This is our tenth month celebrating the Semiquincentennial of the United States.
Here’s the series up to this point, if you missed any or
want to review:
·
January: The Declaration
·
February: Preamble to the
Constitution
·
March: Article I: Lawmaking
·
April: Article II: Executive
Branch
·
May: Article III: Judicial
Branch
·
June: Bill of Rights
·
July: Happy Birthday, America!
·
August: Bill of Rights Continued
·
September:
Compromises in the Constitution
In our celebration of the semiquincentennial this year, one thing worth celebrating in our experiment in self-government is our ability to debate civilly, to exchange ideas and see which ideas are most persuasive.
This is in the ideal America, not
necessarily the one we are currently experiencing. But if you don’t know the
ideal, or something close to it, you don’t know what to strive for and what not
to accept.
There were examples of this well
ahead of the Declaration, well ahead of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
Revolutions rarely work. They never do without the ideas being grasped and
agreed with by the people. Conversations, among neighbors, after church, or at
the pub, were taking place well ahead of any kinetic war.
There are stories about Sam Adams,
brother of John Adams, speaking out for liberty in the colonies building up to
the Revolutionary War. He had a big dog, I think it was a black Newfoundland.
He did not discipline it for taking a mouthful of red fabric from a British
soldier’s uniform. Apparently the dog agreed with its master’s ideas during
those conversations on the streets.
Some of the best civil discourse we
have on record are contained in the two collections of essays, The
Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers. These were
arguments for and against ratification of the Constitution of the United
States.
I wrote about them in June 2025, which wasn’t that long ago, but I’m writing about them again today, because—semiquincentennial.
To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.
