American Political Thought Essay Research Paper The — страница 2

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Puritans did not believe that anyone could go to heaven. They did not believe that the more virtuous a life you lead the better chance you d have at getting into heaven. They believed it was predestined and that only the elect would get into heaven. However the Puritans were very active people, they believed that virtue was a sign of being one of the elect. So people would work hard at being virtuous so they could show that they were one of the elect. This is not a liberal theme, unlike the progressive idea that all humans were created equal and had a certain amount of natural rights. The Puritans believed that there was a group of elect among them that were superior to everyone else, because God made it that way. They were the elect and they were the only ones that would be

allowed into heaven. It is in Roger Williams writings that we see some of the early formation of the idea of American liberalism. He boldly proclaimed that all people have a natural right to religious liberty and attacked the undemocratic nature of contemporary governments. He argued that sovereignty lies with the people, not with kings, parliaments, states, or governors (American Political Thinking). This being a revolutionary idea at the time almost sets the stage for the train of thought that passes through the American colonies. However other writers such as John Winthrop also make points that break down the idea of liberty and rights. In his speech A Little Speech on Liberty , he distinguishes between natural and civil liberty (American Political Thinking). Natural liberty

as he describes it is the enemy of great truth and peace. It is the idea that every man can do as he pleases just because he can, nature gave him the liberty to. Civil liberty on the other hand is a kind of moral liberty. It is a covenant between God and man in moral law. It is the liberty to create and recreate the authority, which you live under. Winthrop saw that personal freedom must end somewhere, but didn t let go of the notion that the people should be in control of where that freedom ends. This is an idea that is still being debated, where should we draw the line and is a very active liberal question. The Puritans were far from what we might consider Liberal , but you can see signs of some liberal themes in their notion of Covenant, government by agreement, and their

aggressive strains of individualism. In the Puritans we also see early forms of Capitalism, justified by their work ethic and comfort with worldly success as a sign of being one of the elect. They also confronted liberalism with a challenge though their notion of a vengeful God. They also offer us a sense of humility and limits, which a dynamic liberal society lacks. The Constitution of the United States of America is said to be one of the most liberal documents ever written. Its makers however still battled with the idea of liberalism and didn t quite come up with what we have today. The Federalists the main group of people behind the creation of the Constitution created this document because they saw a need to regulate and create a government for a liberal society that needed

more authority and structure. Although this may be a good idea it is not a very liberal one, because it takes power and freedom away from the people and gives it to a government. The federalist design for the U. S. Constitution was a negative one geared toward preventing evils from occurring rather than a positive one geared toward establishing a democratic utopia (American Political Thinking). However you may look at it the balance of authority and freedom in America today was set by the standard put forth by the Constitution and the Federalists ideology, which is very deeply imbedded with liberalism. Alexander Hamilton one of the major contributors to the Constitution and the writer of a majority of the Federalist papers said, Money is the vital and principle of the body of

politic, (American Political Thinking). He was a Federalist that wanted to use the Constitution to form a financial aristocracy in the United States. Hamilton envisioned a strong government by the wise, the good, and the rich, a dynamic, centralized form of aristocracy that would strive for industrial financial power, (American Political Thinking). Even though it seems as if Hamilton saw that United States was not to be an agrarian state like so many thought, his ideas of an aristocracy give an alternative to the ideas of the liberal society that has been described. We as a society did become the industrial power that Hamilton wanted us to be and some of his forms of thinking did come true with the formation of conglomerates such as a form of financial aristocracy. Their power