The Framers of the Constitution of the United States were
heavily influenced by past and ongoing events in Europe during what is called “the Age
of Enlightenment.” One does not need to search long and hard for evidence of the
importance of the intellectual developments taking place in France, Italy and elsewhere
on the evolution of political theory in colonial America. The writings of Bacon,
Descartes, Hume, Hobbes, Locke, Kant and others were not just read by those who drafted
the Constitution, they were studied and debated. In writing what would become known as
Federalist Paper #9, titled “The Union as a
Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection,” Alexander Hamilton
repeatedly cites Montesquieu, the French philosopher and lawyer who dedicated much of
his life to contemplations of forms of government that would be more responsive to the
peoples than the sovereigns, mainly monarchs, who ruled the continent. The concepts of
separation of powers and checks and balances, the very heart of the American republic,
were adapted from the political theories being debated in European salons. As Hamilton
wrote in his essay in challenging the Eurocentric concept of democracy as existing
concurrent with limited monarchical powers:
“If it had been found impracticable
to have devised models of a more perfect structure, the enlightened friends to liberty
would have been obliged to abandon the cause of that species of government as
indefensible. The science of politics, however, like most other sciences, has received
great improvement. The efficacy of various principles is now well understood, which were
either not known at all, or imperfectly known to the ancients. The regular distribution
of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative balances and checks;
the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior;
the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own
election:”
Similarly,
James Madison, in Federalist #43 (“The Powers Conferred by
the Constitution Further Considered”) cites Montesquieu in arguing for a representative
form of government composed of like-minded souls bound by common
ideals:
“Governments of dissimilar principles
and forms have been found less adapted to a federal coalition of any sort, than those of
a kindred nature. “As the confederate republic of Germany,’’ says Montesquieu, “consists
of free cities and petty states, subject to different princes, experience shows us that
it is more imperfect than that of Holland and Switzerland.” “Greece was undone,’’ he
adds, “as soon as the king of Macedon obtained a seat among the
Amphictyons.”
The
importance of the Enlightenment for the intellectual and cultural evolution of humanity
cannot be overstated. As the power of the monarchies and, as importantly, the Church,
was increasingly questioned, and as the importance of thought grounded in scientific
discovery became increasingly accepted as legitimate, the pillars of a stable, enduring
democratic form of government were solidified. That the Founding Fathers of the United
States were influenced by these developments in Europe is beyond
question.
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