Drawing from American musical sources and texts, Michael Dougherty's composition for chorus and orchestra echoes the resonance and dissonance of Mount Rushmore as a complex icon of American history. Like Mount Rushmore, the libretto is carved out of the words of each President. Mount Rushmore (2010) for chorus and orchestra is inspired by the monumental [...]
While the Battle of Jumonville Glen may not be considered the start of the war from the British perspective, it resulted in an expanded colonial conflict engulfing the world in violence, which then began the rift between Britain and their colonists that set the stage for the American Revolution. In a wooded clearing overlooking an [...]
What enabled George Washington to be so different from other victorious commanders? He had little innate patience but held immense power. How—and where—did he learn patience? Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join David Hein, as he considers the virtues that endowed George Washington with perseverance and strength [...]
As New Year’s 1788 approached, two Orthodox Christians visiting from London arrived at Mount Vernon to visit George and Martha Washington. This married couple, who were to spend the next few days with the retired General, were an unusual pair with unique transatlantic connections. The husband, John Paradise, spoke ancient and modern Greek, Latin, Turkish, French, [...]
What George Washington and George Marshall have to say to us has to do most of all with the ethical claims of the virtue of duty. Teachers would ably fulfill their calling if they convey to their students their conviction that civil society is best understood and entered into as a partnership in every virtue, [...]
The depth of George Washington’s Christian beliefs is totally irrelevant to his vision of the country he helped found. It is only our American obsession with personal authenticity that would cause us to worry about whether Washington was inwardly Christian. One of the most illogical historical debates I’ve ever tried to follow concerns the personal [...]
Immediate popular majorities do not bestow greatness on statesmen. Rather, it is the longview of history and experience that will be the arbiters of the place each of our presidents will ultimately find. The office of the presidency has always been controversial. Born of the Founders’ struggle to create a stable republican political order, it [...]
During her first century, America’s foreign policy closely guarded her place as a holy land, set apart from the wicked Old World. The purpose of foreign policy was to keep the corrupt outer world from shaping our nation. Who are we, we Americans? Are we champions of liberty, both civil and religious, both at home [...]
Many parts of North America were settled by Christians who devoted their communities to the service of God. Arguments and assumptions drawn from Christian theology were part of the background for the framing and ratification of the Constitution, as well as many of the great controversies of American history… In 2010 the Texas state school [...]
The great, unequal conflict past, The Briton banish’d from our shore, Peace, heav’n-descended, comes at last, And hostile nations rage no more; From fields of death the weary swain Returning, seeks his native plain. […]
The war between France and Great Britain was the first major crisis faced by the country under the new Constitution. It was a test that the Washington Administration helped the nation pass with flying colors. The following essay is an examination of the Washington administration’s handling of the first major foreign policy crisis facing the [...]
“The secret mover of this scheme intended to take advantage of the passions, while they were warmed by the recollection of past distresses, without giving time for cool, deliberative thinking.” In March of 1783, George Washington’s Continental Army was encamped near Newburgh, New York. The war not yet over, though victory was within reach. Washington’s [...]
Would it be an unlicensed trespass of the imagination to conceive, that on the night preceding the day of which you now commemorate the fiftieth anniversary—on the night preceding that thirtieth of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, when from the balcony of your city-hall, the chancellor of the state of New York, administered [...]
Perhaps if we offer shelter to the poor and honor the wishes of our founders, we could end our abject imperialism and restore a foreign policy worthy of a republic. Is there a conservative foreign policy? If so, no one person has articulated it well enough to create a consensus among those on the right. [...]