Bradley J. Birzer, the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and Professor of History at Hillsdale College, delivered a guest lecture on January 27 examining the Declaration of Independence as a deeply rooted expression of human dignity and Western civilization. The lecture was part of 1776: The Ideas that Made the Modern World, a course co-sponsored by the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government (CCCG) and the Mendoza College of Business.
Birzer framed the Declaration not as a novel political document, but as the culmination of centuries of moral, legal, and cultural development. America, he argued, is deeply conservative because of its inheritance of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic traditions that long predate the modern state. Central among these traditions is the common law, which Birzer described as “Anglo-Saxon law going back to pre-Christian days among the Anglo-Saxon Germans.”
From this legal heritage emerged enduring protections against government overreach, including principles such as “innocent until proven guilty,” trial by jury, and prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment. These safeguards, Birzer warned, should never be taken for granted. The Declaration itself, he noted, reads as a catalog of grievances rooted in “violations of common law,” reflecting an “anger overall with Parliament and the King.”
Birzer also explored Thomas Jefferson’s fascination with Anglo-Saxon history and myth, including figures such as Hengist and Horsa, whose stories of ordered liberty resonated with the American founding. While acknowledging Jefferson’s moral contradictions as both author of the Declaration and a slaveholder, Birzer nonetheless argued that Jefferson’s thought captured something larger: “His mind is the mind of America.”
Far from claiming originality, Birzer emphasized that the founders understood themselves as articulating inherited truths. “When we, as Americans, look back to the Declaration of Independence, it’s not just a reflection of the mind of Jefferson,” he explained, “but the reflection of the whole American character.” Its authority, he added, rests on “harmonizing sentiments of the day,” drawing on “the ideas of Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, and Sidney.”
Birzer further highlighted Christianity’s role in shaping the American understanding of equality, asserting that “Christianity is the single greatest force in the history of the world that has led to equality and the dignity of the human person.” As a result, he argued, “all of American history has been the realization of that sentence” that “all men are created equal.”
David Cremers ’26, a senior Finance major enrolled in the course, commented, “I thought it was interesting to learn about the pre-Christian ideas about natural rights that the Celtic tribes had.” Cremers also noted the influence of other ancient thinkers, “like Cicero,” on the Founding Fathers.
James Otteson, Professor of Business Ethics and Concurrent Professor of Political Science, reflected on Birzer’s “arresting claim” that “the Declaration of Independence was not actually radical, but conservative, because it drew on longstanding, even ancient, moral principles, rather than generating new principles de novo.” Otteson saw this thesis as emblematic of Birzer’s approach to history: “What I appreciate about Dr. Birzer’s approach … is that it is not merely about an accumulation of information or data, but ultimately about understanding history as, at least in part, the unfolding of human dignity.”
He concluded that Birzer is “animated not only by a desire to know the facts of history, but, rather, to learn from it what we can to help understand human nature, the nature of the human condition, and, ultimately, how to improve human life.”
To learn more about the course "1776: The Ideas that Made the Modern World," visit the CCCG website.