Title

The Framers' Idea of Marriage and Family

Authors

David F. Forte, Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of LawFollow

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Publication Date

2006

Publication Title

The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals

Abstract

The founders understood the symbiotic connection between family virtues and civic virtues. They knew it through their study of the classics, through their imbibing of the Scottish enlightenment, through their understanding of the providential nature of the Judeo-Christian God, through their familiarity with self-governing liberty, and through their utter respect of their own human experience of living. They looked upon the family as a model in which man’s selfish impulses would be contained, where the coordination of practical tasks could be effectuated, and where sentiments of affection and mutual respect could bind a people into a nation. It was the school of the family (and its religion) that taught those virtues.

ISBN

1890626643

Comments

Permission to post this chapter has been granted by the Witherspoon Institute.

Repository Citation

David F. Forte, The Framers' Idea of Marriage and Family, in The Meaning of Marriage 100-115 (R.P. George & J.B. Elshtain, eds., Spence Publishing 2006)