The Rights and Virtues of Citizenship.

Can a Nation Survive as Free People with out Public Virtues?

Round Oak Church Alexandria VA, Capital Dome Washington DC, Christ Church Alexandria, Washington Monument Washington DC, View of Washington fron Rosslyn, Group at Church in North Carolina. All Photos by Howard Marler

The Framers of our Constitution were concerned by the lack of a bill of rights in the final document. The disagreements were significant and two members of the Virginia Delegation refused to sign without it. The debate in the press after the document was made public ran somewhat like this: “We don’t need one the government is too tightly restricted anyway.” “So why not write that more clearly?” “If we did that we might leave things out, and then the document would be useless” “But if we had a basic list we could always amend it.” If we are always amending it, how do we keep the original list in it?” “How would we avoid the list becoming a final list and preventing the later remembered or discovered rights from being abused.?” And the Hamiltonian argument: “Such a list will be used as a cudgel to protect more and more extreme forms of each freedom until the law is meaningless.”