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First Principles Foundational Concepts to Guide Politics and Policy

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First Principles Foundational Concepts to Guide Politics and Policy FIRST PRINCIPLES FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS TO GUIDE POLITICS AND POLICY NO. 42 | APRIL 19, 2012 A Federal Republic: Lincoln’s First Inaugural and the Nature of the Union Herman Belz Abstract The Constitution establishes a federated republic in which government sovereignty is divided between federal and state institutions. From the outset, this division introduced into American politics an element of ambiguity over the proper relation between the federal and state governments. To properly understand the nature of our republic, we turn for guidance to President Abraham Lincoln’s defense of liberty and Union in his First Inaugural Address. Lincoln vindicated the Constitution by proving secession to be lawless rebellion and affirmed the two central principles of the Union: divided sovereignty and equal citizenship based on the natural rights of individuals. Based on the principles of the nation’s political tradition, the Civil War and Reconstruction were a fulfillment and completion of the Constitution, not a revolution against it. hanges in culture and society constitutional order established at The paramount authority of the Csurely affect political life, but the nation’s Founding has, on the people of America was organized in the more important issue in con- whole, proved remarkably sound, sta- a federal government with power to sidering the political health of a ble, and enduring. The Constitution regulate matters of concern to the people concerns the constitutive has served the purposes for which whole country and in state govern- principles, forms, and ends by which it was originally intended very well, ments with power to regulate mat- they choose to be governed. America and the principal reason has been the ters of local concern. Government is exceptional in the sense that the republican character of its governing sovereignty was divided and exer- principles and institutional forms. cised in federal and state republican Looking at our Founding, two institutions, respectively. This paper, in its entirety, can be found at revolutionary innovations stood In this way, the people governed http://report.heritage.org/fp42 out. The first was to form one nation themselves as one for national pur- Produced by the B. Kenneth Simon Center and one people out of the people of poses and with substantial autonomy for Principles and Politics 13 separate and distinct states. The according to local needs and inter- The Heritage Foundation second was to write a republican ests in their respective states. The 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 constitution for the nation as a whole people were not insulated from (202) 546-4400 | heritage.org that depended in part on written each other in a condition of inde- Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily constitutions adopted by the people pendent sovereignty. Exercise of reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill in the states. states’ powers in the Union under before Congress. FIRST PRINCIPLES | NO. 42 APRIL 19, 2012 the paramount authority of the of egalitarian-minded progressives republican government that restored Constitution was the norm, and a to transform America into a social- the authority of the Founding. claim to absolute state sovereignty ist welfare state under the rule of an Ratification of the Constitution was disunionist in nature. elite bureaucratic class will provoke inaugurated a national system of The division of government sov- a still deeper crisis of republican two-party political competition ereignty introduced into American self-government and constitutional for control of the federal govern- politics an element of ambiguity government in the United States. ment. Political parties originated in beyond that which naturally exists in To understand the nature of our Congress as a means of organizing political life. The people as individu- country, Americans would do well and representing public opinion. als and the states as distinct entities to turn for guidance to President From the outset, constitutional are constituent parts of the nation as Abraham Lincoln’s defense of repub- arguments about the nature and a political whole. They are not cen- lican liberty and Union. Lincoln’s extent of federal government pow- tralized or consolidated in one mass, teaching on the nature and signifi- ers relative to state powers figured but retain significant individual and cance of American first principles prominently in legislative poli- local liberties. is especially instructive in meeting cymaking. The majority party in Republican values define the present threat to constitutional Congress had an incentive to con- American nationality, notwithstand- government. strue federal power broadly, and the ing distinctive local and regional dif- minority party had an incentive to ferences. Federal and state govern- RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD, THE oppose broad construction in def- ments stand on and are intended to FEDERAL SYSTEM OF CONCURRENT erence to state powers. National- protect the people’s natural rights minded lawmakers warned against to life, liberty, and the pursuit of REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENTS anarchic state sovereignty, and happiness. In addition to reasonable PROVIDES A DOUBLE SECURITY FOR self-styled “states’ rights” lawmak- differences of opinion concerning THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. ers warned against consolidation of the meaning of specific rights claims, THERE IS A POINT, HOWEVER, AT power in the federal government. ambiguity arises in determining Ultimately, party competition WHICH RADICAL DISAGREEMENT which government, federal or state, aimed at determining the permanent is properly authorized to protect the OVER THE MEANING AND and aggregate interests of the nation. rights of individuals under a given set APPLICATION OF FUNDAMENTAL It served a constructive nationaliz- of circumstances. CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES IS ing purpose and could go on indefi- Rightly understood, the federal nitely with one caveat: that politi- SUBVERSIVE OF REPUBLICAN SELF- system of concurrent republican gov- cians avoid introducing issues that so ernments provides a double security GOVERNMENT AND NATIONAL divided public sentiment as to make for the rights of the individual. There UNION. compromise impossible, threatening is a point, however, at which radical disruption of the Union. disagreement over the meaning and Lincoln takes his place with the The relationship between slavery application of fundamental con- Founders for resisting the anti- and republican government proved stitutional principles is subversive republican revolution of the slave- to be such an issue. Lincoln’s election of republican self-government and holding southern aristocracy. He as President in 1860 was a sign that national union. established constitutional govern- slavery’s day of reckoning was nigh. In the American Revolution, coer- ment on a more comprehensive The controversy over the nature cive and hierarchical imperial rule republican basis by fulfilling the of the Union that led to the Civil War provoked the overthrow of British principles of the Declaration of ultimately involved the question of authority. In the 19th century, the Independence. When the time came political obligation. When 11 south- threat of a slaveholding aristocracy for Lincoln as Chief Executive to pre- ern states seceded from the Union to subvert republican self-govern- serve and protect the Constitution, in 1860–1861, citizens were forced ment and nationalize slave property his great and essential contribu- to consider the problem of dual and led to secession and civil war, and tion was to make moral and philo- conflicting allegiance. How could a it is by no means inconceivable that sophic distinctions concerning the citizen remain loyal to two govern- in our own time, the determination meaning of liberty, equality, and ments, each of which demanded 2 FIRST PRINCIPLES | NO. 42 APRIL 19, 2012 exclusive allegiance? Putting them- concurrently wrote state constitu- unamendable, effectively institut- selves into a moral and legal dilem- tions for their internal government. ing government by the minority as a ma of this nature was not what the Subsequently, Congress adopted permanent arrangement. American people intended when they and the state legislatures ratified The Articles’ flawed design organized a national union to defend (between 1777 and 1781) Articles of reflected a failure to recognize the their rights and liberties in the Confederation to provide a govern- principle of direct popular repre- American Revolution.1 ment for the Union as a whole. sentation and majority rule. The The Articles of Confederation states were equally represented Failure of the Articles of (1781–1789) were an interstate com- in Congress, with each entitled to Confederation pact in the nature of a treaty alliance one vote. The people as individuals Americans traced the origin of between sovereign states. Congress were not represented in Congress. national union to the war for inde- was at best a putative national Nevertheless, Americans thought of pendence from Great Britain. The government: It lacked lawmaking themselves as a national people des- English colonies in North America authority and functioned largely in tined to enjoy a propitious future. were too varied and extensive to be an advisory capacity. Its resolutions The idea of permanent national- ruled by a single sovereign govern- and recommendations were subject ity was expressed in the provision ment in the nature
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