George Thomas on Liberal Education and the American Constitutional Experiment

The Hamilton School welcomed George Thomas for a lecture on liberal education and American democracy.

Thomas explored the founding generation’s conviction that education was indispensable to sustaining the new constitutional order. Leading figures repeatedly called for a national university as a way to cultivate a common political understanding among future leaders drawn from across the country. Democratic institutions, he emphasized, are not self-perpetuating; they require citizens and leaders formed in the principles, history, and habits that make self-government possible.

Drawing on the arguments of Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and others, Thomas traced how this educational vision sought to overcome both sectionalism and sectarianism by grounding public education in political principles rather than theological orthodoxy. He then turned to the present, reflecting on how colleges and universities might recover a form of liberal education that takes American constitutional democracy seriously—studying its achievements and its failures with equal honesty.

The lecture underscored the distinctive contribution of programs such as the Hamilton School in renewing civic and classical education for a new generation.