Two hundred and fifty years ago, self-evident truths meant something. Today, for some, things appear far less self-evident and truth has become subjective. Freedom from tyranny was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Today, freedom has been transformed into license, the right to do whatever one pleases and to pressure the wider culture to accept it.

The Founders could define right from wrong, just as the ancients did. John Adams wrote about the Constitution, upon which the Declaration of Independence was the foundation: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Classic philosophy, especially that of Cicero and Aristotle, influenced Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, though neither man lived up to the high standards they set for the nation. Still, they believed Americans should strive to be good, not just feel good as some have interpreted the meaning of "the pursuit of happiness."

James Madison wrote that if citizens lacked the "sufficient virtue" to govern themselves, nothing less than "the chains of despotism........

© Townhall