Constitution Day Keynote at Spring Arbor University
SPRING ARBOR, Mich. — Spring Arbor University marked Constitution Day 2026 with a keynote address by the Hon. William Wagner (Ret.), WFFC Distinguished Chair for Faith & Freedom at SAU.
A packed room of faculty, staff, students, and visitors from throughout the State of Michigan gathered for Wagner’s address, “We Hold These Truths: The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Future of American Liberty.”
Wagner explored the relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, arguing that America’s constitutional order rests upon truths about human dignity and unalienable rights that precede government itself. “The Constitution presupposes something,” Wagner told the audience. Its structure of limited and divided government, he explained, cannot be fully understood apart from the Declaration’s affirmation that human beings possess rights endowed by their Creator. Summarizing that constitutional sequence, Wagner declared:
“First the Creator. Then the person. Then the right. Then the government.”
The address traced principles of limited government, separation of powers, the Rule of Law, and ordered liberty, while emphasizing the responsibility of each generation to preserve the constitutional inheritance entrusted to it.
Wagner also warned of the consequences when political power becomes detached from objective truth.
“When truth ceases to govern power, power begins to manufacture truth,” he said.
Rather than treating Constitution Day just as a commemoration of an historic document, Wagner challenged those gathered to consider the enduring principles upon which the American constitutional experiment depends. He concluded by returning to the opening words of the Declaration of Independence and their continuing significance for American liberty.
“Truth does not depend upon America,” Wagner said. “America depends upon truth.”
The Constitution Day program reflected Spring Arbor University’s commitment to serious engagement with the foundational ideas that have shaped the American experiment in ordered liberty.
