Abstract
As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Americans should be concerned about the state of their republic. Using ideas from The Federalist, Irving Babbitt, René Girard, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, this article argues that decreasing civic knowledge is part of a broader deterioration of America’s unwritten constitution. The decline of the unwritten constitution—that is, America’s turn away from the wisdom embedded in historical customs, social structures, and political practices—is a serious problem that undermines the functioning of the written constitution, weakens citizen character formation, and erodes the norms and restraints that defuse social conflicts and limit political violence. This article concludes by claiming the successful mending of America’s unwritten constitution will depend, to a significant degree, on developing a form of civic education that shapes the minds and souls of citizens in ways that equip them to keep the republic.