A few months before Derek Webb came to Chicago to the ABA Annual Conference, King Charles cited Webb's work on Magna Carta in the king’s April speech to a joint session of Congress. The ABA could not have asked for a more eminent endorsement.

Webb, an assistant professor of law at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was invited by the ABA’s Crossroads Caucus to share thoughts from his forthcoming Cambridge University Press book, The Spirit of Amity: The Constitution’s Cover Letter and the Original Meaning of Civility.

Past President Deborah Enix-Ross introduced Webb and the program by reminding attendees of the collaboration and dedication to the ABA evident in negotiations that led to the passage of Resolution 702 at this year’s midyear meeting—and in organizing events like this. As head of the ABA’s Center for Civic Engagement, Education and the Rule of Law, Enix-Ross hosted the first of the “Disagreeing Better” series to foster constructive dialogue and model disagreement on important issues.

Webb’s talk, attended by an array of ABA leadership and members, including a sitting Supreme Court justice from the United Kingdom and a prominent Supreme Court advocate, brought us back 250 years to a time when our founders disagreed strongly on foundational issues.

Webb was quick to draw parallels to the current political discord by describing how difficult it was for the founders to reach compromise. Factions sought to best one another, with the winner exacting revenge, only to be on the receiving end when the tide turned. Webb described this behavior as “factional entropy”: Unresolved conflict brings disorder, and the cycle of revenge can erode confidence in republican government and launch a strongman into power.

George Washington, as president of the Federal Convention, transmitted the Constitution to the president of Congress with a short but vital letter. This letter defined how Washington viewed the competing interests of individual liberty vs. social stability, one state’s best interests vs. another’s, and how crucial it was that these interests be evaluated on their merits.

There were to be no ad hominem attacks, and delegates were to consider the issues independently of their political parties. The letter states: “The Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity and of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable.”

Webb observed that once the Constitution was adopted, Washington’s work was not concluded. From amity must grow comity—how the states had to coexist after the compromises were made and the agreements forged. He also discussed how Washington viewed a baseline of amity, social trust and “civic friendship” as indispensable to national security.

A lively question-and-answer session followed, carrying the program well past its one-hour schedule. Webb emphasized the critical role of civic education in ensuring a well-functioning democracy both here and abroad.

Webb had recently returned from Normandy, France, where he was invited by descendants of Alexis de Tocqueville to attend a conference on the state of democracy held at the château where Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America. That democracy, Webb argues, would not be possible without Washington’s “spirit of amity.”