First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country

by Thomas E. Ricks

The Revolutionary generation had worried for decades that catastrophe would be brought by a loss of virtue, corruption, or perhaps foreign intervention. But in fact it was caused by something right in front of their eyes: slavery.

“that one of the most radical revolutions in the history of the American mind took place . . . without exciting appreciable comment: the philosophy and the philosophers of Scottish Realism vanished from American colleges. . . . and were swiftly replaced by some form of idealism.”

Finally, in 1961, Harvard stopped issuing diplomas inscribed in Latin.68 A large part of the American past was not only forgotten, but even when glimpsed in a reference to, say, Cato or Catiline remained unrecognizable to most. The past had been buried.

America is a moving target, a goal that must always be pursued but never quite reached.

“Property monopolized or in the Possession of a few is a Curse to Mankind. We should preserve not an Absolute Equality.—this is unnecessary, but preserve all from extreme Poverty, and all others from extravagant Riches.”

“salus populi suprema lex esto”—that is, “Welfare of the public is the supreme law.”

“to be free is more than a matter of pursuing my interests unimpeded, or satisfying my desires, whatever they happen to be. It is to share in self-government, to deliberate about the common good, to have a meaningful voice in shaping the forces that govern our lives.”

“willing to block the modernization of the whole country’s economy in order to preserve their section’s system of racial exploitation.”

Especially protect repugnant speech, no matter how ugly. When in doubt, remember that someone might one day try to label your own views as too offensive to be allowed public expression.