Tue 3/5/2024 9:11 AM

This week we’re talking about civics.

Americans love to speak of self-government.   We’re proud of the fact that we exchanged the despotism of King George III for a representative government in the form of a democratic republic.  We love the words of the Declaration of Independence, that governments “deriv[e] their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  And we love Lincoln’s words from the Gettysburg Address, that ours is a government “of the people, by the people, for the people….” 

But we often forget that other meaning of self-government.  Not the one that gives us the privilege to cast a vote or to participate in the making of our laws.  I’m talking about the self-government that is a duty, not a right.  That is, the obligation to govern ourselves—to restrain our own passions, to do the right thing and refrain from the wrong thing regardless of whether a law requires it.  In short, to live upright, virtuous, and honorable lives.

George Washington was clear, “[v]irtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” And Benjamin Franklin was equally clear, “[o]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”  The Founders understood that giving people a say in their own government was only good for protecting liberty if the people themselves were virtuous.  They knew that if we raised up generations of cheats and liars and thugs, our system of government would be irrelevant.  John Adams said that an immoral people would break through “our Constitution like a whale goes through a net.”

There is a lot of talk among adults today about restoring American democracy.  But usually, that’s more a comment about voting, not virtue.  We spend time here at school focused on virtue—not only because you’re not yet old enough to vote, but so that when you are your generation won’t just be another whale breaking through the net.

Have a wonderful day.