Thomas Jefferson had the most capacious mind and, until his later years, the most optimistic temperament of any of the Founders. Thomas Jefferson’s birthday went virtually unnoticed earlier this year (note: this essay was written in 1993—editor), the 250th anniversary of his birth. Nothing is more indicative of how badly we Americans have squandered our moral [...]
David Hume appears to be the only major British thinker at the time to have supported outright secession of the colonies. Indeed, he was opposed to the very idea of a British empire. Aristotle taught that “To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements, for [...]
The American Republic: Primary Sources edited by Bruce Frohnen. What should be taught to American undergraduates and law students to make them good republicans? The woeful lack of much if any grounding in the history of their own country in high school, and the failure of most undergraduates to learn about the divergent approaches to the [...]
From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition by Clyde N. Wilson “To check power, to return the American empire to republicanism we do not need to resort to the drastic right of revolution nor to the destructive goal of anarchic individualism. We have in the states ready-made instruments. All that is lacking is [...]
A Few Thoughts From a Very Rusty Rustbelt, Recently Baptized by a Mass of Snow A CCA Lecture, February 3, 2011 A great thanks to my friend, Dean Paul Moreno, for inviting me to participate in this CCA Roundtable. And, a thank you to my colleagues, Gary Wolfram (AWOL!; Gary, oh, Gary—where art thou?) and John [...]
Roman Catholics have always been uneasy Americans, a religious minority in a country dominated by Protestants often hostile to their beliefs. Much more is to be dreaded from the growth of POPERY in America than from Stamp-Acts or any other Acts destructive of men civil rights. —Samuel Adams, 1768[1] Roman Catholics have always been uneasy [...]
As Cicero watched his own republic descend into chaos and madness, he recorded as quickly as he could the most important aspects of the Roman Republic, preserved if not in temporal reality, than in poetry, history, and memory. Famously, he wrote (quoted by our patron Winston Elliott often): Ancestral morality provided outstanding men, and great [...]
Considering the rather vigorous debate (as seen in the multiple essays) regarding the goodness of the constitution, I thought it might be good to publish a few of the best quotes from the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. I think it’s critically important to remember that each side of the debate in the late 1780s was populated [...]