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4 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 23 (1989-1990)
To Secure These (Unalienable) Rights

handle is hein.journals/ndlep4 and id is 35 raw text is: TO SECURE THESE (UNALIENABLE) RIGHTS WALTER BERNS* Although it may not be obvious from the title I have given this paper, my concern here, like that of this symposium, is with the normative bases of the United States Constitution. This program reflects a concern with, perhaps even an apprehension concerning, the condition of the normative bases-which is to say, the moral foundations-of the Constitution and, therefore, of the Constitution itself. And our political prosperity is utterly dependent upon the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States is unique among the world's written constitutions. To say nothing of its longevity- over half of the other 157 have been written since 1974-we alone are constituted by a constitution. Constituted by it in a way that France, for example, is not constituted by the constitution of the Fifth Republic. By which I mean, France is not France, and the French are not French because of that constitution; they are not what they are because of that constitution or any of its predecessors. But we Americans are what we are because of the Constitution and the principles it embodies. Without the Constitution, we have nothing on which to rely-no history that is not a constitutional history; except in certain effete southern circles where the names of Jefferson Davis or John Taylor of Caroline are memorialized, no heroes that are not constitutional heroes (Washington, Hamilton, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, men who either framed the Constitution or defended it or held office under it); no thought equivalent to the thought of Pascal, Moliere, or Descartes, thought that formed the character of Frenchmen but is independent of the various French constitutions. No principles-at least, no Ameri- can principles-other than those stated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Constitution. Destroy the Constitution and we destroy those principles-and then what? Are we Protestants? If so, what are we going to do with the Catholics among us? Are we Christians? If so, what are we going to do with theJews among us? Are weJudeo-Christians? If so, what are we going to do with the Muslims among us? Are * John M. Olin University Professor, Georgetown University. This article is adapted from an address given to the Notre Dame Community, February 5, 1988, as part of the Thomas J. White Lecture Series.

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