Michael Lucchese, editor of Russell Kirk’s On America: How to Understand the Legacy of 1776, delves into the paradox the Declaration of Independence poses for conservatives.

As the American republic approaches the 250th anniversary of her birth, conservatives face a serious paradox: How can we ever hope to preserve a revolutionary foundation? After all, men like Edmund Burke and Klemens von Metternich developed European conservatism as a reaction against the French Revolution. By contrast, Leo Strauss wrote in Liberalism Ancient and Modern, “this country came into being through a revolution, a violent change or break with the past.” He thought it was therefore amusing yet appropriate that “[o]ne of the most conservative groups here calls itself Daughters of the American Revolution.” Is American conservatism, then, a contradiction in terms? Is the republic just another force of boundless modernity, hurling the world into perpetual revolution?

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