Is this generation morally superior to the founding generation?  I’ve been asked the question more than once, during interviews regarding a book that I recently co-authored, Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State. I’ll admit that, the first time I was asked, I was a bit taken aback at the sheer arrogance of the question.

Then the interviewer explained himself. Slavery is a thing of the past. We now enjoy equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Women and minorities can vote. Indeed, the two contenders for the Democratic nomination are a black man and a woman. With all these advances for freedom and equality under the law, surely this generation is more to be respected than those that came before it. Why should we care what the Founders thought?

The question is a fair one, despite my initial reaction to it. Many of the Founders owned slaves and endorsed other inequalities that would not be borne today. The founding generation stifled freedom in this way, despite the words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . . .”

Unfortunately, many in the founding generation did not seem to see the inconsistency between their actions and their words. Others, like Washington, struggled internally over the matter, recognizing that they were not giving “all men” freedom.  Indeed, Washington’s actions toward his slaves changed as he got older. Toward the end of his life, he owned more slaves than he could profitably use at Mt. Vernon. But the conflict that he felt about slavery had caused him to stop selling slaves. He wanted to make sure that his slaves were able to stay with their families. In the end, his slaves were freed by his will, which also included provision for educating some slaves and caring for those young and elderly slaves who could not care for themselves.

Small steps, to be sure. But Washington grew up at a time when slavery was rather universally accepted. For him to question the institution—at all—was somewhat revolutionary, even admirable. Sometimes you have to judge people within the context of their times.

And what about us, today?  Are we so much better? Our society has improved in many ways, obviously. Slavery is gone. Everyone can vote, regardless of race or gender. The laws are applied equally.

But things have worsened in other ways, too. Millions of babies are aborted each year. Marital infidelity and divorce are common, resulting in millions of single-parent homes nationwide. Sexual promiscuity has become a major problem in our society, and it has led to all sorts of ills. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that one in four teenage girls (ages 14 to 19) has a sexually transmitted disease. Other problems, such as teenage violence, have become much too common.

Today’s Americans have lost perspective on our freedoms, and we often fail to use them wisely. Instead, our society is sometimes characterized by a complete lack of self control and selfishness. Using our freedoms responsibly, with discretion and wisdom, seems to be a lost concept. These are difficulties that the founding generation did not have—at least not to the extent that we see them today. To the contrary, the Founders excelled where we have faltered.

Rather than declaring ourselves to be morally superior to our ancestors, perhaps it is most fair simply to acknowledge that each generation has its own challenges and struggles.  If the Founders could have looked ahead to the equal way in which laws are implemented in modern America, maybe they could have learned from us.  But we are foolish and arrogant if we think that a study of history is unproductive. We have much to learn from those that came before us.

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