Auster has written a stimulating piece on the Founding and the Constitution, noting the extent to which the Founders were preoccupied with procedure rather than with the implicit, small "c" constitution - the civilization - which the government was designed to serve. Was that wisdom, or did they take the nature and character of the nation for granted? I don't know, but Auster has added his own paragraph to the Constitution:
United States Constitution, Article VII, Section 1 (appearing just before the closing section of the Constitution which lays out the procedures for ratification):
In ordaining this Constitution for the common government of the United States of America, we would be remiss if we did not gratefully acknowledge that divine Providence whose blessings have made this government possible. For he has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established their general liberty and independence. Without the commonalities that make us one people, and the shared struggle for liberty that has made us a free people, this government could not exist. Nor could it exist in a state of pure freedom. Since liberty requires for its continuance the voluntary restraint of our sinful natures, and since such restraint requires the willing subordination of ourselves to the Author of all Good, it is clearly to be seen that this Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
"Traditional and politically incorrect?" Certainly. Very interesting and provocative and highly debatable piece.
