The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom

by Thomas G. West

This book provides a complete overview of the American Founders' political theory, covering natural rights, natural law, state of nature, social compact, consent, and the policy implications of these ideas. The book is intended as a response to the current scholarly consensus, which holds that the Founders' political thought is best understood as an amalgam of liberalism, republicanism, and perhaps other traditions. West argues that, on the contrary, the foundational documents overwhelmingly point to natural rights as the lens through which all politics is understood. The book explores in depth how the Founders' supposedly republican policies on citizen character formation do not contradict but instead complement their liberal policies on property and economics. Additionally, the book shows how the Founders' embraced other traditions in their politics, such as common law and Protestantism.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, American History, American, Philosophy, American Revolution

465 pages, Paperback

Published April 3, 2017

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Thomas G. West gives a comprehensive overview of the American founders' natural rights theory and examines the policy implications of that theory. West counters scholars and historians who argue that the founders' theory is simply an amalgam of disparate strands of liberalism, republicanism, Scottish enlightenment theory, and British common law. Instead, he argues that a coherent theory of natural rights is at the core of the founders' political thought and determined the extent to which those traditions were accepted. West also connects the founders' theory to their policies, showing that they thought government (i.e., the state governments) should inculcate virtue and morality through an intricate web of laws designed to protect individual rights and the sanctity of the family. He also gives a detailed examination of the founders' economic views, which focused on securing property rights, maintaining a domestic free market, and sound money. This book is a masterpiece that should be on the bookshelf of every scholar and patriot who cares about their nation.

[JR Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly argued and primary-sourced "complete overview of the American founders' political theory."

West sources the public documents of the major political leaders from around 1760-1800. He heavily relies on James Q. Wilson's "Lectures on Law" and state constitutions (this is a good thing!).

This book provides a corrective against modern liberal and libertarian misreadings of the founders' theory: The founders were proto-conservatives, making natural law the foundation of their public policy. Within the framework of natural law, their main concern was the protection of natural rights of the individual. This did not exclude concerns within the purview of natural law, such as laws promoting marriage, morality, and virtue. One may disagree with that, but it was part of the founding philosophy.

West also shoots down the misinterpretations of other scholars on the founders' views, such as Gordon Wood, Allan Bloom, Eric Foner, and others.

This is the kind of book you need to read on a regular basis, and that is high praise.

[Jeffrey Kahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of the best books on the American Founding that I’ve read. Thomas West makes a persuasive case that the Founders’ vision was shaped primarily by the Enlightenment theories of natural law and natural rights. He examines their voluminous writings—pamphlets, diaries, official documents and even State constitutions—to expose the profundity of their thinking. The book looks not only at theory but also practice: their views on race and gender; the role of the state in fostering an educated and virtuous populace; policies of religious liberty; and economics. Highly recommended!

[Christopher Blosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and a most informative book which will undoubtedly prove a useful resource against the critics (among the right and the left) who have taken to faulting the American founding for the present ills of our nation, revealing that the founders were actually far more coherent and unified in their theoretical understanding of the basis of the nation's founding in natural rights, and their application of such in fashioning our government, then is generally alleged in our times. Honestly, after reading Patrick J. Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed , West's scholarship and defense of the founding comes across like a refreshing breath of fresh spring air.

Particularly surprising to me was the extent to which his critique extends not only to the usual suspects (Michael Zuckert, Patrick Deneen) but various scholars and historians I had otherwise held in high regard (Mary Ann Glendon, Gordon S. Wood). There's a good, if critical, discussion here regarding some deficiencies with West's approach, but on the whole I found West to be careful in his treatment of the sources. Neither the progressive left nor the right -- that is to say the libertarian and/or paleo-right -- will be pleased with his findings.

West makes the salient point that in the study of political thought the tendency is to confine one's perspective to the 'founding documents' on a federal level, which is detrimental insofar as the founders left domestic policy to the states -- consequently, and it is only by a review of the wealth of largely-ignored documentation from the latter, that we can really grasp their thought. What I especially appreciated then was the sheer depth and scope of West's survey, encompassing not only the individual writings of Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Washington, et al.; the Federalist papers and the original founding documents as such -- but his most rewarding investigation of the founding documents, bills of rights, laws and ordinances of all thirteen colonies, by which the reader can gain a sense of their consistent and theoretically-rooted understanding on a vast array of issues and questions, including: the position of church and state; government support for education and the cultivation of morality; the promotion of virtue and the founder's understanding of such; the proper definition of "freedom" and the pursuit of happiness; the defense of property, free markets and 'sound money'.


Related Reviews and Discussion compiled from further reading.

-- Founding philosophy, by Michael Anton. [Review]. The New Criterion June 2018:

West sets for himself the seemingly modest task of “explaining” the American founders’ political views—first, their political theory per se, and second, how they applied that theory to the practical task of building a new government. The qualifier is necessary because while we think we understand the founding, West shows that we—especially, all too often, those who’ve been specifically trained to explain it to others—do not.

We misunderstand the founding, first, because of the dismal state of modern education, and second, owing to deliberate efforts to libel the founders and their works. The founders’ political theory has been, by turns, denounced, misrepresented, mocked, dismissed, and forgotten. The culprits have been and are of the Left, Right, and Center. The founders’ detractors include fascists and communists, despots and anarchists, Yankees and Southerners, ardent abolitionists and slaveholding oligarchs, eastern elites and western individualists, foreign enemies and domestic terrorists, anti-American leftists and patriotic conservatives, smug atheists and the deeply religious.

-- A Partial Vindication of Thomas West, by James Stoner. Law and Liberty 12/11/17.

-- The Founders in Full, by Vincent Phillip Munoz. Claremont Review of Books 10/19/17:

By reintroducing the moral underpinnings of the founders’ natural rights republic, Thomas West has made an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of American political thought. He shows that the founders’ republicanism is a part of their liberalism; that duties and rights, properly understood, are not at odds. In doing so, The Political Theory of the American Founding not only helps us better understand America’s principles, it explains why we ought to cherish them and fight to restore them to their rightful place in our political life.

-- RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Roundtable on The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom by Thomas G. West. Hillsdale College. 09/19/17. [Video]

-- Making Sense of the Founders: Politics, Natural Rights, and the Laws of Nature by Justin Dyer. Public Discourse> 06/09/17.

[West argues] that the founders did in fact share a “theoretically coherent understanding” of politics rooted in natural rights philosophy. Other traditions were of course present, but the founders, West insists, embraced these other traditions in their official public documents and pronouncements only to the extent that those traditions could be enlisted as allies of the natural rights philosophy. When natural rights conflicted with elements of the common law, customary practices, or religious tradition, it was the natural rights tradition that won the day. Public documents and the affairs of state—rather than sermons, commentaries, private letters, or other musings—“point to natural rights and the laws of nature as the lens through which politics is understood.”[...]

The Political Theory of the American Founding does a wonderful job of correcting some of the caricatures of the political thought of eighteenth-century Americans as amoral, areligious, individualistic, or otherwise hostile to public virtue and the moral conditions of freedom. The key, for West, is recognizing that the founders distinguished the purpose of politics (securing rights) from the purpose of life (happiness), and the founders created a society that remained open to the private pursuit of nobility, wisdom, piety, and the higher goods that were supposedly sublimated by the founders into the base pursuit of material gain.

Throughout, West leaves open the question whether the founders’ philosophy is true. I venture a preliminary answer: yes, for the most part, but only because they were buoyed by those other traditions—notably Christianity, the common law, and elements of classical theological natural law—and thereby built better than they knew.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas West is a talented and slippery writer. His historical narrative is often engaging and occasionally insightful, but there's a polemical and propagandistic undercurrent to the whole book that makes me question every other aspect of his scholarship. He defends the "founders' belief" about issues like the maintenance of slavery, the displacement of indigenous people, the barring of non-European immigrants from citizenship, and the inequitable treatment of women with a mixture of naive Lockeanism and vague appeals to contemporary social science research that supposedly demonstrates how the founders got it right--not only in the context of their own time but for our time and all time as well.

[Alec Bullough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was literally reading this so I could write a review essay on it for class, and I wasted so much time literally reading it instead of summarizing it like I was supposed to. A truly fascinating book!

Dr. West's thesis is controversial, but simple: rather than throw together a hodge-podge of ideas into the United States of America (an English idea here, an Ancient Greek one there, etc.), the Founders had a unified, coherent political theory that they built and designed the country around. And he argues this very, very well.

West argues that the Founders intentionally designed the country around Natural Rights Theory. This carries very significant implications because what emerges is a country that is not designed around Progressive (economic redistribution and social justice) or Libertarian (maximal personal freedom) visions: it is a country that was consciously designed with enabling the citizen to pursue a life of virtue, and they were very clearly expected to do so. Having designed institutions that "secured" natural rights, government was now expected to help encourage virtuous behavior. This leads to many surprising conclusions and policies at deep conflict with how we see things today.

Under such a system, for example, government was forbidden from prohibiting a religious faith, but it was common for states to have official religions or churches they supported. Religion was expected to be a frequent subject in public discourse: public officials would lead public prayers, God would be referenced, days of thanksgiving proclaimed, etc.

Under such a system, interesting questions develop. The slave has a clear natural right to liberty, but government is also supposed to protect its citizens' natural right to life. Would freeing slaves lead to retaliation by the formerly enslaved against their former masters? Was that a risk that just had to be accepted, or were there alternatives? These were questions the Founders wrestled with, and it helps shed light on why issues like slavery, though well aware of its injustice, so deeply vexed them.

West's real strength is that he brings the receipts. He's clearly very well-read with respect to the Founders. His thesis is controversial because a worldview that holds Natural Rights Theory is true has long been dismissed in many academic circles, replaced in favor of more politically convenient philosophies. Unable to understand the world the way the Founders did, historians and scholars thus struggle to understand their writings, choosing to emphasize differences over, for example, whether representation should be done by population or by state and ignoring the extremely radical consensus that representation *should be included at all* in the new government.

In short, there are differences in some of the political opinions of the Founders. What is not appreciated is that there weren't differences in their political *principles.*

This book accompanied a course I took that was very much tied to the subject matter, so while I cannot discern which came from which, it is fair to say that this book at least played a role in very dramatically shifting my understanding of a place I called home. I thought I knew what it was all about. Dr. West helped me fall in love with it all over again. The Founders declared the truths in the Declaration to be "self-evident," meaning they could be discovered by any individual for themselves, and I would say that this book helps to discover what was "self-evident" all along, but not necessarily obvious at first glance.

[Tyler C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal. Probably my favorite book on the Founding Fathers I’ve read so far. There’s so much here I could say, but to summarize in three points, Thomas G. West discusses the Founding:

1) Rights and Duties Are Inseparable:
In other words, the Founders rejected pure individualism and instead believed that individual rights must be balanced with civic duties and virtue. They viewed liberty not as license to do whatever one pleases, but as freedom exercised within moral boundaries. As Washington argued, there exists "an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage." Which moves right into point #2...

2) Public Virtue Is Essential for Liberty:
The Founders were convinced that securing natural rights requires widespread public morality and citizen virtue. They believed republican government would inevitably fail without virtuous citizens, which is why state constitutions and laws throughout the founding era emphasized the necessity of justice, moderation, temperance, and frugality for preserving liberty.

3) Government Must Actively Promote Morality
Contrary to modern assumptions, the Founders expected government to actively cultivate virtue through education, religion, and moral instruction. They distinguished between supporting religion for personal salvation (not the government's role) and supporting it for civic purposes (essential for social order). This included promoting natural law, supporting marriage and family institutions, and ensuring moral education—responsibilities they primarily assigned to state governments within their federal system.

The overarching theme is that the Founders created a system balancing idealism about human potential with realism about human nature, designing institutions that required virtue to thrive while being structured to function even when virtue was imperfect.

Seriously, highly recommend this one.

[Drew Kanes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book for the most part and would have been tempted to give it four stars if not for a few objects of discredit. Overall I thought West provided a well-researched insight into American founding theory through a natural rights lense. I did however have a few issues:

-I felt at several points he constructed strawmans to attack opposing views on points he was making, often through only vaguely quoting dissenting viewpoints

-There were a few points in Part I in which he went on some rather irrelevant and ill-supported tangents. The most surprising of which was his claim to the modern research support of disparities in intelligence based on race. Not only did I find this tangent unnecessary to the point he was making, but despite his statement of research in support of the claim, none of said “research” happened to be cited in the text. That was hard for me to reconcile.

I think the latter half of this book really shined- particularly Part III- and overall I consider it worth the read

*sidenote: the chapter in part three on the Jefferson/Madison vs Hamilton quarrel was a nice addition, always interesting to read about

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully clear elaboration of the Founders’ view of natural rights, as both liberal in a proper sense (concerned with individual rights) derived from social compact theory, and also committed to the moral conditions which make possible these individual rights (concerned with a higher end of life than of politics). I found particularly helpful his careful responses to other scholars of the Founding, including theories that it was more Republican or more classical, that the Founders were only concerned with a low materialistic interest, or that the Founders were not concerned with promoting morality. The concluding chapters also excellent, about the importance of property rights for liberty’s moral foundation (men are their own owners, to use their faculties for their improvement!). I will almost certainly be returning to this book as I sort through the many arguments. Bravo.

[Thomas St Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are in need of a study of our American origins, this is your book. I specifically say "study" because it's not entertainment...for most.

West does a wonderful job of not only presenting his interpretation of our founding ideals but presenting counter arguments and his answer to those arguments. What most of us don't realize is that there are numerous documents that catalog the hearts and minds of not only our Founders but our people as well. Understanding both what was in our Founders minds as evidenced in their official documents, but what was in their hearts through personal correspondence, is key to understanding not only the form (DOI/Constitution) but the matter (the people) of our great nation.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor West approaches the subject from the ‘Natural Rights of Man,’ premise as defined by the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The book is ambitious and the attribution extensive drawing on a wide divergence of academics to explore his points. I had great reservations about his views as a professor from Hillsdale College, but that turned out to be a non issue. He does reflect the ideological right as to be expected, but not the toxic reflexive cultural warrior I most feared. This is a must read for a deeper understanding of the shaping of the Constitution and the linkage to policies that emerge in state constitutions. It is a book that I will read again which is a very high compliment.

[Carl Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is an immersive experience of the moral and ethical convictions of polite society in 18th-century North America as they pertain to political order and social cohesion. West presents a comprehensive and closely argued proposition that the guiding principle of the American Revolution was not the Bible, Enlightenment thought, or some amalgam of these but rather Natural Law more or less as propounded by John Locke, perhaps an accidental correspondence. The author is clearly in complete agreement with the views he elucidates, which is sometimes disconcerting; and he sometimes shares blind spots and subtle contradictions inherent in the positions he expounds; but the overall effect is to experience the overall mindset from within as a committed participant rather than externally as an impartial observer.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book and I learned a lot about the Founding Fathers, natural rights theory, the U.S. Constitution, various government policies from the Founding era, etc. from the primary source documents. The author also spends a lot of words quoting other scholars and saying why their arguments are wrong. The scholarly discussion was somewhat interesting, but way less so than the primary sources themselves.

This book was a valuable addition to my self-education on American History, the U.S. Constitution, etc.

[Adam Kazmierski · Rating 5 out of 5]

With our founding documents as a background, and with the support of others such as the Northwest Ordinance and the state Constitutions, West vividly analyzes the founding principles. He builds from nothing, a state of nature, to specific enumerated policies. While our constitutional republic is not the only valid form of government, it is uniquely positioned in history that it could be the first of its kind to flourish.

[Hal Edghill · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome supplement to his Hillsdale online class, this is Dr. West's authoritative analysis of the origins of constitutional thought at the founding of our government. Detailed in references and presented with understandable concepts gives the reader a deeper understanding of how the founders conceived of what became the United States of America. A must read for anyone interested in how the American experiment all started.

[Mark K. Vogl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important modern work that will help wash away historic revisionism of the founding of the United States of America and introduce readers to the views most relevant to the Founders, and to their understanding of Liberty, and the intellectual and spiritual foundation of this nation. Its not aan easy read, and its not easy topics...it requires concentration and meditation.

[Joel Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came away from reading this book amazed, again, at the genius of the founders. While this is a quite academic book--he is very detailed, methodical, and careful with citations--it is still readable and paints a helpful picture of the political philosophy that brought about the United States and our amazing Constitution.

[Gay]

Larry Arnne recommendation

[Addison Zane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolutely incredible read. It is very dense and highly academic, but it is the single most thorough dissection of the core philosophies of the Enlightenment thinkers that founded the United States that I've ever encountered.

If the Federalist Papers are the gold standard source for the Founder's thinking, consider this the mining tools to unearth that gold.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my top 50 books of all time. Should be read by every American concerned about the future of our government.