America at 250: Notes and Discussion Guide

AMERICA AT 250: A TWO-SEMESTER COURSE OF STUDY
The Open Discourse Coalition with Bucknell University

https://america250.blogs.bucknell.edu/2025/08/05/america-at-250-discussion-guide/

UNIV 119, America at 250: Telling the Story
Fall Semester, Fridays Noon to 12:50, Quarter Credit
Aug. 29 through Dec. 5, except Nov. 20 Thanksgiving Break

UNIV 119, America at 250: The Founding Documents as Enduring Literature
Spring Semester, Time TBA, Quarter Credit

Instructor: Rev./Prof. Paul Siewers, Bucknell University, asiewers@bucknell.edu     

About Your Instructor:  Prof. Siewers holds a Ph.D. in English, and a B.A. and M.A. in History. As an undergraduate, he majored in U.S. history at Brown with Prof. Gordon Wood as an instructor, an eminent early American scholar. He has worked as an award-winning journalist covering current issues of the American experience. In American fashion, while a Russian Orthodox priest, he is also a direct descendant of one of the New Englanders who fought at the Battle of Lexington in 1775.

Two quotes for introductory reflections

“Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had been free, and we meant to be free always. They didn’t mean we should.”

–Captain Levin Preston, 91-year-old veteran of Lexington and Concord, in 1843 interview with a college student

Now the Lexington bell began to clang in the wooden tower, hard by the meetinghouse. More gallopers rode off to rouse half a hundred villages. Warning gunshots echoed from farm to farm. Bonfires flared. Drums beat. Across the colony, in an image that would endure for centuries, solemn men grabbed their firelocks and stalked off in search of danger, leaving the plow in the furrow, the hoe in the garden, the hammer on the anvil, the bucket at the well sweep. This day would be famous before it dawned.

–Rick Atkinson, writing of April 19, 1775, the leadup to the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolution

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Nine Framing Questions for Weekly Discussions Throughout the Year:

• Is America, based on its founding, primarily an idea or a cultural homeland, or both? In examining the story and key texts of the American founding, is America a “propositional nation” based on an idea, or a country based on a particular culture? Or both?
• How was the American founding exceptional and why? The historical narrative and founding documents suggest the exceptional nature of the American founding. To what extent and in what way do they provide evidence for America as an exceptional country?
• What evidence is there for reading issues of race and economic class into the founding of America? It has been argued in recent years that race and economic concerns were primary in America’s founding, and that “1619” (marking the arrival of African slaves) and not “1776” was determinative. An evidence-based approach such as Atkinson’s suggests they were not the main determinants. But how do we assess such ideological concerns?

• What was the role of religious faith? What do the story of the American founding and its key documents tell us about the role of religious faith in the American republic then and now? How determinative of the founding was it, if it had a major role?
• What are different ways of reading the founding in story and texts, based on the traditional liberal arts? How can terms from classical liberal arts inform our analysis of narrative history of the American founding, as well as of foundational documents? For example, consideration of Aristotelian elements of plot, characterization, themes, and settings. Or ways of reading, such as: Historical, moral, allegorical, spiritual. Or types of causation: Material, efficient, formal, final.
• Was America’s founding a revolution in the modern sense, or a civil war as some participants suggested? Why or why not for each? Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his final work The Red Wheel characterized revolution as “retribution,” based on the Russian Revolution of 1917. How did the American Revolution differ from later Marxist definitions of revolution as class struggle, or the use of the term revolution in terms of cultural upheavel in the 20^th century?
• What are the personal lessons of leadership and character we can glean from the American founding, applicable to individual and family lives and careers today?
• As the American Revolution evolved, the Declaration and later the Constitution together became central to American culture. How did these founding documents came to fill a void left by the monarchy? Harvard historian Eric Nelson has argued that the Americans generally objected to Parliament more than to the King specifically, the monarch being more of a national symbol. The latter was transferred over to the Republic and the Presidency, Nelson argues. See if you find evidence for that trend as we move along in our reading.
• What is America today for you? How would you define America? Is the material we’re studying relevant to your experience and ideas of America in 2025?

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FIRST SEMESTER, AMERICA AT 250: TELLING THE STORY

Summary: Using a recently published and acclaimed narrative history of the American Revolution covering 1775 to 1780, we will examine causes of the American founding, issues of character and virtues with personal applicability, any lessons for today’s America, and issues of faith and American identity arising from the founding (see framing questions above for the entire year). In the process we will examine approaches to telling the story of America based on our readings, and differing ways of experiencing the founding today.

Textbooks for Fall Semester:

Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming

Rick Atkinson, The Fate of the Day

Intro: Overview of the Atkinson volumes.

Writing history is an art. In fact, one of the ancient Classical Muses, Clio, was patroness of history. A great narrative historian who lived during the time of the American Revolution in London, Edward Gibbon, is mentioned in passing in our readings. Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is one of the classic narrative histories of all time. Like Atkinson’s book it has both tremendous sweep and use of detail to describe a major historical event of global importance. Yet Gibbon despite his skill and achievement inevitably got some things wrong. For example, as mentioned in our book, Gibbon underestimated the Americans. In his history, he also stereotyped the role of Christians in Late Antiquity. But Gibbons’ influential historical writing still testifies to the importance of narrative in shaping our lives and communities, and engaging us with our past, while reminding us that we can and should also read historical narrative critically (Francis Parkman’s 19^th-century France and England in North America is another example of incredibly engaging narrative mixed with flaws). Atkinson’s project offers a grand narrative for events that deserve it, based carefully in factual research (indicated in extensive source notes), yet is told like a story with engaging details, and has gained critical acclaim from both liberals and conservatives in America on its recent publication. It is a grand sweep of story that many Americans are less familiar with today than even 50 years ago. As you read, consider the challenges of telling this story of America, why it may be worthwhile, and how it may be open to criticism, or not.

Atkinson’s writing project is planned to include three volumes covering the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783, two volumes of which have been written, which we’ll be reading, covering 1775 to 1780.

The first volume begins with a short quotation from George Washington right after the title page. Why was this quotation chosen, do you think? What themes and lessons from the story of the Revolution can be gleaned from it, and about the purposes of telling the story? Why was it selected?

Check out the map of the British Empire just inside the cover, and the map comparing the size of the American colonies with the size of the British Isles just before Part 1. Atkinson near in his later account of the fighting at Lexington and Concord at the start of the Revolution said a “new world” had begun. Is there anything in the geography that provides background for his statement?

Check out the notes and sources listed in this first volume on pp. 567-745. Although this is written as a story, it has a lot of research backing it as supporting evidence. Keep track of the notes related to your discussion focus section for class by keeping a marker in it.

Also, take a look at the photo-picture section between pages 300 and 301. What does the selection of images tell us about the Revolution and also the way its story is told here?

Finally, remember when reading and preparing your section for class discussion to consider the nine “framing” questions listed earlier above (p. 2 of this handout).

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Week 1, The British Are Coming: Through Lexington and Concord. Discussion Notes and Guide  (see updates for subsequent weeks at https://america250.blogs.bucknell.edu/2025/08/05/america-at-250-discussion-guide/)

Read Atkinson, The British Are Coming, Prologue, and Chapters 1 and 2.

This week’s readings will lead us up through the fighting at Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolution in 1775. As the Prologue indicates, factors involved in that beginning actually go back much further in history. For example, this timeline helps provide background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_American_Revolution

Those in class will each be assigned in advance to a group focusing on one section of the reading (Prologue, Chapter 1, or Chapter 2). Each individual group member will need to present on points from that focus section related to the nine framing questions above. Individually, prepare three points from three different framing questions, with a specific passage and page number to present to us. Prepare an analytical question related to the framing questions (not just a question about the “plot”), for each of your three points, and be prepared to ask them of the class and stimulate discussion.

Note: Scoring for semester grades will be based on attendance, participation, and evidence of preparation for effectively leading discussion on assigned sections.

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Prologue

–Inspecting the Fleet

This first section opens with King George III’s triumphant inspection of the British fleet in 1773. Why was this selected as the opening of the story? How does it convey the sweep and might of the British Empire at that time (considering also the map inside the book cover)?

This section includes a technique used throughout the history, a combination of flashback and mini-biography to establish a sense of a major character in the story, in this case first of all George III.

It includes the statement that Britain held “the greatest, richest empire since Rome.” Is that true? How/why is that significant to the story of the American Revolution, and to ways of reading it historically, morally (in terms of lessons of character), and also allegorically and spiritually (as offering metaphorical lessons about life and larger contexts of our place in the universe personally)?

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 had proclaimed a “new world order” for its day of “Christian, universal, and perpetual peace.” The warship that King George III boards on his inspection as told in this section is “the biggest, most complex machine in the eighteenth century.” What analogues or parallels or lessons might this background to the story offer for us today?

How does all this imperial background add to our potential sense of causes for the Revolution: Material (such as economic and racial), Efficient (such as political and personal frictions), Formal (such as differences in cultures and worldviews), and Final (any larger sense of purpose and inspiration or ideas involved)?

How does Atkinson’s use of details, such as the setting and people at the fleet inspection festivities, help inform the history, or not?

–Avenging the Tea

Here is an historical reason for Americans’ liking for coffee over tea generally. It’s an example of cultural foundations that keep on shaping cultures long after the reason is forgotten. A kind of trivial example, perhaps, but it illustrates why evidence-based understanding of the American founding is of cultural significance today when it comes to larger issues as well.

Adam Smith is mentioned in this section, advocating for Britain departing from colonial empire to focusing on growing her wealth through free economic markets instead. Was that view true? Why or why not?

King George III with his ministers are described as holding to three critical assumptions: 1.  Most Americans remained loyal to the Crown. 2. Firmness would restore harmony. 3. Failure to act firmly would lead to the coming apart of the British Empire—a “domino effect.” The Coercive or Intolerable Acts and the Quebec Act (applying to Canada but religiously controversial in America and illustrating religion as a factor in the Revolution) are expressions of these imperial assumptions as discussed in this section of the Prologue.

What kind of lessons can be learned from the way these assumptions informed ultimately unsuccessful policies? How may these assumptions have been limited by friction between medieval-religious and Enlightenment-rationlistic views in that era (which also existed on the American side)?

Recall the “four ways of reading” in classical liberal arts: Historical, moral, allegorical-metaphorical, spiritual. How could these be applied to the British assumptions? How could these assumptions be related to the classical view of four causes—material, efficient, formal, final, as we’ll discuss in class?

The formation of the Continental Congress at this time, along with a network of Committees of Safety throughout the American colonies, aimed at retaliating against British goods. What can we glean from this about economic causes of the Revolution and their relation to other causes?

London is described at the time also—with about 750,000 inhabitants, compared to 2 million people in the American colonies. To what extent did the Revolution also mark a divide between the urbanizing development of England and the mainly agrarian colonies?

Here Lord North, the British Prime Minister, is profiled. There is also a glance at William Pitt, an opponent in Parliament of firmness against the colonists. How do details about their background and character further the telling of the story of the Revolution, or sidetrack it? Why? In allegorical application, are there any lessons from the differences between North and Pitt for modern history?

Both King George III and many of the New England colonists who end up fighting against Britain at Lexington and Concord are described as pious and religious in their views. This may remind us of Abraham Lincoln’s observation about the later American Civil War that “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other.” What does this tell us about the nature of the Revolution? Was it, as some suggested, more a civil war? Why or why not?

–Preparing for War

Logistics of stocks of weapons and military supplies, together with numbers of soldiers, are discussed in this section.

What were the “divergent values and conflicting visions of a world to come” between the British and Americans described by Atkinson?

Both of the above issues in the account indicate a material and a spiritual (so to speak) level of reading the story of the American Revolution. How did these combine and is there one that was most decisive?

Atkinson here calls the Revolution a “civil war.” He also breaks down the “fourth wall” with us as readers to talk about the making of history. He indicates that the creation of the American republic “inspired a creation myth” as one of “mankind’s most remarkable achievements.” The reality he states would be both “grander and more nuanced” than the “melodramatic tale” of the myth. The actual tale was one he argues “of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Beyond the battlefield, then and forever, stood a shining city on a hill.” What does this mean?

This section also contains a mini-biography of Benjamin Franklin (with a brief description of Joseph Priestley, who ended his years living a short distance from Bucknell’s campus). How do the personal aspects of Franklin as described inform our understanding of character lessons for us, positive and negative, in the history of the American Revolution? There is a reference to concerns in Franklin’s correspondence with “an abridgement of the rights of English liberties” by the British in America. How can we unpack the meaning of that phrase, which sums up an important reason given by the revolutionaries of that time for “why we fight.” How/why were they fighting for an imagined legacy of the past, rather than in a modern revolutionary sense of a future utopia? How did that affect the nature of the American Revolution?

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Chapter 1, God Himself our Captain: Boston, March 6-April 17, 1775

The chapter title, taken from a quotation by a clergyman in the chapter, indicates the religious factor in the Revolution. This continues with the account of the sermon at Old South Church in Boston. Keep track of that theme as you read. It is one of our framing questions for discussion. How significant was the religious factor? Why or why not? How does it inform our understanding of America and world events today?

In the sermon scene, the crowd mistakes cries of “fie” for “fire.” This causes a stampede. To what extent are issues of fighting and war in the start of the American Revolution related to emotion and confusion? What lessons can be learned from that if any?

To what extent does the description of the character of General Gage, the British commander, inform the history, and why? How was his closing of Boston Harbor in 1774 a significant background to the outbreak of the Revolution at Lexington and Concord nearly a year later?

As General Gage and his British troops become effectively besieged in Boston, the Committees of Safe in Massachusetts (as elsewhere), under the Provincial Congresses and the Continental Congress of the Americans, “enforced loyalty oaths, stigmatized ideological opponents, and compelled fence straddlers to make hard choices.” This powerful network opposing British authoritarian control itself engaged in a kind of enforced social and political conformity in its cause. Did this contradict ideas of freedom at the time? Or did the notion of freedom in 1775 differ from common ideas of freedom in 2025?

In parallel with the Committees on Safety, Militia companies formed including “quick-reaction units” called “minute men,” supposed to be ready at a moment’s notice, who “reportedly carried their muskets even to church.” As the conflict opened at Lexington and Concord with such militia men gathered from local farmers and tradesmen (see the opening reflection quotations near the start of these notes, p. 1), there can be seen the basis for the idea of “gun rights” in America enshrined in the Second Amendment to the later U.S. Constitution. It has been argued in recent years that fear of slave rebellion inspired the Second Amendment, but the history of the risings against the British in New England appear to offer a different reason. How can we assess this historically?

Gage revised upwards his earlier low request for military presence: “If one million [soldiers] is thought enough, give two. You will save both blood and treasure in the end,” he told the British government in late 1774. What does this say about the nature of the American threat, and what can we learn from this?

We are reminded also in this section of two groups of people marginalized in society: Slaves and political dissenters. Slaves were not a large part of the New England population but were a presence. As the Revolution started in earnest, the British in Virginia would promise freedom to slaves of American revolutionaries in return for their support. Also the Tories as a despised segment of the American population are mentioned. Many ended up in Canada where they helped shape that country’s formation. To what extent do issues of slavery and (in another dimension) resistance by Tories seem to shape this account of the opening of the Revolution?

Atkinson terms the culture of New England as “A Calvinist people marinated in the doctrine of predestination,” who in 1774 “braced for the inevitable,” with intense preparations for war. How can we unpack this statement in discussion? What does it again suggest about religious causes for the war and for the shaping of American culture? (The Massachusetts Congress required militia soldiers to attend worship services and void profane oaths, with a fine for cussing.)

A British officer writing home mentioned how the people were “too puritanical” in Boston to allow theaters, even while “there’s perhaps no town of its size could turn out more whores than this could.” What does that suggest about contradictions we may not always see in historical accounts? (At the same time the locals complained about the British ice-skating on the Sabbath and their soldiers’ profane speech.)

“The indiscipline of a bored anxious army weighed on Gage.” This is a theme through this and our last chapter for the first week. The British soldiers, while regulars, did not show good discipline, as seen in their firing on rebels and looting.

Desertion rates among British soldiers throughout the Revolutionary War (high) are discussed in this section. Why would desertion be attractive to soldiers whose homes were in the British Isles? (Maybe it was partly details such as the only Christmas event in 1774 in the Boston garrison reportedly was the execution of a deserter.)

The chapter ends with a description of spy networks. Why and how was “intelligence” (together with use of media, technologically primitive-seeming to us) important in the American Revolution?

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Chapter 2, Men came down from the clouds, Lexington and Concord, April 18-19, 1775

How does Atkinson’s use of detailed storytelling at the start of this chapter contribute to the historical account, or not? Why?

Paul Revere’s mythic ride is given here with historical details. What does this characterization add to the historical narrative? What types of lessons about character and for communities today can it tell us? For the poetic version once memorized by many American schoolchildren, please read this: https://www.paulreverehouse.org/longfellows-poem/

In the lead-up to the fight at Lexington, Atkinson writes: Now the Lexington bell began to clang in the wooden tower, hard by the meetinghouse. More gallopers rode off to rouse half a hundred villages. Warning gunshots echoed from farm to farm. Bonfires flared. Drums beat. Across the colony, in an image that would endure for centuries, solemn men grabbed their firelocks and stalked off in search of danger, leaving the plow in the furrow, the hoe in the garden, the hammer on the anvil, the bucket at the well sweep. This day would be famous before it dawned.

Why does he say this should not really be called a Battle? How do the Lexington action and the battle at Concord form the opening bookend to the long American Revolutionary War? What can be learned historically about the causes, about lessons for our lives and historical situations today, and about issues of “gun rights,” if such lessons can be garnered from this historical account?

What do we learn from the characterizations of Captain Parker, Major Pitcairn, and Lord Hugh Percy on the British side in this chapter?

Why was the British attack, successful militarily at Lexington, so unsuccessful overall on the strike to Concord and the return to Boston?

How does the use of personal details from correspondence and journals of those on different sides add to or distract from the narrative? Choose an example.

Where did all the people come from referenced in the chapter title?

How did Concord’s economic situation provide a context for the military history?

Militiamen at Concord are described as including fifers playing a Jacobite air from a Scottish uprising in 1745. Look up the meaning of Jacobite as contrasted with Jacobin (there was a strong Scots-Irish and pro-Stuart element among the American revolutionaries). Can the difference between the two 18th century terms help us discern better the nature of the American Revolution?

The issue of “strangers” commanding the British troops highlights also the class differences among the British forces, between officers and soldiers. How is that an economic factor, as well as possibly a cultural and a military factor?

Atkinson quotes James Russell Lowell as referring to the battle at Concord as involving “that era-parting bridge,” across which the old world passed into the new. What does that mean? Is it true? Why or why not?

Here is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous poem about the Battle of Concord, please read it as part of your discussion preparation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45870/concord-hymn

Atkinson writes as the moon rose overnight on April 19-20, it “found the world changed, changed utterly,” and the beginning of almost a yearlong open siege of the British in Boston by the mainly rural militiamen.

At the end, British casualties from April 19 included 73 fatalities, and Americans 49 dead, with the number of wounded British soldiers far higher than the Americans. Does such data help fill in the story? How if so?

Atkinson tells of how word of the battle day spread quickly across New England thanks to riders like Revere. News of the clash and its successful outcome for the Americans was carried secretly by ship to a London newspaper, where it arrived faster than the official British Army dispatch, and was seen in the paper by King George III among others. How does this compare to the role of media today in conflict and society?

Yet we are also told that American preachers on the Sunday following, and for Sundays to come, preached lessons from the biblical book of Lamentations to their congregations, reminding them that suffering from war reflected divine judgment on sins, quoting: “The joy of our heart is ceased. Our dance is turned into mourning.” Joy was tempered with repentance. Why is this significant to mention, or not?

Atkinson concludes this key chapter by mentioning the tragedy of “fraternal blood-letting” in this Anglo-American world.

This reminds us of the words of a veteran of Lexington and Concord years later, who told a young student:

“Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had been free, and we meant to be free always. They didn’t mean we should.”

Another great narrative historian, Shelby Foote, in discussing the causes of the later American Civil War (1861-1865), observed how a captured ragged Confederate Solder told his Union captors, nevermind slavery and issues of the Constitution, “I’m fighting because you’re down here.”

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• Second Semester, The Founding Documents as Enduring Literature

We will examine the key founding documents—Declaration of Independence, Constitution, select Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, and the Gettysburg Address—as literature shaping American identity, purpose, and culture over time. How did they form the American story? How do we participate in the American story today, individually and in families and communities? How can we contribute to the American story as begun in these documents? (see also framing questions above)

Textbooks:

The American Constitutional Order: History, Cases, and Philosophy (4^th edition) with supplement, by Douglas Kmiec (Author), Stephen Presser (Author), John Eastman (Author)

The Debate on the Constitution: Federalist and Anti-Federalist Speeches, Articles, and Letters During the Struggle over Ratification 1787-1788: A Library of America Boxed Set

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address (handouts)

Introduction:

As we dive into the great texts of the American Founding, let’s consider how these in many ways are the founding literary materials of America as well as governmental, because the American story at large culturally is so interwoven with them. In the vacuum created by the sweeping away of monarchy from Anglo-America in the American Revolution, the Declaration and Constitution in many ways replaced kingship as the source of both symbolic unity and cultural debate.

Throughout the semester, please consider, in addition to the nine framing questions for the “America at 250” curriculum in general, these three questions in particular:

–How are the Declaration and Constitution connected?

–What is the role of religion in them?

–What philosophical assumptions underlie them? Natural law is a prime aspect discussed in our readings. We’ll work to unpack what that means and how that applies.

–How distinctly “American” are these documents?

Some historians have argued (although this is disputed) that religious and Enlightenment ideas important to the American founding were also given a distinctive shape by influence from the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee Native American form of federal government, well known to Benjamin Franklin among others. We’ll talk more about that particular historical theory in class, but throughout the semester we’ll consider elements of “checks and balances,” “divided powers,” and generally limited national government as represented in the Bill of Rights, as important to the shaping of American culture as well as representative of it.

In considering the founding documents as enduring literature, it will be good to consider the elements of theme, setting, plot, and characterization (the latter including those involved as authors, supporters, opponents, and readers then and now).

Style, diction, and tone are all important to consider also, as we’ll discuss and analyze in class.

Finally, in liberal-arts tradition, consider the four ways of reading: Historical, Moral, Allegorical (Metaphorical), and Spiritual. Reflect as well on the texts in relation to the Aristotelian four causes: Material, Efficient, Formal, and Final. We’ll also go over these and their application in class.

Note: Information and Assignments for Subsequent Weeks will be posted at https://america250.blogs.bucknell.edu/2025/08/05/america-at-250-discussion-guide/

Week 1:

pp. 1-121 (top), of The American Constitutional Order: History, Cases, and Philosophy, Fourth Edition. Edited by Douglas W. Kmiec, Stephen B. Presser, and John C. Eastman. With pdf supplement to the Fourth Edition.

Each of the sub-sections below will be assigned to individual students for preparation of discussion, who will need to prepare the questions as listed below for your focus section. However, everyone will be responsible for reading the entire assignment and being able to participate thoughtfully in discussion.

Chapter 1, The Philosophical and Natural Law Basis of the American Order: Remote and Immediate Ancestors.

1. The Western Tradition and the American Constitution
   
2. Athens

Prepare the “Notes and Questions,” pp. 4-5.

2. Rome

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 9-11.

3. Jerusalem

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 16-17.

B. The Origin of the Common Law and the English Natural Law Tradition

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” p. 20.

C. The English Civil War, Interregnum, and Restoration

We’ll also consider in class historian Eric Nelson’s argument that “Neo-Stuartism” among a “Jacobite” element in the American population influenced the shaping of a kinglike presidency in the new United States, contrary to typical views of American republicanism.

1. The Absolutism of the Stuarts and Parliamentary Democracy

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” p. 24.

2. The Civil War, the Trial of Charles I, and the Regicide

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 31-32.

3. The Interregnum and the Restoration

4. Absolutism and Parliamentarianism in Political Theory

Thomas Hobbes

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 35-36, and 41.

D. The Glorious Revolution

1. The English Bill of Rights

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” p. 46.

2. The Political Theory of the Glorious Revolution

John Locke

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” p. 57-59

Note to all: Please especially look at and prepare the final note/question in the chapter, pp. 58-59. As you do, also consider Eric Nelson’s alternative interpretation of the American Revolution, that American dissatisfaction with Britain was centered on the Parliament and not the King, and that this helps to explain the power of the American Presidency as it emerged historically from the Constitution. We’ll discuss Nelson’s theory in class.

Please be prepared to answer the final question in the chapter in class, based on a re-reading of the Declaration of Independence (text in the opening section of our book):

“…decide whether you would have been willing to pledge your life, your fortune, and your sacred honor for the cause of separation from England. The English government no longer seemed, in the signers’ judgment, a sufficient means to preserve pre-existing natural rights. The question remained whether a better one could be fashioned.”

Would you have followed the signers, based on the philosophical contexts we’ve been reading, and the clauses of the Declaration?

Chapter 2, The Declaration and its Constitution–Linking First Principle to Necessary Means

1. The Constitution – Means or End?
2. The Common Law and the Natural Law

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 65-66.

2. The Declaration of Independence–A Summary of American Fundamental Principle

The Declaration has several mentions of God, what are they?
The Constitution has one mention of God and one recognition of the Sabbath. Where are these?

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 67-69

1. The Declaration and the Formation of the Constitution

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 71-73.

2. The Written Constitution–A Substitute for the Declaration?

1. Natural Law at the Constitutional Convention

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 77-78.

2. Was there a need for a Declaration or Bill of Rights in the Constitution?

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 79-80.

3. Natural Law and the Ratification Debate

3. The Bill of Rights Introduced: Unenumerated Natural Law Rights Preserved

4. Natural Law in the Early Supreme Court

Prepare “Note and Questions,” p. 95.

5. The Declaration, Natural Law, and the Modern Court

II. The Special Significance of Preferred Religious Freedom

1. The Public Affirmation of God and the Importance of Religion

1. Pre-Founding: Colonial America
2. At the Founding

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 99-100.

Prepare “Note,” pp. 102-103.

3. Early Establishment Clause Interpretation–America as a “Religious People” Assumed
4. Incorporation of the Religion Clauses Against the States

B. Public Neutrality Toward God and Religion

1. Modern Judicial Application of the No Establishment Principle
2. The Exclusionary View

Prepare “Notes and Questions,” pp. 119-121.

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