In the last few years the term “American Exceptionalism” has come to the political forefront. As with any other term which moves into the political arena, it takes on the character of a political football. Whoever can define it in the public mind has control of the football. In preparing to run for the presidency Newt Gingrich wrote an entire book about it. In his introduction Mr. Gingrich describes the idea like this:
Belief in American Exceptionalism leads inevitably to smaller, more effective, accountable and limited government. The American Revolutionaries did not shed their blood for the welfare state; nor did they aim to replace the arbitrary rule of King George . . . with their own oppressive bureaucracy. Instead they fought for individual liberty–that made America an exception among all other nations.
But this individual liberty which Next speaks of is not altogether clear since it is likewise a term carrying a lot of political weight. To some people, like the President of the United States, I believe that liberty is merely a synonym for fairness which is the least clear term I can imagine.
As to his own idea of the meaning of American Exceptionalism, the President has said that he, as an American, believes in American Exceptionalism,
. . . just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.
A less than clear exposition but clearly not in agreement with Mr. Gingrich’s view, I believe it is fair to say, since it seems to deprecate the very concept of exceptionalism itself.
First, Mr. Gingrich.
Then, President Obama.
I would like to tell you what I think about the source of the American Exceptionalism. I will start where our exceptionalism started, with the founding of the country. Our country was born in a war which was declared by a Continental Congress. A formal body of men elected by their peers from the 13 American colonies. In this elected Continental Congress effectively resided, in the minds of the people, the sovereignty of the American people. This elected congress appointed the officers to serve in its continental army, it declared the independence of itself and its constituent colonies and it appointed ambassadors and other officials to effect its will. It was not an army with a political arm but a civilian political entity with an army. The army, and its commander in chief reported to Congress and was expected to serve Congress. At the conclusion of the war the commander in chief resigned his commission to the Continental Congress and went home to Mount Vernon. This view of the role of civilian versus military power was thus established in the United States But why? Why was it that General Washington effectively bowed to the civilian government of the United States? The underlying thought process on the part of all concerned flowed naturally from the general view in the colonies as to the proper role of governmental power, including military power, in the country and an implicit agreement as to the ends it should serve. The result of these views was a Declaration of Independence which is one of the most elegant documents in all history especially when you understand that it was drafted by a committee and submitted to a vote. It acknowledged, as it must have, both unalienable rights of the people and the ultimate purpose of government itself, which was to secure those rights to the people. It further acknowledged that governments derive their just powers through the consent of this people, in this context — those who are governed. This was from the beginning in the DNA of the country, not because of the words chosen by Jefferson and Franklin and Adams et al, but because of innate characteristics and opinions held by the majority of the American people.
The next step in the creation of our country was the drafting and adoption of the United States Constitution. Every state had input into the drafting of the constitution. After it was drafted and available for all to read and digest, every state had a choice as to whether or not to adopt or reject the constitution. The notes of the convention kept by James Madison show the full range of the debate in the convention. And let me tell you something else about the ratification which you may not know. Each state selected the members for the ratifying conventions of the states. It was not a decision made by the state legislatures, bodies of general jurisdiction, but was made by a group of people selected for the sole purpose of adopting or rejecting the constitution as drafted.
Some states withheld their ratification until they received a promise that a bill of rights protecting individual and institutional rights from national interference would be added to the seven articles which outline and constitute our form of government. Once again, consent, not force, was the basis of the decision of how the country was to be governed and the decision to join the government by each of the states. The oath of office for officers of the government specified that it was the constitution, the form of government, that was to be upheld and protected by those officers. There was no dividing line recognized between the constitution and the nation itself. And since the constitution was the law of the land, which could be read and understood by every one of its citizens, we became a nation ruled by laws and not by men. This constitution and the history behind it became part of the DNA of the country.
The requirement that the consent of the governed was necessary in order to legitimate the government was a third element of the DNA of this country. And the model of government which they chose was a constitutional republic, a style of government providing through that constitution for protection of the rights of people and institutions through the separation of powers, the bill of rights and use of enumerated powers describing the functions to be undertaken by the national government.
This process of adopting a national constitution was a reflection of the character of the American people. The end product, which was adopted by the ratifying conventions of all 13 states, was a roadmap for how the future consent of the governed was to be obtained. Hence the people, those in whom the declaration of independence acknowledged the power to form governments as well as to change or abolish them, rested, created a government like no other for the United States of America through adoption of the constitution and the bill of rights.
What does this all have to do with American Exceptionalism, you may ask?
American Exceptionalism in my opinion, is very much about where the remaining power lies after a part of the power has been ceded to the government. The power which was not ceded to the government by the people continues to lie in the hands of the people themselves. This fact is embodied in the tenth amendment to the constitution, the last of the bill of rights. That is the most important element of the idea of American Exceptionalism. The people have ceded only so much power to the government as is necessary in order to establish peace and the rule of law so as to permit them, the people of the United States, to govern their own affairs as they see fit. This, rather than the idea of government by elected legislators and officers, is the idea behind “self government.” Self government is often misunderstood as the idea of being able to vote into office those who we believe should be there so that they can govern us under the fiction that we are acting through them. This, in my view, is not the main point of self-government. Self-government, correctly understood, is the idea that we citizens, acting within the law and in reliance upon the guidance of our own consciences, retain the right to govern our own individual affairs. We remain the sovereigns or governors of ourselves. This does not mean anarchy, far from it. it means that the people are entitled to pursue what they desire in the context of a free and civil society. Of course, as John Adams observed,
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
As such our churches, the ones which the government was to stay out of pursuant to the terms of the first amendment, have been, to a great extent, the voluntary “re-education camps” required in a free country for it to exist and prosper. This concept of self government, coupled with personal restraint, which I believe flowed from a well-spring deep in the hearts of the American people from the very founding of our country, is the source of the concept underlying the term ‘American Exceptionalism.’
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