Forty nine, when mousy dung Chinese
communists and their party defeated the Nationalists in the chinese civil war, but first
in China as nations as people.
When culture inhabiting specific territories stretch back centre,
even a millennia over the core.
Of many governments, but there
was no United States of America before July. For seventeen seventy six there was not
formally speaking, an american people,
there were instead living in the thirteen british colonies in North America, some two and a half million subjects of a distant. Those subjects became a people
by declaring themselves such and then by winning independence through through a fight
because they said
it was their right to be free.
They made that ascertain on the basis of principle, not blood, not kinship, or what we might call ethnic anticipate today. Yet this fact must be
properly understood. As John Jay explained and federalist number two,
Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people.
People descended from the same ancestors speaking the same language, professing the same religion
to do the same principles of government very similar in their manners and customs and who, by their joint councils, arms and efforts fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly establish general liberty and independence. End quote yet.
As J and all the founders well knew the new
they formed american people were not quite
is homogenous in ancestry, language, religion, as this statement
seem to assert
there were neither wholly english or wholly protestant, nor wholly christian. Some other
Some would have to be found in asserted to bind the new people together and to which the
would remain attached if they were to remain a people. That base
was the adaptation of universal and iter.
The principles of justice and political legitimacy, but this too,
ass to be qualified. Note, the J list, six factors binding the american people, together of which the principle is only one the most him
court nor decisive one, but still only one and in
efficient by itself
american founders understood that forward
ism to function and endure a republican
people must share a large measure of commonality. In manners and customs in language and dedication,
to the common good. All
They told governments make some claim to legitimacy. That is an argument for
their existence and specific form are justified. Some dismiss all such claims to legitimacy as false advance
fool the ruled into believing that their rulers actions are justified when, in fact, those
actions only serve the private interests of a very few, but
Actual government understands itself this way, much less any such cynical claim in public.
all actual governments, rather understand themselves says just and certain
public claim as to why both the time
american founding the most widespread claim was the form of the divine right of kings that
to say the ascertain that God points some men or some families to rule and consign the rest to be rule
american founders rejected that claim, as the
eighteen charges, level against King George in the declaration of independence, makes very clear. Our founders considered the british government
the time to be oppressive and unjust.
They had no wish to replace the arbitrary government of one tyrant with that of another hour
More fundamentally
cast off their political connections to England. Our founders needed to state a new principle of political legitimacy for their new government as
Declaration of independence puts a d
and respect to the opinions of mankind required them.
To explain themselves and justify their actions, but they didn't
merely wish to assert that they disliked british rule, and so on
replacing or something better that they light they wish.
state justification for their actions and for
or the government to which it would give birth.
and they wanted something that was both true and moral moral, because it is faithful to the truth about things.
Such a justification could only be found in the precepts of nature, specifically human nature, accessible to the human mind, but not subject to the human will, those four
perhaps whether understood has created by God or simply as a tunnel are given that man did not bring into being and care
change. Ants
declaration speaks of both the laws of nature and natures. God,
it appeals to both reason and revelation as the
Nation of the underworld.
truth of the documents claims and for the legitimacy of this nation,
The core assertion of the declaration and the basis of the founders political thought is that all men are created equal from the principle of equality. The.
choir meant for consent. Naturally follows
If all men are equal than none mag rule over another without his consent, the assertion that all men are created equal must also be properly understood. It doesn't mean that all human beings are equal in wisdom, courage, good looks or any of the other virtues and talons that God and Nature distribute,
evenly among the human race, it means
rather that human beings bark equal in the sense that they are not by nature divided into casts with natural rules and, though
who would be ruled Thomas Jefferson liked
phrase the republican political thinker
Algernon Sidney, he said quote, the mass of mankind has not.
And born with saddles on their backs nor
favoured few booted in spurred ready to write them legitimately by the grace of God and Book
superiority of talent, even a superior ability to rule
it's not a divine or natural title or warrant to rule
George Washington, surely one most able statesmen who ever lived, never maids
turnout. Landers claim, and indeed vehemently rejected, such ascertains made by others about him, as Abraham Lincoln would later explained. There was no urgent need for the founders to insert into a merely revolutionary document this abstract truth. Applicant
all to all men and all times they could simply have told the british king that they were separating and left it at that
but they enlarge the scope of their declaration, so its principles would serve as a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing, tyranny and oppression before
a of that truth that all men are created equal was intended to make impossible any return to formal or legal inequality, whether to such
older forms is absolute monarchy, an hereditary aristocracy or
two, as of yet unimagined forms that we
be seeing in these recent times natural equality.
Requires not only the consent of the government, but also the recognition of fundamental human rights to include, but not limited to life, liberty and the poor.
suit of happiness, as well as the fundamental duty or obligation of all to respect the rights of others,
These rights are found in nature not created by man or the government. Rather, men create governments to secure these natural rights. Indeed,
The very purpose of our government is to secure these right, which exist independently of government
whether the government recognizes them or not,
bad government made, deny or ignore natural rights and even prevent their exercise in the real world.
It can never negate or eliminate the principles
of the declaration, are universal and eternal, yet
they were asserted by a specific people for a specific purpose. In a speech
civic circumstance. The
principle stated in the document, explain and justify the founders particular actions in breaking off from great Britain. They also explained the principles upon which they would build their new government. These principles apply
to all men, but the founders
act into secure only american rights, not those of all men,
the world is still
and always will be divided into nations, not all of which will respect the rights of their people. While they should. We confront
Finally, the difficulty that the eternal principles lucid dated two in the declaration.
Stated and became the basis for an actual government only a relatively short time ago, yet
these principles are both eternal and accessible to the human mind, why were they not
covered and acted upon long before seventeen. Seventy six well
In a sense, the precepts of the american founders were known to prior thinkers, but those
Your stated them an entirely different terms to fit the different political and intellectual circumstances of their times. For instance,
ancient philosophers appear to teach that wisdom is a genuine title to rule.
That, in a decisive respect, all men are not created equal if they also
teach that it is all but impossible for any
actual living man to obtain genuine wisdom.
Even of wisdom is legitimate title to rule. If perfect wisdom is
unattainable by any living man, then
no man is by
the ruler of any other, except by their consent,
More fundamentally, by the time of the american founding political life in the west? It undergone some changes to momentous changes before
it was the sundering of civil from religious law, with the advent and widespread adoption of Christianity, the second
meant is change. Was the emergence of multiple denominations within Christianity?
and did christian unity and, in turn greatly undermined political unity, really
Just differences became sources of a political conflict and war as discussed further and
annex two. It was in response to these fundamentally new circumstances that the american film
nurse developed the principle of religious liberty.
While the founders principles are both true and eternal, they cannot be understood without
also understanding that they were formulated by practical men
to solve real world problems,
for the founders solution to these problems. We have to do
the constitution, parts,
the constitution of principles. It's one thing
to discern and assert true
principles of
all legitimacy, injustice, but
is quite another to establish those principles among an actual people in an
actual government here on earth, as Winston Churchill put it.
The similar context. Even the best men struggling in the most just of causes cannot guarantee victory,
they can only deserve it.
The founders of the United States, perhaps miraculously achieve
What they set out to achieve.
They defeated the world's strongest military and financial power and one their independence
They then face the task of forming a country that would honour and implement the principles upon which they declared their independence, the bedroom
upon which the american political system is built. Is
the rule of law,
difference between tyranny and the rule of law is the central theme of political thinkers all the way back to classical antiquity. The
idea of law is superior to rulers is the cornerstone of the English constitutional thought as it develop
over the centuries. The concept was transferred to the american colonies
can be seen expressed throughout colonial pamphlets and the political writings as tough
Spain, reflected in common sense, quote,
for, as in absolute governments, the king is law. So in free countries the law ought to be king and thereafter
no other but less any ill use should afterwards arise? Let the crown.
The conclusion of the ceremony be demolished and sky
among the people whose right it its end quote:
to assure such a government. America,
and demanded a written legal document that would create both a structure and a process for securing
their rights and liberties and spell out
divisions and limits of the powers of the government that legal
document must be it
of ordinary legislation and dated eight politics
That is what our founders meant by constitution,
and it is why our constitution is the Supreme LAW of the land, Weather
attempted forming a government. The articles and confederation and Perpetual Union was
opted in the midst of the revolutionary war and not ratified until seventeen eighty one, but during
that time. American statesmen and citizens alike concluded that the articles were just too weak to fulfil a governor
Its core function
consensus produce the constitutional convention of seventeen. Eighty seven, which
met in Philadelphia that some are to write the document which we have today
a testament to those framers wisdom and skill that the cost
In addition, they produce remains the longest continually operating written constitution
in the history all
the long and storied history of humans, the meaning and per
some of the constitution of seventeen
eighty seven, however, cannot be understood without Rico,
to the principles of the declaration of independence, human equality for requirement of for government. By can
and and the securing of natural rights which the
detention is intended to embody, protect and nurture
Lincoln, famously describe the principles of the declaration, borrowing from proverbs twenty five eleven as
apple of gold and the count
petition as
frame of silver meant to adorn
and preserve the apple.
letter was made for the former, not the reverse.
The form of the new government that the constitution delineate is informed in part by the charges,
declaration levels at the british ground, for instance, the colonists charge the british king with
failing to provide or even interfering with representative government, hence the
institution provides for a representative legislature in
so charges the king with concentrating executive legislature and judicial power into the same hands. We
James Madison, pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Instead, the founders organise their new government into three coequal branches
in balancing the power of each against the others to reduce the risk of abuse of power. The intent of the framers of the constitution was to construct a government that would sufficiently be strong enough to perform those essential tasks that only a government can perform, such as establishing justice
ensuring domestic tranquillity providing for the common defence and promoting the general welfare
Those are the main tasks named in the documents preamble, but not
so strong as too.
Jeopardize the people's liberties, in other words,
the new government needs to be strong enough to have the power to secure rights without
having so much power as to enable or encourage it to infringe on those rights. More specific
lay the framers intended the new constitution to keep the thirteen states united.
To prevent the break up of the union into two or more smaller countries. While,
maintaining sufficient latitude and liberty for the individual states
the advantages of the union, are detailed in the first fourteen papers of the federalists, a series of essays written to urge the constitution's adoption and boil down to preventing and deterring foreign
adventurism in North America, avoiding conflict between threats,
cheating economies of scale and
utilizing the diverse resources of the continent
while the constitution is fundamentally compact among the american people, its first seven words are we the people of the United States? It was
modified by special conventions in those states, the peoples of the state's admired and cherish their state governments all
which had adopted republican constitutions before a federal constitution was completed
Hence the framers of the new national government had to respect the states prior existence and jealous guarding of their own prerogatives. They also believe that the role of the federal government should be limited to performing those tasks that only a national government can do, such as providing for the nation security or regulating commerce between
states and that
Those tasks were properly the responsibility of the individual states,
I believe that strong states as competing power centres would act
counterweights against a potentially overweening central government,
in the same way that the separation of powers, checks and balances the
branches of the federal government.
For the founders. The principle that just government requires the consent of the government in turn requires
republicanism because
the chief way that consent is granted to a government is on an ongoing basis through the people's participate,
vision in the political process,
this is the reason the constitution guarantees to every,
State in this union are republican for
of government. End quote:
the United States Constitution, the people are sovereign
The people dont directly exercise their sovereignty, for instance, by voting directly in popular assemblies
either they do so indirectly through a representative institution.
This is the most basic level, a practical requirement in a reply
like with a large population and extent of territory,
but it is also intended to be a remedy to the defects that are common to all republics. Up to that time
see the framers of the constitution. Faced
two fold challenge they had to assure, though
alarmed by historic record that the new government was not too republican in simply copy
Old, failed forms, while also reassuring those concerned about
overweening, centralized power that the government of the new constitution was republican enough to secure equal neck,
bright and prevent the real.
margins of tyranny will
main cause of prior republican failure or class conflict and tear
many of the majority in the Sis
is terms the largest single faction in any republic
tend to band together and unwisely wheeled their numerical strength against unpopular minorities, leading
the conflict and eventually the lapse of time
There's primary remedy was
union itself.
against the old idea that republics had to be small. The founders
countered that the very smallness of prior republics all but guaranteed their failure in small rip
like the majority, can be more easily organised and they can organise themselves into a dominant faction in large republics interests.
comes to numerous for any single faction to dominate
The inherent or potential partisan and wisdom
of the dominant faction all
would be tempered by a representative government rather than
the people acting as a body. The people instead would select office holders that would represent them. This week,
quote refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens whose
system may best discern the true interests of their country and whose pay
criticism and love of justice.
who would be the least likely to sacrifice to temporary or power
Your considerations end quote and and
separation of powers. It would work in concert
with the principle of representation
I incentivize each individual office holders
identify their personal interests with the powers and prerogatives of their office and thus
them alert to the danger of encroachments from
other branches and offices. The founders asserted that these innovations and others combined
to create a republicanism that was
at once old,
and is well knew
true to the eternal principles and timeless ends of good government, but a weight to
when corrective of the deficiencies in prior examples of popular rule, one important feature and our written constitution
the way, very careful way it
limits the powers of each branch of government. That is its states. What those
anxious can do and by
location. What they may not do this
the real meaning of limited government signed about the government size or funding levels. They were
Small, its
really more about the government's power and the activity
is the government- does name
remain limited to a certain
carefully defined area or two and
spawns abilities as guarded by the Bye camera, Lissom federalism and this
separation of powers.
Institution was intended to endure, but because the found
where's knew well that no document,
by human beings, would ever be perfect or anticipate every future contingency. They provided
or a process to amend the document, but only by
popular decision making and not by ordinary legislation or judicial degree. The first
ten amendments
come known as the bill of rights, and they were included at the debate
and of those especially concerned about vesting. The federal government would do much power and who wanted an enumeration of specific rights that
a new government lawfully, could never transgress but
We agreed that these substantive rights are not granted by the government. Any
government exists only to secure those rights.
And they specifically noted in the ninth amendment that the bill
I was a selective and not an exclusive list. That is
the mere fact that a right is not mentioned in the bill of rights is,
proof nor evidence that it doesn't exist it in
to note the founders understanding of these rights that are.
Decisive for Russia
like in government and
Success of the founders project, our first freedom
Just liberty is for
was a moral requirement of the natural freedom of the human mind. As discussed in Appendix II
it is also the indispensable solution to the police
religious problem that emerged in the modern world.
It is both a matter of private conscience and public import. We
Why the founders encourage religious free exercise but barred the government from establishing one national religion. The point it is not
merely to protect the state from religion, but also to protect religion from
state, so that
Legists institutions could flourish and pursue their divine mission among men like religious
liberty. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is required
by the freedom of the human mind. More plainly
the requirement for any government in which the people choose the direction of the government policy to choose requires public deliberation and debate a people that cannot public
we express its opinions. Exchange ideas are openly argue about the course
its government is not free. Finally, the
right to keep him bear. Arms is required by the fundamental natural right to life.
No man may justly be denied the means of his own defense, the political
Significance of this right is hardly less important and armed people is a people
capable of defending their liberty. No
than their lives and
the last desperate check again
the world's worst tyranny art for
challenges to America's principles.
challenges to constitutional government are frequent and are to be expected.
A popular government based on consent,
in his farewell address. George Washington advised his countrymen that, when it came to the preservation of the constitution, they should resist with care the Spirit
innovation upon its principles, however, specious the pretext,
the constitution has proven sturdy against narrow interest groups that seek to change elements of the constitution merely
get their way
at the same time, it is important to know that
design. There is room in the constitution for significant change and reform. Indeed, great reforms, abolition women's
suffrage anti communism, the civil rights,
its movement, the pro life movement
I've come forward that improve.
our dedication to the principles of our declaration of independence. Under the constitution, more
problematic and been movements that reject the fundamental truths of the declaration of independence and seek to destroy our constitutional order. The art
since the tactics and the names of these movements have changed
and the magnitude of the challenge has very yet they are all united by adherence to the same falsehood that people do not have equal worth and equal rights.
at the infancy of our republic, the threat was a despotic king, violated the people's rights and overthrew the colonists, longstanding tradition of self government. After decades of struggle, the colonists succeeded in establishing a more perfect union founded not upon the capricious whims of a tyrant, but Republic
laws and institutions founded upon self, evident and eternal truth.
It is the sacred duty of every generation american patriots to defend this priceless inheritance slavery,
the most common charge, levelled against the founders enhance against our country itself.
They were hypocrites who didn't believe in their own stated principles and therefore the country they built.
Rests on a lie: discharges on crew. It's done enormous damage, especially in recent years. With the
devastating effect on our civic unity in social fabric. Many Americans labour under the illusion that slavery was somehow a uniquely american evil. It is essential to insist at the outset that the institution is seen in a much broader perspective. It's hard for people brought up in the conference of Modern America at a time when which the
idea that all human beings have invulnerable rights inherent
dignity. It's almost taken for granted to imagine the crew.
all and enormities that were endemic in earlier times tart, but the
Fortunate fact is: the institution of slavery has been more
the rule, then exception
out human history. It was the western worlds, repudiation of slavery, not just beginning
the bill at the time of the American Revolution, which marked a dramatic sea change in moral sensibilities. The american founders we're living on the costs of this change in a matter that spraddled two worlds: George, Washington, own slaves, buddy
came to the test the practice and wished for a plan adopted for the abolition of it.
By the end of his life, he freed all the slaves in his family estate. Thomas Jefferson also held slaves and yet included in his original handwritten draft of the declaration. A strong condemnation of slavery, which was removed at the insistence of certain slaveholding delegates inscribed in marble and is memorial in Washington D C, is Jefferson's foreboding reference to the injustice of slavery. I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God it's just and that his justice cannot sleep forever. End quote
James Madison saw to it at the constitutional convention that, even when the
institution compromised with slavery. It never used the word slave to do so
no mere semantics. He insists
did that it was wrong to admit in the constitution the idea that there could be property in men
indeed, the compromises at the constitutional convention were just that compromises
three fifths compromise was proposed by an anti slavery delegate to prevent the south from counting their slaves as whole person was for the purpose of increasing their congressional representation. This
called fugitives slave clause, perhaps the most hated protection of all accommodate
pro slavery. Delegates who is
written. So the constitution did not sanctions slavery in this
it's where it existed, there is
so a provision in the constitution that forbade any restriction of the slave trade. For twenty years. After
vacation at which time Congress immediately outlawed.
slave trade liver,
Continental Congress agreed to discontinue the slave trade in boycott other nations that engaged in it in the second concept:
digital Congress. They reaffirmed this policy,
the northwest ordinance. A pre constitutional law passed to govern the western territories and past again by the first Congress and sign into law by President George Washington, explicitly,
ban slavery from those territories and free
any other states that might
organize their
above all there.
clear language in the declaration itself
We all these truths to be self evident that all men are created. Equal
No new slavery was incompatible with that truth. It's in
and to remember that, as a question of practical politics known durable union,
have been formed without a compromise among the states on the issue of slavery
it reasonable to believe that slavery could have been abolished sooner and the slave states, not men in the union?
with the free, maybe but
What is momentous is that
people that included slaveholders founded their nation on the proposition that all men are created equal, so
why did they say that without immediately abolishing slavery to a stand,
the principle of consent as the grounds of all political legitimacy and check against any possible
future drift towards the return of despotism for sure, but also
Lincoln's words to declare the right so that the enforcement of it
follow as fast as the circumstances should permit end quote.
the Foundation of our republic planted the seeds of death of slavery in America.
Declarations, unqualified proclamation of human equality flatly contradicted the existence of human bondage, along with the constitution's compromise
understood in light of that proposition, it set the stage for abolition the movement to abolish slavery that first began in the United States led the way in bringing about an end to all legal slavery
Benjamin Franklin was the president of the Pennsylvania society for the promoting of the abolition of slavery. John
The first chief justice of the Supreme Court was
the president of of similar society in New York
John Adams oppose slavery. His entire life as a foul contagion in the human character and an evil of colossal magnitude. End quote:
Frederick Douglass he
born a slave, but he escaped and eventually
became a prominent spokesperson for the abolitionist moment in this.
we condemned the constitution,
After studying its history,
to insist that it was quote a glorious liberty document and that
Declaration of independence was quote the ring bolt to the chain of your nations. Destiny, end quote:
and yet over the first half of
nineteenth century a growing number of Americans increasingly deny the truth. The heart, the founding
Senator John C Calhoun of South Carolina famously rejected the declarations, principles of equality as the most dangerous of all political error.
And a self evident lie. He never doubted
The founders meant what they said to this. Rejection,
Calhoun added a new theory in which
right in here, not in every individual, by the laws of nature and natures God. But
in groups or races according to historical evolution
this new theory was developed to protect slavery.
Claimed was positive, good and specifically, to prevent.
lawful majorities from stopping
spread of slavery in two federal territories, where it did not yet exist
in the way our fathers originally left. The slavery question the institution was in the course of ultimate extinction and the public
I rested in the belief that it was in the
course of ultimate extinction-
Abraham Lincoln observed in eighteen,
Fifty eight quote, all I have asked or desired anywhere, is
It should be placed back upon again. The basis
what the founders of our government originally placed it upon. This
Flight was resolved, but at a cost of more than six hundred thousand lives
constitutional amendments were passed to abolish slavery, grand equal protection on law.
In tee the right to vote regardless of race, yet the damage
done by the denial of core american principles and by the attempted Sub
the tradition of a theory of group rights in their place.
proved widespread and long lasting
these, indeed, are the jury.
the ancestors of some of the destructive theories that today divide our people and tear the fabric of the country apart, progressive, is,
and the decades that followed the civil war in response to the industrial revolution and the expansion of urban society. Many american elites adopted a series of ideas to address these changes called
aggressive ism
although not all, of one peace and not without its practical merits, the polluter
we thought of Progressive ISM, held that the time
was had moved far beyond the founding era, and that contemporary society was way too complex to any longer being governed by principles formulated in the eighteenth century. To use it
Contemporary analogy progressives believed that America's original software, the founding documents
we are no longer compatible or capable
of operating America's vast, more complex hardware, the
vast industrial society that had emerged since the founding was changing everything more. So
difficultly the progressives held that the truth or not permanent, but only relative to their time. They rejected the self evident truth that the declaration of independence, all men, are created, equal and endowed equally either.
Nature, or by God, as unchanging rights as well,
prominent progressive historian wrote nineteen twenty two to ask whether the natural rights for lost
three of the declaration of independence is true or false,
is essentially a meaningless question. End quote: instead,
progressive believe there were only
Group rights that are key
steadily redefined and changed with the times. Indeed, society has the power and the obligation not only to define and grant new rights, but also
take away all rights, as the country develops
based on this false understanding of rights. The progressive designed a new system of government instead of securing fundamental rights grounded in nature government operate
being under a new theory of the living constitution.
Constantly evolve to secure evolving rights in order to keep
With these changes, government would be run more and more by credential managers, but with indirect society through rules and regulations they would move.
To the currents of the time
we became president nodded states. Woodrow Wilson laid out
This new system, whereby the functions of government are
a very real sense, independent of legislation
even constitutions, and quote that meant that this
new view of government would operate in
Pendant of the people
far from creating omniscient body of civil servants, led only by pragmatism or science, though
progressives instead created what amounts to a fourth branch of government called at times.
the bureaucracy or the administrative state. This shadow government, now
faces. Elections and today operates largely without checks and balances.
There's always opposed government unaccountable to the people and without constitutional restraint, and yet it continues to grow all around us:
fascism. The principles
The declaration have been threatened not only at home, but in the twentieth century too.
Global movements threatened to destroy freedom and subject mankind to a new kind of slavery.
ideological cousins, the forces of fascism and communism or bitter enemies in their wars to achieve world domination. What united, both totalitarian movements was their utter disdain for natural rights and free peoples. Fascism,
First arose in ITALY under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, largely in response to the rise of bolshevism in Russia. Like the progressives Mussolini sought to centralize power under the management of so called experts, all power, corporate
and political would be exercised by the state and directed towards the same goal.
individual rights and freedoms hold no purchase under fascism. It
principle is instead in Mussolini's words everything in the state, nothing,
outside the state, nothing against the state. Eventually, Adolf Hitler in Germany, where this militant and dehumanizing political movement into his pseudo scientific theory of Erin racial superiority and nazi fascism was born. The Nazi juggernaut quickly conquered much of Europe. The rule of the axis powers is not a government based on the consent of the government and quote said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It is not a union of ordinary self respecting men and women to protect themselves and their freedom and their dignity from oppression is an unholy alliance of power and power to dominate and enslave the human race and before the Nazis could threaten America in our own hemisphere, United States, Builtin arsenal,
democracy, greening more ships play.
means tanks and munitions. Eventually,
America rose up
and sending troops by the millions across the oceans to preserve freedom everywhere
american troops went.
They embodied in their own ranks, brought with them the principles of the declaration, liberating peoples and restoring freedom. Yet, while fascism died and nineteen forty five with the collapse of the axis power, it was quickly replaced by a new threat, the rest,
The twentieth century was defined by the United States, Mortal
and moral battle. Against the forces of communism, competence, communism seems to preach a radical or extreme form of human equality, but at its core, wrote Karl Marx is the idea of the class struggle. Is the immediate driving force of history and, more specifically, the struggle between the Bourgeois and
lottery. It in the car
It's mine people are
for in free and equal. They are defined entirely by their class
you're communism. The purpose of government is not to secure rights at all. Instead, the goal is for a class struggle that necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat end quote:
so, by its very nature, this plan
struggle would be violent, quote:
Communist disdain,
conceal their views and aim smarts wrote they open
declare that there and
can be obtained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions
the ruling class tremble at a common.
asked revolution end quote
this radical rejection of human dignity spread throughout much of the world in Russia.
the bloody Bolshevik revolution during World WAR, one establish
The Communist Soviet Union
communism understands itself as a universal list, movement of global conquest and commune,
dictatorships eventually seized power through much of Europe. Asia,
significant parts of Africa and South America.
By the Soviet Union, communism even threatened or aspired to threaten our liberties. Here at all. What it could not
chief through force of arms in attempting
through subversion
communism did not succeed in fomenting revolution in America.
Communism's, relentless anti american anti western and atheistic propaganda
did inspire thousands, perhaps millions to reject and despite
the principles of our found.
Can our government, while I'm here
can its allies eventually one the cold war? This legacy of anti Americanism is by no means
entirely a memory but still pervades,
of academia and the Inn
actual and cultural spheres.
increasingly accepted economic theory of socialism, while less violent and communism isn't
by the same flawed philosophy and leads down the same dangerous path of allowing the state, the seas, private property,
redistribute wealth, as
governing elite, see fit
for generations. American stood
is the bulwark against global communism are cold. War victory was
owing not only to our superior technology economy, military
in the end, America, one because the Soviet Union was built upon a lie
his prisoner Ronald Reagan, said,
I have seen the rise of fascism and communism
Both series fail both
and I those God given liberties that are inalienable right of
each person on this planet. Indeed, they deny the existence of God and quote racism.
An identity politics
Thirteen amendment to the constitution asked after the civil war brought an end to legal slavery. Blacks enjoyed a new
equality and freedom voting for and holding elective office in states all across the union.
It did not bring an end to racism or the unequal tree
meant of blacks everywhere. Despite the determined efforts of the Post war, Reconstruction Congress to establish civil equality for freed slaves,
post, Vellum South ended up devolving into a system that was hardly any better than slavery. The system.
Imagine, freed men in relationships of extreme dependency and use pole, tax literacy test and the violence of the vigilante groups like the coup Klux clan, to provide
them for exercising their civil rights, particularly the right to vote.
Jim Crow laws in force the strict segregation of the races and gave legal standing to some states to a pervasive subordination of blacks. It would take a national movement composed of
people from different races, ethnicities nationalities and religions to bring
out and America fully committed to ending legal discrimination. The civil rights movement,
culminated in the nineteen sixties, passage of three major legislative reforms affecting segregation, voting and housing rights. It presented itself and was understood by the american people as consistent with the principles of the founding. When the architects of our republic wrote those magnificent words of the constitution in the declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall. Air Martin Luther King Jr
That's what he said and, as I have a dream speech quote-
this note was
promise that all men- yes black men as well as white men, would
guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and quote
It seemed finally that America
nearly two century effort
to realize fully the principles
declaration had reached combination, but the heading
spirit of the original civil rights movement, whose leaders forcefully quoted the day,
duration of independence, the car
the petition, the rhetoric of the founders end of Lincoln prove too.
Short lived.
the civil rights movement was almost immediately turned to programmes that ran counter to lofty ideals of the founders. Thee
De as the drove, this change had been growing in Amerika for decades and they distorted many areas of policy in the half century that followed
among the distortions, was the abandonment of non discrimination and equal opportunity in favour of group rights.
not unlike those advanced by Calhoun and his followers. Earlier, the justification for reversing the promise of color blind civil rights was the past. Discrimination requires present effort or affirmative action in the form of preferential treatment to overcome those long crude inequalities,
those forms of preferential treatment, build up in our system over time. First
in administrative rulings, then Eggs
give orders later in congressional passed laws and finally sanctified
Supreme Court itself. Today,
far from a regime of equal natural rights for equal citizens enforced
pulling the through the application of law. We have
move towards a system of explicit group privilege
that in the name of social justice, demands equal results and explain
lay sword, citizens into protected classes based on race and other democratic categories.
eventually this regime of formal inequality
become known as identity politics, the step child
earlier rejections of the founding identity politics
Gaston Appendix three. It values
people by characteristics like race, sex and sexual orientation and holds that new Times demand new rights to replace the old. This is
opposite of kings, hope
children would quote
in a nation where there were not judge by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. End quote:
It also denies
all are endowed with inalienable rights. Life liberty in the pursuit of happiness, identity, Pollack,
makes it less likely that racial reconstruction and healing can be obtained by pursuing more
other kings dream for America
holding the highest ideals of our constitution and
declaration of independence, part five
ask of national renewal
all the good things we see around us from the physical infrastructure to our high standards of living to our exceptional freedoms are direct results of America's unity, stability and justice, all of which, in turn rest on the bedrock of our founding principles.
Our country is in danger of throwing this inheritance away
before us now is clear. We
We choose the truths of the declaration,
Or will we fall prey to the full
theories that have led to many nations to tyranny. It's our mission, all of us.
To restore our national unity by
kindling a brave and honest love for our country.
And by raising new generations of citizens who not only know the self evident truths of our founding, but then act worthy of this great
Object of national renewal depends
untrue education, not merely training in particular skills, but the formation of citizens
to remain a free people. We must have the knowledge, strength and virtue of a free people.
From families and schools to popular culture and public policy. We must begin teaching our founding principles and the character necessary to live out these principles. The single
restoring patriotic education that teaches
truth about America,
that doesn't mean ignoring the faults in our past, but
other viewing our history clearly and wholly with reverence and love
We must also prioritize personal responsibility in the fulfilling of duties. We have toward one another as citizens, but above all,
We must stand up to the petty tyrants in every sphere, who demand that we see
only of America's sins
while denying her greatness at home at school, at the workplace in the world.
Old, it is the people, and only the people who have the
our to stand up for Amerika,
and defend our way of life.
The role of the family
nature. Families are the first educators teaching children out a treat others with respect, make wise decisions, exercise patients think for themselves
steadfastly guard their God. Given liberties, it's good
mothers and good fathers of all others
form good people and
citizens. This is what
America's founding fathers often echoed the great roman statesmen, Cicero, in referring to the family as the seminary of the republic. They interest
that the habits and morals shaped in the home determine the character of our communities and ultimate fate of our constitution and our country
when our children see their mother and father hard at work. There
in the dignity of labour.
The reward of self discipline when it
speak out against dangerous doctrines that threaten our freedoms and values,
Children learn the time, tested concept of free expression,
courageous spirit of american independence when
parents serve a neighbour in need them.
charity they prove that every human being has inherent worth
and when families pray together they acknowledge together
Providence of the Almighty God who
all of us are
liberty,
American Republic to endure families must remain strong and reclaim their duty to raise
moral responsible citizens who love America who embrace the gifts and responsibilities of freedom and self government.
teaching America. The prime
Duty of schools is to teach students the basic skills needed to function in society, such as reading, writing and mathematics as discussed
an appendix for our founders, also recognised a SEC
An essential task. Educators must convey a sense of enlightened patriotism that equips each generation with the knowledge of America's founding principles. A deep reverence for their liberties and a profound love of their country. Make no mistake,
love we're talking about is something different and romantic or familial love something
not be imposed by teachers or schools or government, edicts least of all
free country like any
love worthy of the name. It must be improved.
Freely and
strong and unsentimentalism enough
to coexist with elements of disappointment, criticism, descent, opposition
leaving shame that come with a man,
majority and open eyes
but it is love all the same, and without the
deep foundation. It supplies are republic, will pair
state and local governments, not the federal government or research,
simple for adopting curricular that too,
children. The principles that unite inspire and ennoble all Americans
this includes the lessons on the revolutionary war. The declaration of independence with constitutional convention educators should teach an accurate history of how the permanent principles of America's founding have been challenged and preserved. Since one thousand seven hundred and seventy six by studying America's true heritage,
learn to embrace and preserve
the triumphs of their forefathers while identifying and avoiding their mistakes stay
it's in school district should reject any curriculum that promotes one sided and partisan opinions, activists
propaganda or
action ideologies that demean America's heritage, dishonor our euros or deny our principles.
any time, teachers or administrators, promote political agendas in the classroom. They abuse their platform and dishonor every family who trust them with their children's education and moral development, quote
Law liberty. Can
rationally become the object of our love. Wrote
Father James Wilson,
unless they for
become the object of our knowledge and quote students.
talk to understand America's exceptional principles and America's powerful history grow into strong citizens who respect the rule of law and protect the country they know and love
a scholarship of freedom?
universities in the United States are often today hotbeds of anti americanism libel and censorship. That combined
to generate in students and in the broader culture
At the very least, a disdain and, worse outright hatred of our country,
the founders insisted that university should be at the core of preserving american republicanism by instead
students and future leaders of its true bases and instilling in them not just an understanding but a reverence for it.
Principles and core document today are higher education system. Does almost
Actually the opposite. Col
just pedal, resentment and contempt for american principles in history alive in the process,
weakening attachment to our shared heritage
in order to build up a healthy, United Citizenry Scholars, students and all american
must reject the false and fashionable ideologies that obscure facts ignore historical context and tell America's story solely as one of oppression and victim would, rather than one of imperfection, but also
president of chief meant towards freedom and happiness and fairness for all
historic, revisionism that tramples
honest scholarship and historic truth,
shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors and teaches claims of systemic racism. They can only be eliminated by more discrimination. Is an ideology intended to manipulate opinions,
much more than educate minds,
deliberately destructive scholarship shatters the civic bonds that unite us,
all of us
its silences. The discourse essential to a free society, by breeding division, distrust and
hatred among its citizens and
is the intellectual force by some
the violence in our cities: suppression of free,
speech on our universities, and
information over treasure. National statutes and symbols.
To restore our society. Academics must return.
to their vocation of relentlessly pursuing the truth and
engaging in honest scholarship that seeks
to understand the World and America's place in it,
the american mind
Cons, yearn for timeless stories and noble heroes than inspire them to be good, brave, diligent daring
generous, honest
and and compassion
millions of Americans devour histories of the American Revolution in civil war and they thrilled to the tales of Washington and Jefferson
certain Franklin League in Grand soldier
Truth and Frederick Douglass. We
still read the tales of Hawthorne Melville in TWAIN Po. Poems
Whitman chickens,
on Independence day. We still hung John Philip Susan Stars and stripes forever,
We even sing along what he got three. This land is your latin Americans,
applaud the loyalty love
I'm shared
by the March
sisters in little women
here, the rugged liberty of the cowboys and old westerns cheer
the adventurous spirit of the young Tom Sawyer. These guys
works have withstood the test of time because they speak to eternal truths and embody the american Spirit. It's up to
Work is artists, authors and filmmakers musicians, social media, influencers and other
cultural leaders to carry on this tradition by once again giving shape and voice too
because self understanding to be what Jefferson called an expression of the american mind to them.
calls the creative task of writing stories and songs and scripts Del brisk
for every Americans conviction to embrace the good to leave,
a virtuous life and too
act with an attitude of hope toward a better and bolder future for themselves or their families, and for the entire nation in world reverend.
for the laws
The principles of equality and consent mean
that all are equal before the law. No one is above the law.
And no one is privilege to just ignore the law, just
No one is outside of the law in terms of protection
in his lyceum address a young, Abraham, Lincoln, warned of two results of growing disregard for the rule of law. The first,
mob rule whenever the vicious portion of our population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands and burn churches ram
and Rob provision stores, throw print
presses into rivers. Shoe
editors and hang in burn obnoxious. Persons at pleasure and without impunity depend on it,
government cannot last
but Lincoln also warned of the great ambition
thirst for distinction.
And, although quote, he will,
as willingly, perhaps even more so acquire it by doing good as harm.
Yet that opportunity being passed, has nothing left to be done in the way of building up,
So he will set boldly the task of pulling down
whether the left or right, both mob rule in two
Ethical rule violate the rule of law,
as both are rule by the base of passions rather than the
better angels of our nature, both equally threatened.
Our constitutional order, when,
times go unpunished, or what
good men, do nothing
the lawless and spirit will become lawless in practice, leading to violence and demagoguery,
patriotic education must have at its centre a risk.
back for the rule of law, including the declaration and constitution, so that we may have what John Adams called quote: a government of laws and not of men, and I quote in the end
Lincoln solution must be ours,
Let every American every lover of liberty every well wish her to his posterity swear by the blood of the revolution, never to violate in the least particular. The laws of the country
never tolerate their violation by others.
as the patriots of seventy six did to the support of the declaration of independence. So too
the support of the constitution and laws. Let every American pledge his life his property and is sacred honour. Let every man remember
to violate the law is to trample, on the blood of his father, to tear the character of his own.
Children's liberty
reverence for the laws be brief.
By every american mother to the list
Babe prattle
on her lap guitar,
schools and seminaries in colleges- let it be,
in primrose in spelling books in Amman. Let it be preached from the pulpit proclaimed in the legislative halls and enforced in the courts of justice. End quote
version on the one hundred and fifty eight anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence
Calvin Coolidge raised in mortal banner in his time
it is often asserted. He said
that the world is made a great deal of progress in seventeen. Seventy six and therefore we may very well discard their conclusions for something more modern.
That reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter
All men are created equal. That's final,
if there are endowed with inalienable rights. That is final
Governments drive there just powers from the consent of the government. That is final know it
and no progress can be made beyond these propositions. End quote
is founding principles are true not because any generation, including our own, has lived up to them perfectly, but because they are based upon the eternal truth of the human condition they are rooted in our capacity for evil and power for good
are longing for truth and striving for justice, our need for order and our love of freedom,
Above all else, these principles recognised the worth equality.
potential dignity and glory of
each and every man, woman and child created in the image of God.
Throughout our history
our heroes, men and women, young and old, black and white of many fates and from all parts of the world.
have changed America for the better. By abandoning these truths, but by appealing to them
upon these universal ideas. They built a great nation, unified a strong people and formed a beautiful way
of life, that's worth defend
to be an american,
something noble in good
Treasury freedom and embracing vitality, self government, we're sure
by the beauty, bounty and wilderness of our
united by the glory of our history, we are discussed
English by the american virtues of openness, honesty, optimism, determination, generosity, confidence, kindness, hard work, courage, hope, that's, who we are,
our principles, did not create these virtues, but they lay
the groundwork for them to grow in, spread and forge America into,
those just inglorious country and all of human history. Now, as we approach the two hundred and
if the anniversary of our independence,
We must resolve to teach future generations of Americans and accurate history of our country so that we,
all learn and cherish
our founding principles once again
we must renew the pride and gratitude we have for this incredible nation, we're all.
I too call home
We appreciate America for what she truly is. We know that our
declaration is worth preserving our constitution worth defending
our fellow citizens worth loving,
our country worth fighting for
Our task now to renew this commitment,
so we proclaim the words of our forefathers use two and a half centuries ago 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 ours.
Great honour.
Transcript generated on 2021-07-22.