On the record
They were not so much concerned about the rights of man as about his duties, and their great purpose was to substitute for the visionary idealism of a rampant individualism the authority of law.
Source
gutenberg.orgJames Beck: “They were not so much concerned about the rights of man as about his duties, and their great purpose was to substitute…”
Editor's note · Context
Beck explains that the framers prioritized duties over rights, aiming to establish law and order.
Share
More from James Beck
The tendency of group morality to standardize man--and thus reduce all men to the dead level of an average mediocrity--is one that the law should combat.
It must champion the human soul in its God-given right to exercise freely the faculties of mind and body.
That vision will remain with them as long, and no longer, as there is in their hearts a conscious and willing acquiescence in its wisdom and justice.
Without that vision to restrain each succeeding generation of Americans from the tempting excesses of political power, the American Commonwealth, with its great heterogeneous democracy, would probably perish.
Other voices in this conversation
