There was standing room only as Tyson Reeder, Wheatley Affiliated Scholar and assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University, delivered a lecture at the Wheatley office earlier this month.
Reeder's comments were focused on key observations from his new book, Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison's America, which awarded the 2025 George Washington Prize. The award recognizes outstanding work on America's founding area, and is co-sponsored by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
"...foreign meddling combined with partisan politics to nearly destroy the nation in it's infancy. The War of 1812 revealed the fortitude and the fragility of US institutions, a precarious balance that lingers to this day," Reeder explained.
Comparing those historical experiences to the current day, he continued. "We should recognize the fragility of democracy. But if we lose faith in the strength of our institutions, we convince ourselves that our political opponents may topple them with the slightest breathe. When we operate by fear rather than by faith, we repeat the mistakes of past generations and turn our political opponents into political enemies, opposition into corruption, and dissent into disloyalty... I submit that we protect our fragile institutions paradoxically when we have hope in the strength of our institutions. That hope will allow us to negotiate in good faith with those with whom we disagree and whose vision for the future of the nation differs from our own."
His closing comments ended with optimism and reflected his faith. "I feel confident that the Constitution can absorb disagreement, even virulent, vehement, and emphatic disagreement. The Constitution was not designed for a people who are at their best, but who are at their worse, their most disagreeable, and disharmonious, maybe even their most senseless. Nevertheless, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we have a special obligation to be peacemakers, and we cannot allow our disagreements to erode into malice and spite and certainly not hate. The Constitution is resilient and may be able to survive such things, but our personal integrity cannot."