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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Approach - 1. American Ideals and the American Conscience - 3. Some Historical Reflections
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Chapter i. American Ideals 7
democratic ends. It cannot be long ignored or repudiated, for sooner or later it
returns to plague the council of practical politics. It is constantly breaking out in fresh
revolt, . . , Without its freshening influence our political history would have been
much more sordid and materialistic.^
Indeed, the new republic began Its career with a reaction. Charles Beard,
in Aff Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States^
and a group of modern historians, throwing aside the much cherished
national mythology which had blurred the difference in spirit between the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, have shown that the
latter was conceived in considerable suspicion against democracy and fear
of ^^the people.” It was dominated by property consciousness and designed
as a defense against the democratic spirit let loose during the Revolution.
But, admitting all this, the Constitution which actually emerged out of
the compromises in the drafting convention provided for the most demo-
cratic state structure in existence anywhere in the world at that time. And
many of the safeguards so skillfully thought out by the conservatives to
protect “the rich, the wellborn, and the capable” against majority rule
melted when the new order began to function. Other conservative safe-
guards have fastened themselves into the political pattern. And “in the
ceaseless conflict between the man and the dollar, between democracy and
property”—again to quote Farrington*—property has for long periods
triumphed and blocked the will of the people. And there are today large
geographical regions and fields of human life which, particularly when
measured by the high goals of the American Creed, arc conspicuously
lagging. But taking the broad historical view, the American Creed has
triumphed. It has given the main direction to change in this country.
America has had gifted conservative statesmen and national leaders, and
they have often determined the course of public affairs. But with few
exceptions, only the liberals have gone down in history as national heroes.®
America is, as we shall point out, conservative in fundamental principles,
and in much more than that, though hopefully experimentalistic in regard
to much of the practical arrangements in society. But the principles con-
served are liberal and some, indeed, are radical.
America got this dynamic Creed much as a political convenience and a
device of strategy during the long struggle with the English Crown, the
London Parliament and the various British powerholders in the colonies.
It served as the rallying center for the growing national unity that was
needed. Later it was a necessary device for building up a national morale
in order to enlist and sustain the people in the Revolutionary War. In this
spirit the famous declarations were resolved, the glorious speeches ipade,
the inciting pamphlets written and spread. “The appeal to arms would
seem to have been brought about by a minority of the American people,
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