Constitution 101: Property, Morality, and Religion

Podcast: Hillsdale College Podcast Network Superfeed
Episode Date: February 11, 2026
Host(s): Jeremiah Regan (B), Juan Davalos (A)
Guest Lecturer: Tom West (C)

Episode Overview

This episode of Constitution 101 explores the Founders’ understanding of the interplay between property, morality, and religion in the American republic. The discussion dives into how these elements were considered inseparable from the purpose of government and essential to the preservation of liberty and self-government. Key primary source insights and original intent are emphasized, with rich references to the Founders' writings and philosophy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Role of Morality in Legislation

• Main Point: Contrary to the modern phrase “you can’t legislate morality,” the Founders believed all legislation is inevitably moral in nature.
• Jeremiah Regan:

  “You hear a common phrase today, you can't legislate morality. Which is, of course, nonsense, because what else would you legislate?” (00:35)

• Juan Davalos:

  “If you're legislating morality, the question is, what morality are you legislating?” (00:45)

• Legislation implicitly tells citizens what is right or wrong via penalties and rewards, teaching societal values.

2. Virtue and Self-Governance

• Main Point: For a republic to function, citizens need to be virtuous; thus, laws teach virtue.
• Juan Davalos:

  “If you're going to have citizens that rule themselves, they need to have the moral guidelines to be able to govern themselves. Otherwise you have the government pushing everything on them.” (02:03)

• Laws act not only as deterrents but as moral educators, reducing the need for constant enforcement.
• John Adams’ perspective: Morality outside the law is left to religion and private conscience, creating space for a limited government.

3. The Centrality of Primary Sources

• Hillsdale’s unique approach: Directly reading the Founders' writings rather than relying on secondary commentary.
• Juan Davalos:

  “We go and actually read what the Founders said themselves. We don't read what modern scholars say about them.” (03:23)

4. Property: Possession and Acquisition

Tom West’s Lecture Begins [04:31]

• Foundational Principle: The Founders believed the government exists to secure natural rights, with property among the foremost.
• States emphasized both the right to possess and acquire property (e.g., Virginia, Massachusetts constitutions).
• Tom West:

  “If you think about it from the point of view of somebody who's poor, the right to possess property is of no use… he needs to acquire some. And it's in fact a right in the Founding, a natural right to acquire property.” (04:50)

• Acquiring property sometimes brings conflict; e.g., Jefferson’s example of starving sailors justly taking from those in abundance as a matter of necessity (06:00).
• On Conflicting Rights: All major rights can conflict, as demonstrated in debates over slavery (liberty vs. security).

Widespread Ownership

• Founders supported wide distribution of property, wary of wealth concentration.
• West:

  “They were very concerned... about today’s America in which you have a very small number of corporations increasingly owning a larger amount of the wealth of society. That's dangerous.” (08:40)

Role of Government in Property and Markets

• Establish clear property ownership (register of deeds fundamental).
• Ensure broad access to commerce essentials like contracts and transportation—“privileges of citizenship.”
• Limit free markets to benefit American interests—protect domestic industry, national defense (12:30).
• Maintain sound money: Preferred gold and silver coin, not government-issued paper currency to avoid inflation and abuse of power.

5. Welfare: Support for the Poor

• The Founders recognized a role for government in aiding those who could not provide for themselves—but designed to avoid dependency.
• Welfare took the form of minimal support and workhouses, ensuring recipients contributed when able (20:14).

6. Government Involvement in Morality

• Natural Law as Moral Law:
  Jefferson calls it “the moral laws of our nature.” (22:00)
• Government’s duty: promote justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.
• Virtue includes both personal discipline and “manly virtues” like courage and vigilance against tyranny.

Means to Promote Morality:

• Education: State governments promoted moral and religious education.
• Laws & Family: Strong marriage and family structures were considered essential to the republic. Divorce permitted only for serious cause (adultery, violence, abandonment); marriage seen as a support for children and spouses (26:00).
• Legal male headship coexisted with significant responsibilities and duties toward wife and children.

7. Religion: Liberty, Law, and Support

• Religious Liberty Not Absolute: Founders never granted a right to violate laws for religious reasons (e.g., no right to child sacrifice, or refusal to fight when required under law) (30:00).
• Tom West:

  “…You can have exceptions from the law… but only if it’s ultimately compatible with the continued order and protection of a free society.” (31:00)

Government Support for Religion:

• Supporting religion (e.g., state payments to clergy, prayers in schools) was permissible as long as no one’s free exercise was infringed.
• Schools were expected to promote “a sort of generic version of Christianity” as late as the 1960s (32:00).
• The rationale for supporting religion was not theological, but practical: to foster the morality necessary for a free society.
  • Quoting Washington’s Farewell Address:

    “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” (33:30)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You can't legislate morality. Which is, of course, nonsense, because what else would you legislate?”
  — Jeremiah Regan (00:35)
• “Government can do whatever it wants to, to support religion as long as it doesn't take away anyone's right to religious freedom.”
  — Tom West (31:30)
• “They were very concerned... about today's America in which you have a very small number of corporations increasingly owning a larger amount of the wealth of society. That's dangerous.”
  — Tom West (08:40)
• “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
  — Quoting George Washington's Farewell Address (33:30)

Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------| | 00:35 | Is legislation always moral? | | 02:03 | Laws as teachers of virtue | | 03:23 | Hillsdale’s unique approach to the Founders | | 04:31 | Tom West: Founders on Property | | 08:40 | Concern about concentrated wealth | | 12:30 | Privileges of citizenship & domestic markets | | 20:14 | Welfare for the poor | | 22:00 | Natural law as “moral law” | | 26:00 | Marriage, family, and divorce law | | 30:00 | Religious liberty’s limits | | 32:00 | Government support of religion | | 33:30 | Washington on morality & religion |

Conclusion

This episode argues that, for the Founders, property rights, morality, and religion formed an interconnected foundation for a successful and free republic. Laws are inescapably moral; virtue is required for self-government; property must be broadly accessible; and religion, while not unlimited, is supported as a necessary foundation for the virtue essential to liberty. The hosts encourage direct engagement with primary sources to understand the Founders' true intentions and invite listeners to further study through Hillsdale's free online resources.

To continue exploring these themes or engage with primary sources, visit hillsdale.edu/course.