Denver Catholic

The Declaration and Constitution are inf luenced by an amalgamation of Christian principles and ancient and modern political thought, including John Locke, an inf luential 17th-century philosopher. Locke argued that natural rights of "life, libert y and propert y," are endowed within man's being and known through human reason and the "laws of nature" in which all are "equal and independent." 1 Modern social contract theory suggests man must enter into a social contract (form a government) to protect these rights, but the American founders did not present Lockean natural rights in the context of European Enlightenment, rather as part of a greater picture political thought and theology that inf luenced the founding of America. The political thought of the Amer- ican founders was formed by classi- cal education in Greek and Roman political regimes, the English repub- lican tradition in the common law and Magna Carta, 2 and the natural law tradition from Medieval theo- logians such as St. Thomas Aquinas and ancients such as Aristotle and Cicero. 3 Even though early America was predominantly Protestant, there was an inclination of the Founders to the medieval centuries where Catholic theology dominated man's understanding of human nature. 4 With this in mind, it is clear the founders crafted a distinct American experiment, the first nation to ever be conceived as a self-government, centered on the blessings of libert y. 1 John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Sec 6 (1689). 2 Russel Kirk, The Roots of American Order, (Delaware: ISI), 2003, p. 194. 3 Matthew Spalding, We Still Hold These Truths, (Delaware: ISI Books), 2010, p. 41. 4 Russel Kirk, The Roots of American Order, (Delaware: ISI), 2003, p. 178. What did the Founders mean? 12 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2024 | DENVER CATHOLIC John Adams, painting by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1800-1815.

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