Our Core Documents

We invite you to read and study the Founding documents collected in this section.

They are set out here because we believe that classical liberal democracy is not an intelligible form of government, per se, and cannot be made to work except by men and women who truly posses a thorough knowledge of the core philosophy in which classical liberal democracy was conceived and founded, as embodied in these documents.

The prospects for classical liberal democracy at this particular time of mighty counter-movements are, we believe, bound up with the very fundamental question of whether a ‘public philosophy’ premised on natural law and natural rights is obsolete or whether it can be revived, reunited and received by our fellow citizens. We feel it can and are dedicated to our Mission to help others who are similarly inclined, because when properly applied, the ‘public philosophy’ echoed in each these documents will help open the way toward rational and acceptable solutions to contemporary issues and problems.

Consequently, we encourage you to take the time to read the following documents with care from the perspective of really learning and understanding their principles and precepts and how they can help to accommodate a civil discourse requisite to preserving our democratic republic.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution may be the cornerstones of our form of government, but they, in turn, owe a great deal to the principles expressed in some of our earliest political writings.

ANONYMOUS

The best of our traditions provide the additional knowledge that things which have had a good reputation over the course of time are more trustworthy than untried and untested theories.

Larry P Arnn

“Put another way, most of the documents at the center of American political theory – and the values, concerns, and preferences they embody – emerge out of the experiences and circumstances of the American people at different times and places. As such, these documents are integral to coherently explicating the American political tradition; indeed,  they constitute its essence.”

George W Carey

“America is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

Alexis de Tocqueville

“I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.”

Ronald Reagan, Epitaph