Thomas Jefferson and the Paradox of Slavery

By |2021-04-27T11:22:58-05:00April 17th, 2018|Categories: Aristotle, Freedom, History, Mark Malvasi, Philosophy, Slavery, South, Thomas Jefferson|

The masters of slaves, it turned out, were themselves neither independent nor self-sufficient, but were bound to, and reliant upon, their slaves both for their welfare and their identity. This vague recognition in part accounts for the grim tone that Thomas Jefferson adopted in his analysis of slavery: He had to confront the prospect that [...]

Thomas Jefferson, Conservative

By |2021-04-07T10:58:55-05:00April 12th, 2018|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Clyde Wilson, Essential, Featured, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays|

The Sage of Monticello, by Dumas Malone, Volume Six of Jefferson and His Time In 1809 Thomas Jefferson yielded up the Presidency and crossed into Virginia. In the 17 active years remaining to him he never left there. The first volume of Malone’s masterpiece, published in 1948, was Jefferson the Virginian. The sixth and last [...]

Orestes Brownson and the Limits of Freedom

By |2021-04-22T19:04:28-05:00March 3rd, 2018|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Freedom, History, Poetry, Thomas Jefferson|

If a democracy drifts into unlimited notions of freedom, the best course of action is not to strip citizens of freedom, but rather to educate them, so that they can correct any constitutional abuses that contributed or led the way to the abyss of nihilism. Introduction This essay will revisit the age-old concern with the [...]

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

By |2022-01-14T14:05:19-06:00January 16th, 2018|Categories: American Founding, Freedom of Religion, Primary Documents, Thomas Jefferson|

Thomas Jefferson considered his authorship of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom one of his three greatest accomplishments; he dictated that his gravestone should acknowledge this fact next to his authorship of the Declaration of Independence and his founding of the University of Virginia. Drafted in 1777, the statute was  first introduced into the Virginia [...]

The World They Made Together

By |2021-10-17T16:31:35-05:00January 10th, 2018|Categories: Books, Community, History, Slavery, Social Institutions, South, Thomas Jefferson|

Thomas Jefferson had hardly been exposed to the scientific and literary talents of black people except, to some extent, Phyllis Wheatley and Benjamin Banneker. At the end of his life, blacks in America were at the portal of coming into their own and would flower in the pursuits he most admired by the mid-late-19th century [...]

The Progeny of Jefferson and Adams

By |2021-04-22T19:09:02-05:00December 27th, 2017|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Featured, Gleaves Whitney, History, John Adams, Stephen Tonsor series, Thomas Jefferson|

All Americans tend to look at the nation either as disciples of Jefferson or as disciples of Adams: Jefferson told Americans what they wanted to hear; Adams told Americans what they needed to know… I. I was having a beer with a couple of other graduate students. We were looking out onto State Street, enjoying [...]

Thomas Jefferson in His Own Words

By |2021-04-22T19:09:23-05:00December 18th, 2017|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Audio/Video, Conservatism, Declaration of Independence, Featured, Free Markets, Freedom, Thomas Jefferson|

Editor’s Note: We invite you to join Thomas Jefferson (portrayed by Bill Barker) as he explores the remarkable history of the early American Republic and the principles that undergird it. From Jamestown to Plymouth, from the American Revolution to the Louisiana Purchase, the promise of free enterprise has driven the course of human history on [...]

What the ACLU Gets Wrong About the Separation of Church & State

By |2021-04-28T09:57:32-05:00December 11th, 2017|Categories: American Founding, Christianity, Faith, History, James Madison, Politics, Thomas Jefferson|

America’s Founders did not want Congress to establish a national church, and many opposed establishments at the state level as well. Yet there was virtually no support for the sort of separation of church and state promoted today by organizations such as the ACLU. In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), Justice Wiley Rutledge proclaimed that “no [...]

The Reformation & the Secularization of America

By |2021-04-27T15:02:38-05:00November 18th, 2017|Categories: American Founding, Christianity, Culture, Free Speech, Freedom of Religion, History, Religion, Secularism, Thomas Jefferson|

The “separation of church and state” was intended in part to prevent the sorts of religious conflicts that had racked Europe in previous centuries. Nevertheless, it was only a matter of time before the ambiguity of this figure of speech would be exploited. During her confirmation hearing last September, Notre Dame law professor, Amy Coney Barrett, [...]

The Revolutionary Conservatism of Jefferson & Small Republics

By |2021-04-29T12:01:41-05:00October 29th, 2017|Categories: Agrarianism, American Founding, American Republic, Community, Featured, Federalism, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays|

Americans have tried the Hamiltonian experiment of centralized government, usury, and gigantism long enough. Surely it is time, somewhere, for the Jeffersonian vision to begin to reappear. Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Arthur J. Versluis as he explores the Jeffersonian vision for America and how we may [...]

American Conservatism & the Old Republic

By |2021-11-10T07:32:43-06:00October 22nd, 2017|Categories: Abraham Lincoln, American Founding, American Republic, Conservatism, Featured, History, Presidency, Republicanism, Russell Kirk, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays|

If anything identifies a conservative, it is his realistic appraisal of human nature—his appreciation of what is good and admirable, and his recognition of what is base. As some renditions of American history would have it, the conservative pedigree in the United States begins with, or at the very least includes, Alexander Hamilton and his [...]

A Fire Bell in the Night: The Southern Conservative View

By |2021-04-22T19:16:10-05:00October 11th, 2017|Categories: American Founding, Freedom, M. E. Bradford, Rights, South, The Imaginative Conservative, Thomas Jefferson|

At this time, as perhaps never before, we Americans are as a people well on our way to being forced into belated recognition of the truth behind Mr. Jefferson’s alarm at the Compromise of 1820, our first attempt in employing the engines of national power to regulate and reform our domestic economic and social relations [...]

Thomas Jefferson on Rights and Duties

By |2021-04-29T09:44:09-05:00October 1st, 2017|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Citizenship, Rights, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays|

The Jeffersonian philosophy of rights and duties is not to be blamed for the explosion and inflation of rights. It is by doing our duties that we protect our rights, and rights come at cost of these duties. Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Paul Kuntz as he [...]

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