My qualifications to teach the U.S. Constitution
Although I have several college degrees and a bunch of famous ancestors, neither makes me qualified to teach the United States Constitution. My qualification is studying The Federalist Papers for nearly 30 years.
I was a teenager, 60 years ago, when I discovered that some people were systematically destroying the very foundation of our nation—the foundation that led to the most innovations and prosperity the world has ever seen. At the time, I didn’t realize that the “foundation” they were destroying was the U.S. Constitution. Now I know that a war against the Constitution began immediately after the Constitution was ratified. And it will continue until the republic of the United States loses. We, the defenders of the Constitution, will never be able to declare full victory. But every battle we win postpones the inevitable and ultimate destructiveness of tyranny.
In 1994, I returned to the questions I’d pondered 30 years earlier. What did the U.S. Constitution mean to the people who ratified it? Common sense told me that human error, greed, and love of power would have influenced and swayed constitutional interpretation throughout the years. I wanted to know what it meant to the people who ratified it! When they ratified the Constitution, they were standing in for me and all the generations of United States citizens who followed them.
The Federalist Papers were published in New York newspapers in the fall and spring, 1787-88. They explained the new Constitution and encouraged New York to ratify it. I had discovered the book with the answers to my questions about the United States Constitution!
As I read the first paragraph of Paper Number 1, felt the author reaching through time, grabbing me, and telling me that I had found the most important work of my life:
You are asked to study and consider adopting a new Constitution for the United States of America to replace the current, ineffective federal government. This is a very important decision. Our country's existence depends on it. So does the safety and welfare of its people, communities, and States. We will decide the fate of a nation that is, in many respects, the most interesting in the world. The people of this country will decide important questions: Can societies establish a good government by careful thought and choice? Or are people destined to be governed only by accident and force? The answers depend on our response to the current crisis. And the wrong decision will be unfortunate for all of mankind.*
My first translation of The Federalist Papers was published on July 4, 1999. For me, the word “translation” is a technical term and involves a specific, learned skill set. I studied translating and graduated from St. Paul College with a degree in American Sign Language interpreting. My professors were particularly complimentary about the accuracy of my interpreting skills.
As I worked on my second translation (10th-grade reading level), I had a constitutional scholar check my translation with the original text to make sure that I did not deviate from the authors’ original intent. The Papers, themselves, talk about how language can be an obstacle to understanding the meaning of a message. It is almost like the author knew that the specious argument that the “original text” of The Federalist Papers must be studied, not a translation, would arise. Federalist Paper #37 says:
Humans use words to express ideas. Clear expression requires well-formed ideas and the appropriate words. But no language has words and phrases for every complex idea. And many words have several meanings. Therefore, the definition of even a precise subject can be inaccurate because words are inaccurate. This unavoidable inaccuracy grows worse as the subject becomes more complex or novel.
When God himself talks to mankind in our language, his meaning—brilliant as it must be—is made dim and doubtful by the cloudy medium through which it is communicated. There are three sources of vague and incorrect definitions: (1) indistinctness of the subject, (2) the brain's imperfections, and (3) the language's inadequacies. . .
The Federalist Papers gave me hope that we can save the great experiment that is the United States of America. I’m so happy that I am able to share them with like-minded patriots.
*Webster, The Federalist Papers: Modern English Edition Two, 2008.