The First Principle, Lincoln and the Apple of Gold
Hadley Arkes at the Catholic Thing writes– post Independence Day–that the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution that followed it–is the real basis for American democracy.
His starting point is a speech made by Michael Mukasey, Attorney General under George W. Bush. Arkes says:
And so, in a moving speech on Memorial Day, that remarkable man of the law, Michael Mukasey, noted quite rightly that America was not defined by “blood or soil.” But in bringing home his point, he declared that America “is the only country in the history of the world to define itself based on adherence to a legal document, the constitution.”
This sense of the matter has been echoed widely, even as we have come to celebrate July Fourth. I’ve been a considerable fan of Judge Mukasey, but the former Attorney General should have known better. The clue came when Mukasey invoked Lincoln several times, and yet completely disregarded the prime lesson in Lincoln’s teaching. Lincoln famously said at Gettysburg that our “nation” had been brought forth “four score and seven years ago.” Counting back eighty-seven years from Gettysburg does not get us to the Constitution (1787-88). Lincoln found the beginning of the nation in 1776, with the Declaration of Independence.
Lincoln said that America is based on a proposition, not a legal document.
Arkes continues:
The country was based on that “proposition,” as he called it, “all men are created equal.” From that proposition everything else radiated. The nation began with the articulation of that first principle that marked the character of the American regime. The task of forming a constitution was to arrange a practical structure of governance that would be consistent with that first principle. What Mukasey referred to as “the constitution” is our second constitution, the one we adopted after the first one proved defective.
Lincoln called the first principle– that all men are created equal–the apple of gold.
Arkes refers to Lincoln’s 1861 statement when he says:
As he drew out the understanding of the apple of gold, Lincoln wrote that:
“…the Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple – not the apple for the picture.”
Translation: The Constitution was made for that first principle that defined the character of this new American regime. This new American polity was not made for the Constitution. Lawyers can invoke different clauses of the Constitution, whether the Commerce Clause, Equal Protection, Privileges and Immunities. But the meaning of these clauses will depend on who those persons are who are the bearers of “rights,” and that understanding is not to be found in the Constitution.
And he notes:
Everything will come back, as John Paul II said, to the meaning of “the human person” that the law is seeking to protect and restrain.
Arkes could have added this from Lincoln:
So let us act, that neither picture, or apple shall ever be blurred, or bruised or broken.
