The 28 Great Ideas

That Changed The

World From “The 5,000 Year Leap”
By W.Cleon Skousen
The Founders' Common
Denominator of Basic
One of the most amazing aspects of the
Beliefs
American story is that while the nation's
founders came from widely divergent
backgrounds, their fundamental beliefs were
virtually identical. They quarreled bitterly over
the most practical plan of implementing those
beliefs, but rarely, if ever, disputed about
their final objectives or basic convictions.
The Founders' Common
Denominator of Basic
Although
Beliefs thecont..
level of their formal training
varied from spasmodic doses of home tutoring
to the rigorous regimen of Harvard's classical
studies, the debates in the Constitutional
Convention and the writings of the Founders
reflect a far broader knowledge of religious,
political, historical, economic, and
philosophical studies than would be found in
any cross-section of American leaders today.
Fundamental Principles

The relative uniformity of fundamental

thought shared by these men included strong
and unusually well-defined convictions
concerning religious principles, political
precepts, economic fundamentals, and long-
range social goals. On particulars, of course,
they quarreled, but when discussing
fundamental precepts and ultimate objectives
they seemed practically unanimous.
Fundamental Principles
cont…
We will now proceed to carefully examine the
28 major principles on which the American
Founders established the first free people in
modern times. These are great ideas which
provided the intellectual, political, and
economic climate for the 5,000-year leap.
Idea #1
The only reliable basis for sound government
and just human relations is Natural Law.
"As one and the same Nature holds together and
supports the universe, all of whose parts are in
harmony with one another, so men are united in
Nature; but by reason of their depravity they
quarrel, not realizing that they are of one blood and
subject to one and the same protecting power. If
this fact were understood, surely man would live the
life of the gods!“ Cicero
Idea #1 cont…

To Cicero, the building of a society on

principles of Natural Law was nothing more
nor less than recognizing and identifying the
rules of "right conduct" with the laws of the
Supreme Creator of the universe.
The Law of Nature or Nature's God is eternal
in its basic goodness; it is universal in its
application. It is a code of "right reason" from
the Creator himself. It cannot be altered. It
cannot be repealed. It cannot be abandoned
by legislators or the people themselves, even
though they may pretend to do so. In Natural
Law we are dealing with factors of absolute
Idea #2
A free people cannot survive under a
republican constitution unless they remain
virtuous and morally strong.
Benjamin Franklin wrote: "Only a virtuous people
are capable of freedom. As nations become
corrupt and vicious, they have more need of
masters.“
The people had an instinctive thirst for
independence, but there remained a haunting
fear that they might not be "good enough" to
make it work.
Idea #2 cont…

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral

and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to
the government of any other.“ John Adams
A Warning from Samuel
Adams
Samuel Adams, who is sometimes called the
"father of the revolution," wrote to Richard
Henry Lee:
"I thank God that I have lived to see my
country independent and free. She may long
enjoy her independence and freedom if she
will. It depends on her virtue."
Samuel Adams wrote:
"The sum of all is, if we would most truly
enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a
virtuous people; then shall we both deserve
and enjoy it. while, on the other hand, if we
Idea #3

The most promising method of securing

a virtuous and morally stable people is
to elect virtuous leaders.
A favorite scripture of the day was Proverbs
29:2, which says: "When the righteous are in
authority, the people rejoice; but when the
wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.“
“I never engaged in public affairs for my own
interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice, or
ambition, or even the desire of fame. If any of
these had been my motive, my conduct would
have been very different. In every
Idea #4

Without religion the government of a

free people cannot be maintained.
President George Washington from 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
Idea #5

All things were created by God,

therefore upon Him all mankind are
equally dependent, and to Him they are
equally responsible.
The Founders vigorously affirm throughout
their writings that the foundation of all reality
is the existence of the Creator, who is the
designer of all things in nature and the
promulgator of all the laws which govern
nature.
Idea #6

All men are created equal.

The Founders wrote in the Declaration of
Independence that some truths are self-
evident, and one of these is the fact that all
men are created equal.
Since people are different they can only be
treated as equals in the sight of God, in the
sight of the law, and in the protection of their
rights.
Idea #6 cont…

The Founders distinguished between equal

rights and other areas where equality is
impossible. They recognized that society
should seek to provide equal opportunity but
not expect equal results; provide equal
freedom but not expect equal capacity;
provide equal rights but not equal
possessions; provide equal protection but not
equal status; provide equal educational
opportunities but not equal grades.
As Alexander Hamilton said: "Inequality would
exist as long as liberty existed.... It would
unavoidably result from that very liberty
Idea #7
The proper role of government is to protect
equal rights, not provide equal things.
The Founders recognized that the people cannot
delegate to their government the power to do
anything except that which they have the lawful
right to do themselves.
By excluding the national government from
intervening in the local affairs of the people, the
Founders felt they were protecting the
unalienable rights of the people from abuse by an
over-aggressive government.
Idea #8

Men are endowed by their Creator with

certain unalienable rights.
The Founders did not believe that the basic
rights of mankind originated from any social
compact, king, emperor, or governmental
authority. Those rights, they believed, came
directly and exclusively from God.
John Adams said: "All men are born free and
independent, and have certain natural,
essential, and unalienable rights, among
which may be reckoned the right of enjoying
and defending their lives and liberties; that of
 "The state of Nature has a law of
Nature to govern it, which ...
teaches all mankind who will but
consult it, that being all equal and
independent, no one ought to harm
another in his life, health, liberty or
possessions; for men being all the
workmanship of one omnipotent
and infinitely
Idea #8 Cont… wise maker; all the
servants of one sovereign master,
sent into the world by His order
and about His business; they are
Idea #9
To protect man's rights, God has revealed
certain principles of divine law.
Blackstone said it was necessary for God to
disclose these laws to man by direct revelation:
"The doctrines thus delivered we call the
revealed or divine law, and they are to be found
only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts,
when revealed, are found upon comparison to
be really a part of the original law of nature, as
they tend in all their consequences to man's
felicity."
Idea #9 Cont…

An analysis of the essential elements of God's

code of divine law reveals that it is designed
to promote, preserve, and protect man's
unalienable rights.
These principles will be immediately
recognized as the famous Ten
Commandments. There are many additional
laws set forth in the Bible which clarify and
define these principles
Idea #10

The God-given right to govern is vested in the

sovereign authority of the whole people.
The Founders subscribed to the concept that
rulers are servants of the people and all
sovereign authority to appoint or remove a
ruler rests with the people.
Alexander Hamilton declared: "The fabric of
American empire ought to rest on the solid
basis of the consent of the people. The
streams of national power ought to flow
immediately from that pure, original fountain
of all legitimate authority.“
Idea #10 cont…

James Madison declared: "The adversaries of

the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the
people altogether in their reasonings on this
subject; and to have viewed these different
establishments not only as mutual rivals and
enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common
superior in their efforts to usurp the
authorities of each other. These gentlemen
must here be reminded of their error. They
must be told that the ultimate authority,
wherever the derivative may be found, resides
in the people alone."
Idea #11

The majority of the people may alter or

abolish a government which has become
tyrannical.
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and,
accordingly, all experience has shown, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. "But, when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same object, evinces a design to reduce
Idea #12

The United States of America shall be a

republic.
This principle is highlighted in the pledge of
allegiance when it says:
I pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the United States of America
And to the Republic
For which it [the flag] stands....
Idea #12 cont…
Democracy
spectacles of turbulence and
contention
incompatible with personal
security or the rights of
property
short in their lives as they
have been violent in their
deaths
Republic
a government in which the
scheme of representation
takes place
promises the cure for which
we are seeking
extended over a large region

James Madison A Contrast

Idea #13
A constitution should be structured to
permanently protect the people from the
human frailties of their rulers.
At the Constitutional Convention, the Founding
Fathers were concerned with the one tantalizing
question which no political scientist in any age
had yet been able to answer with complete
satisfaction. The question was, "How can you
have an efficient government but still protect
the freedom and unalienable rights of the
people?"
Idea #14
Life and liberty are secure only so long as the
right to property is secure.
John Locke pointed out that the human family
originally received the planet earth as a common
gift and that mankind was given the capacity and
responsibility to improve it. Said he:
"God, who hath given the world to men in
common, hath also given them reason to make
use of it to the best advantage of life and
convenience."
Idea #15

The highest level of prosperity occurs when

there    is a free-market economy and a
minimum of government regulations.
Four Laws of Economic Freedom
● 1. The Freedom to try.    
● 2. The Freedom to buy.    
● 3. The Freedom to sell.    
● 4. The Freedom to fail.
Idea #15 cont.

1. Illegal Force in the market place to compel

purchase or sale of products.    
2. Fraud in misrepresenting the quality,
location, or ownership of the item being sold
or bought.    
3. Monopoly which eliminates competition and
results in restraint of trade.
4. Debauchery of the cultural standards and
moral fiber of society by commercial
exploitation of vice -- pornography, obscenity,
drugs, liquor, prostitution, or commercial
gambling.
Idea #15 cont.

"If the American people ever allow the banks

to control the issuance of their currency, first
by inflation and then by deflation, the banks
and corporations that will grow up around
them will deprive the people of all property
until their children will wake up homeless on
the continent their fathers occupied. The
issuing power of money should be taken from
the banks and restored to Congress and the
people to whom it belongs.“ Jefferson
Four Schools of Economic
Thought
There are four major schools of economic thought
today. An understanding of these four schools of
thought is necessary for an understanding of
economics.
Marxist
Keynesian
Monetarist
Austrian
● From The Concise Guide To Economics by
Jim Cox.
● http://www.conciseguidetoeconomics.com
Marxist

Based on the writings of Karl Marx and

Friedrich Engels, who wrote in the mid to late
1800's.
Marxist thought is based on economic
determinism wherein societies go through the
developmental stages of primitive
communism, slave systems, feudalism,
capitalism, socialism and finally communism.
Each includes a class struggle which leads
inevitably to the next stage of societal
development.
Keynesian

Named for the writings of John Maynard

Keynes, particularly his 1936 book The
General Theory.
Keynesians call for government to manage
total demand--too little demand leads to
unemployment while too much demand leads
to inflation. Thus a dichotomy was
established in theory: either the problem of
inflation would attend or the problem of
unemployment, but never both
simultaneously.
Keynesian cont.

Keynes viewed the free market as generating

either too much or too little demand,
inherently. Thus the need (ever so
conveniently for the job prospects of
Keynesian economists!) for demand
management by government informed by the
wisdom of the Keynesians.
Monetarist

Best represented by Milton Friedman and his

followers who retained the Keynesian "macro"
approach.
While viewing the economy in this manner
Monetarists lay the emphasis not on spending
so much as on the total supply of money--thus
the name Monetarist.
In other than the macro economic issues--
inflation, unemployment and the ups and
downs of the business cycle--Monetarists tend
to take the individual actor as the basis of
their economic reasoning in areas such as
Austrian

Begun by Carl Menger in the late 1800's and

was ultimately developed to its fullest by
Ludwig von Mises--both of Austria.
Developed a body of thought with a
conscious emphasis on the acting individual
as the ultimate basis for making sense of all
economic issues. Along with this individualist
emphasis is a subjectivist view of value and
an orientation that all action is inherently
future-oriented.
Idea #16
The government should be separated into three
   branches -- legislative, executive, and judicial.
"Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be
not separated from the legislative and executive.
Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty
of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control,
for the judge would then be the legislator. Were it
joined to the executive power, the judge might
behave with violence and oppression.“
Montesquieu
Idea #17

A system of checks and balances should be

adopted to prevent the abuse of power.

James Madison - "The accumulation of all

powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary,
in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or
many, and whether hereditary, self appointed,
or elective, may justly be pronounced the very
definition of tyranny.“
Idea #17 cont.

Each department of government has the

responsibility to rise up and protect its
prerogatives by exercising the checks and
balances which have been provided. At the
same time, the people have the responsibility
to keep a closer watch on their
representatives and elect only those who will
function within Constitutional boundaries.
Idea #17 cont.
Checks and Balances
1. The House of Representatives serves as a check on
the Senate since no statute can become law without
the approval of the House.    
2. At the same time the Senate (representing the
legislatures of the states before the 17th Amendment)
serves as a check on the House of Representatives
since no statute can become law without its approval.
   
3. A President can restrain both the House and the
Senate by using his veto to send back any bill not
meeting with his approval.
Idea #17 cont.
Checks and Balances cont.
4. The Congress has, on the other hand, a check on the
President by being able to pass a bill over the
President's veto with a two-thirds majority of each
house.    
5. The legislature also has a further check on the
President through its power of discrimination in
appropriating funds for the operation of the executive
branch.    
6. The President must have the approval of the Senate
in filling important offices of the executive branch.
Idea #17 cont.
Checks and Balances cont.
7. The President must also have the approval of the
Senate before any treaties with foreign nations can go
into effect.    
8. The Congress has the authority to conduct
investigations of the executive branch to determine
whether or not funds are being properly expended and
the laws enforced.    
9. The President has a certain amount of political
influence on the legislature by letting it be known that
he will not support the reelection of those who oppose
his program.
Idea #17 cont.

Checks and Balances cont.

10. The executive branch also has a further
check on the Congress by using its
discretionary powers in establishing military
bases, building dams, improving navigable
rivers, and building interstate highways so as
to favor those areas from which the President
feels he is getting support by their
representatives.    
11. The judiciary has a check on the
legislature through its authority to review all
laws and determine their constitutionality.    
Idea #17 cont.
Checks and Balances cont.
13. The Congress also has the power to impeach
any of the judges who are guilty of treason, high
crimes, or misdemeanors.    
14. The President also has a check on the judiciary
by having the power to nominate new judges
subject to the approval of the Senate.    
15. The Congress has further restraining power over
the judiciary by having the control of appropriations
for the operation of the federal court system.
Idea #17 cont.
Checks and Balances cont.
16. The Congress is able to initiate amendments to
the Constitution which, if approved by three-fourths
of the states, could seriously affect the operation of
both the executive and judicial branches.    
17. The Congress, by joint resolution, can terminate
certain powers granted to the President (such as
war powers) without his consent.    
18. The people have a check on their Congressmen
every two years; on their President every four
years; and on their Senators every six years.
Idea #18

The unalienable rights of the people are most

likely to be preserved if the principles of
government are set forth in a written
constitution.
The first written charter in America was in
1620, when the Mayflower Compact came into
being. Later the charter concept evolved into
a more comprehensive type of constitution
when Thomas Hooker and his associates
adopted the Fundamental Orders of
Connecticut in 1639. It is interesting that the
Connecticut charter makes no reference to
the Crown or the British Government as the
Idea #19
Only limited and carefully defined powers
should be delegated to government, all others
being retained in the people.
No principle was emphasized more vigorously
during the Constitutional Convention than the
necessity of limiting the authority of the federal
government. Not only was this to be done by
carefully defining the powers delegated to the
government, but the Founders were determined
to bind down its administrators with legal
chains codified in the Constitution.
Idea #20

Efficiency and dispatch require government

to operate according to the will of the
majority, but constitutional provisions must be
made to protect the rights of the minority.
Thomas Jefferson referred to this in his first
inaugural address on March 4, 1801, when he
said:    "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred
principle, that though the will of the majority
is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful
must be reasonable; that the minority possess
their equal rights, which equal laws must
protect, and to violate would be oppression."
Idea #20 cont.

It is the responsibility of the minorities

themselves to learn the language, seek
needed education, become self sustaining,
and make themselves recognized as a
genuine asset to the community. Meanwhile,
those who are already well established can
help. The United States has built a reputation
of being more generous and helpful to
newcomers than any other nation. It is a
reputation worth preserving. Once upon a
time, we were all minorities.
Idea #21

Strong local self-government is the keystone

to preserving human freedom.
Political power automatically gravitates
toward the center, and the purpose of the
Constitution is to prevent that from
happening. The centralization of political
power always destroys liberty by removing
the decision-making function from the people
on the local level and transferring it to the
officers of the central government.
Idea #21 cont.

James Madison - "The powers delegated by

the proposed Constitution to the federal
government are few and defined. Those which
are to remain in the State governments are
numerous and indefinite. The former [federal
powers] will be exercised principally on
external objects, as war, peace, negotiation,
and foreign commerce.... The powers reserved
to the several States will extend to all the
objects which, in the ordinary course of
affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and
properties of the people, and the internal
order, improvement, and prosperity of the
Idea #21 cont.

A Prophecy
"If the day should ever arrive (which God
forbid!) when the people of the different parts
of our country shall allow their local affairs to
be administered by prefects sent from
Washington, and when the self government of
the states shall have been so far lost as that
of the departments of France, or even so
closely limited as that of the counties of
England -- on that day the political career of
the American people will have been robbed of
its most interesting and valuable features,
and the usefulness of this nation will be
Idea #22

A free people should be governed by law and

not by the whims of men.
To be governed by the whims of men is to be
subject to the ever-changing capriciousness of
those in power. This is ruler's law at its worst.
In such a society nothing is dependable. No
rights are secure. Things established in the
present are in a constant state of flux. Nothing
becomes fixed and predictable for the future.
"No man will contend that a nation can be
free that is not governed by fixed laws. All
other government than that of permanent
Idea #23

A free society cannot survive as a republic

without a broad program of general
education.
Clear back in 1647 the legislature of
Massachusetts passed a law requiring every
community of 50 families [page 250] or
householders to set up a free public grammar
school to teach the fundamentals of reading,
writing, ciphering, history, geography, and
Bible study. In addition, every township
containing 100 families or more was required
to set up a secondary school in advanced
studies to prepare boys for attendance at
Idea #23 cont.

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general

knowledge among the people.... They have a
right, an indisputable, unalienable,
indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded
and envied kind of knowledge -- I mean, of the
characters and conduct of their rulers.“ – John
Adams
Idea #23 cont.

By 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville of France

visited the United States, he was amazed by
the fruits of this effort. He wrote: "In New
England every citizen receives the elementary
notions of human knowledge; he is taught,
moreover, the doctrines and the evidences of
his religion, the history of his country, and the
leading features of its Constitution. In the
states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is
extremely rare to find a man imperfectly
acquainted with all these things, and a person
wholly ignorant of them is a sort of
phenomenon."
Idea #23 cont.

A textbook for children

It was called a "Catechism on the
Constitution," and it contained both questions
and answers concerning the principles of the
American political system. It was written by
Arthur J. Stansbury and published in 1828.
Idea #24

A free people will not survive unless they stay

strong.
"Our security lies, I think, in our growing
strength, both in numbers and wealth; that
creates an increasing ability of assisting this
nation in its wars, which will make us more
respectable, our friendship more valued, and
our enmity feared; thence it will soon be
thought proper to treat us not with justice
only, but with kindness, and thence we may
expect in a few years a total change of
measures with regard to us; unless, by a
neglect of military discipline, we should lose
Idea #24 cont.
"To be prepared for war is one of the most
effectual means of preserving peace.“
"A free people ought not only to be armed, but
disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-
digested plan is requisite.“
"And their safety and interest require that they
should promote such manufactories as tend to
render them independent of others for
essentials, particularly military supplies.“
- George Washington
Idea #24 cont.

"It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it

[would be] in the power of one, or any number
of men, at the entering into society, to
renounce their essential natural rights, or the
means of preserving those rights; when the
grand end of civil government, from the very
nature of its institution, is for the support,
protection, and defense of those very rights;
the principal of which ... are life, liberty, and
property. If men, through fear, fraud, or
mistake, should in terms renounce or give up
any essential natural right, the eternal law of
reason and the grand end of society would
Idea #24 cont.

"It is the business of America to take care of

herself; her situation, as you justly observe,
depends upon her own virtue.“ – Samuel
Adams
Idea #25

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship

with all nations -- entangling alliances with
none.“
"Friendship with all ... alliances with none." --
Thomas Jefferson    These are the words of
Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural
address.
Idea #25 cont.

As the United States emerged on the world

scene in the eighteenth century, American
leaders took a united and fixed position
against entangling alliances with any foreign
powers unless an attack against the United
States made such alliances temporarily
necessary.    This was the Founders' doctrine
of "separatism." This was far different from
the modern term of "isolationism." The latter
term implies a complete seclusion from other
nations, as though the United States were to
be detached and somehow incubated in
isolation from other nations.
Idea #26

The core unit which determines the strength

of    any society is the family; therefore, the
government should    foster and protect its
integrity.
The American Founders felt that the legal,
moral, and social relationships between
husband and wife were clearly established by
Bible law.
In theory, God's law made man first in
governing his family, but as between himself
and his wife he was merely first among
equals. The Apostle Paul pointed out in his
Idea #26 cont.

It will be appreciated that the strength and

stability of the family is of such vital
importance to the culture that any action by
the government to debilitate or cause
dislocation in the normal trilateral structure of
the family becomes, not merely a threat to
the family involved, but a menace to the very
foundations of society itself.
Idea #27

The burden of debt is as destructive to

freedom as subjugation by conquest.
"Think what you do when you run in debt;
you give to another the power over your
liberty." -- Benjamin Franklin    
Slavery or involuntary servitude is the result
of either subjugation by conquest or
succumbing to the bondage of debt.
Idea #28

The United States has a manifest destiny to

be an example and a blessing to the entire
human race.
"I always consider the settlement of America
with reverence and wonder, as the opening of
a grand scene and design in Providence for
the illumination of the ignorant, and    the
emancipation of the slavish part of mankind
all over the earth." - John Adams
Idea #28 cont.

"With equal pleasure I have often taken

notice that Providence has been pleased to
give this one connected country to one united
people -- a people descended from the same
ancestors, speaking the same language,
professing the same religion, attached to the
same principles of government, very similar in
their manners and customs, and who, by their
joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side
by side throughout a long and bloody war,
have nobly established their general liberty
and independence.“ – John Jay
Idea #28 cont.

"This country and this people seem to have

been made for each other, and it appears as if
it was the design of Providence that an
inheritance so proper and convenient for a
band of brethren, united to each other by the
strongest ties, should never be split into a
number of unsocial, jealous, and alien
sovereignties.“ – John Jay