All Posts Tagged With: "Articles of Confederation"

Why American History Is Not What They Say: An Introduction to Revisionism

In one of his most iconoclastic essays, “The Anatomy of the State,” Murray Rothbard observed that it is crucial to ruling groups to manipulate the thinking of the ruled. They must get the populace to accept that the rulers are truly good people working tirelessly to advance the common good. Toward that end, the rulers [...]

22Dec2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

Is Freedom a Radical Idea?

The good old days are not behind us but rather lie ahead.

29Oct2010 | Sheldon Richman | 22 comments | Continued

Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution–and What It Means for Americans Today

The more historical research I read and the more I contrast what economists write with what non-economists write, the more I am convinced that the bulk of history and biography should be redone. Thomas DiLorenzo, an economics professor at Loyola College in Maryland, explains why: “Most historians are not educated in the field of economics, [...]

24Feb2010 | Art Carden | 3 comments | Continued

The Holiday That Isn’t

I know it’s only October, but that’s late enough in the year for most people to have already begun thinking of the holidays just around the corner. We will each observe the traditional ones according to our personal wishes—a precious right won for us by past and present patriots. Allow me to advise you, however, [...]

1Oct2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | Comments Off | Continued

Slick Construction Under the Articles of Confederation

Writing lately on the Fourth Amendment, Professor Thomas Y. Davies decries the “originalism” practiced by certain Supreme Court justices and sundry legal commentators. On historical-hermeneutic grounds, he faults face-value originalism for missing “the shared, implicit assumptions that informed the public meaning” on which a given constitutional provision rested. Underlying the Fourth Amendment were common-law rules [...]

1Apr2008 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 1 comment | Continued

The Constitution or Liberty

“Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.” We might think those words—or words to the same effect—are in the U.S. Constitution. But they are not. They are from Article II of the Articles [...]

1Jan2008 | Sheldon Richman | 2 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

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 [...]

26Jan2007 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | Continued

Is the Income Tax Unconstitutional?

Wishful thinking, always a temptation, is hazardous. Example: An awful lot of people think the income tax as it applies to private-sector wage earners is illegal—even unconstitutional—and they assume that if they can only come up with the right legal arguments, judges will strike down the tax and make America a free society once more. [...]

1Sep2006 | Sheldon Richman | 19 comments | Continued

Nothing to Learn from the Antifederalists? It Just Ain’t So!

Joseph Stromberg is a historian and freelance writer. According to Paul Greenberg, writing in the Washington Times in late January, the dreaded Antifederalists and their Articles of Confederation are making a comeback. In particular, these miscreants dare to question executive power. He writes with patriotic horror—a horror that assumes as self-evident a partisan reading of [...]

1Jun2006 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 22 comments | Continued

A New Old American Concept of Political Liberty

It is odd that a libertarian should have a conception of political liberty at all. Isn’t it the case that there is a permanent war between freedom and politics? Surely any reduction in the political sphere produces a concomitant increase in individual liberty. Has not choice in the market, characterized by personal autonomy and spontaneity, [...]

1Mar2002 | Norman Barry | 0 comments | 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

James Madison-Checks and Balances to Limit Government Power

James Madison didn’t originate the idea of checks and balances for limiting government power, but he helped push it farther than anyone else before or since. Previous political thinkers, citing British experience, had talked about checks and balances with a monarch in the mix, but Madison helped apply the principle to a republic. Contrary to such respected thinkers as Baron de Montesquieu, Madison insisted checks and balances could help protect liberty in a large republic.

1Mar1996 | Jim Powell | 5 comments | Continued

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