At last, we have arrived! Well, at least to the end of our book study in Cleon Skousen’s masterful work on Principles of Freedom called “The 5000 Year Leap.”(Skousen, W. Cleon. The Five Thousand Year Leap: 28 Ideas That Changed the World. National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1981).
The 28th and final Principle of Freedom is this: “The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.”
Skousen says that our forefathers in this country had a hallmark trait- that of mission. It was “a conviction that they were taking part in the unfolding of a manifest destiny of divine design which would shower its blessings on all mankind.”(Ibid., p. 305) In other words, the settlers believed that they were destined to develop a country where self-government, rather than government by force, ruled the day. They set their sights to accomplish this mission not only for themselves but for their posterity, which includes you and me. They wanted to bring hope to the world. I have to hand it to them. We have the world’s oldest written Constitution in use today.
So we close this study by reviewing the very first words on the opening page from Andrew M. Allison: “Like the Framers, themselves, many Americans in the early years of the Republic truly regarded the Constitution as a miracle. Not only did they praise the competence, wisdom, and motivations of those who served in the federal convention of 1787, but they declared that the formation and adoption of our new system of federal government represented a political achievement unprecedented in human history. They looked upon it, moreover, as an event that was actually “influenced, guided and governed” by the hand of God. Thus, it is not hard to understand why our Founding Fathers believed that the Constitution was destined to bless all mankind…” (Ibid., p. i )
Author Cleon Skousen convinced me early on that these 28 Principles of Freedom helped the world catapult from “the way things always were” to a 5000- year leap that changed the world for the better. These principles of liberty are worth the time and effort it takes to study them and pass them on to our children and grandchildren. We, the People of the United States, are the pacesetters for the globe when it comes to liberty and self- government. It is incumbent upon Americans to preserve, protect, defend, and keep our Constitutional Republic, not change it to failed has-been systems of governance by a few.
If you have followed this weekly study, thank you for taking this journey together. Did you found Skousen’s work convincing? Were our Founding Fathers correct? Did the principles of freedom they espoused and then wrote into our organic law persuade you that America is the “last, best hope of earth?”
Learning the Principles of Freedom and passing them on is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship!??
