The SAR MAGAZINE is the official quarterly publication of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution published quarterly.
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22 SAR MAGAZINE By Elizabeth Lilly T he term renaissance translates literally from French as "rebirth." In the most famous renaissance, occurring largely in Italy between the 14th and 17th centuries, classical civilization enjoyed a revival across Europe. But the American Revolution of the late 18th century was a Renaissance in its own right: a rebirth of classical philosophy, this time in the context of a fedgling government. The Founding Fathers, the orchestrators of the now-heralded American republican democracy, were well-learned of their Greco- Roman forefathers in republican thought. They studied and deliberated over the works of Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero. John Adams wrote in 1765, "Let us study … the history of the ancient ages; contemplate the great examples of Greece and Rome." 1 Adams and his contemporaries readopted the idea of classical republicanism, frst proposed in the Florentine Renaissance, of which they understood the three pillars to be equality, mixed government (eventually the separation of powers), and civic virtue. Thomas Jefferson was certainly one of the most prominent fgures of the American Revolution and, as the writer of the Declaration of Independence, a great champion of the rights of man. In the Declaration, speaking for the American people, Jefferson famously stated: "We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness—that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." 2 The Founding Fathers and their contemporary revolutionaries believed frmly in natural law and natural rights. In 1766 John Dickinson wrote that rights "are not annexed to us by parchments and seals." Rather, he argued, "They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power without taking our lives. In short, they are founded on the immutable maxims of reason and justice." 3 While the philosopher who likely had the greatest infuence on the Founding Fathers—especially Jefferson—was the English Enlightenment thinker John Locke, theories of natural law originated in Hellenic Greece and the writings of Aristotle, which Locke himself emulated in his Two Treatises of Government. Jefferson was a keen student of philosophy, both Locke's and Aristotle's, the latter of which he read in its original Greek. However, what made Jefferson a revolutionary was the departure from Aristotle's ancient notion that "from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule." 4 Jefferson, drawing much of his inspiration from Locke, challenged this long-existing conception of human nature. He was among the frst in the young country to assert that all Men are equal in their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. James Madison has been called the "Father of the Constitution" for writing twenty-six articles of the Federalist Papers, which promoted the ratifcation of the Constitution. Madison, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, wrote under the pseudonym Publius, which he and his colleagues borrowed from the Roman consul Publius Valerius Publicola. Publicola, having deposed the last Tarquin king, became one of Rome's frst consuls in 509 BC, the frst year of the Republic. One of the most famous Federalist Papers penned by Madison was Federalist No. 51, in which he explored the idea of separation of powers and the proper means by which to create checks and balances. Madison was heavily infuenced by Polybius, a Hellenistic historian who spent much of his life in Rome analyzing the Roman constitution, which he described as "mixed." Polybius observed that the Roman constitution incorporated elements of monarchy (the consuls), aristocracy (the senate), and democracy (the assembly of the Roman people); he understood the ideal government to be a composition of these three political ideologies. The three sects being thus composed, Polybius argued, would prevent one's abuse of another's power and ensure a stable government. Polybius' theory of mixed government proved to be an antecedent for the American conception of separation of powers, which Madison explored in Federalist No. 47. He cited and agreed with the constitution of New Hampshire, which stated "that the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers ought to be kept as separate from, and independent of, each other as the nature of a free government will admit; or as is consistent with that chain of connection that binds the whole fabric of the Constitution in one indissoluble bond of unity and amity." 5 Separating themselves of an abusive monarchy, the Founding Fathers were determined not to allow for any tyranny in their young land of the free. Unlike Jefferson and Madison, George Washington was not an overt intellectual. He did not study Greek and Latin, of which a basic knowledge was required to enter a university. In fact, Washington never attended college, which haunted him throughout his life. However, George Washington possessed an insatiable intellectual curiosity which led him, as it did most like-minded men of his revolutionary age, to the classics. In English, he read Virgil's poetry, Cicero's prose, Tacitus's histories. He greatly admired Joseph Addison's play Cato, which detailed the life of Cato the Younger, a Stoic whose resistance to Julius Caesar's tyranny made him an icon of republicanism, virtue, and liberty. In fact, Washington was so enamored of the play that he even had it performed to his Continental Army at Valley Forge. In 1783, he laid down his sword and resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the American armies; in doing so, he followed the example set by the Roman statesman Cincinnatus, who twice relinquished power as dictator of the Roman Republic to humbly return to his farm. In the end, Washington was defned by neither 2014 Knight Essay Contest Winner Classical Republicanism in the American Revolution: Greco-Roman Influence on Washington, Jefferson and Madison Left, sponsor Mike Elston, VASSAR; Elizabeth Lilly; and Norfolk Chapter President Tom Whetstone About the Essay Contest Winner Elizabeth Lilly attends Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, Va. She writes: "History is one of my favorite subjects … This is not the frst 'classics and America' paper I've written; I recently wrote an essay comparing Pericles' Funeral Oration to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address." She currently studies Latin and plans to learn Ancient Greek in college. Her hobbies are reading, piano and classical ballet. She confesses to being a humanities lover at heart, but hopes to attend Harvard or Yale and practice medicine in the future.