Let Justice Be Our Guide: Federalism & the Constitutional Convention

By |2023-05-03T11:57:21-05:00May 3rd, 2023|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, Featured, Federalist Papers, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

The paramount issue facing the Constitutional Convention was how to secure the safety and happiness of the people. Therefore, the paramount question which guided the deliberations was: What is justice? James H. Hutson concludes his valuable 1984 survey of two hundred years of Constitutional scholarship on a pessimistic note. Scholarship, says Hutson, is at a [...]

Gordon Lloyd: A Remembrance

By |2023-05-05T16:53:29-05:00May 2nd, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, Stephen M. Klugewicz|

Such was Gordon Lloyd's contagious energy that his presence at an academic program guaranteed its success. Even now I can see him, with his irrepressible enthusiasm, almost hopping across the stage in excitement, brushing back the bangs of his wavy white hair as they fly about, and boyishly declaiming in the Caribbean accent of his [...]

James Wilson: Political Thought and the Constitutional Convention

By |2022-10-17T16:22:26-05:00October 17th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Constitutional Convention, Featured, George W. Carey, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

Scholars familiar with James Wilson note the discrepancy between status accorded him by most constitutional historians and the magnitude of his contributions to our founding. Scholars familiar with the writings and career of James Wilson are struck by the discrepancy between the status accorded him by most constitutional historians and the magnitude of his contributions [...]

The Issue of Slavery at the Constitutional Convention

By |2022-07-12T14:40:32-05:00July 12th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Constitutional Convention, Senior Contributors, Slavery|

The Constitutional Convention debated the issue of slavery over almost a week. In the end, the delegates reluctantly agreed to allow slavery for the sake of South Carolina and Georgia. We moderns and post-moderns can debate all we want, but the case is that the Convention came very close to abolishing slavery. Its acceptance of [...]

In Defense of the Old Republic: The Problem of the Imperial Presidency

By |2020-11-20T09:41:32-06:00November 15th, 2020|Categories: Constitutional Convention, Featured, Federalist Papers, George W. Carey, Government, Presidency, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

The dangers associated with the imperial presidency are compounded by an awareness that, while new and more expansive theories of executive authority are seriously advanced, the office is not attracting individuals of high moral and intellectual character. The Philadelphia Constitution may be dead, but the basic problems which troubled the Framers—e.g., preserving the rule of [...]

The Contributions of Eva Brann to American Political Thought

By |2020-07-16T17:21:49-05:00March 19th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, Declaration of Independence, Eva Brann|

Eva Brann’s contributions to American Political Thought are a starting point that allows the student to grasp the heart of her pursuits—that is, education. For Dr. Brann, the effort to understand the principles of the Declaration of Independence or discern how best to educate the citizens of a democratic republic can take place between students [...]

Colorado’s Enduring Constitutional Heritage

By |2021-01-24T09:48:08-06:00July 31st, 2019|Categories: American Republic, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, Government, Politics|

The Colorado Constitution remains one of the longest state constitutions, reflective of Coloradans’ inclination to instruct their government in exactly what it should do and cannot do. They knew they did not want a “do-nothing” government. The 1876 Colorado Constitution contains the strongest declaration of state’s rights of any American constitution: “The people of this [...]

Leaving the Union: Could a State Successfully Secede Today?

By |2020-12-19T10:16:59-06:00November 14th, 2016|Categories: American Republic, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, History, Secession, South|

There is no section of the U.S. Constitution that would preclude states from putting referendums for secession on the ballot, and if duly approved, for such states then to depart legally from the Union. The U.S. Constitution is the world’s oldest existing governing body of laws. It was then that our founding fathers met in their [...]

James Madison on Representation & the Branches of Government

By |2021-03-15T15:19:14-05:00May 25th, 2016|Categories: American Founding, Constitutional Convention, Featured, James Madison|

“Mr. Madison considered an election of one branch, at least, of the Legislature by the people immediately, as a clear principle of free government; and that this mode, under proper regulations, had the additional advantage of securing better representatives, as well as of avoiding too great an agency of the State Governments in the general [...]

The Role of the “Middle Delegates” at the Constitutional Convention

By |2020-10-18T13:32:36-05:00January 7th, 2016|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, Featured, Forrest McDonald, Political Science Reviewer|

The contribution of the middle delegates—from Connecticut, Delaware, North and South Carolina—was crucial to the structural design of the Constitution. Without these these eight men, the Grand Convention might not have succeeded in its undertaking. Oliver Ellsworth Historians of the Constitutional Convention have agreed that there were divisions among the delegates, but have [...]

A Better Constitution

By |2023-05-24T23:12:50-05:00September 17th, 2015|Categories: American Founding, Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention|

I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument. Below are Benjamin Franklin’s closing remarks to the Federal Convention [...]

Rule of Law: The Great Foundation of Our Constitution

By |2020-01-06T21:56:13-06:00September 2nd, 2014|Categories: Constitutional Convention, Rule of Law|Tags: |

It was eleven years after the Declaration of Independence—and four years after American victory in the Revolutionary War—that a small group of delegates would convene in Philadelphia to create a new charter for governing the new nation. In order to comprehend this historic achievement we must first understand that this moment and the constitutional document [...]

The Glory of Mankind: Alcohol and the Early Republic

By |2020-05-31T15:42:10-05:00March 23rd, 2013|Categories: American Republic, Constitutional Convention, Stephen M. Klugewicz|

We like to think of the leaders of the American Revolution and the Framers of the Constitution as a sober lot. But 18th-century Americans liked to drink, and alcohol played an important role in the momentous political events of the age. What care I how time advances? I am drinking ale today. ― Edgar Allan [...]

The Constitution is not Sacred

By |2013-12-09T17:53:22-06:00September 28th, 2012|Categories: American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Constitution, Constitutional Convention|

In one of the single most interesting moments during the constitutional convention of 1787, a discussion arose—really for the first time with any great seriousness—about the issue of slavery in the West. How the republic might expand would, of course, help define the republic itself. The admission of slaves was a most grating circumstance to [...]

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