Conservatism is a word with an old and venerable meaning - but a meaning almost forgotten by Americans until recent years. Abraham Lincoln wished to be known as a conservative. "What is conservatism," he said. "Is it not preference for the old and tried, over the new and untried.
Modern conservatism took form about the beginning of the French Revolution, when wise men in England and America professed that if humanity is to conserve the elements in civilization that make life worth living, some reasoned body of ideas must resist the destructive impulse of fanatic revolutionaries. In the newly established United States, the fathers of the Republic, conservative by training and by practical experience, were determined to shape constitutions which should guide their successors in permanent ways of justice and freedom.
Historically, conservatives believe in the existence of certain timeless truths which govern the conduct of human society. While political conservatism would necessarily include a disparate group of thinkers and ideas, those who espouse a conservative world view would likely be sympathetic to the following basic principles:
1. Men and nations are governed by moral laws; and those laws have their origin in a wisdom that is more than human-in divine justice.
2. Variety and diversity are the characteristics of a high civilization.
3. Justice means that every man and woman has the right to what is their own, to the rewards of their ability, and to their property.
4. Property and freedom are inseparably connected; economic leveling is not economic progress.
5. The past is a great storehouse of wisdom and there exists continuity between the generations.
6. Modern society urgently needs true community rather than collectivism.
7. In the affairs of nations, conservative Americans believe our country ought to be an example to the world, but should refrain from seeking to remake the world in our own image.
8. Men and women are not perfectible, and neither are political institutions.
9. Change and reform are not identical: moral and political improvement can be destructive as well as beneficial.
Conservatism, then, is not simply the concern of the people who have property and influence. Most conservatives are neither rich nor powerful. But they do, as do all Americans, receive great benefits from our established Republic. True conservatives firmly defend private property and a free economy. Yet conservatism is much more than economic or political freedom. It involves human dignity, personality, the pursuit of happiness and it respects the relationship between God and man. It is the negation of ideology (the idea that we can create Heaven on Earth) and a denial of the cult of progress. It is the notion that this generation, by virtue of its status as simply the most recent inhabitants of our world, does not have all the answers. As such it looks humbly to the past as a guide to our future.
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