Reading: "Original Intent"

On Saturday, I finished reading "Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, and Religion" by David Barton. It is based on a simple question, backed up by an incredible amount of historical and primary source material-what were the attitudes of the Founders toward religion, and more specifically, its expressions in public life that are so controversial today?

Barton’s thesis is that based on their public and private writings, the Founders wished to encourage, and not discourage, religious expression in the public square. Rather than being deists, agnostics, or atheists, nearly all were members of some Christian denomination. These men viewed religion, especially Christianity, as a force for good and vital to a free and prosperous society.

To help demonstrate where the Founders stood, and address some popularly held views on the subject, Barton has assembled a tremendous amount of data. Here are some thoughts I had after reading:

One of the reasons I highly recommend this book is for its use of primary sources. Each of the 18 chapters is packed with hundreds of quotes from the Founding Fathers’ statements, letters, public proclamations, judicial opinions, and other sources. “Original Intent,” in my opinion, really stands out as a historical work because of this attention to the original sources. Barton clearly lets the Founders speak for themselves, and does not devote excessive time to his own analysis. It allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

Not only is the primary source material top-notch (the only change is to modernize spellings to make materials easier to read), this book will also serve as a way to learn about many of the Founders who are not included in your average public school curriculum today. Just to name a few:

(Also, note that any quotes or material used in this post comes from David Barton’s “Original Intent,” and its citations. The full citation, if you want to find it at the library, is: Barton, David. Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, & Religion. Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 2000.)

1) Justice Joseph Story: referred to as one of the “Fathers of American Jurisprudence” along with Chancellor James Kent; founded Harvard Law School and authored 286 opinions in his 34 years on the Supreme Court. “Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?” Vidal v. Girard’s Executors, 43 U.S. 126, 200 (1844).
2) James Wilson: one of only six men who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He was one of the six original Supreme Court Justices, appointed by President Washington, and along with Thomas McKean, co-authored the first “Commentaries on the Constitution” in 1792. “Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants.” Elliot’s Debates, Vol. II, p. 413, July 26, 1788.
3) Chancellor James Kent: wrote the four-volume Commentaries on American Law, which became the standard for lawyers-in-training in America throughout the nineteenth century. “[E]very citizen might freely speak, write, and print, on any subject, [but is] responsible for the abuse of that liberty.” Commentaries on American Law (New York: O. Halsted, 1827), Vol. II, pp. 17-18, Lecture XXIV. “Of the Rights of Persons,” quoting the Louisiana constitution, Article VI, §21.

There are scores, maybe hundreds of individuals, and thousands of quotations such as those above, to which the author cites, and he could probably have cited more. At the back of the book, he gives a complete list of biographies of all the individuals discussed in preceding chapters. For purposes of study, on page 8, he defines a “Founding Father” as “one who exerted significant influence in, provided prominent leadership for, or had a substantial impact upon the birth, development, and establishment of America as an independent, self-governing nation.” According to Barton, this encompasses a) the signers of the Declaration of Independence; b) Presidents of Congress during the Revolution; c) prominent Revolutionary generals; d) delegates to the Constitutional Convention; e) early state governors who played a role in the ratification and adoption process; f) members of the First Congress, Supreme Court, and early Executive Branch.

I think that the magnitude of the impact this is likely to have on one’s intellectual approach to that time period underscores how narrow our view of the Founders has become over time. With television, Internet, and our hectic schedules, it is easy to take a quote or two out of context, or gather secondary or even tertiary material, and make a generalization as to the group who wrote the Constitution. I am guilty of this thought pattern to some extent-before I read this, and heard Mr. Barton speak at Phase I of the Blackstone, I believed that the Founders were divided between secularist and more traditionally Christian attitudes on matters of religion. Now, even though I am still forming my own opinions, it appears as though they spoke with a more unified voice than I realized, one that sounds radically different from those calling for “separation of church and state” today.

One other feature of this book to check out is the last three chapters, or any other part of the book that deals with many of the misconceptions people hold about what the Founders believed. One chapter, entitled “Revisionism: A Willing Accomplice,” deals not only with the historical inaccuracies that are out there regarding the Founding generation (i.e. Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists meant to assure them that the federal government would not interfere with their free exercise rights, not that it must intervene to prevent them in public), but with personal attacks designed to discredit them in their role in history (i.e. the slavery issue is discussed at some length). This is a strong resource for re-examining much of the “conventional wisdom” and historical knowledge that is in the public arena today.

Overall…a very fulfilling read, and well worth your time if you have an interest in law, particularly constitutional law, American history, and its implications for public policy issues. It may take about 10-12 hours to read, since it is about 350 pages plus appendices. I recommend it to help get the historical context for the culture war being waged in our country today.