Posted on 05/05/2017 1:53:55 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Perhaps the most prominent commonality among conservative authors and bloggers is their emphasis on first principles, and the application of them to modern times. Everything flows from first principles. Since laws and traditions connect to the past, great truths will not appear until we see the chain which links them to others. Our Framers studied the past, yet were not slaves to it. They let experience be their guide as they applied first principles to their British and colonial heritage.
As Charles de Montesquieu showed, and our Founding generation demonstrated, the first principle, the spring from which republics emerge and are maintained is virtue. This is not the moral or Christian sense of the word, but rather public virtue, by which Montesquieu meant love of country.
Public virtue is not self-renunciation; it doesn’t ask citizens to deny their natural interests. It permits them to envision and work toward a flourishing and tranquil country. In prosperity, the citizen often finds his own peace of mind and independence, the peaceable possession and enjoyment of his property, and the hope of increasing it by freedom of commerce. Should his demeanor and judgement impress his fellow citizens, he can look forward to the temporary dignity of public posts to elective office.
In republics alone the government is entrusted to private citizens, and to survive, the republic must be loved. Everything therefore depends on establishing this love in a republic; to inspire this love is the principle business of education.
In his 1818 Report for the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson wrote, . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at articlevblog.com ...
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