The narrative of American history has been a repudiation of the founder’s belief in limited government made possible by a virtuously self-regulating and public-spirited citizenry.  Gone from the political dialog is the irrevocable link between happiness and virtue.  It is the abandonment of the value placed on virtue that is particularly troublesome. As Sam Adams wrote in a letter to James Warren in 1775, “We may look up to Armies for our Defense, but Virtue is our best Security.  It is not possible that any State should long remain free, where Virtue is not supremely honored.”^[1]

When it came to virtue, the founders did not believe that the private and the public were hermetically sealed off from one another.  In the same letter cited above, Adams wrote, “There are Virtues & vices which are properly called political. Corruption, Dishonesty to one’s Country, Luxury and Extravagance tend to the Ruin of States. The opposite Virtues tend to their Establishment…. Therefore Wise and able Politicians will guard against other Vices, and be attentive to promote every Virtue. He who is void of virtuous Attachments in private Life, is, or very soon will be void of all Regard for his Country. There is seldom an Instance of a Man guilty of betraying his Country, who had not before lost the Feeling of moral Obligations in his private Connections.”^[2]

We are no longer concerned with what type of person is capable of participating in self-government.  Today the dialog focuses on whether the government allows each person enough liberty to make their own choices based upon personal values and their own self-established end states.  When the founders thought about liberty, the values were clearly established and the end state was well understood.  They debated sumptuary laws; we glorify excess.  Or as Aristotle might have put it, we have lost the habit of virtuous behavior.

            [1]  “Samuel Adams to James Warren – 1775,” Samuel Adams Heritage Society, last modified 2013, accessed September 4, 2016, http://www.samuel-adams-heritage.com/documents/samuel-adams-to-james-warren-1775.html.

                [2] Ibid.

                [3] Quoted in Carl J. Richard, Greeks and Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008), 58-59.