All Posts Tagged With: "Declaration of Independence"
Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…
4Jul2011 | Thomas Jefferson | 36 comments | ContinuedTGIF: 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 | ContinuedCongress 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 Necessity of Taking Up Arms. It had been drafted by a radical in Congress, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, but revised — “toned down,” it is said, — by the leading [...]
2Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedHappy 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 | ContinuedEquality, Markets, and Morality
Burton Folsom, Jr. is a professor of history at Hillsdale College and author of New Deal or Raw Deal?, to be published by Simon & Schuster this year. The subject of “equality” is the source of much political debate. Ever since the founding era, free-market thinkers have argued for equality of opportunity in the economic [...]
1Sep2008 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 5 comments | ContinuedTwo Presidents, Two Philosophies, and Two Different Outcomes
In the White House, Wilson intended to be a strong president working with a “living Constitution.” He promoted the expanding of “beneficent” government into new areas. In his second year as president he concluded that shipping rates were too high, and he blessed his secretary of treasury’s plan to regulate overseas shipping rates and the companies doing the shipping.
1Jun2007 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedDemocracy or Republic?
Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University. How often do we hear the claim that our nation is a democracy? Was a democratic form of government the vision of the Founders? As it turns out, the word democracy appears nowhere in the two most fundamental founding documents [...]
1Jun2007 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedThe State Is the Source of Rights?
In 1776 a reliable indicator of an American’s opinion of the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence was his attitude toward the 1649 execution of England’s King Charles I. Liberals, who shared Jefferson’s principles, believed Charles to have been a tyrant and hence most deserving of losing his head. Conservatives, resisting the call to [...]
1Dec2003 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 2 comments | ContinuedThe True Meaning of Patriotism
Patriotism these days is like Christmas—lots of people caught up in a festive atmosphere replete with lights and spectacles. We hear reminders about “the true meaning” of Christmas—and we may even mutter a few guilt-ridden words to that effect ourselves—but each of us spends more time and thought in parties, gift-giving, and the other paraphernalia [...]
1Jun2003 | Lawrence W. Reed | 26 comments | ContinuedThe Pledge versus the Oath
When George W. Bush became president last January, he struck a familiar pose. Raising his right hand before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he swore to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The oath serves to remind us that the United States is a constitutional republic with a federal [...]
1May2001 | James Peron | 6 comments | ContinuedReflections on Self-Responsibility and Libertarianism
Nathaniel Branden is the author of 20 books, including The Art of Living Consciously, Taking Responsibility, and most recently, My Years with Ayn Rand. His Web site is www.nathanielbranden.net. The traditional American values of individualism, self-reliance, self-discipline, and hard work had their roots, in part, in the fact that this country began as a frontier [...]
1Apr2001 | Nathaniel Branden | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Perils of Positive Rights
Tibor Machan is a professor at the Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University. One of the most powerful ideas opposed to the free society is a notion political philosophers call “positive rights.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? What could be wrong with being positive? Sounds like something out of Anthony Robbins or Norman Vincent [...]
1Apr2001 | Tibor R. Machan | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Declaration of Independence: It’s Greek to Me
The stirring words of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence said that all men are endowed with certain inalienable rights. To Jefferson these rights existed before the founding of government and the function of government is “to secure these rights.” But he himself said that his ringing words did not express a new idea: “This was the object of the Declaration of Independence.
1Aug2000 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Essence of Americanism
Leonard E. Read established FEE in 1946 and served as its president until his death in 1983. “The Essence of Americanism,” first delivered as a speech in 1961, was Mr. Read’s traditional opening address at dozens of FEE seminars. Someone once said: It isn’t that Christianity has been tried and found wanting; it has been [...]
1Sep1998 | Leonard E. Read | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800 by Conor Cruise O’Brien
University of Chicago Press • 1996 • 385 pages • $29.95 Dr. Skoble is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Southeast Missouri State University. Although Thomas Jefferson is popularly known as a great statesman, historians have long been aware that he, like everyone else, was not as purely good as his popular image would suggest. [...]
1Jul1997 | Aeon J. Skoble | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings From Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman edited by David Boaz
Free Press • 1997 • 476 pages • $27.50 Dr. Peterson, an adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation, is Distinguished Lundy Professor Emeritus of Business Philosophy at Campbell University in North Carolina. Asked Shakespeare’s Juliet: What’s in a name? Yesterday conservatism was in as the name of what could be called the free-society movement. Today, [...]
1Jul1997 | William H. Peterson | 0 comments | ContinuedWhat 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-
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