Declarations, Compacts, & the American Constitutional Tradition

By |2023-11-20T23:20:12-06:00November 20th, 2023|Categories: Bruce Frohnen, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Featured, Mayflower Compact, Politics, Timeless Essays|

The American constitutional tradition stretches back beyond our shores to England. It is a tradition shaped on this continent by experience and the character of the people. In this vision, local communities play the primary role in government, protecting the fundamental institutions in which good character is formed. We hold these truths to be self-evident, [...]

The Last of the Romans: Charles Carroll of Carrollton

By |2023-09-19T17:14:46-05:00September 18th, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Bradley J. Birzer, Charles Carroll, Declaration of Independence, Featured, Timeless Essays|

The last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll assumed the role of republican and conservative revolutionary, representing in his old age the end of a period in history. The last of the American signers of the Declaration of Independence to pass from this world, Charles Carroll of Carroll was also one of [...]

Six Biblical Principles Embodied in the Declaration of Independence

By |2023-10-08T19:27:00-05:00July 5th, 2023|Categories: Bible, Christianity, Declaration of Independence|

The values and principles reflected in the U.S. Declaration of Independence resonate with the biblical ideas of innate human dignity, natural human rights, government by consent, self-governance, seeking redress, and a revolutionary spirit. Consider six biblical principles embodied in the United States of America Declaration of Independence. 1. Innate Human Dignity. From the beginning, the Bible [...]

The Declaration of Independence: Translucent Poetry

By |2023-07-03T16:15:18-05:00July 3rd, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, E.B., Essential, Eva Brann, In Honor of Eva Brann at 90 Series, James Madison, Samuel Adams, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays|

The Declaration of Independence, intended as an expression of the common opinion, is truly a text of "right opinion," a benign practical text which also has a peculiarly sound relation to the realm of thought. Section I:  The Legacy of the Declaration When American schoolchildren first discover that they have a place in the world they [...]

Martin Luther King & the Rule of Law

By |2023-01-16T09:38:34-06:00January 15th, 2023|Categories: Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Featured, John Creech, Martin Luther King Jr., Natural Law, Rule of Law, Timeless Essays|

In acknowledgement of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wish to raise the question, based on Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” as to when, if ever, as well as to what extent, it is appropriate to defy the rule of law. On The Imaginative Conservative Winston Elliott raised the question “When is a Change [...]

Why American Democracy Is Worth Defending

By |2022-08-22T13:25:35-05:00August 22nd, 2022|Categories: American Republic, Declaration of Independence, Democracy, Government, Liberty, Politics, Timeless Essays|

What is American democracy, and why is it worth defending? The current political climate, in which democracy is increasingly (and troublingly) equated with populism, compels us to reflect on this question. Democracy is an ancient form of government, but historically, democracies that rise above mere mob rule and reflect genuine self-governance, while respecting basic rights, [...]

Did Edmund Burke Support the American Revolution?

By |2022-07-08T16:52:38-05:00July 8th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Declaration of Independence, Edmund Burke, History, Independence Day, Robert Nisbet, Russell Kirk, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

Many conservatives have assumed that Edmund Burke was opposed to the American Revolution. It is, to my mind, an erroneous assumption. “Burke broke his agentship and went publicly silent on the American cause once war broke out,” Robert Nisbet claimed in his most definitive analysis of Edmund Burke, written and published in 1985. His fellow [...]

A Healthy Respect for Limits: Recovering the American Founding

By |2023-07-03T16:24:32-05:00July 7th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Declaration of Independence, Independence Day, Mark Malvasi, Timeless Essays|

The Founding Fathers and their heirs wanted to establish and maintain a prosperous republic, yet they welcomed limitations on prosperity as much as they had welcomed restraints on power. This healthy respect for limits offers a way to recover the political and moral realism that contemporary Americans have lost. Somewhere I recall reading the poet [...]

Recovering the Declaration of Independence

By |2022-07-03T17:39:46-05:00July 3rd, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Declaration of Independence, Featured, Lee Cheek, Sean Busick, Timeless Essays|

We should rightly celebrate the Declaration of Independence as a beginning of our political principles, not the final word. Often abused by politicians and scholars of every ilk, the grand document remains a fundamental American defense of diffused power that our leaders in Washington and the professorate cannot ignore. As Americans prepare to celebrate July [...]

Independence of Community and Republic

By |2022-04-12T16:49:52-05:00April 12th, 2022|Categories: American Republic, American Revolution, Bradley J. Birzer, Declaration of Independence, Senior Contributors|

For many in the American colonies, it was an open question: Should you favor independence, are you also willing to surrender your lives, your honor, and your sacred fortunes? One of my greatest duties at Hillsdale College is teaching an upper-level course entitled Founding of the American Republic. My colleague, David Raney, and I share [...]

Property and the American Founding

By |2022-03-14T16:08:44-05:00March 14th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, Bradley J. Birzer, Declaration of Independence, Senior Contributors|

Why exactly did Thomas Jefferson and Congress change John Locke’s famous declaration in favor of life, liberty, and property, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Some, wrongly, have believed this to be a Jeffersonian attack on the notion of property. But, as Forrest and Ellen McDonald assure us in their own profound writings [...]

A Reading of the Gettysburg Address

By |2023-05-21T11:28:56-05:00November 18th, 2021|Categories: Abraham Lincoln, Alexis de Tocqueville, American Republic, Civil War, Declaration of Independence, E.B., Essential, Eva Brann, In Honor of Eva Brann at 90 Series, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, Timeless Essays|

Liberal education ought to be less a matter of becoming well-read than a matter of learning to read well, of acquiring arts of awareness, the interpretative or “trivial” arts. Some works, written by men who are productive masters of these arts, are exemplary for their interpretative application. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is such a text. Liberal [...]

Thomas Jefferson & the Declaration of Independence: The Power of a Free People

By |2023-07-03T16:27:40-05:00July 3rd, 2021|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Declaration of Independence, Featured, Independence Day, Political Science Reviewer, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays|

One of America’s most cherished symbols, of course, is the American Declaration of Independence, and its Promethean author, Thomas Jefferson—a document and a man whom subsequent generations have blurred together in a myth of no mean proportion. It is the immediate task of this essay to unravel that myth so we will know what we [...]

Is Equality An Absolute Good?

By |2023-05-21T11:29:04-05:00March 8th, 2021|Categories: Alexis de Tocqueville, American Republic, Declaration of Independence, E.B., Equality, Eva Brann, Philosophy, Senior Contributors, St. John's College|

Fairness is an acknowledgement of just desserts, and therefore implies equality in dealings with similarly entitled partners. So it is indeed equality adjusted to circumstances that I desire. Thus there is an intimation that equality will come into play when justice is administered communally. Regarding the title: 1. The question mark expresses a genuine perplexity [...]

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