Founding Thinkers

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”

— James Madison, Federalist No. 51

On the Fourth, we celebrate a number of things: independence, liberty, bravery. Let me add another: metacognition.

For all the brilliance of America’s founders, for all their committment to the idea of freedom, for all their heroism in risking their lives to be free of British rule, the quality — perhaps above all others — that made their revolution truly revolutionary in human history was their understanding of human nature. Any band of rabble can throw off the chains of their oppressors and shed the blood of tyrants (see: Revolution, French), but it takes a special kind of genius to turn a revolution into a republic.

The founders’ most important work didn’t happen in 1776, when they wrote the Declaration of Independence; it happened in 1787, when they wrote the Constitution and the defining work of American political science, The Federalist Papers, explaining and defending the Constitution as it awaited ratification by the states. It is in these works where their true genius was on show.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51, explaining the proposed Constitution’s system of checks and balances, “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” As profound a statement on the nature of government as has ever been written. And one firmly grounded in a view of human nature wise beyond the time in which it was written.

Metacognition is the act of thinking about thinking — understanding one’s own mind, so as to be its master instead of its slave. Madison, along with the other founders, didn’t have the luxury of designing a government that others would operate. He and his contemporaries would be wielding this government’s power (Madison himself would go on to be the nation’s fourth president), and in writing its founding documents, he and the others were designing constraints on their own future power. They had to admit basic facts about their own human nature — that they were no angels, that they were subject to “passions” as much as any other mortal — and they had to act wisely in accordance with those facts. They had to engage in metacognition in the most consequential circumstance imaginable; and they succeeded.

Has there yet been a more monumental act in the history of human self-government?

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed,” Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10, the famous number in which Madison describes the problem of faction in a democracy. “As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.” Self-interest, that is, will always blind men to true reason. And, thus, no one man or faction should ever wield too much power. Factions are a good thing in a republic, and the point of government is to keep them always fighting each other, always in tension, always short of achieving all their goals.

So, as you celebrate the Fourth, celebrate partisanship, celebrate gridlock, celebrate the slow pace of change in America. Because these are the things that keep us free, even if they frustrate us from time to time (if not constantly). These are the legacy our Founders left us — the legacy of a small group of men who understood human nature better than any others who ever tinkered with the mechanisms of government.

And if you’re looking for a historical document to pore over this Independence Day, forget the Declaration. Go here, and search the word “passion.” You won’t find a better guide to the genius of America.

Have a great Fourth, everyone. Eat a hot dog for freedom, and then blow some stuff up!