America at 250: The Founding Documents as Enduring Literature

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

SPRING SEMESTER, 2026.

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.

The Western Tradition and the American Constitution
Athens

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

Rome

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

Natural Law at the Constitutional Convention

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

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

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

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

The Public Affirmation of God and the Importance of Religion

Pre-Founding: Colonial America
At the Founding

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

Prepare “Note,” pp. 102-103.

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

B. Public Neutrality Toward God and Religion

Modern Judicial Application of the No Establishment Principle
The Exclusionary View

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

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