All Posts Tagged With: "American Revolution"

America’s Turning Point

The Civil War represents the simultaneous culmination and repudiation of the American Revolution. Four successive ideological surges had previously defined American politics: the radical republican movement that had spearheaded the revolution itself; the subsequent Jeffersonian movement that had arisen in reaction to the Federalist State; the Jacksonian movement that followed the War of 1812; and [...]

23Mar2011 | Jeffrey Rogers Hummel | 22 comments | Continued

The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s decision in Marbury v. Madison (1803) is among the most famous in its history. Shrouded in myth and featuring a cast of historical demigods, the story of the case is a staple of biographies of the second, third, and fourth presidents, as well as Chief Justice John Marshall. Constitutional law courses commonly [...]

25Aug2010 | Kevin Gutzman | 1 comment | Continued

TGIF: Congress Declares Independence

What a difference a year can make. On July 6, 1775, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, issued the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms. Significantly, the document declared, “We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great Britain establishing independent states.” The rest of TGIF is [...]

2Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Happy Independence Day!

On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution of independence, submitted by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, declaring that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and Independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them [...]

2Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Lost Articles

The Constitution says that to be elected to the U.S. Senate, a person has to be 30 or older, a citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state from which the candidate is elected. Alas, it says nothing about knowing American history. Good thing for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). He’d have [...]

1Jun2007 | Sheldon Richman | 6 comments | Continued

The Radicals’ Rancorous Rage

In a revolution for liberty, they sought power. In an age of individuality and self-reliance, they demanded obedience. In a century of personal excellence, they relished “leveling.” They called themselves Radical Patriots, as though the troops who starved and froze at Valley Forge weren’t patriotic enough. But these eighteenth-century politicians had about them little that [...]

1Jun2005 | Becky Akers | 2 comments | Continued

Vital Remnants: America’s Founding and the Western Tradition

This book is a collection of essays that had their genesis in lectures delivered at a week-long conference on “America and the Western Tradition,” in Colonial Williamsburg in 1998. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) brought together some of the best students and college faculty in the country to explore the Western roots of the American [...]

1Dec2000 | Wesley Allen Riddle | 1 comment | Continued

Constitutional Intentions

A question frequently arises in disputes about how to interpret the U.S. Constitution: What was the intention of those who framed the document? This question contains an invalid assumption. It assumes that those who drafted the Constitution at the 1787 convention and those involved in the subsequent debates were of one mind and intent. In [...]

1Jun2000 | Wendy McElroy | 2 comments | Continued

Trade and the Rise of Freedom

Thomas DiLorenzo is professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland. This is adapted from a paper presented at the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s conference on “’The History of Liberty” at Auburn University, January 29, 2000. It is no exaggeration to say that trade is the keystone of modern civilization. As Murray Rothbard wrote, “The [...]

1Jun2000 | Thomas J. DiLorenzo | 2 comments | Continued

Tensions in Early American Political Thought

According to the eminent historian of political thought J.G.A. Pocock, republican theory (or “civic humanism”) was the most significant current of eighteenth-century English and American political philosophy. In the form of “country ideology,” republicanism gave “left” and “right” critics of government policies a framework and believable rhetoric for their arguments.

1May1999 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 0 comments | Continued

Commodity and Propriety: Competing Visions of Property in American Legal Thought, 1776-1970

Bradley Smith is associate professor of law at Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio. To discuss the meaning of property is, in many ways, to discuss the meaning of liberty. If property is an individual right, secure from encroachment by government, then government power is necessarily restricted by the existence of property. If, on the [...]

1May1999 | Bradley A. Smith | 0 comments | Continued

One Life for Liberty

Becky Akers has written a novel on Nathan Hale for which she is seeking publication. A British artillery park, Sunday, September 22, 1776. It wants an hour to noon, but the sun glares mercilessly on the cannon, and the Redcoats milling about mop their brows. There’s not much breeze, but what there is stinks of [...]

1Aug1997 | Becky Akers | 2 comments | Continued

What Big Government Is All About

This article is excerpted from Libertarianism: A Primer. Government has an important role to play in a free society. It is supposed to protect our rights, creating a society in which people can live their lives and undertake projects reasonably secure from the threat of murder, assault, theft, or foreign invasion. By the standards of [...]

1Apr1997 | David Boaz | 1 comment | Continued

John Locke: Natural Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property

A number of times throughout history, tyranny has stimulated breakthrough thinking about liberty. This was certainly the case in England with the mid-seventeenth-century era of repression, rebellion, and civil war. There was a tremendous outpouring of political pamphlets and tracts. By far the most influential writings emerged from the pen of scholar John Locke.

1Aug1996 | Jim Powell | 175 comments | Continued

Thomas Paine, Passionate Pamphleteer for Liberty

As nobody before, Thomas Paine stirred ordinary people to defend their liberty. He wrote the three top-selling literary works of the eighteenth century, which inspired the American Revolution, issued a historic battle cry for individual rights and challenged the corrupt power of government churches. His radical vision and dramatic, plainspoken style connected with artisans, servants, soldiers, merchants, farmers, and laborers alike. Paine’s work breathes fire to this day.

1Jan1996 | Jim Powell | 3 comments | Continued

Two Directions at Once

Mr. Read is President of the Foundation for Economic Education. We are going in two directions at once,” observed Henry Hazlitt. His subsequent explanation of this statement squared precisely with my own observations. So far as the millions are concerned, socialism is more agreeably accepted today than yesterday, a year ago, a decade ago, or [...]

1Oct1956 | Leonard E. Read | 0 comments | Continued

The Real Revolution and You

Dr. Bierly is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education. Clear thinking and straight answers can help you to win the real revolution which goes on in the minds of men. Who are the real revolutionaries in the world today? Many would say, “The Communists, of course! Their day-and-night, around-the-world effort [...]

1Mar1956 | Ivan R. Bierly | 1 comment | Continued

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