5000 Year Leap (9 page)

   "It may be imagined by some that this is a utopian idea, and that we can never find men to serve us in the executive department without paying them well for their services. I conceive this to be a mistake. Some existing facts present themselves to me, which incline me to a contrary opinion. The high sheriff of a county in England is an honorable office, but it is not a profitable one. It is rather expensive, and therefore not sought for. But yet it is executed, and well executed, and usually by some of the principal gentlemen of the county.... I only bring the instance to show that the pleasure of doing good and serving their country, and the respect such conduct entitles them to, are sufficient motives with some minds to give up a great portion of their time to the public, without the mean inducement of pecuniary satisfaction."
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   The most notable example of such altruistic service in the United States was George Washington. At that moment he was presiding over the Convention which Franklin was addressing. Had Washington been elsewhere, Franklin undoubtedly would have gone into a comprehensive history of the notable example which Washington represented in practicing the principles that Franklin was trying to have institutionalized as a part of the American philosophy of government. To avoid embarrassing Washington, however, he simply said:

   "To bring the matter nearer home, have we not seen the greatest and most important of our offices, that of general of our armies, executed for eight years together, without the smallest salary, by a patriot whom I will not now offend by any other praise; and this, through fatigues and distresses, in common with the other brave men, his military friends and companions, and the constant anxieties peculiar to his station? And shall we doubt finding three or four men in all the United States, with public spirit enough to bear sitting in peaceful council, for perhaps an equal term, merely to preside over our civil concerns, and see that our laws are duly executed? Sir, I have a better opinion of our country.

   "I think we shall never be without a sufficient number of wise and good men to undertake, and execute well and faithfully, the office in question."
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   Franklin then concluded his remarks by emphasizing that his plea for giving modest salaries to those filling public office was not motivated by a parsimonious passion for saving taxes, but simply to avoid the evils that go with high salaries. He said:

   "Sir, the saving of the salaries, that may at first be proposed, is not an object with me. The subsequent mischiefs of proposing them are what I apprehend. And therefore it is that I move the amendment. If it is not seconded or accepted, I must be contented with the satisfaction of having delivered my opinion frankly, and done my duty."
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   For nearly a half century, Franklin and most of the Founders had practiced these principles in their own lives. No better example can be found than Franklin himself. Take the summer of 1775, for instance, when Franklin was serving as a businessman, a member of Congress, and chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety. This committee had to provide weapons, munitions, gunboats, and stockades in preparation for the coming conflict. He describes a typical day to a friend in England as follows:

   "My time was never more fully employed. In the morning at six, I am at the Committee of Safety, appointed by the [Pennsylvania] Assembly to put the province in a state of defense; which committee holds till near nine, when I am in Congress, and that sits till after four in the afternoon. Both of these bodies proceed with the greatest unanimity, and their meetings are well attended. It will scarce be credited in Britain, that men can be as diligent with us from zeal for the public good, as with you for thousands per annum. Such is the difference between uncorrupted new states, and corrupted old ones."
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   Long before the Constitutional Convention, where Franklin had made his plea for modest salaries, Pennsylvanians had put the following provision in their State Constitution:

   "As every freeman, to preserve his independence, (if he has not a sufficient estate) ought to have some profession, calling, trade, or farm, whereby he may honestly subsist, there can be no necessity for, nor use in, establishing offices of profit; the usual effects of which are dependence and servility, unbecoming freemen, in the possessors and expectants; faction, contention, corruption, and disorder among the people. Wherefore, whenever an office, through increase of fees or otherwise, becomes so profitable, as to occasion many to apply for it, the profits ought to be lessened by the legislature."
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   A modern American cannot read the writings of men such as Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, or Washington without feeling a certain sense of pride that the United States produced and had available leaders of this supreme quality to launch the first "noble experiment" for freedom in modern times.

   However, one important question remains: "How are such qualities of superior character and virtue developed in human beings?"

   The answer will be found in the writings of the Founders themselves. As we shall see in the numerous quotations appearing in the following pages, the beliefs of the Founders were based on careful study. They had also been carefully taught. In their respective churches, families, schools, or elsewhere, they had been allowed to acquire a comprehensive system of strong, basic beliefs. Throughout their writings and speeches, the Founders project themselves as positive believers in a broad spectrum of fundamental precepts which they called "self-evident truths."

   These beliefs are remarkable in and of themselves, but the fact that they all seem to have shared them in common is even more remarkable.

   It is interesting that their acceptance of these beliefs necessarily required that they categorically reject some of the more popular intellectual fads which were widespread in Europe during their day. It further required that they reject some of the less tenable positions of certain popular denominations; even denominations to which some of them belonged.

   What we are seeing in the Founders, therefore, is a group of very independent, tough-minded men whose beliefs were based on empirical evidence and the light of careful reasoning. Even their acceptance of things which are not seen -- the existence of the Creator, for example -- were based on observable phenomena and precise reasoning.

   The well-known psychologist Abraham Maslow, in his book entitled
The Third Force
, concludes after extensive testing that a mind-set based on a spectrum of well-established beliefs, such as the Founders possessed, definitely produces a higher quality of human behavior and a more positive adjustment to the stresses of life.

   No doubt Cicero would respond to such a conclusion with the observation that these results should have been expected. Beliefs based on reason and self-evident truth bring a human being into harmony with natural law and the eternal realities of the cosmic universe.

   Now we will examine what the Founders had to say about some of their better-known basic beliefs.

   Americans of the twentieth century often fail to realize the supreme importance which the Founding Fathers originally attached to the role of religion in the structure of the unique civilization which they hoped would emerge as the first free people in modern times. Many Americans also fail to realize that the Founders felt the role of religion would be as important in our own day as it was in theirs.

   In 1787, the very year the Constitution was written and approved by Congress, that same Congress passed the famous Northwest Ordinance. In it they emphasized the essential need to teach religion and morality in the schools. Here is the way they said it:

   "Article 3: Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
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   Notice that formal education was to include among its responsibilities the teaching of three important subjects:

   1. Religion, which might be defined as a "fundamental system of beliefs concerning man's origin and relationship to the cosmic universe as well as his relationship with his fellowmen."

   2. Morality, which may be described as "a standard of behavior distinguishing right from wrong."

   3. Knowledge, which is "an intellectual awareness and understanding of established facts relating to any field of human experience or inquiry (i.e., history, geography, science, etc.)."

   The position set forth in the Northwest Ordinance was re-emphasized by President George Washington in his Farewell Address:

   "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion ... Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.

   "It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.
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   Having established that "religion" is the foundation of morality and that both are essential to "good government and the happiness of mankind," the Founders then set about to exclude the creeds and biases or dissensions of individual denominations so as to make the teaching of religion a unifying cultural adhesive rather than a divisive apparatus. Jefferson wrote a Bill for Establishing Elementary Schools in Virginia and made this point clear by stating:

   "No religious reading, instruction, or exercise shall be prescribed or practiced inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination."
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   Obviously, under such restrictions the only religious tenets to be taught in public schools would have to be those which were universally accepted by all faiths and completely fundamental in their premises.

   Several of the Founders have left us with descriptions of their basic religious beliefs, and Benjamin Franklin summarized those which he felt were the "fundamental points in all sound religion." This is the way he said it in a letter to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University:

   "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. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion."
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   The five points of fundamental religious belief expressed or implied in Franklin's statement are these:

   1. There exists a Creator who made all things, and mankind should recognize and worship Him.