On Friday Dr. William Robison, head of the history and political science department, gave a brief and political agenda-free presentation celebrating The United States Constitution. The 40-minute power-point was shown to a near full-capacity audience at 11 a.m. in the Student Union Theater.
The purpose of the presentation was the discuss the way that our constitution and the Bill of Rights came into existence, drawing ideas from British politics as well as great social thinkers of the time.
Robison placed heavy emphasis on the early history of the ideas that would later become essential aspects of our governmental system, as outlined by the constitution.
Beginning with early British common-law, citizens slowly gained liberties from their government, and the creation of the Magna Charta was a key first-step towards a humane social contract between the monarchy and the governed, though the term “social contract” was far from existence.
A series of civil wars led to the creation of the English Bill of Rights, which would later influence our Bill of Rights and played a key part in forming ideas of freedom for early British settlers to the original 13 colonies.
Social thinkers and political scientist of the time such as John Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau would eventually influence our founding fathers to create their own country and to form a new government that would better serve the people. This new government would be loosely based on the British parliamentary system, but would practice key differences that make America unique as a nation.
“I think that it’s arguably the most successful document in history,” Robison said.
“It behooves people to know what’s in the constitution, and it’s worth celebration,” he said.
“Our day to day life is influenced by how people interpret the constitution, most debaters don’t even read it. Seems like people look past what the document really says and try to do what they think is right,” he said.
Robison’s presentation was neither conservative nor liberal and did not discuss any debated points of the constitution. He simply explained historically significant influences and the second part of the power-point gave a breakdown of how specific rights that we enjoy as Americans progressed through the English Bill of Rights, early state constitutions, the first federal constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
Robison will be putting on an entire series of presentations about the United States Constitution in October and November, the dates are to be announced.