I’ve had some requests for more information about last Sunday’s sermon, “To Protect and Defend the Constitution” – I’m posting some of the direct primary sources below.
I can also recommend some storytelling about the creation of the Constitution. One you may want to watch with your family is a movie that came out in 1989 by Brigham Young University, “A More Perfect Union: America Becomes a Nation.” It largely draws from primary sources – many of the conversations in the movie come directly from verified quotations. It’s free on Youtube.
Another is on TikTok, where a historian I follow just began a series of excellent short videos about the Constitution. He plans to create 73 videos on this topic and the playlist can be found here.
Primary sources from sermon:
James Madison: “who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”
John Adams: “the low craft and mean Cunning…the Stupidity with which the more numerous multitude, not only become their Dupes, but even love to be taken in by their Tricks: I feel a Stronger disposition to weep at their destiny, than to laugh at their Folly.”
George Washington: “The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party…agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”
Further Study: