Thomas Jefferson did not write the most famous words in the Declaration of Independence. In this special follow-up to Lesson 1 of the Tea Party Patriots Action constitutional training, constitutional scholar Bill Norton joins Jenny Beth Martin to reveal the committee edits that made the Declaration what it is, and the handwriting evidence that finally settles who wrote "self evident." From the founders' faith to the language of liberty to the people's standing right to alter their own government, this is the foundation every current political fight comes back to.
Bill Norton is a constitutional scholar and author of The Miracle of America, Speaking the Language of Liberty, and Behind the Bill of Rights. His next book, Behind the Declaration of Independence, releases soon.
In this episode:
• Congress, not Jefferson, wrote "endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights"
• Handwriting research returns "self evident" to Jefferson after two centuries of Franklin credit
• Jefferson called the Declaration "the expression of the American mind"
• John Adams' 1787 survey of world governments that shaped our constitutions
• Jefferson's cut-and-paste Gospels: the first red letter Bible
• Why separation of church and state was built to make religion flourish
• Speaking the language of liberty instead of the language of captivity
• Madison's third way to amend and the right to establish, alter, and abolish
• How elections let Americans alter their government every two years
Watch Bill Norton's free constitutional and founding principles training at teapartypatriots.org/1776. Find every episode at jennybethshow.com and learn more about the fight for constitutionally limited government at teapartypatriots.org.
00:00 — Welcome and Bill Norton's Books
03:42 — Lesson One Recap: The Declaration's Foundation
07:36 — COVID Lockdowns: A Test of First Principles
16:29 — The Words Jefferson Didn't Write
18:03 — 'Self Evident': Jefferson, Not Franklin
22:31 — 'The Expression of the American Mind'
26:11 — The Founders' Deep Study: Libraries and Adams' Research
33:41 — Jefferson's Faith and the First Red Letter Bible
42:13 — Why Language Is a Miracle
48:29 — Speaking Liberty vs. Speaking Captivity
01:04:43 — The Right to Establish, Alter, and Abolish
01:12:31 — Elections: How America Alters Its Government
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