The President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen, was invited to the Nixon Library on January 14th to sign copies and give a talk about his bestselling book “The Pursuit of Happiness.” The opening lines of the U.S. Declaration of Independence talk about how all men are created equal, with certain unalienable rights including the pursuit of happiness. But what exactly did the Founding Fathers mean by “the pursuit of happiness”?
Rosen explained that the Founding Fathers believed that virtue and happiness are closely linked, and that happiness is not about instant gratification but comes from the long-term pursuit of virtue. The National Constitution Center, located in Philadelphia, is a platform for constitutional education and civic engagement. Rosen has been the president of the center since 2013. Jim Byron, Chairman and CEO of the Nixon Foundation, introduced him as a professor of law at George Washington University who graduated from Harvard, Oxford, and Yale Law School. In 2024, the French government awarded him the Knight of Arts and Letters. Here are some highlights from his speech.
During the pandemic, Rosen started reading philosophical works that inspired America’s founding father, General George Washington, like Stoic Philosophy. This shifted his perspective on “good people and good citizens”. He began contemplating how the National Constitution Center could collaborate with various regions in the U.S. to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026 in a way that aligns with American values.
He shared that Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson referenced the Tusculanae Disputationes, a five-volume series written around 45 BC, which states that virtue and happiness are inseparable. “Without virtue, there is no happiness,” said the author of the texts, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero, a Roman politician, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and writer, was considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists.
Franklin, in his twenties in Philadelphia, outlined 13 virtues, including temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He found humility to be the most challenging to uphold among these virtues.
Rosen found it surprising that the third U.S. President, Jefferson, also referenced Cicero’s writings, defining happiness as virtue and self-control rather than indulgence. Jefferson scheduled his day rigorously: waking early to read philosophy for two hours, watching the sunrise, reading politics and history before lunch, studying science and astronomy in the afternoon, and entertaining himself with Shakespeare or poetry in the evening.
Rosen adhered to Jefferson’s routine during the pandemic, spending two hours every morning on moral philosophy and watching the sunrise. He also discovered that America’s founding fathers wrote sonnets to evoke the wisdom of moral philosophy. Even Alexander Hamilton and John Quincy Adams read the Tusculanae Disputationes. The wisdom it brought was so harmonious and pure that it changed his perspective on the pursuit of happiness.
This reading experience made Rosen rediscover the power of deep reading compared to browsing, surfing, and deadline-driven reading habits. He set a new rule for himself: No browsing or internet until he finishes reading his scheduled books every day.
His reading insights included Pythagoras identifying reason, emotion, and desire, where reason could moderate and regulate emotion and desire for tranquility, balance, and peace. Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, said that every emotion has excesses and deficiencies, and “we seek serenity.” The mean contains classical virtues such as prudence, moderation, courage, and justice to overcome harmful emotions like anger, jealousy, and fear, to become the best version of oneself, serve others, align with the harmony of the cosmos, and fulfill life’s purpose.
Rosen discussed how modern society favors instant gratification over character development and self-control, with complex reasons behind these changes. A Stanford University study in the 1970s tested 5-year-old children, offering them two candies if they waited 15 minutes to eat the first one they received. The study found that children who could wait performed better in school and social relationships later in life. They could control impulsive behaviors, think and reason, and work towards long-term benefits.
Rosen shared many stories of heroes in his book and speeches, highlighting how their education shaped their characters, emphasizing self-control and improvement, leading to the establishment of the U.S. Constitution and the success of America.
In his farewell address, the first U.S. President, Washington, warned that if there were fewer virtuous citizens, the republic would collapse. He called for the establishment of a national university where people from all backgrounds could set aside party and regional differences to learn constitutional principles and engage in civil discourse, preventing the U.S. from falling into the same fate as past republics like Greece and Rome due to demagoguery.
Rosen mentioned that the National Constitution Center offers free educational resources, creating an interactive education platform and dialogue space for the greatest American liberal and conservative scholars and thinkers. The center is also collaborating with filmmaker Ken Burns to produce a six-episode, 12-hour documentary series on the American Revolution, which includes historians’ reflections on the story.