Essay 25-C: The Manhattan Project To Develop Nuclear Weapons And The Founding


Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner

When the Declaration of Independence invoked “the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” that allow a people to assert their separate status as a nation, it certainly did not anticipate atomic weapons. Yet the Declaration rested on the understanding that there is a set order to the universe governed by the laws of nature. These laws extend beyond the physical laws of the natural world to moral laws of right and wrong that can be known through the use of reason. This natural law taught America’s founders the self-evident truths that “all men are created equal” with inalienable rights. 

The Manhattan Project represented the weaponization of the laws of nature as scientists harnessed the natural energy of the atom to create a bomb of unprecedented power. In response to the Trinity test’s successful demonstration of an atomic explosion, physicist I.I. Rabi said that “a new thing had just been born: a new control; a new understanding of man, which man had acquired over nature.” Through knowledge of the laws of nature, science could unlock extraordinary power, but statesmen also had to consult the natural law for guidance on how to use that power. 

The Manhattan Project was the result of decades of scientific investigation around the world into the atom. After using the atomic bomb, President Truman declared, “We have now won the battle of the laboratories, as we have won the other battles.” A leading reason why America won this scientific battle was the founding principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence. The Manhattan Project could not have happened without the collaboration of American and foreign-born scientists, most of whom came to the U.S. to escape the totalitarian regimes in Europe and became American citizens. 

Los Alamos Laboratory Director J. Robert Oppenheimer explained that many scientists justified their work because they had “the feeling that there was probably no place in the world where the development of atomic weapons would have a better chance of leading to a reasonable solution and a smaller chance of leading to disaster than within the United States.” America’s promise of freedom and equal rights attracted the world’s greatest scientific minds, who lent their talents to the American effort to secure atomic weapons before Nazi Germany could do so to advance its tyranny.

Physicist Niels Bohr remarked that an atomic bomb was impossible “unless you turn the United States into one huge factory.” America virtually did that with its installations in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington. The incredible scientific, engineering, and industrial effort to make an atomic weapon showed the American spirit to rally in defense of freedom. The communities that popped up in these newly developed areas, with their own institutions and social events, demonstrated the persistent American ability to build civilization under less than favorable conditions.

The Manhattan Project evolved largely free of any direct congressional oversight. When then-Senator Harry Truman looked into the flood of money spent on this mysterious military project, Secretary of War Henry Stimson cited national security to stop any investigation. For President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the building of an atomic bomb was a war measure, and as the Commander in Chief of the military empowered by the Constitution, the president had the responsibility to take the initiative and maintain secrecy. FDR embodied Alexander Hamilton’s claim in Federalist  no. 70 that a single executive provides the energy necessary for national security and produces the “decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch” needed for good government.

The decision to use the atomic bombs on Japan, with the absolute devastation they brought, will be perpetually debated. President Truman thought it was prudent and necessary to avoid an even more brutal land invasion. General Dwight Eisenhower opposed the decision as unnecessary for winning the war. Oppenheimer held that the bomb had to be used so the world would know its destructive potential. Leading scientists thought the bomb’s capacity for annihilation would end the possibility of war and force greater international cooperation. According to Oppenheimer, “Wars have changed… there exists a possibility of realizing, of beginning to realize, those changes which are needed if there is to be any peace.” Atomic weapons might deter aggressive actions and force nations to seek alternatives to avoid the universally unwanted fate of total destruction. Scientists, policymakers, and statesmen deliberated and debated the decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war.

The Manhattan Project was a high-water mark for confidence in government to work alongside science in the pursuit of happiness. Much of its success came from the shared understanding that science produces technical knowledge that must be applied by political leaders accountable to the people for the practical decisions they make. In this way, the Manhattan Project demonstrated how scientific knowledge can be used by a popular government deriving its “just powers from the consent of the governed”. 

Benjamin Slomski is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Campus Pre-Law Advisor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He earned his PhD from Baylor University and his teaching and research focus on American political thought, constitutional law, and political institutions. He previously taught at Ashland University, Tarleton State University, and Baylor University.

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