Principles of America’s Founding Still Relevant
Matthew Kuchem /
Topping the list of reforms in the Tea Party’s Contract From America is “Protect the Constitution.” Additionally, as part of their pledge to America, House Republicans will require all bills to cite specific constitutional authority. While some criticize such emphasis on the founding document, branding it “constitution-worship,” the fervor is not without substance. Because both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence contain core principles that are the foundation of America’s success, understanding the meaning of these documents and principles they contain is absolutely imperative.
A Citizen’s Introduction to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution by Matthew Spalding, director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies and author of We Still Hold These Truths argues that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution work in tandem. Abraham Lincoln once described the relationship by referencing a verse in Proverbs: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” The Declaration is the golden apple; the frame is the Constitution. “The picture was made for the apple—not the apple for the picture,” Lincoln concluded. (more…)