Restore Founders’ Moral Claims

The Declaration should be discussed not only as a founding event but as a set of moral premises (natural law, rights not granted by the state) that structured the new republic. Debates about phrasing—'self-evident', 'Creator', 'equal creation'—are not trivia but signal rival epistemologies (natural law versus Humean empiricism) that shape civic language and legitimacy. — Re-centering the Founders’ moral language would change how civic education, constitutional argument, and national commemoration frame rights and duties in polarized politics.