And up next, a visit to the National Constitution center in philadelphia to learn about the exhibit constituting liberty from the declaration to the bill of rights. Our tour guide is president and ceo jeffrey rosen. The National Constitution center is a very special place. Its the only institution in america that has a charter from congress to disseminate information about the u. S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis. That means we bring together all sides in the constitutional debates that transfix america to debate not political issues but constitutional issues so that you the people can make up your own mind. We do that in three ways. With the museum of we the people, which is this Beautiful Museum here on Independence Hall in philadelphia, and im looking out on one of the most beautiful constitutional views in america, Independence Hall, where the declaration of independence and the constitution were drafted. Were also americas town hall, a center for debates and symposiums and podcasts and you can find us on cspan and online at constitutioncenter. Org, and a center for constitutional education, and were building the best interactive constitution on the web so you can click on any provision of the constitution, hear the best arguments on both sides about it history and contemporary meaning and decide what you think it means. But today is a very exciting day for me because i have the chance to share with you our president george h. W. Bush gallery, which displays rare copies of the declaration of independence, the constitution, and the bill of rights. Were now one of the only places in america aside from the National Archives where you can see rare copies of these three priceless charters of freedom in one place. What we have tried to do in this gallery is tell a story. A story of the evolution of rights and in particular how the rights that were promised in the declaration of independence are implicit in the constitution and were finally codified in the bill of rights. So let me sort of set the stage by telling about the evolution of rights and we can look at each of the documents and talk about what it means. So what we have tried to do in this gallery is tell the story about the relationship between the declaration, the constitution, and the bill of rights. And we have written up a pamphlet which you can find online thats thrilling and completely incisive pamphlet which happens to be written by me and David Rubenstein, who has lent the rare copy of the declaration of independence. We were trying to encapsulate and set the stage by talking about their similarities and differences. Heres our introduction. The declaration of independence, the constitution and bill of rights are the three most Important Documents in American History. They express the ideals that define we the people of the United States and inspire free people around the world. How did each document influence the next . In americas ongoing quest for liberty and equality . Our three core documents have different purposes, still all have preamble. All were drafted by people of similar backgrounds, generally educated white men of property. Most importantly, the declaration, the constitution, and the bill of rights are based on the idea that all people have certain fundamental and inherent rights that governments are created to protect. The declaration, the constitution, and the bill of rights are in many ways fused together in the minds of americans because they represent what is best about america. They are symbols of the liberty that allows us to achieve success and equality that insures were all equal in the eyes of the law. So underlying each of the three documents is a philosophy. And its a philosophy of rights and in particular of natural rights. What was a natural right . The framers disagree about many things, but they agreed that all men, men and women, have certain unalienable, inherent, and fundamental rights. These rights in us by virtue of the fact were human. They come from god or nature, not from government, and the framers believed that these rights could be discerned by the mind of men, by reason. And they talked often about the same kind of rights as being natural and unalienable. The right to worship god according to the dictates of conscious. The rights of enjoying life and liberty, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety and in particular, in some ways most importantly of all, they talked about the unalienable right of individuals to alter and abolish government wherever it becomes destructive of these ends. There was a theory of the nature the framers absorbed from philosophers like john locke and Thomas Jefferson read these philosophers as did george mason, the author of the virginia declaration of rights. Jefferson when he wrote his declaration of independence had beside him at his desk two documents, the virginia declaration written by george mason and his own virginia constitution, which jefferson had drafted. So what was the philosophy of natural rights . The basic idea is when were born in the state of nature, before we move into civil society, were inhered with these certain fundamental rights. When we move into the state of nature, we surrender to the government or alienate temporary control over certain rights, but the point of that is to insure better security and safety of the rights we have retained. Thats why we give the government temporary control over punishment of private bounds. To protect our rights of life. We give the government the ability to regulate certain natural rights in order to protect the rights we retain. But there are certain things we cant alienate. I cant alienate to you my right to worship god or not because my religious beliefs and opinions and freedom of thought is the product of reason, operating on my external sensation. So thats why conscience is an unalienable natural right. It might be the case when government become tyrannical and menaces and threatens these rights rather than protecting them. Basically, breaking the terms of the social contract. Under those circumstances, the framers believed people had not only a right but an obligation to alter and abolish government so it would protect the rights rather than threatening them. That really is the idea that unites the three documents, the declaration, the constitution, and bill of rights. You have the declaration, which is a document that is breaking way from england because of the claim that the king of england had broken the social contract and was threatening basic unalienable natural rights. You have the constitution, which creates a frame of government energetic enough to achieve common purposes like taxing for war and regulating the economy, but is also constrained enough so it protects rights rather than threatening them, and finally the bill of rights itself which actually spells out the basic rights that the framers believed were natural and unalienable, for the greater security and safety of insuring that the government is going to keep its ends of the bargain. Theres a great drama about whether or not to list the rights that had to be protected, whether that was a good idea or a bad idea. That was one of the main divisions that divided the Constitutional Convention and so lets go inside the gallery. Lets look at the declaration of independence, step back a sec, and think about what jefferson was trying to achieve and how the ideals and promises of liberty and equality that he declared ultimately evolved through the constitution and ended up in the bill of rights. So this is the george w. Bush bill of rights gallery. The first document that we see as we come in here is a rare copy of the declaration of independence. This is the one that was lent to us by David Rubenstein and this is really remarkable story about how this document came to pass. The copy of the declaration that most people think about is in the National Archives. That was the one that the framers famously signed, that john hancock vividly said im going to sign so big that king george can read it without his spectacles. Thats hancocks big signature. The thing about the document that is now in the National Archives is even by the 1820s, it was becoming beat. It was really beat up when Dolley Madison rolled it up to save it during the war of 1812, and president John Quincy Adams became concerned that the original was going to fade so much that it couldnt be read. So he commissioned in 1820 an engraver called stone to make a perfect copy of the declaration that would look even more like the real thing than any other print. There was only one problem. Stone came up with, by some accounts, a rather cutting edge copying technique that involved taking a wet cloth, which was soaked with acid, and lifting half of the ink off of the original declaration and putting it on a copper plate that was made to make this copy. The result of all of this is that the original declaration was even worse shape that the one that originally was, but this spectacular copy is pristine and looked more like the copy the framers signed in 1776 than the one in the archives. The bad news for the original declaration, good news for those of us lucky enough to have copies of this precious stone declaration. 200 cop as were originally made and sent out to important institutions and public officials. About 27 or so of these copies survived, and this is one of them. So now lets talk about the ideas that are represented in this declaration. The declaration of independence has three parts. It had a preamble which now has become the most important part of the original document. It has a middle section listing the sins of the king of england and a third section declaring america is going to break free of england. Its the preamble, the first section, that essentially contains the entire theory of American Government in a single paragraph. If you want to understand the natural rights philosophy that animated the framers, all you have to do is return to the preamble. I could try to do it by heart, but im going to read the preamble. I was going to read my cheat sheet, which is a pocket copy of the constitution. The second paragraph of the declaration of independence. We hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal, theyre endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of those ends, its the right of the people to alter and abolish it and to Institute New government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to then shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. There it is. That language about the right of the people to alter and abolish government. Thats the fundamental and unalienable right of revolution. And thats a right that you cant surrender to government even if you want to because its what insures that government is going to keep its end of the bargain and protect your natural rights rather than threatening them. That right to alter and abolish government was what the signers of the declaration were exercising when they risked their lives, their fortune, their sacred honor for the incredibly risky move of declaring independence from britain and constituting a new government and that right well see in our next document, the constitution, codified in article v, which allows people to amend the constitution when they think it needs to be changed. Thats why that paragraph is incredibly important. The declaration of independence is not only a promise of liberty, but its also a promise of equality. Thats the most famous second sentence of the preamble. I can read it quite well. Let me read it again. We hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal. That promise of equality, of course, was one that jefferson violated in his personal conduct, the fact that he had and kept slaves, and we had an incredibly moving exhibit called jefferson and slavery that was at the Constitution Center recently that came to us from monticello and tells the story of the traces jeffersons descendants, with Sally Hemings and reminds us so vividly of the clash between jeffersons ideals and his actions. And other framers, too, had slaves, and the blight of slavery was one that divided the original Constitutional Convention and almost prevented it from being ratified. Here we have this promise of equality and we realize looking forward that jeffersons promise that all men are created equal wasnt vindicated until the civil war. It took lincolns promise at gettysburg, a new birth of freedom. It took the bloodiest war in American History, where 17,000 men were killed. 23,000 killed or wounded, and finally, and most importantly, it took the postcivil war amendments to the constitution, the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery, which turns 150 this year, which you can see at the Constitution Center. We have an original copy of the 13th amendment, also lent by David Rubenstein, which is signed by Abraham Lincoln and is the beginning of the fulfillment of jeffersons promise. Then the 14th amendment which guarantees equality to all persons and prohibits states as well as the federal government to deny liberties or privileges or immunities to citizens and the 15th amendment which gave africanamericans the right to vote. All three of those turn 150 over the next five years. Were commemorating, celebrating, and debating their meaning here at the National Constitution center, but we have to be reminded that the declaration was essentially a promissory note. Jefferson offered the ideal of equality, but it took the civil war, it took that astonishing sacrifice of life and treasure and blood to incorporate these amendments into the constitution and make the promise of equality a reality. So now it is time to look at, to stand in the presence of the first Public Printing of the constitution. This is a very exciting document as well. So there are several important original copies of the constitution. Theres the one that was signed in philadelphia at Independence Hall in 1787. Now in the National Archives. There are engrossed copies of the first Public Printings of them, but this is the first copy that we the people of the United States actually saw. Its called the pennsylvania packet, and thats because it was printed in the pennsylvania packet newspaper on september 19th, 1787, two days after the constitution was signed on september 17th, which we celebrate as constitution day. The pennsylvania packet was a newspaper that was owned by john dunlap and david claypool. John dunlap had a great gig. He was the printer who did the engrossed or original copies of the declaration of the constitution and on the side he ran one of philadelphias biggest and best read newspapers, it was called the pennsylvania packet. It sold for 4 pence, as you can see here, and whats so exciting about this document is that its the first copy that we the people of the United States actually read and saw. So thats why some scholars believe that this copy is even more constitutionally significant than the one in the National Archives, because after all, the constitution did not become the supreme law of the land when Congress Proposed it in Independence Hall. It took the ratification and special conventions to give it the weight of supreme law. In order to become ratified, there had to be a national debate, and citizens read and debated arguments like the federalist papers written by madison and hamilton that were published as pamphlets and gave justification for the constitution. There were opposing pamphlets by those who thought it shouldnt be ratified. The popular debate was center to what makes the constitution our supreme law, and imagine people clamoring to get this newspaper, wondering what had happened in secret in constitution hall, and seeing this incredibly plain newspaper, no ads, just a printing of the entire text of the constitution with a little bit of preambulatory material. It says its signed by George Washington, the president of the convention. It has a preamble that says the states, it lists all of them individually, resolved this be sent out to the people for ratification, and theres a letter from George Washington as well. You can see it on both sides. The ss are written like fs in the style of the day, which can be a little jarring at the beginning. We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, looks like fstablished justice. But you get used to it as you go along, and heres the constitution of the United States. Here we are, lets imagine we are the citizens of philadelphia, picking it up. I dont know if they got it from news stands or if it was posted on the street, reading it and trying to decide whether or not they would allow the ratifying conventions to approve it and to speak in their name. Why was the constitution proposed . After jefferson wrote the declaration of independence, the revolutionary war was fought, and the 13 colonies created a government under document known as the articles of confederation. Passed in 1777 by the Continental Congress. It was drafted in 1776 and approved in 1777. So we see from the explanation that it was six pages long. It contained 13 articles, but there was