Montesquieu, the Declaration of Independence, and the Moderation of America’s Founding Philosophy
Critiques of liberalism from right and left indicate the need to revisit the founding of America’s liberalism in the Declaration of Independence, assessing its philosophical-political achievement. Study of the full document and sources shaping it clarifies its complexity, a balancing of several principles to achieve justice, which Montesquieu deemed moderation. Jefferson’s 1825 recollection omits Montesquieu, yet textual and historical evidence suggests his influence was equally significant with Locke’s on the compound, moderate philosophy of Jefferson’s draft and especially the final Congressional text. A comprehensive approach to America’s founding as an amalgam accounts for both individual rights and the duty of self-government, consent of the governed and constitutional forms; with Montesquieu and the common law, not Locke’s rationalism, providing the harmonizing philosophical-legal mode. The Declaration’s views of theology and happiness, common-law constitutionalism, federalism, and “sacred Honor” transcend Lockean liberalism, indicating a moderation explaining the coherence of America’s founding as a whole.
Paul Carrese is Director of the Center for American Civics (summer 2025 - present), and professor in the School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, serving as its founding director 2016 to 2023. Formerly he was a professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, co-founding its honors program blending liberal arts and leadership education. He teaches and publishes on the American founding, American constitutional and political thought, civic education, and American grand strategy. His forthcoming book is Teaching America: Reflective Patriotism in Schools, College, and Culture (Cambridge, 2026). He has held fellowships at Oxford (Rhodes Scholar); Harvard; University of Delhi (Fulbright); and the James Madison Program, Princeton. He served on the advisory board of the Program on Public Discourse at UNC Chapel Hill; co-led a national study, Educating for American Democracy, on history and civics in K-12 schools with partners from Harvard, Tufts, and iCivics (2021); is a fellow of the Civitas Institute, UT Austin; and serves on the Academic Council of the Jack Miller Center for America’s Founding Principles and History and on the Civic Education Committee of the American Political Science Association. He is a Senior Fellow with the Jack Miller Center, and in 2025 was a Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.