“He is NOT a Constitutionalist. He’s a Libertarian.”
-
Full disclosure: I’m a libertarian (small-l)
It is my opinion, our founders were as well.
Freedom is libertarian.
Yep...that smll (l) is critical...
Or James Madison, who introduced an amendment to the Constitution during the debates to explicitly AUTHORIZE Congress to incorporate institutions such as the bank? That Founder? Or do you have some other mythical founders in mind that I don't know about?
How well does your opinion coincide with reality?
Full disclosure: I’m a libertarian (small-l)
It is my opinion, our founders were as well
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.Lots more of those abound. Way more than ought to fit in one post on here. To be a "Constitutionalist" means to share the ideals of those who were responsible for the Constitution, not to subvert the document to your own ends as the liberals do.
— George Washington, farewell address, 1796
Our constitution is only fit for a moral and religious people. It is wholly unsuited to the governance of any other kind.
— John Adams
Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped. … As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see …
— Benjamin Franklin, alleged "Deist"; in letter to Ezra Stiles
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.
— Patrick Henry
It's safe to say most were. Madison however, not so much....
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded ... on the gospel of Jesus Christ.” —Patrick Henry
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God?” —Thomas Jefferson
“We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us ... to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” —James Madison
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” —Benjamin Franklin
No, the founders were not libertarian.