Dr. Larry Arnn Explains the Constitution and Declaration in Six Minutes

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On this day in history in 1787 39 delegates signed it. Up next Dr. Larry Arnn who's the president of Hillsdale College and author of The Founders Key. He was giving a talk with the Hoover Institution at Hillsdale and he was read a statement of his and asked to respond and that statement was you can read the declaration and constitution in a few minutes. They're simple, beautiful, can be understood and retained.

Here's what Dr. Arnn had to say about that statement. Well they're very there's never been anything like them in history. There still is nothing like them but remember the king of England who was a nice man by the way and a humble man for a king was referred to by the title majesty and it took the founders a lot of them for a long time thought the other way you can have stability is if some family is appointed to rule and so the king the king was a very humble man but when his son wanted to marry somebody a noble but of lower station than the king's family he said princes may not marry subjects ever no matter what your heart says. So the point is that's the world right that's what's known and that that's the first incredible thing about the Declaration of Independence.

There are three. The second incredible thing about the Declaration of Independence is in the last sentence the Declaration of Independence was written by people for whom the military was looking. General Gage had an order and the order said find these people even if it means complete war detain them in other words they were guilty of treason and now they're going to put their name on a document and send it to the king and they write in the last sentence in the mood that somebody who was about to do that would write in support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor that's how people talk on a battlefield they die for each other we mutually pledge to each other that's the second extraordinary thing and then the third becomes more amazing because of the first two. The opening of the Declaration of Independence has nothing to do with them in fact it demotes them it's not our unique situation it's not us a special people here to do a grand deed it it begins universally and abstractly when in the course of human events means any old time it becomes necessary for one people means any old people to dissolve the political bands that have connected with another and to assume among the powers of the earth a separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them it's an act of obedience to a law that persists beyond the English law and beyond any law that they might make so for them to be the particular people whose lives are at risk and for them to be turning over an entire way of organizing society that had dominated for 2,000 years and then for them to begin that way it's very grand but also you can't miss it it's partly humble these are the ways that people must comport themselves we are going to do that and if you will do that British we will get on and if not we will not and we will be in the right because of that so that's what's remarkable about it and why it's very beautiful the Declaration and it connects to the Constitution you have to first know that modern scholarship claims and you know Gordon Wood and Joseph Ellis and famous people excellent scholars claim that there were two foundings one for the Declaration of Independence and one for the Constitution and they mean different things is the claim that's a very powerful thing because if it's true that they changed their mind right in the middle of the revolution their example to us might be we can change our mind whenever we want to but the Constitution doesn't read that way the Constitution has three grand things in it and they're very lovely and they are all commanded in the Declaration of Independence the first is that government be limited in the Declaration and it's limited in obvious ways right there's it's a doctrine of enumerated powers in the Constitution there's a list of things that the Congress can do in the Constitution and the other things that it it's not listed they it may not do and you'd think that some change from the Declaration but in the Declaration the middle part of the Declaration of Independence is the charges against the King and if you want to understand American constitutionalism its basis read those because the things that the King has done justify the revolution and they amount to violations of constitutionalism so he has sent swarms of officials among us to eat out our substance and harass our people he has brought troops from a foreign jurisdiction so in other words it's a breach of limited government but once you have limited government you have a vast big society that's independent and you can locate sovereignty in it now James Madison takes pride in the 63rd Federalist that this is the first form of government in which the sovereign does not operate any part of the government and this is the second principle it is a representative form of government it is limited and because it's limited it's possible for it to be representative and what that means is in the government nothing will operate except that it gets its authority from outside but since everybody's human who's going to get governed then you don't want the people outside to be of unlimited power either and so they can only act through the government they can't act directly they can talk and talk and talk and argue and argue and argue just like we are right now but we have to wait for elections to do anything that makes us more deliberative the charges against the King and the Declaration of Independence are full of a list of where the King the executive branch has messed with the legislatures and the judges and disrupted representative institutions and what terrific storytelling and what terrific teaching in the end and so often the best teaching can indeed be storytelling the story of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence how the two are connected no one tells that story better than Dr. Larry Arnn celebrating Constitution Day all show long here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here host of Our American Stories where you'll hear stories about everything from the arts to sports from business to history and we're proud our show can now be heard on Virginia Beach's talk radio 96.5 and 850 WTAR weekdays 10 p.m to 1 a.m. Our American Stories with me Lee Habib now on weekdays on talk radio 96.5 and 850 WTAR in Virginia Beach Virginia. Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world the news agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening but why from me Emily Maitlis and me John Sopel with global's award-winning podcast the news agents dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs and the news agents USA in the race for the White House listening to the news agents on America's number one podcast network iHeart open your free iHeart app and search the news agents to start listening. 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