Opus 2013-269: Sources of the Founders

Where did the Founding Fathers get their ideas for government.  There were many sources.  When Jefferson was in France during the writing of the Constitution he send books and notes from books for the consideration of those in congress.  As I was reading The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius I came across this which I can see a source of some of our ideals.

“...and from him I received the idea of a polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed;...”, p. 195

This is coming from a Roman emperor, one of the most absolute of dictators.  Obviously he had different ideas about equal rights in regard to women and slaves but he is still laying the groundwork. 

Read and think.  Some of those dead white guys had some good ideas.  Of course I assume that some dead not-white not-guys also could have good ideas, so get off my back.

Aurelius, Marcus.  The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, from the Harvard Classics, Vol 2.  New York:  P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1937.

homo unius libri