Is there hope for the American Republic? Of course, there is always hope, because America is built on timeless truths. Those truths can be mocked, ignored, distorted, or forgotten, but they remain true nonetheless. Every spring semester, I have the excellent privilege of teaching “American Heritage” to college sophomores. In that course, we go from [...]
State Sovereigntists made their biggest stand over the Treaty of Peace. Their resistance to the Treaty played a critical role in shaping how Americans understood the role state sovereignty played in both the constitutional system and politics. The American Revolution, State Sovereignty, and the American Constitutional Settlement, 1765-1800 by N. Coleman (294 pages, Lexington Books, 2016) [...]
Where in the Constitution does one find the separation of powers mentioned? Where does the expression “checks and balances” occur? They are not in the Constitution. We use them because they are terms upon the basis of which the Constitution was accepted. And it is the agreement reached on those things that constitutes the true [...]
This year, may we replenish the cistern that nurtures the principles of the Declaration: the vessel that is our recommitment to the Christian faith, the sharing of the Gospel, and the denunciation of the enemies of Truth... the vessel, that makes the United States the last, best hope for mankind. On July 5, 1926, Calvin [...]
At the moment, the Left seems to pose an existential threat to the republic. As a movement, it is composed of totalitarian ideologues who care only about power, not morality or love. They will implement the most inhumane policies imaginable. We must all be on highest alert. During my sixteen years writing for The Imaginative [...]
The last three centuries have proven that imposing an ideological vision upon any civilization is cataclysmic. So we must conclude—annoyingly—that no formula can resurrect a Christian culture, but only a Christian response to the concrete needs of real people. Part One: The Rule of Necessity and the Rule of Love Most diagnoses of our current [...]
While we should rightly praise Thomas Jefferson for his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, we should never ignore the role of John Adams. If Jefferson was the pen, Adams was the voice. The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty (Stone House Press, 2026) “Who shall write the history of the American revolution? [...]
Jamestown, after much painful experimentation, established the kinds of local institutions, beliefs, and practices that colonizers recognized as the prerequisites to successful settlement and that we have come to recognize as the seedbeds of the American republic. The Jamestown Project by Karen Ordahl Kupperman (392 pages, Belknap Press, 2009) “Discovery” has been a term and [...]
In the end, America’s greatness does not lie in its ability to exist as an ideal in the minds of men, but in its success as a lived experience and its character as a nation forged in a history steeped in order, justice, and freedom, for which it is rightfully esteemed. The “miracle at Philadelphia,” [...]
In what kind of world is it fair that the United States should shoulder the burden of protecting totally wealthy societies from a corrupt and violent world? Though it would be hard to pin a tail on Trump’s ever-moving and erratic donkey of a myriad of statements on every topic imaginable, it’s pretty clear that [...]
Whatever his failings as an imaginative thinker, President James Monroe’s own convictions were rooted deeply in the spirit and the letter of the U.S. Constitution. As he entered the White House in March 1817, he had little (well, less) use for James Madison’s newfound love of nationalism. While he entered the presidency too late to [...]
As a theory of history, progressivism always believes in conflict and violence and antagonism. Progressivism, then, not surprisingly, is wrapped up in bigotry, racism, and violence. “Progress! Did you ever reflect that that word is almost a new one?” asked an enraptured Woodrow Wilson in 1913. “No words come more often or more naturally to [...]
Outnumbering the Lexington militia nearly ten to one, the British easily won the skirmish. But, symbolically, they lost. For at the moment the first Lexingtonian died, the American Republic was born. British Major Pitcarne took six companies of an advance team to scout out Lexington, Massachusetts, early morning, April 19, 1775. Behind him marched nearly [...]
Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, — "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern [...]