WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DECLARATION-OF-INDEPENDENCE - A COMMENTARY ON THE REPUBLICAN REVISIONISM IN THE POLITICAL-THOUGHT OF THE AMERICAN-REVOLUTION

Was the United States founded to cultivate virtue or to protect rights? Republican interpretations argue the first, liberal ones the second, and the former has largely displaced the latter as the leading interpretation of the American Revolution. This article revisits the republican-liberal debate by addressing the revisionists' conspicuous neglect of the Declaration of Independence. The author concludes that the essential political premise of the American Revolution is that government exists to secure natural rights, not to cultivate virtue.