Amanda Hughes – Constituting America

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Entries by Amanda Hughes

90 in 90 2023, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 90: Conclusion: Preserving the First Principles of the American Founding – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Conclusion: Preserving the First Principles of the American Founding

In this series of essays, written by exceptionally thoughtful thinkers, teachers and scholars, we can discern how insightful the American Founders were in recognizing and articulating the first principles upon which the nation of America was founded. These essays reveal that Americans, and especially the Founders, had learned extensively from the careful study of history. Born of English tradition, Americans gradually came to develop their own identity – one might even say “mind,” as Thomas Jefferson called it. Separated from Great Britain and largely left alone for decades, American colonists lived in relative freedom and came to establish local governments and social institutions that complemented their understanding of rights and liberties. They frequently heard these ideas of individual liberty and limited government reinforced in their churches, newspapers, shops, and businesses. The essays in the 90-Day Study, as a whole, show the story of how Americans became one people united by common principles.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 87: Upholding the Principle of Free Civil Discourse and Public Debate Without Censorship – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary Porter

Upholding the Principle of Free Civil Discourse and Public Debate Without Censorship

In ratifying the United States Constitution, Virginia, North Carolina and Rhode Island (both of which copied Virginia’s submission verbatim) all proposed a free speech amendment and James Madison included an amendment, which read: “That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of writing and publishing their sentiments; that the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and ought not to be violated.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 62: Upholding the Principle of Amending the United States Constitution by the American People, Its Rightful Keepers – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Upholding the Principle of Amending the United States Constitution by the American People, Its Rightful Keepers

James Madison mentioned in Federalist 51 that the Constitution requires the government “to control itself.” With arguments on both sides, correctly amending the Constitution remains in maintaining the principle that “the United States Constitution prescribes within the document the only lawful methods of amendment, by its keepers, the American people.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 61: Principle of a United States Constitution Prescribing Within Itself the Only Lawful Methods of Amendments, by Its Keepers, the American People – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Principle of a United States Constitution Prescribing Within Itself the Only Lawful Methods of Amendments, by Its Keepers, the American People

Virginia’s George Mason rose and cautioned that: “No amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the Government should become oppressive (as Madison wrote in his notes), as he verily believed would be the case.”

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Kevin Portteus, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 71: Principle of Secure Borders – Guest Essayist: Kevin Portteus, Kevin Portteus, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Secure Borders

Borders, however, do more than protect a people’s rights, sovereignty, and safety. They separate between culture and values that are specific to a people. The Founders understood this as well. With this understanding by the Founders, how would it be possible to maintain what makes America its own nation able to self-govern apart from any dictatorships that could take hold? As President, John Adams wrote “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” meaning that the nation of Americans possesses a specifically chosen cultural infrastructure, and the American people have historically adopted certain moral values, that make its system of constitutional self-government possible. This system, in turn, makes it possible for Americans to enjoy their natural rights. Other peoples, and other cultures, antithetical to that system of government, are thus a mortal threat to America’s political system and way of life, and Jefferson cautioned against a mass influx of peoples with opposing cultures and values, to those of America’s, in Notes on the State of Virginia.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Amanda Hughes, Blog Essay 69: Principle of Distinguishing Between Purpose of Federal, and Governments of the States – Guest Essayist: Amanda Hughes, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Amanda Hughes

Principle of Distinguishing Between Purpose of Federal, and Governments of the States: Maintaining the Union While Preventing Federal Encroachments on the States and Individual Americans

“The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendency over the National Government, and will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments.” Hamilton made it plain he sympathized with the states: “That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation.” In other words, keep the states intact, as a bulwark of freedom for themselves, and as a bulwark against national impingement. This is part of the genius of the Constitution: for every legitimate power, there’s a legitimate counter-power.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 82: Principle of Free Thought and Speech, a Core Component of a Self-Governing People – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Principle of Free Thought and Speech, a Core Component of a Self-Governing People

The debates took place in the secret Philadelphia convention, but the vigorous conversation moved into state ratifying conventions, newspapers and pamphlets, private letters, and taverns. In the early republic, the George Washington presidential administration had its share of highly partisan and contentious debates. The debates over Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s financial plans and the crafting of American foreign policy were rooted in constitutionalism and establishing the right precedents for the new government as prescribed in the new Constitution. These deliberations could be offensive and personal, but they were also deeply rooted in constitutionalism as both sides took the document seriously. In all of these debates, the key principle was the element of free speech. The representatives and the people freely asserted their views about the best ways to achieve good government.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, George Landrith Essay 83: Principle of Freedom of Association, Undissolved and Unweakened, Either to Associate or Not, and Neither under Coercion nor Force – Guest Essayist: George Landrith, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, George Landrith

Principle of Freedom of Association, Undissolved and Unweakened, Either to Associate or Not, and Neither under Coercion nor Force

America’s Founders would see the freedom of association as foundational to a free society. They had gathered together and worked together to promote American independence. And the British Crown had attempted to make those associations a criminal activity. America’s Founders understood that they would have to associate and work with other Americans who shared their desire for independence. The British attempt to deny them the right to associate with like-minded Americans was simply an attempt to silence them and prevent them from petitioning the government for redress of their grievances. And only after years of presenting their grievances and being entirely rebuffed did they finally decide to declare their independence.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 80: Principle of Constitutional Limits on the United States Government To Tax – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Principle of Constitutional Limits on the United States Government To Tax

The Boston Tea Party in late 1773 was the clearest expression of colonial opposition to being taxed without consent. The British retaliated harshly with the Coercive Acts shutting down the Port of Boston, banning town meetings and self-government, and allowing British colonial officials to escape American justice. This course led to the First Continental Congress and the first shots of the war being fired at Lexington and Concord. One of the grievances of the Declaration of Independence was “imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 89: Principle of a Nation’s Longevity Upon Consisting of Public and Private Virtue – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of a Nation’s Longevity Upon Consisting of Public and Private Virtue

Samuel Adams’s letter to James Warren quoted in the introduction to this essay tied stable government and individual liberty to virtue and bound private and public virtue to each other. This emphasis on the interdependent virtue of the citizen and of the society was the essence of classical republicanism and a fundamental concept in the political philosophy of Greek and Roman writers. Moreover, Adams confided to his fellow New Englander that it was the “Principles & Manners” of that region which produced the spirit of liberty that fueled the drive to American independence.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 86: Principle of Civil Discourse To Keep Representative Government, Unhindered Freedom of Speech in the Airing of Grievances – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Civil Discourse To Keep Representative Government, Unhindered Freedom of Speech in the Airing of Grievances

At the heart of a representative government lies the principle that those in power are there to serve, and not to dictate. They are but emissaries, chosen by the populace to voice their hopes, aspirations, and concerns. Such representation is hollow if the populace cannot, or is afraid to, communicate openly. Civil discourse, which is simply the ability to discuss and debate matters of public interest in a reasoned and respectful manner, is the bedrock upon which representative government stands. Without it, the bridge between the representatives and those they represent is broken. The essence of representative government is lost if its constituents cannot engage in free discourse without fear of persecution.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Scot Faulkner Essay 85: Principle of Freedom of Assembly – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Scot Faulkner

Principle of Freedom of Assembly

A series of five punitive acts were passed by Parliament intended to restrict public discourse and punish opponents. It was England’s hope the “Intolerable Acts” would intimidate rebellious Colonists into submission. The “Acts” ignited a firestorm of outrage throughout Colonial America. More importantly, it generated a unity of purpose and inspired a willingness for collective action among leaders in the previously fragmented American colonies. In a bold “illegal” act to assert its right to free assembly, the First Continental Congress met in the Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774. Twelve of the thirteen colonies (Georgia opted out) were represented.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Patrick Garry Essay 88: Principle of Freedom of Religion – Guest Essayist: Patrick Garry, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Patrick Garry

Principle of Freedom of Religion

The Framers so valued religious liberty that they placed it as the first liberty protected by the Bill of Rights. And unlike contemporary critics who see religion as divisive, the Framers valued religion for contributing to the civic virtue and welfare of society. For the constitutional Framers, freedom of religion was necessary not just to protect what was considered the most important individual liberty, but to protect the vitality and thriving of religious beliefs and institutions that in turn did much to strengthen society.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 79: Defending Liberty and Rights in Property Through the Fruits of One’s Own Labor – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Defending Liberty and Rights in Property Through the Fruits of One’s Own Labor

Another threat to the rights in property was expropriation and redistribution of land. Many Revolutionary War era state legislatures found it impossible to resist the lure of seizing property owned by British subjects and American Loyalists and reselling it to American Patriots, either settlers or speculators. But, in general, there probably was nothing that more viscerally frightened and repelled most Americans than redistribution of property. Many Americans reacted in shock to the alleged goal of Daniel Shays and his followers to force a redistribution of land. There was no less opposition to a peaceful redistribution of land through what were called “agrarian laws.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 78: Principle of Keeping the Fruits of One’s Own Labor – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Keeping the Fruits of One’s Own Labor

The right to engage in labor of one’s choosing, and the right to retain the fruits thereof in the form of property, are central to one’s liberty, yet experience has shown that governments have threatened these rights repeatedly. Taxes, notably those on land or its produce, were particularly suspect because they could deprive people of their most basic means of subsistence and status, while benefiting some favored politically powerful individual or group.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Patrick Garry Essay 84: Principle of a Free Press – Guest Essayist: Patrick M. Garry, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Patrick Garry

Principle of a Free Press

The American press played a major role in opposing British rule. The distinct gain in prestige made by the press during the revolutionary period began with the Stamp Act, the repeal of which was recognized as the result of a united colonial opposition made possible by the important role played by the newspapers of the day.

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90 in 90 2023, Stephen Tootle, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 77: Principle of Free Market Trade, Industry, Innovation and Competition – Guest Essayist: Stephen Tootle, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Stephen Tootle, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Free Market Trade, Industry, Innovation and Competition

Property then, was more than simply money, wealth, land, or objects. Madison understood that one could not claim to have free opinions without being free from violence when communicating those ideas. One could not freely express religious belief and practice when personal safety and property were threatened. The freedom to choose where to work, what to work for, and what to do with the product of one’s work were inseparable. All were rights. All were inseparable from property.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 72: Principle of Private Property Ownership To Sustain Liberty, Encourage Commerce and Independence – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Principle of Private Property Ownership To Sustain Liberty, Encourage Commerce and Independence

In his Second Treatise of Government (1689), Locke wrote that all humans are in a state of nature, free and equal in their natural rights. For Locke, property was the most important natural right, and it included possessions but also most significantly a property in one’s person, labor, and rights. He wrote, “Yet every man has a property in his own person…The labour of his body, and the work of his hands.” Government was established by common consent for the purpose of protecting a person’s property rights. He wrote, “The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 76: Principle of Making Personal Contracts – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Principle of Making Personal Contracts

The freedom to contract and the expectation that contractual obligations will be enforced has been critical to American economic life since its founding. Courts have long been involved in the settling of contractual disputes, sometimes invoking the contract clause, but more often using common law principles or provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, which every state has adopted. But the implications of the freedom to contract is not limited to economic matters. Contracts are involved in many forms of association, including political organizations and civic and religious entities. Without protection for these contracts, these associations could not function effectively.

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Robert E. Wright, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 75: Principle of Money With Intrinsic Value and Standards of Weights and Measures, Printing Money – Guest Essayist: Robert E. Wright, Robert E. Wright, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Money With Intrinsic Value and Standards of Weights and Measures, Printing Money

From its inception, America defined its dollar in terms of specie, eventually settling, as most other nations did, on gold alone. Dollar denominated banknotes and deposits were not legal tender but convertible into legal tender coins on demand. They circulated because they were more convenient than coins but always could be exchanged for them.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Patrick Garry Essay 81: Principle of Freedom of Speech in a Marketplace of Ideas – Guest Essayist: Patrick M. Garry, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Patrick Garry

Principle of Freedom of Speech in a Marketplace of Ideas

Just because speech might be problematic or even contrary to government policy, it should not be prohibited by law, according to Holmes. Instead, the speech’s ability to gain approval in the social marketplace of ideas should determine its worth and staying power, Holmes argued. Only through the open competition of free and unhindered speech can society discover the truth necessary to govern itself.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 73: Principle of Individual Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of One’s Own Happiness – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Individual Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of One’s Own Happiness

If there was one political principle which was ubiquitous during the founding period, it was the natural, unalienable rights of the colonists. Early Americans almost never missed an opportunity to proclaim them. As Thomas West argues, “the founders shared a ‘theoretically coherent understanding’ of politics rooted in natural rights philosophy.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 74: Principle of Individual Free Enterprise – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Individual Free Enterprise

The connection between the Constitution’s protection of private property rights and individual free enterprise is a testament to the profound wisdom of our Founding Fathers. Their understanding of human nature, individual freedom, and economic principles enabled them to construct a system that has fostered unprecedented prosperity and liberty.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 70: Principle of Private Property Ownership of Land To Encourage Self-Reliance for Maintaining and Strengthening Individual Liberty and American Independence – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Private Property Ownership of Land To Encourage Self-Reliance for Maintaining and Strengthening Individual Liberty and American Independence

Whereas Jefferson returned to the theme of his republic of farmers and artisans in frequent correspondences, he was not a systematic theorist of American agrarianism. That description best fits John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia. Taylor was a lawyer, planter, military officer, and politician. He engaged in scientific agriculture, becoming a leader in promoting crop rotation, and published pamphlets and a book about those endeavors. He also wrote several books about political economy and the connection among land ownership, private happiness, independence defined as republican self-government, liberty, a limited and decentralized political system, division of political powers, and the laissez-faire economics of a free market.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, William Morrisey, Ph.D. Essay 29: Corruption and the Constitution: Principle of Constitutional Law and a Foundation of a Virtuous and Moral People – Guest Essayist: Will Morrisey, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, William Morrisey PhD

Corruption and the Constitution: Principle of Constitutional Law and a Foundation of a Virtuous and Moral People

Corruption means rottenness—disintegration caused not by external pressure but by some inner flaw. Political corruption occurs when a ruler, responsible for the country’s good, the good of the citizens, instead uses his authority to obtain a private benefit—something that seems good for himself, his family, his friends. Distrust and faction then weaken the body politic.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 68: Principle of Appropriate Role and Purpose of Government Upon Protecting the People From Violence and Fraud – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Appropriate Role and Purpose of Government Upon Protecting the People From Violence and Fraud

In the true spirit of the American founding, George Mason’s assertion during the Federal Convention of 1787 deeply resonates with our contemporary political and social landscape. As he opined, a lack of virtue and unchecked corruption pose significant threats to the integrity and endurance of our government. Today, as we explore the principle of the appropriate role and purpose of government in protecting people from violence and fraud, we must bear these foundational truths in mind. We must also heed the wisdom of Mason, understanding the immense potential of the government as a force for good, but also the catastrophic possibilities when it strays from the path of virtue and integrity.

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James P. Pinkerton, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 67: Principle of Strong Defense Capability To Protect the United States Against the Danger and Severity of Treason – Guest Essayist: James P. Pinkerton, James P. Pinkerton, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Strong Defense Capability To Protect the United States Against the Danger and Severity of Treason

The freedoms accorded to us by the Constitution have made us prosperous, of course, in no small part because liberty makes the U.S. a magnet for talent from around the world—four of the top Manhattan Project scientists were born in Hungary, and none of them were spies. Those strengths give us the capacity to build wonder-weapons such as the atomic bomb. And yet that same freedom makes it harder for us to keep secret our secrets.

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90 in 90 2023, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 66: Principle of Unity as Americans, Limiting Faction Through Election Only of Representatives Who Understand and Will Uphold the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Unity as Americans, Limiting Faction Through Election Only of Representatives Who Understand and Will Uphold the United States Constitution

“Let us also be mindful that the cause of freedom greatly depends on the use we make of the singular opportunities we enjoy of governing ourselves wisely; for if the event should prove, that the people of this country either cannot or will not govern themselves, who will hereafter be advocates for systems, which however charming in theory and prospect. are not reducible to practice. If the people of our nation, instead of consenting to be governed by laws of their own making, and rulers of their own choosing,”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 65: Principle of Civil Over Military Authority: Protection Against Corruption, Foreign or Domestic Attempts To Divide and Destroy America – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Principle of Civil Over Military Authority: Protection Against Corruption, Foreign or Domestic Attempts To Divide and Destroy America

The rebellion against the government was averted by the character of George Washington, who dedicated himself to the republican principle of military deference to the civilian government. He learned about the Newburgh conspiracy and strode into the appropriately-named Temple of Virtue on the symbolically-fraught March 15—the Ides of March. In the Newburgh Address, he called on his soldiers to stop those who would “overturn the liberties of our country, and who wickedly attempt to open the flood gates of civil discord.” Washington continued: “This dreadful alternative, of either deserting our Country in the extremest hour of her distress, or turning our Arms against it…what can this writer have in view, by recommending such measures? Can he be a friend to the Army? Can he be a friend to this Country?”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 64: Principle of Peace, Commerce and Honest Friendship With All Nations, Entangling Alliances With None – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Principle of Peace, Commerce and Honest Friendship With All Nations, Entangling Alliances With None

Washington and his Cabinet along with members of Congress had to formulate the principles and policies of American foreign policy according to the dictates of constitutionalism, American ideals, and prudence. The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and its expansionary wars compounded the difficulties of American diplomacy in the early 1790s. President Washington had to navigate these shoals keeping in mind that the new nation was weak compared to the great empires. The United States had only a small army and not much of a navy. The economy was similarly weak as the country was locked out of former markets in the British West Indies and had to get its public credit in order by paying off the Revolutionary War debt. National security was a priority for the Washington administration but securing it would not be easy.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Maintaining Freedom and Independence Through an Armed Citizenry: Right To Protect One’s Person and Property by the Personal Keeping and Bearing of Arms

It is this right of self-defense exercised through a personal right to keep and bear arms that is reflected in the language of the Second Amendment. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story made that point in a famous passage in his influential 1833 work on the Constitution. “The militia is the natural defence of a free country,” he wrote. “The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 30: Principle of One Nation Under God – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary Porter

Principle of One Nation Under God

In his first Thanksgiving Proclamation as President, Washington began by insisting that “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 44: Principle of Establishing Justice Through the Rule of Law – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Establishing Justice Through the Rule of Law

The principle of establishing justice through the rule of law is a means of guarding against gradual erosion of law and order into chaos to break down America’s system of self-governing. It guards against eventually ushering in tyranny to control the people rather than protect liberty by protecting the rule of law.

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Eric Wise Essay 60: Principle of Representative Government Only Under Authority of the American People – Guest Essayist: J. Eric Wise, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Eric Wise

Principle of Representative Government Only Under Authority of the American People

Suffice it to say, the principle of representation is an enduring opinion that is at the heart of what it means to be an American. But like many such opinions that spring from what Abraham Lincoln called “the mystic chords of memory” does anyone really know, concretely, what it means?

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tara Ross Essay 59: Principle of Free, Fair, Independent Elections Involving Preservation of the Electoral College – Guest Essayist: Tara Ross, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tara Ross

Principle of Free, Fair, Independent Elections Involving Preservation of the Electoral College

George Mason, delegate from Virginia, emphasized that “the genius of the people must be consulted.” Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson agreed that “[n]o government could long subsist without the confidence of the people.” Governmental authority, he concluded, must “flow immediately from the legitimate source of all authority. . . the mind or sense of the people at large. The Legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the whole Society.”

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90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 58: Principle of Republican and Limited Form of Government, Representative Through American Citizens Voting in Free and Frequent Elections – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Republican and Limited Form of Government, Representative Through American Citizens Voting in Free and Frequent Elections

Advocates of republican systems long have insisted on certain features in a government to qualify it as a republic. Among those are the right to vote vested in a variable, yet sufficiently substantial, portion of adult residents, the election of the important figures in government, regular elections, short terms for those elected, rotation in office through restrictions on re-election, and the right of voters to recall elected officials. The objectives of these conditions are to keep the governing members responsive to the people’s wishes, to promote fresh blood in positions of authority, and to allow more persons to participate in governing, thereby bestowing legitimacy on the system even in the eyes of those who may lose a particular political contest.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 57: Principle of No Passage, Federal or State, of Ex Post Facto Laws – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of No Passage, Federal or State, of Ex Post Facto Laws

The Framers of the United States Constitution considered ex post facto laws and bills of attainder so repugnant to justice that the document expressly bans them twice. In Article I, Section 9, the prohibition applies to the federal government. The subsequent section of the charter likewise targets state enactments. These provisions are a proto bill of rights in the body of the original document, which makes them unusual in that opponents of the Constitution often cited the lack of a bill of rights as the reason for their stance. Still more thought-provoking is the claim often made then that such laws would be invalid even without an express constitutional provision. That position required its advocates to appeal to higher principles of justice or law as limiting the power of legislatures.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 56: Principle of a Grand Jury Indictment of Capital Crimes Before a Person May Be Held to Account – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Principle of a Grand Jury Indictment of Capital Crimes Before a Person May Be Held to Account

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Janine Turner The principle of requiring grand jury indictment prior to trial for a capital or other infamous crime has a long and somewhat checkered history in American and English jurisprudence. Today, the primary task of a grand jury is to determine whether there is sufficient cause […]

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 55: Principle of Right to a Speedy Trial by a Jury of Peers, Public and Impartial, Without Cruel or Unusual Punishments – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Principle of Right to a Speedy Trial by a Jury of Peers, Public and Impartial, Without Cruel or Unusual Punishments

The right to a trial by jury is one of the core principles of the Anglo-American constitutional tradition. The trial by jury ensures that the government is limited, essential rights are protected, and the rule of law is preserved. As Thomas Jefferson noted to Thomas Paine, “I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”

90 in 90 2023, James S. Humphreys, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 54: Principle of No Unreasonable Searches and Seizures – Guest Essayist: James Humphreys, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, James S. Humphreys, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of No Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

Essay Read By Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects Americans from “unreasonable searches and seizures” by government officials. The Fourth Amendment was ratified in 1791 along with the other nine amendments in the Bill of Rights. It reads, “The rights of the people to […]

Benjamin Slomski, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 53: Principle of Courts With Justices Who Hold Their Offices During Good Behavior – Guest Essayist: Ben Slomski, Benjamin Slomski, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Courts With Justices Who Hold Their Offices During Good Behavior

Good behavior for judges is understood in the sense of carrying out one’s duties in a judicial manner. Judges act consistently with their constitutional charge when they remember that they are judges tasked with the application of the Constitution and the laws to particular legal cases. Judges stray from this responsibility when they seek to exercise the functions of legislating or executing laws and impose their will rather than the Constitution. Impeachment by Congress remains as a check on judges who misuse their office.

90 in 90 2023, Eric Sands, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 52: Principle of Freedom of a Person Under the Protection of Habeas Corpus – Guest Essayist: Eric C. Sands, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Eric Sands, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Freedom of a Person Under the Protection of Habeas Corpus

It has been around since the Middle Ages. It’s been called the second Magna Carta by some, and the “great writ” by others. What we are referring to is habeas corpus, a Latin phrase meaning “you should have the body.” Put most simply, habeas corpus allows a person who has been detained the chance to challenge that detention in court. This prevents the government from holding an individual indefinitely without bringing charges against them. In the American system of justice, habeas corpus applies both at the federal and state level.

Ben Peterson, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 51: Principle of Innocent of Any Crime Until Proven Guilty – Guest Essayist: Ben Peterson, Ben Peterson, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Innocent of Any Crime Until Proven Guilty

Pennington’s point that the English common law isn’t the primary source of the presumption of innocence notwithstanding, we find an assertion of the importance of due process of law, the idea that government must demonstrate guilt via a legal process established in advance before depriving a citizen of life, liberty, or property, in the Magna Charta (1215): “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” The presumption of innocence, a legal principle with deep and broad roots in ancient, medieval, and modern tradition and experience, is a central part of the constitutional and legal order in the United States.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 50: Principle of Due Process of Law – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Principle of Due Process of Law

In Clause 39 of the Magna Carta, the essence of due process is expressed in the following terms: “No free man is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or disseised, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any other way ruined, nor will we go against him or send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” At the very least, this provision limited the power of the crown to take arbitrary or capricious injurious actions that were not sanctioned by law. The phrase “law of the land” later found its way into many of the provisions of American state constitutions, although the phrase “due process of law” was also used, with apparently very similar if not identical meaning. Many of the early state courts, applying this language, considered the protections of due process or the law of the land to be a means of preventing governments from carrying out policies threatening vested rights in property of their citizens, although it could also protect their personal liberty.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 49: Principle of a Political System with Criminal and Civil Law – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Principle of a Political System with Criminal and Civil Law

As Story noted, a “free” public would be “jealous” of its power to use their elected, political representatives to make decisions on the removal of civil officers found to be guilty of misconduct. That kind of decision, if made by unelected judges, would outrage the public. As is often the case, the public has expectations about what kinds of decisions an institution within the government should make.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Daniel Cotter Essay 48: Principle of Equal Under the Law – Guest Essayist: Daniel A. Cotter, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Daniel Cotter

Principle of Equal Under the Law

From the most powerful to the penniless, all are to be treated equally under the law, from due process rights to the rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. A mental image of the concept can be had by taking a look at statues of Lady Justice, who has balanced scales before her and a blindfold over her eyes, so that impartiality is the standard by which all under the law are judged.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 47: Principle of Justice for All – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Justice for All

The United States Constitution, ratified in 1788, has stood as a beacon of democratic principles and rule of law for over two centuries. One of its most profound contributions is the pursuit of “justice for all,” an ideal engraved in the Pledge of Allegiance. The preamble to the Constitution sets the tone by stating one of the document’s purposes as to “establish Justice.” This phrase signifies the Framers’ intent to create a system of governance that promotes fair treatment and equality under the law, a cornerstone of justice.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 46: Mandate or Law: The American Founders on Warning Against Arbitrary, Tyrannical Dictates Diluting Rule of Law – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Mandate or Law: The American Founders on Warning Against Arbitrary, Tyrannical Dictates Diluting Rule of Law

In the realm of United States governance, the terms “mandate” and “law” frequently arise, often creating confusion due to their seemingly overlapping meanings. Both play essential roles in shaping the country’s legal and political landscape, yet they are distinctly different in nature and application—and both must be understood within the context of due process of law, both substantive and procedural.

90 in 90 2023, Winfield H. Rose, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 31: Principle of Consent of the Governed: Upholding Appropriate Boundaries Against Governing by Tyranny – Guest Essayist: Winfield H. Rose, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Winfield H. Rose, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Consent of the Governed: Upholding Appropriate Boundaries Against Governing by Tyranny

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner “…that the King with and by the authority of parliament, is able to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the crown, and the descent, limitation, inheritance and government thereof” is founded on the principles of liberty and the British constitution: […]

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, George Landrith Essay 45: Careful Observance Upon Forming and Executing Laws: Principle of the Rule of Law, Not of Men – Guest Essayist: George Landrith, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, George Landrith

Careful Observance Upon Forming and Executing Laws: Principle of the Rule of Law, Not of Men

Part of our national heritage in the Rule of Law means that we ought not care whether we like or dislike the accused, or whether we agree with the politics of the accused. We ought to be concerned only about the law and its equal and fair application. The Rule of Law is a major check against the abuses of government. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin once described his totalitarian view of the law as — “show me the man, and I’ll find the crime.” That is obviously not the Rule of Law. That is a prime example of the arbitrary and capricious rule of man.

90 in 90 2023, Eric Sands, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 43: Principle of a Judicial Branch for Ensuring Justice Without Political Interference – Guest Essayist: Eric C. Sands, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Eric Sands, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of a Judicial Branch for Ensuring Justice Without Political Interference

The lack of content in Article III, according to one of the Founders, was by design. It was a reflection on the nature of the institution and the more subservient role it played in American constitutional government. In Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton gave a defense of the Judiciary and argued that the Court possessed neither force nor will, but merely judgment. This made the Court the “least dangerous” branch of government and the least threatening to the Constitution. According to Hamilton, “it proves incontestably that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power; that it can never attack with success either of the other two; and that all possible care is requisite to enable it to defend itself against their attacks.” This further adds to why the judges need lifetime tenures and such radical independence – it is the only way to ensure justice without the interference of the political branches of government or public opinion.

Benjamin Slomski, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 42: Principle of an Executive Branch, Strong but a Role Accountable to the People – Guest Essayist: Ben Slomski, Benjamin Slomski, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of an Executive Branch, Strong but a Role Accountable to the People

Government is ineffective unless its laws are obeyed and individuals will not respect the law unless there is a strong enough executive to ensure there is sufficient force behind the laws. A powerful president is of course needed to command the military and defend the nation from invasion. It is equally important to ensure that the government is well-administered and that laws are enforced consistently and effectively.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Scot Faulkner Essay 41: Principle of a Legislative Branch Within a System of Government Closest to the People – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Scot Faulkner

Principle of a Legislative Branch Within a System of Government Closest to the People

Tying government closely to the people is foundational to America. The reason America is a “federal” system, and not a “national system,” is to preserve state and local government. This assures most public policy and public activity is closest to the people it serves.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Scot Faulkner Essay 40: Principle of Duty of the American People to Continually Maintain Checks on Government Power – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Scot Faulkner

Principle of Duty of the American People to Continually Maintain Checks on Government Power

During the Virginia Ratifying Convention for the United States Constitution, Patrick Henry asserted public knowledge was the bulwark of protecting freedom, “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”

“Where are your checks in this government?…The most valuable end of government is the liberty of the inhabitants. No possible advantages can compensate for the loss of this privilege.”

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Patrick Garry Essay 39: Principle of the Separation of Powers, Involving Checks and Balances on Those Powers – Guest Essayist: Patrick M. Garry, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Patrick Garry

Principle of the Separation of Powers, Involving Checks and Balances on Those Powers

The United States Constitution creates a government with three separate branches, each vested with different powers and responsibilities for different functions. This particular structure reflects the doctrine of separated powers. The Framers adopted this doctrine so as to diffuse government power and thereby protect individual liberty from government encroachment. Congress possesses the authority to make laws; the President has the duty of executing those laws; and the courts interpret and apply those laws in cases brought before the judiciary.

90 in 90 2023, Adam Carrington, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 38: Principle of Free Government and Free Society – Guest Essayist: Adam Carrington, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Adam Carrington, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Free Government and Free Society

We here have a basis for freedom. If the government created the people, then we would exist to serve it. But if the people establish the government, then that government must serve us. Or if one or a few had done so, the rest of us would be subject to him or to them. Our United States Constitution, which begins “We, the People,” makes clear the origin of the government’s power is from us.

90 in 90 2023, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 37: Of the People, by the People, and for the People: Founding a Representative Government in America, Not Hereditary Succession – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Of the People, by the People, and for the People: Founding a Representative Government in America, Not Hereditary Succession

He attacks hereditary succession, stating that “all men being originally equals, no one by birth, could have a right to set up his own family, in perpetual preference to all others forever.” He observes that usurpation, rather than selection by lot or by election, has been the most common method of ascension to the throne, and that original sin and hereditary succession are parallels. The then-common idea that hereditary succession preserves a nation from civil wars is quickly debunked. Monarchy and succession are a form of government leading to “blood and ashes.”

90 in 90 2023, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 36: Principle of Representative Government Under Direction of the People Rather Than King Rule – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Representative Government Under Direction of the People Rather Than King Rule

Only months later, the battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill would stir the colonists’ passions more strongly against the dictates of a King on the other side of an ocean. “No taxation without representation” reflected the colonists’ views that the time for representative government of the people rather than rule by King had come.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 35: Principle of Meritocracy and Its Importance Within the Framework of the U.S. Socio-Economic and Political Systems – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Meritocracy and Its Importance Within the Framework of the U.S. Socio-Economic and Political Systems

The Founding Fathers, including individuals such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, all demonstrated a belief in the power of individual merit. This belief was deeply rooted in the Enlightenment, a period of intellectual and philosophical development that greatly influenced their thinking. George Washington, for example, rose to prominence not because of inherited wealth or title, but due to his leadership abilities and military acumen during the Revolutionary War. He was a model of the self-made man, a figure that would become emblematic of the American Dream, and his leadership was a testament to the power of merit.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 34: Principle of Equality Over Equity – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Equality Over Equity

The Constitution of the United States, a document drafted by forward-thinking individuals who appreciated the dangers of tyranny, does not promise equal outcomes. Rather, it guarantees equal rights and opportunities. This foundational text ensures that every citizen has the same fundamental rights, echoing the Declaration, that of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution is essentially silent on the matter of ensuring equal outcomes, a silence that underscores the drafters’ understanding of human nature and the importance of individual agency, meritocracy, and free market principles.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Patrick Garry Essay 33: Principle of Limited Government: Why the United States Constitution Is Designed To Prevent Centralized Power – Guest Essayist: Patrick Garry, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Patrick Garry

Principle of Limited Government: Why the United States Constitution Is Designed To Prevent Centralized Power

The framers held a cautious and skeptical view toward concentrations of government power. The framers worried more about empowering a federal government that could use its power to deprive people of their liberty than about not giving that government enough powers to swiftly address any political or economic crisis that might arise. They were more concerned about a government doing something wrong than about a government with enough power to be able to always do what was right. Therefore, the scheme of limited government built into the Constitution served as a means of safeguarding liberty, since a government limited in power would be less able to exercise power in abusive or oppressive ways.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 32: Principle of Decentralized Government: Keeping Power on the Local Level With Each Individual American and the States – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Decentralized Government: Keeping Power on the Local Level With Each Individual American and the States

It is notable that the defenders of the Constitution at the time agreed that a distant government had systemic tendencies towards unresponsiveness and autocracy. They sought to blunt that criticism by defending their new “confederated republic.” As noted above, a significant part of that defense was that the general government’s powers were few and directed at truly “national” concerns which would arise in only unusual and occasional situations, whereas the states would deal with the everyday matters most directly and closely affecting the people.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 28: Principle of Law and Order Based on Immutable Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, Not Arbitrary Will or Mob Rule – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Law and Order Based on Immutable Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, Not Arbitrary Will or Mob Rule

Mob rule would be another, perhaps even more blatant, triumph of passion over reason than the arbitrary human law hastily produced by the legislature. That body had more of an opportunity to calm those passions or might at least blunt their force in the eventual statute. However, there is another side to be considered. What is mob rule?

90 in 90 2023, Eric Sands, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 27: Principle of Decision Making by the Majority Within a Constitutional Framework – Guest Essayist: Eric C. Sands, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Eric Sands, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Decision Making by the Majority Within a Constitutional Framework

To men like Calhoun, and Jefferson, who would attack majority rule, Madison put the matter plain. Without majority rule, republican government was simply not possible. This made it clear that “while the Constitution is in force, the power created by it [in a popular majority] must be the legitimate power, and obeyed as the only alternative to the dissolution of all government.” Thus, it is, according to Madison, that majority rule under constitutional government is not to be preferred because it is perfect, but because it is the least imperfect.

Josh Herring, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 26: Principle of Self-Governing – Guest Essayist: Josh Herring, Josh Herring, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Self-Governing

Let us also be mindful that the cause of freedom greatly depends on the use we make of the singular opportunities we enjoy of governing ourselves wisely; for if the event should prove, that the people of this country either cannot or will not govern themselves, who will hereafter be advocates for systems, which however charming in theory and prospect, are not reducible to practice.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 25: Under Strict Limits: Principle of a Written U.S. Constitution, a Contract Allowing Government to Run Under Authority of the American People – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Under Strict Limits: Principle of a Written U.S. Constitution, a Contract Allowing Government to Run Under Authority of the American People

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner The brilliance of the United States Constitution lies not just in its innovative governance structure but in its foundational principle: that it is a written contract allowing, under strict limits, a government to run under the authority of the American people within the states. […]

Benjamin Slomski, 90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 24: Principle of a Written United States Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land, Designed for the Preservation of Liberty – Guest Essayist: Ben Slomski, Benjamin Slomski, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of a Written United States Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land, Designed for the Preservation of Liberty

If government’s power came from within itself, then there would be no natural limits to what government can do and no need for written restrictions. Instead, governmental power is granted by the people and a constitution serves as a specific statement of what is granted and what authority the people retain for themselves. This delegation of power must be done in an explicit, concrete act by writing it in a public document approved by the people to embody their fundamental will.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 23: Principle of Appropriate Role and Purpose of Government Upon Protection of Natural, Unchangeable, Unalienable Rights – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary Porter

Principle of Appropriate Role and Purpose of Government Upon Protection of Natural, Unchangeable, Unalienable Rights

Thomas Jefferson said it most succinctly: “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.” We could end this discussion right there – the “appropriate role and purpose of government” is the “security, the protection of unalienable rights,” but we all know there is more to the story.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 22: Principle of Natural Law as the Foundation for Constitutional Law – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Principle of Natural Law as the Foundation for Constitutional Law

Instead, “a revolutionary government, a thing without either principle or authority, was substituted in its place; virtue and crime depended upon accident; and that which was patriotism one day became treason the next.” Lacking a constitution that protects inherent rights causes an “avidity to punish, [which] is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 21: Human Flourishing and the Principle of Creator-Endowed Unalienable Rights – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Human Flourishing and the Principle of Creator-Endowed Unalienable Rights

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner The Declaration of Independence famously announced that all human beings not only are created equal, but are endowed by their Creator with certain “unalienable” rights. Among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These were, as the Declaration also held, self-evident […]

90 in 90 2023, Robert Brescia, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 19: Principle of Peace Through Strength – Guest Essayist: Robert Brescia, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Robert Brescia, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Peace Through Strength

“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” —George Washington

90 in 90 2023, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 18: Preventing Loss of Independence to Foreign or Global Governments by Upholding the Principle of America’s National Sovereignty – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Preventing Loss of Independence to Foreign or Global Governments by Upholding the Principle of America’s National Sovereignty

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner The previous essay, #17, showed that, according to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the people of the United States of America have a right, from the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” to establish their independence and thereby their national sovereignty. […]

90 in 90 2023, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 17: Principle of America’s National Sovereignty – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of America’s National Sovereignty

Essay Read By Constituting America Founder Actress Janine Turner “That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief […]

90 in 90 2023, Tom Hand, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 16: Principle of Citizenship and Love of Country – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Tom Hand, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Citizenship and Love of Country

Amor patriae is Latin for love of country. It is a noble concept, but what does it mean and how is it manifested? Is it done by flying a flag from your front porch on Independence Day or singing a heartfelt Star Spangled Banner at a ballgame or cheering as America wins yet another gold medal at the Olympics? It is all that but so much more.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Scot Faulkner Essay 15: A Founding Built Against Unbridled Power: Principle of Civic Duty to Rein In Overreaching Government – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Scot Faulkner

A Founding Built Against Unbridled Power: Principle of Civic Duty to Rein In Overreaching Government

Even more popular among colonial thinkers and activists was John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government published in 1689. Locke’s Second Treatise describes the importance of a civilized society based on natural, God given, rights. It supports the social contract theory of the governed consenting to limited government in exchange for a secure and stable environment in which individual activity and commerce can thrive. It became the primary conceptual work defining traditional 18th and 19th Century Liberalism.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 14: Principle of Civic Duty to Petition the Government for a Redress of Grievances – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Civic Duty to Petition the Government for a Redress of Grievances

So as the Constitution was being drafted, and further constraints were being placed on the power of government via the Bill of Rights, the founders included language in the First Amendment ensuring that citizens would retain a right to so petition the government when they were aggrieved—with a corresponding assurance found in the Fifth Amendment, that when such substantive petitioning is made, “due process” is accorded to the petitioner i.e., that a fair and just process is made available to the person or persons petitioning.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joseph M. Knippenberg Essay 13: Principle of Civic Duty, Civic Engagement – Guest Essayist: Joseph M. Knippenberg, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joseph Knippenberg

Principle of Civic Duty, Civic Engagement

We can look to the founding generation for examples of how to take this trust seriously. First, in the Northwest Ordinance, passed by Congress under the Articles of Confederation and then repassed by Congress under the United States Constitution, we read these words: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” Schools don’t just train workers or create clever consumers; they are to engage in civic education, uniting morality (which as George Washington reminds us, is supported by religion) with knowledge for the sake of good government.

90 in 90 2023, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 12: Educating a Free People to Secure the Blessings of Liberty for Future Generations of Americans – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Educating a Free People to Secure the Blessings of Liberty for Future Generations of Americans

As proven by the effectiveness of The New England Primer, the Worcester Speculator especially emphasized the usefulness of literature for inculcating virtue and morality in students. “If we would maintain our dear bought rights inviolate,” he wrote, “let us diffuse the spirit of literature: Then will self-interest, the governing principle of a savage heart, expand and be transferred into patriotism: Then will each member of the community consider himself as belonging to one common family, whose happiness he will ever be zealous to promote.”

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 11: Civic Virtue and a Free People: Principle of Educating on Ethical, Philosophical, Self-Evident Truths of Good Government – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Civic Virtue and a Free People: Principle of Educating on Ethical, Philosophical, Self-Evident Truths of Good Government

None of the founding generation appear as convinced of the importance of education and religion to virtue and of virtue to liberty preserved through republican government as Samuel’s cousin John Adams. Despite his occasional doubts and pessimism, Adams was a staunch virtue republican. His writings are filled with quotable passages about the subject. A few will give the essence of his thoughts. Perhaps his best known, expressed in a letter in October, 1798, to officers in the Massachusetts militia, is “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This sentiment, embraced the then-common belief that the American experiment in self-government, more than aristocratic or monarchic systems, relied on virtue widely diffused among the general population, or at least among those who would have the privilege to vote or to hold public office.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 10: Principle of Appropriate Role and Purpose of Government in Protecting Liberty of the Citizenry – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Principle of Appropriate Role and Purpose of Government in Protecting Liberty of the Citizenry

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner Since the earliest days of the American founding, a bedrock principle of our republic has been the concept that government is an essential element in protecting and preserving individual rights. In the Declaration of Independence, principal author Thomas Jefferson wrote, “to secure… rights, […]

90 in 90 2023, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 9: Keeping a Free People Securely Bound Together Through the Principle of Natural Law Opposition to Tyranny – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Keeping a Free People Securely Bound Together Through the Principle of Natural Law Opposition to Tyranny

“When the law is the will of the people, it will be uniform and coherent: but fluctuation, contradiction, and inconsistency of councils must be expected under those governments where every revolution in the ministry of a court produces one in the state. Such being the folly and pride of all ministers, that they ever pursue measures directly opposite to those of their predecessors…We shall neither be exposed to the necessary convulsions of elective monarchies, nor to the want of wisdom, fortitude, and virtue, to which hereditary succession is liable. In your hands it will be to perpetuate a prudent, active and just legislature, and which will never expire until you yourselves lose the virtues which give it existence…Our Union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties.”

90 in 90 2023, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 8: Principle of Constitutional Restraints To Prevent the Undermining of Interests of the Entire Union – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Constitutional Restraints To Prevent the Undermining of Interests of the Entire Union

One of the purposes of the Constitution of the United States, according to its Preamble, is “to form a more perfect Union.” It was a long road, however, for that Union to be more perfectly established as under the Constitution in 1787. Before the Constitution, the thirteen original states had agreed to a “firm league of friendship” through a compact known as the “articles of Confederation and perpetual Union.”

90 in 90 2023, Jay McConville, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 7: Republic or Democracy? Classical History, Republican Governing as Adopted by the United States, and the American Revolutionary War – Guest Essayist: Jay McConville, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Jay McConville, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Republic or Democracy? Classical History, Republican Governing as Adopted by the United States, and the American Revolutionary War

From these definitions it is clear why there might be some confusion. A representative republic uses “democratic means” to manifest the consent of the governed. We vote for representatives, who vote on measures. Voting is democracy in action, but that does not make the United States a democracy. The measures that our representatives vote on are constrained by law and the Constitution.

90 in 90 2023, Winfield H. Rose, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 6: Classical History and Governing Devoted to Freedom and Independence Through Restraining Power of Elected Representatives – Guest Essayist: Winfield Rose, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Winfield H. Rose, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Classical History and Governing Devoted to Freedom and Independence Through Restraining Power of Elected Representatives

Essay Read By Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner Other impacts of the Protestant Reformation derive directly from the teachings of John Calvin (1509-1564), a Frenchman by birth who spent most of his life in Geneva, Switzerland. The distinguishing characteristic of Calvinist Protestantism, as presented in his Institutes of the Christian Religion […]

90 in 90 2023, Winfield H. Rose, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 5: Principle of Applying Lessons from Classical History toward New Governing Devoted to Freedom and Independence – Guest Essayist: Winfield Rose, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Winfield H. Rose, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Principle of Applying Lessons from Classical History Toward New Governing Devoted to Freedom and Independence

These wars had two significant impacts on what was to become the United States. First, many Europeans tired of the seemingly endless slaughter and religious persecution and desired to escape, thereby emigrating to North America and populating the English colonies

90 in 90 2023, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 4: History, Order and Tradition in the Formation of America’s Founding Documents – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

History, Order and Tradition in the Formation of America’s Founding Documents

Essay Read By Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner Driving through Connecticut, you’ll see license plates with the words “Constitution State” inscribed at the bottom of the plate. But wait! Wasn’t the Constitution drafted in Pennsylvania, known as the Keystone State? And wasn’t Delaware, known as the First State, the first state to […]

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 3: Essentially Bound: The Principle of Regard for History, Order, and Tradition – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Essentially Bound: The Principle of Regard for History, Order, and Tradition

Yet the need remains for structure and stability in an orderly society, lest the relations among people devolve into a competition defined solely by power, resembling a Hobbesian state of nature of a war of all against all. The solution proposed by various “left” writers, from Rousseau to Marxist-Leninists of various stripes, of a government where the rulers embody a stylized “general will” of the collective in place of the expression of individual wills inevitably has led to dictatorship and oppression.

90 in 90 2023, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, George Landrith Essay 2: Principle of Governing to Secure Liberty of the People, Not Government – Guest Essayist: George Landrith, 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, George Landrith

Principle of Governing to Secure Liberty of the People, Not Government

Our Founding Fathers did not create a government or craft a constitution to serve government’s interests or even their own narrow interests. They created a government that focused on securing the liberty of the American people and that strictly limited and checked the power of the federal government. They had a great deal of experience with government that existed for the primary purpose of advancing the interests of those who already had tremendous political power.

90 in 90 2023, Adam Carrington, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog 2023 - First Principles of the American Founding, Essay 1: Introduction: First Principles of the American Founding – Guest Essayist: Adam Carrington, 13. First Principles of the American Founding, Adam Carrington, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Introduction: First Principles of the American Founding

What are principles? We speak of them often in politics, history, philosophy, and other fields of study. We praise those who have them, or at least those with which we agree, and criticize those who lack them altogether. Simply put, principles articulate a standard. This standard carries a certain authority, providing a measure by which to judge thoughts, words, and deeds.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 90: Keeping the Republic: America’s Founders on the United States Constitution and Upholding Tradition, Continuity, Virtue and Stability of Good Government – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Keeping the Republic: America’s Founders on the United States Constitution and Upholding Tradition, Continuity, Virtue and Stability of Good Government

Many of these dysfunctions were spawned by utopian schemers who without thought or hesitation cast aside rules and institutions forged in human experience.

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First Principles of the American Founding

Essay #1 – INTRODUCTION Introduction: First Principles of the American Founding by Adam M. Carrington, Associate Professor of Politics, Hillsdale College; Author, Justice Stephen Field’s Cooperative Constitution of Liberty: Liberty in Full. ~*~ Essay #2 – Principle of government exists to secure liberty of the people rather than government existing to benefit itself. “We ought […]

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 89: Failures of Utopian Creation Experiments: America’s Founders and Their Warnings Against Attempts to Reinvent Human Nature – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Failures of Utopian Creation Experiments: America’s Founders and Their Warnings Against Attempts to Reinvent Human Nature

To paraphrase Hamilton from The Federalist No. 6, though it is reasonable for us to aim at progress through prudent change and experimentation, one must be far gone in Utopian speculations to believe that human beings can ever achieve a completely perfect society. History has vindicated the Founders’ advice on this through many examples of Utopian experiments that have resulted in tyranny, oppression, and death for many people.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 88: America’s Founding Knowledge of Failed Utopian Ideologies: Establishing a U.S. Constitution Based on Tradition and Natural Rights to Prevent Tyranny – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

America’s Founding Knowledge of Failed Utopian Ideologies: Establishing a U.S. Constitution Based on Tradition and Natural Rights to Prevent Tyranny

A large utopian society, whose members are not bound together by religion or by rules derived from long-established customs which reflect the traditional ordering within stable communities, requires increasingly brutal force to maintain commitment to the utopian project. Pol Pot’s devilish regime in Cambodia nearly half a century ago is a notorious example of this, as memorialized in the chilling movie The Killing Fields.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 87: Trade and American Independence: Establishing a United States Constitution for Lasting Political and Economic Freedom – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Trade and American Independence: Establishing a United States Constitution for Lasting Political and Economic Freedom

After the revolution, the Founders made strategic choices that affected the international trade practices that the new nation would follow. Tariffs and trade restrictions were still permissible, but procedural constraints limited their use. Within the United States Constitution, the Founders established a particular process by which taxes, including tariffs, would be enacted.

90 in 90 2022, Jay McConville, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 86: Prescience on Decline of the British Empire in Brutus No. VIII: Warnings That Influenced Formation of the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Jay McConville, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Jay McConville, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Prescience on Decline of the British Empire in Brutus No. VIII: Warnings That Influenced Formation of the United States Constitution

Germane to these questions then, are the enumerated powers that give the national government the ability to raise, borrow, and spend money, and specifically to maintain standing military forces. Brutus warned that these unlimited powers threatened the economic future of the country and the sovereignty of the people.

Thomas Bruscino, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 85: Empire for Liberty: The American Founders on Curbing International Domination and Overreach – Guest Essayist: Thomas Bruscino, Thomas Bruscino, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Empire for Liberty: The American Founders on Curbing International Domination and Overreach

The power and influence of the United States in the world has always strived to be something different. Whatever else that can be said about American expansion and intervention overseas, and there is plenty of room for critique, it has most often been constrained by Americans themselves. Whether through idealistic objectives set by governments in power, contentious domestic politics, or the vocal opposition of small minorities or brave lone voices, the United States has never expanded or intervened without the reminder that such activities threaten the soul of America itself. “She might become the dictatress of the world,” John Quincy Adams said in his famous address on July 4, 1821, but “She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 84: Guarding American Sovereignty: The United States Constitution and Its Protections Against World Government Control – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Guarding American Sovereignty: The United States Constitution and Its Protections Against World Government Control

This is due, in no small measure, to the United States Constitution’s mandates about the Senate’s advise and consent role in terms of treaty ratification—if the foreign relations team of a U.S. president were to fail at their job or to be seriously compromised in some measure in terms of international negotiation, and as a result the U.S. were to give up a great deal of its independence, its sovereignty, it is left to the Senate to ensure that the interests of the people of the United States are protected, and that the agreement should not be ratified…In terms of the relationship between the United States and the United Nations, the obligations of the U.S. are not entirely different than any other treaty-governed relationship that the U.S. may be obligated to. The issues of sovereignty and compromise remain the same—and the relationship between the executive branch and the legislative branch in terms of the power to negotiate and the power to ratify are maintained. But, as always, it remains left to the people to ensure that both branches protect the interests of the American people in the long term.

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 83: United States Independence and Sovereignty: Cautions From America’s Founders Against Relinquishing Policy Decisions to International Organizations – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

United States Independence and Sovereignty: Cautions From America’s Founders Against Relinquishing Policy Decisions to International Organizations

Because the American people have granted these powers, they have entrusted the American government with the responsibility of dealing with foreign policy issues for the security of our rights. According to the U.S. Constitution, however, the American people did not authorize our government to “delegate” that responsibility or those powers to another governing body, including international organizations – especially ones comprised of nations that abhor the very principles of justice for which the United States stands.

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 82: International Regimes, Events Leading To Creation of the United Nations, and Involvement of the United States – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

International Regimes, Events Leading To Creation of the United Nations, and Involvement of the United States

In the aftermath of World War I, the League of Nations was finally established with the lofty goal of preserving world peace. In reality, its purpose was to bring together the “democratic” (i.e., “civilized” or “historically advanced”) nations to work together regarding territorial disputes and colonial possessions through negotiation rather than resorting to war. However, the United States Senate rejected membership in the League of Nations on the grounds that it would strip our nation of some degree of its domestic sovereignty and its independence in choosing foreign policy actions.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, David B. Kopel Essay 81: The United States Constitution vs the Regime of Mao Zedong: Opposite Systems of Government – Guest Essayist: David B. Kopel, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, David B. Kopel

The United States Constitution vs. the Regime of Mao Zedong: Opposite Systems of Government

Under the U.S. Constitution, the three branches of government check and balance each other, as power is set against power. In a communist regime, there are no checks on the party’s will. All political power belongs to the party. Under Mao, “at the top, thirty to forty men made all the major decisions. Their power was personal, fluid, and dependent on their relations with Mao.”

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 80: Barriers Against Encroachments on Individual Natural Rights of Life, Liberty and Property: America’s Founders and a Well-constructed Constitution – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Barriers Against Encroachments on Individual Natural Rights of Life, Liberty and Property: America’s Founders and a Well-constructed Constitution

Anti-federalists and Federalists understood that one of the best means for preventing abuses of natural rights is to find a way to prevent all political power from being held in the same hands. As Brutus wrote, “When great and extraordinary powers are vested in any man, or body of men, which in their exercise, may operate to the oppression of the people, it is of high importance that powerful checks should be formed to prevent the abuse of it.

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 79: Enemies of Freedom: Mao Zedong and the 1966 Cultural Revolution in China – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Enemies of Freedom: Mao Zedong and the 1966 Cultural Revolution in China

The terrible abuses of natural rights during Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” remind us of the importance of the United States Constitution, which explicitly guarantees the due process of law before anyone can be deprived of life, liberty, or property. The Constitution also enshrines the fundamental idea of individual freedom, perhaps most importantly in the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty.

90 in 90 2022, Jeanne McKinney, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 78: The United States Constitution as a Bulwark Against Tyranny – Guest Essayist: Jeanne McKinney, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Jeanne McKinney, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

The United States Constitution as a Bulwark Against Tyranny

Freedom can only exist in a framework of laws that supports it. The Constitution, if followed, will continue to prove itself on the world stage to survive the attacks of tyranny, which continue to threaten.

90 in 90 2022, Winfield H. Rose, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 77: U.S. Constitution vs. the Evil of Nazi-style Regimes: Design of America’s Founding Political System for Maintaining Independence and Self-governance – Guest Essayist: Winfield H. Rose, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Winfield H. Rose, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

U.S. Constitution vs. the Evil of Nazi-style Regimes: Design of America’s Founding Political System for Maintaining Independence and Self-governance

The American people were substantially alienated from their administration in office but not from their entire political system. It was, however, on trial. There was no guarantee it would survive.

90 in 90 2022, Winfield H. Rose, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 76: Hitler’s Evil Path to Tyranny – Guest Essayist: Winfield H. Rose, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Winfield H. Rose, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Hitler’s Evil Path to Tyranny

Inflation was severe. It was said that, before the war, you took your money to shop in a purse and brought your goods home in a wagon but, after the war, you took your money in a wagon and brought your goods home in a purse.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 75: New Deal and the Great Society: Warnings From America’s Founders on Constitutional Misconstruction – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

New Deal and the Great Society: Warnings From America’s Founders on Constitutional Misconstruction

It has been urged and echoed, that the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,’’ amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction. Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it; though it would have been difficult to find a reason for so awkward a form of describing an authority to legislate in all possible cases.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Patrick Garry Essay 74: The Constitutional Wisdom Ignored by the New Deal and Great Society – Guest Essayist: Patrick Garry, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Patrick Garry

The Constitutional Wisdom Ignored by the New Deal and Great Society

Numerous economic downturns and crises plagued America during the first one hundred fifty years of its existence. The nineteenth century witnessed repeated depressions. Undoubtedly, the Great Depression of the 1930s amounted to the most severe economic crisis ever experienced in the United States. As with all previous crises, however, the country recovered from the Great […]

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 73: Economic Depression, New Deal, and the Great Society: America’s Founders on Separation of Powers to Restrain Unelected Administrative Tyranny – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Economic Depression, New Deal, and the Great Society: America’s Founders on Separation of Powers to Restrain Unelected Administrative Tyranny

All of this constitutional analysis should remind us that an unofficial fourth branch of government—the administrative state, or simply, the bureaucracy—amassed an incredible amount of regulatory power throughout the course of the twentieth century and into this century. Indeed, if one were to examine a chart of all the regulatory agencies, it would be hard to find an area of American daily life that is not regulated in dozens of ways throughout the day. The reason for the regulatory agencies makes a certain amount of sense in an advanced industrial society and economy. All Americans want to fly in safe airplanes, drink clean water, and know what they are eating…The rise of the bureaucratic administrative state was problematic for a number of reasons. First, it dramatically increased the scale and scope of federal government well beyond that envisioned by the Founders. Second, it substituted rule by the people and their representatives in Congress for rule by unelected experts in the executive branches. Third, at times, administrative agencies were allowed to set their own rules, enforce them, and decide and rule on disputes thereby amassing the power of all three branches of government.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 72: Barriers to Dismantling Constitutionalism: America’s Founders and Their Safeguards Designed in the United States Constitution Against Progressivism – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Barriers to Dismantling Constitutionalism: America’s Founders and Their Safeguards Designed in the United States Constitution Against Progressivism

Collectivism/Cooperation. Progressivism holds to a diminished view of individualism and private property, replaced by the need for everyone to cooperate to achieve progressive goals, to include forced “cooperation” if necessary.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, William Morrisey, Ph.D. Essay 71: The United States Constitution and Institutional Framework for Executive Firmness – Guest Essayist: Will Morrisey, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, William Morrisey PhD

The United States Constitution and Institutional Framework for Executive Firmness

Publius’ understanding of the presidency not only departs from the conception of executive power which prevailed under the Articles, it also contradicts the new conception of the presidency advanced by the Progressives, more than a century later. President Woodrow Wilson rejected the United States Constitution as an antiquated and constricting product of a bygone era, and equally rejected its moral foundation in the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. In place of natural right, he substituted historical right.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 70: Power Concentrated in the Hands of a Few: Conflict of Progressive Government Toward American Individualism and the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Power Concentrated in the Hands of a Few: Conflict of Progressive Government Toward American Individualism and the United States Constitution

At the 1896 Democratic Party convention in Chicago, a former Congressman from Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan, gave a stirring oration in favor of the party’s “pro-silver” political platform. Filled with passion and a near-revolutionary fire, the speech concluded with a warning to those who wanted the United States to maintain a gold standard for the dollar, “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Bryan underscored this patently religious analogy by posing at its conclusion with his arms outstretched like someone nailed to a cross. The convention erupted in pandemonium. The ecstatic reaction of the delegates resulted in the “Boy Orator of the Platte River” receiving the party’s nomination for president of the United States at age 36, the youngest major party nominee ever. He became the Democrats’ presidential standard bearer twice more, in 1900 and 1908, again the only major party nominee to do so. He lost each time.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 69: United States Constitutional System and Armed Forces: Decentralized Power and Due Process vs. Stalin’s Centralized Control by Military – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

United States Constitutional System and Armed Forces: Decentralized Power and Due Process vs. Stalin’s Centralized Control by Military

We approach governance from the perspective that rights are naturally occurring in man and that power flows from the citizenry to the government, whose powers are carefully enumerated and tightly constrained. These other systems believe that government grants rights to their citizens, and that absent action by that citizenry, it is assumed that the government retains all power to act. There were no checks on power in Stalin’s USSR—millions died or suffered as a result of it.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 68: From Liberty To Suppressed Dissent: Founders on Empowered Armed Forces While Preventing a Stalin-type Military Regime in America – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

From Liberty To Suppressed Dissent: Founders on Empowered Armed Forces While Preventing a Stalin-type Military Regime in America

The Founders were rightly skeptical of what could happen when government power was not hemmed in by lawful constraints—and what happens when people are not able to debate and exercise true dissent. The warnings debated in the Federalist Papers were made manifest in the brutality of the Soviet Union’s Stalinist era and, frankly, through the oppressions of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, and other socialist leaders.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Eric Wise Essay 67: Founding Tradition of U.S. Armed Forces Protecting Liberty and Prosperity vs. Joseph Stalin’s Military Regime – Guest Essayist: J. Eric Wise, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Eric Wise

Founding Tradition of U.S. Armed Forces Protecting Liberty and Prosperity vs. Joseph Stalin’s Military Regime

The Red Army from the time of its formation through its incarnation as the Soviet Army and to the time of its collapse was forever fighting wars. From 1917 to 1922 the Red Army fought numerous civil wars for Soviet dominance of Russia, as well as the Polish-Soviet War to mop up the residual Polish state following the First World War.

Stephen Tootle, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 66: Founding Guard Against an Unchecked American Executive: World War I and Constraints by the U.S. Constitution on Presidential Powers – Guest Essayist: Stephen Tootle, Stephen Tootle, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Founding Guard Against an Unchecked American Executive: World War I and Constraints by the U.S. Constitution on Presidential Powers

Although the executive branch has broad authority in foreign policy and during wartime, its powers are not limitless. Those constitutional limits became even more important when a war was global in scope and America had a President who resisted them.

Thomas Bruscino, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 65: Foresight on Consequences of World War I: America’s Founding Proposal for a Constitution To Unite the States – Guest Essayist: Thomas Bruscino, Thomas Bruscino, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Foresight on Consequences of World War I: America’s Founding Proposal for a Constitution To Unite the States

Federalist Papers 6 and 7 are at first glance an odd place to go when it comes to explaining the onset of World War I. Their topic is the threat of internal war among the states absent the adoption of the unified federal republic in the Constitution. But the fundamental principles expressed, especially that the “causes of hostility among nations are innumerable,” will resonate with generations of World War I students who have tried to catalogue the many causes of the Great War.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 64: World War I and Commercial Rivalries: The American Founders on Solving Trade Disputes Threatening the Union – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

World War I and Commercial Rivalries: The American Founders on Solving Trade Disputes Threatening the Union

Supporters of the proposed United States Constitution of 1787 frequently warned that there was no mechanism under the Articles of Confederation to prevent what they saw as the inevitable commercial rivalries between the states from escalating into armed conflict. Such rivalries had begun to appear through protectionist trade laws enacted by various states. Another event was the dispute between Virginia and Maryland over fishing and navigation in Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. The end, the Federalists charged, would surely be the dissolution of the union into some number of quarreling confederations.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Sam Postell Essay 63: Constitution Framers, the American Civil War, and Preserving the Union Through Compromise, Virtue and Statesmanship – Guest Essayist: Samuel Postell, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Sam Postell

Constitution Framers, the American Civil War, and Preserving the Union Through Compromise, Virtue and Statesmanship

Despite the philosophic differences, it is clear that as Congress lost the ability to collapse differences through virtue and statesmanship, and promote union through compromise, the union was destined to dissolve. The framers admitted that this was the case; that representative self-government relied upon a functional representative branch of government that protected and advanced the interests of citizens. Is our Congress capable of compromise, statesmanship, and advancing our common interests today? Perhaps the tools that quelled disunion throughout the Antebellum period could help solve our congressional crisis today.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Sam Postell Essay 62: Key to Subverting the Violence of Faction: America’s Founding Design of the United States Constitution Against Disunion – Guest Essayist: Samuel Postell, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Sam Postell

Key to Subverting the Violence of Faction: America’s Founding Design of the United States Constitution Against Disunion

In his First Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln argued that “the Union is much older than the Constitution.” What did Lincoln mean when he spoke of the Union? The Declaration of Independence explains that the Americans were “one people” because they were providentially, philosophically, and hence politically united. In addition to referring to the Americans as one people, it also references the American people using the collective “We.” Furthermore, the document calls itself a “unanimous” declaration of the “united” States of America. The authors saw the separate colonies as previously united, and unanimity implied that they were “of one mind.” In short, the Declaration expressed that the Americans were one people capable of governing themselves. Because the Americans were united as one people and were arbitrarily ruled by another, the Declaration asserts that they have a duty to assert their independence by appealing to their Creator and natural laws of justice. Therefore, the principle of union, the rallying cry of Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and George Washington, is one of the bedrock principles of the American founding.

Eric Sands, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 61: The American Civil War and Consequences of Secession: Defining the Union, Role of the People and the States – Guest Essayist: Eric Sands, Eric Sands, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

The American Civil War and Consequences of Secession: Defining the Union, Role of the People and the States

Lincoln reinforces these points in his Message to Congress in Special Session. He calls secession “sugar-coated rebellion” and denies any revolutionary character to it. Instead, it is a “sophism” deriving its “currency from the assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred supremacy pertaining to a State – to each State of our Federal Union. Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution, no one of them ever having been a State out of the Union.” The original thirteen became a Union before completing their separation from Great Britain. And the others came into the union from a condition of dependence. Thus, the reverence given to “states” is based on mist and shadows and does not match this history of the American regime. In short, the states only possess those powers granted to them by the Constitution, and this does not include the power of secession.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 60: Property Ownership and Political Stability: The U.S. Constitution’s Design to Secure Individual Rights the Communist Manifesto Abolishes – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

Property Ownership and Political Stability: The U.S. Constitution’s Design to Secure Individual Rights the Communist Manifesto Abolishes

Bound up in Marx’s 1875 statement is the essence of force and coercion. Regardless of whether it is the “state” acting (and in Marxist philosophy, the state-centered transition phase between capitalism and communism is “socialism”), or the communistic society, you’re talking about force—the state determines what your “abilities” are, and you are forced to give of those abilities to society at large, regardless of your own feelings in the matter.

90 in 90 2022, Jay McConville, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 59: Contrasting Visions: The United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution vs the Communist Manifesto – Guest Essayist: Jay McConville, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Jay McConville, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Contrasting Visions: The United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution vs the Communist Manifesto

Inspired and enabled by the Communist Manifesto, these regimes destroyed societies in a quest of a property-free utopia that was unachievable. In so doing they imprisoned, tortured, banished, and killed over a hundred million of their own citizens, while foisting war and chaos on the world. Thirty years after the fall the Soviet Union, “millions of people worldwide — one-fifth of the world’s population — still live under communist tyranny. It has become somewhat fashionable to say that communism, or “socialism,” is a good idea (or theory) that could work if we just implemented it correctly. The Communist Manifesto gives lie to that claim. The vision is destruction, the mission tyranny. The result predictable. How many more need to die before we finally accept this fact?

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 58: Avoiding the Dustbin of History: Failures of Communism and America’s Constitutional Foresight on Human Nature, Self-governance, and Civil Society – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Avoiding the Dustbin of History: Failures of Communism and America’s Constitutional Foresight on Human Nature, Self-governance, and Civil Society

Communism was responsible for an estimated 100 million deaths. It suppressed human flourishing in the arts and sciences by extinguishing liberty, created widespread suffering with decrepit economic systems, imposed crushing police states, and destroyed the institutions of civil society. Most of the American founders understood that such utopian schemes were doomed by their flawed understanding of human nature, self-governance, and civil society. The American founding vision built a constitutional order with self-governance and a healthy civil society that allowed individuals to thrive.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 57: Folly of a Dictatorship Led by a Single Tyrant: The Undoing of Napoleon Bonaparte vs America’s Constitutionally Constrained Executive – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Folly of a Dictatorship Led by a Single Tyrant: The Undoing of Napoleon Bonaparte vs America’s Constitutionally Constrained Executive

Napoleon was not curbed by constitutional constraints upon his executive power. He suppressed the critical press and created his own propaganda machine. The emperor was able to use his military to crush internal dissent, stop brigandage, and thwart foreign invasions. Unconstrained by prior legal limitations on his conduct, the emperor designed his own legal system, the Code Napoleon, and imposed it upon his own nation. Ultimately, Napoleon’s own limitless ambition led to his undoing, but not until thousands had died in his pursuit of conquest.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 56: Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Revolution, and America’s Protection of the Newly Formed United States Against Tyranny – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Revolution, and America’s Protection of the Newly Formed United States Against Tyranny

As first consul, the directors eventually chose a young, military hero who had managed to lead French armies to victory despite a depleted officer corps and a mass of enlisted soldiers who were recruited through a very unpopular conscription process. This person’s name was Napoleon Bonaparte. He was initially named consul, but soon made clear that he wished to exceed his constitutional limits. By 1804, Napoleon was named emperor by several government agencies and subsequently was approved as emperor in a national plebiscite. Napoleon was to wield more concentrated power than any extant monarch in the world. His rise to power demonstrates both the failure of France’s constitutional design and its commitment to enforce constitutional provisions.

Adam Carrington, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 55: Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and America’s Rejection of One-man Rule – Guest Essayist: Adam Carrington, Adam Carrington, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and America’s Rejection of One-man Rule

It would do so less by trying to remake human beings, something the Founders thought impossible and itself a temptation to exercise too much corrupting power. Instead, they hoped that they could channel human ambition, human love for power, in ways that offset one another. The branches would exercise checks and balances on their sister institutions. If one person or group gained too much authority, the others possessed means to keep us from falling into rule by one man or one group of persons.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Daniel Cotter Essay 54: American Founding Observations of the French Revolution That Influenced the United States Constitution and Governing – Guest Essayist: Daniel A. Cotter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Daniel Cotter

American Founding Observations of the French Revolution That Influenced the United States Constitution and Governing

More fundamentally, the desired objectives were different in the two revolutions, and that in turn contributed to the ways in which the American Constitution contained provisions to address. The French focused on replacing or changing the existing government. The Americans, on the other hand, wanted to break away and form a government removed from Great Britain. With that in mind, starting with the Declaration of Independence, through the Revolutionary War, and culminating in the Constitution in 1787, the founding fathers inserted wisdom into the form of government and the United States Constitution to help prevent failures they observed in French government.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Eric Wise Essay 53: Ou La Mort or Deliberation: The French Revolution and the American Revolution – Guest Essayist: J. Eric Wise, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Eric Wise

Ou La Mort or Deliberation: The French Revolution and the American Revolution

When Benjamin Franklin identified the new form as “a republic, if you can keep it” he implied that the continual fostering and renewal of the habits of deliberative government was the spirit of the American Revolution and the essential ingredient for the continued success of the United States.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 52: American Revolution Principles of Natural Rights Republicanism and Constitutionalism vs the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

American Revolution Principles of Natural Rights Republicanism and Constitutionalism vs the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror

The American Founders’ thinking about human nature and government was guided by differing strains of thought from ancient philosophy, the English tradition, the British Enlightenment, and Protestant Christianity. As a result, they developed a realistic understanding of vice and virtue, sin and goodness. As James Madison wrote in Federalist #51, “What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Andrea Criswell, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 51: Upon a Need of Virtue to Self-govern: Penning a United States Constitution for a Free and Independent Nation – Guest Essayist: Andrea Criswell, Andrea Criswell, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Upon a Need of Virtue to Self-govern: Penning a United States Constitution for a Free and Independent Nation

“It is a great mistake to suppose that the paper we prepare will govern the United States. It is the men whom it will bring into the government and interest in maintaining it that is to govern them. The paper will only mark out the mode and the form. Men are the substance and must do the business.” -John Francis Mercer

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 50: Keeping a Republic: America’s Founders on the Role of Public and Private Virtue – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Keeping a Republic: America’s Founders on the Role of Public and Private Virtue

“A people may prefer a free government; but if from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when directly attacked; …they are more or less unfit for liberty.” John Stuart Mill

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 49: America’s Founders on Virtue as Fundamental to Republican Government – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

America’s Founders on Virtue as Fundamental to Republican Government

John Adams’s major work on constitutional government and republicanism was A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, a treatise on the emerging American constitutionalism with its emphasis on checks and balances of governmental powers. But Adams was also a prolific writer of letters to numerous correspondents. Many years before he wrote in his 1798 response to the Massachusetts militia, “Our government was made only for a moral and religious people,” he wrote to the chronicler of the period Mercy Otis Warren that republican government could survive only if the people were conditioned “by pure Religion or Austere Morals. Public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” Sounding the theme of positive classic republicanism, he continued, “There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honor, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real liberty.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 48: The United States Constitution as a Bill of Rights – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary Porter

The United States Constitution as a Bill of Rights

Where is the explicit protection of speech, or religion, of conscience, of the right to keep and bear arms, etc.? Hamilton’s answer of course would be: “where is the government given power in the Constitution to intrude upon any of those rights? The weight of Hamilton’s and Madison’s argument must rest then on the Constitution actually being, and, more importantly, remaining, a limited powers document. It is quite clear from the journals of early Congresses that congressmen routinely considered the Constitution to limit the powers of government.

Eric Sands, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 47: Indispensable Contents of a Bill of Rights for the United States Constitution: Federalist and Anti-federalist Perspectives – Guest Essayist: Eric Sands, Eric Sands, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Indispensable Contents of a Bill of Rights for the United States Constitution: Federalist and Anti-federalist Perspectives

Federalists initially countered these arguments in a couple of ways. In Federalist 84, for example, Hamilton argued that the Constitution should be allowed a trial period before alterations were made. There may be several things the American people want to change five or ten years down the road, so make the changes then when a judgment can be made about whether they are necessary. Second, the structure and design of the Constitution already protected rights through separation of powers, checks and balances, enumerated powers, and republicanism. Any attempt to infringe on personal rights would never be able to survive this gauntlet of obstructions. Finally, a bill of rights could endanger rights because it would only include certain specified rights, leaving others unprotected. It would also imply that rights come from government and that it alone chooses which rights to recognize.

90 in 90 2022, Tom Hand, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 46: Purpose for a Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Tom Hand, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Purpose for a Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution

The challenge now was to craft a bill of rights that would be acceptable to the thirteen states. James Madison of Virginia, an early opponent of a bill of rights and a member of the House of Representatives, eventually changed his position on the matter and led the effort to develop one that would satisfy the Anti-federalists.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 45: Toward a More Perfect Union: Correcting the Articles of Confederation Through the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Toward a More Perfect Union: Correcting the Articles of Confederation Through the United States Constitution

All but the last of the twelve “bullet points” Madison set down in “Vices” were accompanied by elaborating commentary. For instance: “Failure of the States to comply with the Constitutional requisitions,” the first complaint, was explained as an “evil” which “has been so fully experienced both during the war and since the peace, [which] results so naturally from the number and independent authority of the States and has been so uniformly exemplified in every similar Confederacy, that it may be considered as not less radically and permanently inherent in, than it is fatal to the object of, the present System.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 44: Articles of Confederation, Designing a United States Constitution, and Empowering a National Government While Preventing a Tyranny – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Articles of Confederation, Designing a United States Constitution, and Empowering a National Government While Preventing a Tyranny

James Madison was one of the leading voices of the Federalists who propagated this new view. Before the Convention, Madison penned the Vices of the Political System, which detailed the evils that beset the Confederation. He thought, “The great desideratum in Government is such a modification of the sovereignty as will render it sufficiently neutral between the different interests and factions to control one part of the Society from invading the rights of another, and, at the same time, sufficiently controlled itself from setting up an interest adverse to that of the whole society.” In other words, the main goal was to empower the national government without creating a tyranny.

90 in 90 2022, Tom Hand, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 43: From the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union to a United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Tom Hand, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

From the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union to a United States Constitution

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was our nation’s first constitution and essentially served as the basis for our government from 1777 to 1789. It was created by the thirteen original states to help them unify their war efforts against England and was the precursor to our present Constitution.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Essay 42: Laboring Over Ingredients for Good Government: America’s Founding Generation on Drafting Early State Constitutions – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary Porter

Laboring Over Ingredients for Good Government: America’s Founding Generation on Drafting Early State Constitutions

So far from intending each of the three branches to be wholly coordinate, they decided to curb any excess of power in any one branch by balancing it with an effective power in another. Where they had experienced an evil in an omnipotent Legislature, they checked it; where they had actually felt the oppression of a too strong Executive, they checked him; where they believed a Court had been too independent, they checked it.”

Adam Carrington, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 41: Successful Government and Forming State Constitutions on All Political Power Being Vested in and Derived From the People Only – Guest Essayist: Adam Carrington, Adam Carrington, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Successful Government and Forming State Constitutions on All Political Power Being Vested in and Derived From the People Only

Second, these constitutions in general got the purpose of government right. Massachusetts’ constitution (1780), penned by John Adams, said the purpose of government resided in the power “to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying, in safety and tranquillity, their natural rights and the blessings of life.” This reasoning, too, aligned with the Declaration of Independence. It declared that all human beings possessed “unalienable rights,” meaning claims on others that no one else could infringe. It then said that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James C. Clinger Essay 40: Framing Early State Constitutions and Developing a Republican Form of Government, Under Threat of Battle – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James C. Clinger

Framing Early State Constitutions and Developing a Republican Form of Government, Under Threat of Battle

Many of those early state constitutions were hastily drafted under adverse conditions. The threat of approaching British troops forced some constitutional conventions to adjourn and reconvene multiple times. Some states’ constitutional framers were not completely convinced that the revolution would be successful. According to Article 26 of New Jersey’s constitution of 1776, “if Reconciliation between Great Britain and these Colonies should take place, and the latter be again taken under the Protection and Government of the Crown of Great Britain, this Charter shall be null and void, otherwise to remain firm and inviolable.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 39: Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God: Preserving the Purpose of the Declaration of Independence Through the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God: Preserving the Purpose of the Declaration of Independence Through the United States Constitution

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln had occasion to reflect upon the principles of the American Founding. Using a biblical metaphor, he thought that the Declaration of Independence was an “apple of gold” because it contained the foundational principles of the new country. The Constitution was the “picture of silver” framing the apple with the structures of republican government, thus preserving the purpose of the Declaration. In the mind of Lincoln—and those of the Founders—an inextricable link bound together the two documents in creating a free government.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Eric Wise Essay 38: From a Declaration of Independence to a Constitution: The Laws of Nature and Preservation of the United States of America – Guest Essayist: J. Eric Wise, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Eric Wise

From a Declaration of Independence to a Constitution: The Laws of Nature and Preservation of the United States of America

The Federalists prevailed, but experience has at times exposed weaknesses in the Federalist’s arguments. The federal government has overtime supplanted the states in their power. Appeals to the people to amend their Constitution have not just become infrequent, but have ceased almost altogether: The Constitution has not been amended “soup to nuts” in more than 50 years. And this has happened as the judicial power has expanded under the doctrine of a “living constitution” to displace the amendment function; this raises the question whether the Constitution can continue to be the people’s document if the courts, and not they, are its author in key respects.

90 in 90 2022, Tom Hand, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 37: Where No Government Had Gone Before: The Enduring Success of America’s Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Tom Hand, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Where No Government Had Gone Before: The Enduring Success of America’s Declaration of Independence

The words contained in the Declaration of Independence were some of the most revolutionary ideas ever printed. When Congress approved the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” they were going where no government had gone before.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 36: The U.S. Constitution on Managing British Colonial Governance in North America and Careful Admission of New States to the Union – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

The U.S. Constitution on Managing British Colonial Governance in North America and Careful Admission of New States to the Union

The British government had both successes and failures when it came to their management of the North American colonies. The authors of the Constitution learned from those mistakes and crafted clear language to safeguard against making them again.

90 in 90 2022, Tom Hand, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 35: Virginia’s House of Burgesses, Rights of the British Colonies, and Establishing Representative Governing in America – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Tom Hand, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Virginia’s House of Burgesses, Rights of the British Colonies, and Establishing Representative Governing in America

In its day, many of the men who assembled there later assembled on the national stage to lead our country. Throughout the crisis with England, it was an eloquent and vocal proponent for American liberty and many of the ideas found in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were first debated and refined in their meetings.

90 in 90 2022, Tom Hand, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 34: Royal, Self-governing, and Proprietary Colonies: Advancing From British Rule Toward American Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Tom Hand, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Royal, Self-governing, and Proprietary Colonies: Advancing From British Rule Toward American Independence

Like the entrepreneurs of today, a few men came up with an idea, presented it to their friends and associates, and asked them to invest in their plan. Their organizations had wide latitude to appoint leaders and run their business as they wished. Virginia, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were all initially established as self-governing colonies. However, these colonies soon found out that their independence was on a short leash. If the colony was poorly administered like in Virginia or if the people proved troublesome like in Massachusetts, these dominions were converted into a royal colony with all the restrictions that came with it. By the time of the American Revolution, only Rhode Island and Connecticut, retained their original self-governing charter. The King always had the final say.

Adam Carrington, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 33: Building America’s Political House on Solid Ground: Foundations of Faith, Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower Compact – Guest Essayist: Adam Carrington, Adam Carrington, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Building America’s Political House on Solid Ground: Foundations of Faith, Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower Compact

Its true foundation rested on those commitments—human equality and liberty—as understood through the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Those principles still hold out the promise of provision, provision of a strong foundation against all storms, internal or external. It does; but only if we continue to build wisely and faithfully upon it.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Essay 32: “City Upon a Hill” and the Mayflower Compact: Forming a Constitutional Republic Sustained Through Civic Virtue, Natural Rights and Liberty – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

“City Upon a Hill” and the Mayflower Compact: Forming a Constitutional Republic Sustained Through Civic Virtue, Natural Rights and Liberty

The concept of a “city upon a hill” originated with Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop’s “Model of Christian Charity” sermon aboard the Arbella. He described the purpose of establishing a godly society to work towards the common good, just government, and civic virtue. Winthrop’s thinking about a “city upon a hill” was influenced by covenant theology: “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” The same ideals about a religious and civil covenant with God and each other were present in the Pilgrims’ “Mayflower Compact.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 31: Consent of the Self-governed: Mayﬂower Compact and the City of God on Earth – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Consent of the Self-governed: Mayﬂower Compact and the City of God on Earth

The singular importance of the Mayflower Compact was in the foundation it provided for a theory of organic generation of a government legitimized by the consent of the governed. Self-government became realized through a contract among and for those to be governed.

Adam Carrington, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 30: King and Parliament in 17th Century England vs. a Self-governing People and President in the U.S. Constitution – Guest Essayist: Adam Carrington, Adam Carrington, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

King and Parliament in 17th Century England vs. a Self-governing People and President in the U.S. Constitution

But our presidents do take some role in religious expression. George Washington’s Farewell Address warned of the need for religious belief among the people. That belief would shore up national morality among the ultimate human rulers, We the People. It would aid in public and private happiness, in the ruling of self that is a prerequisite to running a popular government. Moreover, since Washington, most presidents have published proclamations or given speeches that thank or make requests of God. John Adams warned in 1798 that our Constitution was made for a religious people and the need to cultivate those beliefs, consistent with human liberty. Perhaps the greatest speech ever given on American soil, Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, consisted of an extended meditation on God’s will in the American Civil War and an affirmation of God’s goodness in the midst of so much hardship and bloodshed.

Adam Carrington, 90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 29: Parliament in 17th Century England and Why America Does Not Have a King – Guest Essayist: Adam Carrington, Adam Carrington, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Parliament in 17th Century England and Why America Does Not Have a King

Americans intentionally divided power among its political institutions in a way different from that which enveloped the English in the 17th century. They did not divide by who ruled, since the people ruled entirely. They divided by governmental function. They divided these functions and thus institutions into three, not England’s two: a Congress to make laws, a president to enforce them, and a judicial system to decide disputes based on the law. This separation of powers has proven far more consistent and effective over its history.

90 in 90 2022, Jay McConville, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Jay McConville, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists

Memorial Day – A Day of Remembrance Written in the Hearts of the American People

America is the great nation that it is because we revere and honor the memory of brave souls who gave their lives to preserve it. Let the memory and sacrifices of those who have come before, for liberty purchased at such an immeasurable price for future generations, be forever written in our hearts. “Whether we […]

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 28: King vs. Parliament in 17th Century England: From Absolutism to Constitutional Monarchy, Influence on American Governing – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

King vs. Parliament in 17th Century England: From Absolutism to Constitutional Monarchy, Influence on American Governing

It is an axiom of politics that politicians will seek first to protect their privileges and second to expand them. The increased demands by parliamentarians for political power inevitably clashed with the monarchs’ hereditary claims. Both sides appealed to traditional English constitutional custom for legitimacy. With their assumptions about the source of political authority utterly at odds, compromise became increasingly complex and fleeting. It was treating a gangrenous infection with a band-aid. Radical surgery became the way out. The American Revolution in the following century, and even the American Civil War of the century thereafter, showed evidence of a similar progression, with the two sides operating from fundamentally contradictory views of the nature of representative government and proper division of power between the general government and its constituent parts.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 27: U.S. Constitution’s Presidential Limits: The Framers’ Opposition To King Louis XIV “I Am the State” Monarchy Into Despotism – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

U.S. Constitution’s Presidential Limits: The Framers’ Opposition To King Louis XIV “I Am the State” Monarchy Into Despotism

In America, the power of impeachment works to ensure that a President doesn’t abuse his office—either by abusing the rights of American citizens or by using his office for his personal enrichment. The founders were deeply troubled by centralized power, especially the idea that an absolute monarch could become a tyrannical despot. While ensuring that a President could do his job, they created a constitutional system that checked the strong powers of the executive branch.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 26: The Federalists on Diffusion of Power in American Government to Thwart Absolute Monarchy as Held by King Louis XIV – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

The Federalists on Diffusion of Power in American Government to Thwart Absolute Monarchy as Held by King Louis XIV

To be certain, whether based upon familial experience or an overall approach to political philosophy (and most likely a combination of the two), the authors of the Federalist saw that the political machinations and concentration of absolute monarchic power during the reign of King Louis XIV as something to not just avoid, but to actively work against.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 25: “Sun King,” Louis XIV, and an American Constitution That Originated From the People as Sovereign – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

“Sun King,” Louis XIV, and an American Constitution That Originated From the People as Sovereign

Yet there was another maxim in the Corpus, “What touches all must be consented to by all.” This suggests that the ultimate authority rests not in the governor, but in the governed. In the Roman republic, actions were taken in the name of the Senate and People of Rome. That idea was symbolized by the SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus) which was prominently displayed even on the standards of the imperial Roman legions. There is an obvious tension between these maxims. One might locate in that tension the beginning in Western political thought of the lengthy and ongoing debate over the nature of sovereignty.

90 in 90 2022, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 24: Founding Fathers on Designing a Constitution for Serving the American People, Not a Government of Machiavellian Authority – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Founding Fathers on Designing a Constitution for Serving the American People, Not a Government of Machiavellian Authority

As they debated the construction of a new Republican form of government in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, they sought to use their knowledge of republican and authoritarian governments over thousands of years to construct one that might prevent their proposed republic from ultimately being overcome by authoritarian-minded opponents. The features of acquiring authoritarian power in government noted by Machiavelli were features that the Convention delegates sought to minimize in their new Constitution.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 22: Machiavelli, Science of Politics, and the Founders’ Solution to Prevent Government Fortifying Against the American People – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Machiavelli, Science of Politics, and the Founders’ Solution to Prevent Government Fortifying Against the American People

It should come as no surprise that such instructions during the Middle Ages came with a heavy dose of Christian ethics to civilize the prince and habituate him to just and temperate rule. After all, as Thomas Aquinas noted, God gave the ruler care of the community for the general welfare, not a license to exploit the people for the ruler’s own benefit.

90 in 90 2022, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 23: Federalists and Anti-federalists on Machiavelli and a Well-constructed Government Able To Check Attempts To Seize and Hold Power – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Federalists and Anti-federalists on Machiavelli and a Well-constructed Government Able To Check Attempts To Seize and Hold Power

The Founders’ knowledge of the successes and failures of all types of government was deep; Machiavelli’s observations of what government transitions normally looked like provided an important, more recent, reminder of how quickly a Republic can fail internally if its government is not well constructed at birth and externally when confronted by powerful, amoral governments, led by autocrats’ intent on seizing and holding power.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 21: The 1579 Netherlands Constitution and the Founders’ Vision for Careful Balance of Federal Powers While Protecting the States – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

The 1579 Netherlands Constitution and the Founders’ Vision for Careful Balance of Federal Powers While Protecting the States

The Articles of Confederation was also built on historic example, and among these was the 1579 constitution of the Netherlands provinces—the subject of Federalist #20, authored by Madison. Created as a result of the “Union of Utrecht”—a treaty created between the seven northern Dutch provinces who had allied with one another to oppose the Habsburg-controlled southern provinces, this constitution laid out the shared power structure between these unified territories. But Madison recognized that the flaws endemic in the document creating this Dutch confederacy were duplicated by the flaws in the Articles of Confederation.

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 20: Flexibility to Act Without Violating the U.S. Constitution: America’s Founders Discuss History of Policy Vices Within the United Netherlands – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Flexibility to Act Without Violating the U.S. Constitution: America’s Founders Discuss History of Policy Vices Within the United Netherlands

The Federalists defended the new Constitution’s ability to remedy these potentially deadly defects: the requirements for ratifying and amending the Constitution were reduced from unanimity to a supermajority of state conventions; furthermore, all acts of Congress under the new Constitution would require only a majority vote of both houses of Congress. This last improvement especially makes it less likely that the federal government would need to violate the Constitution to take necessary actions in times of crisis, as the United Netherlands had done on numerous occasions. This problem is further mitigated by the independence and discretion of the president to take certain actions in times of crisis without prior authorization from Congress; it is further mitigated by the fact that there are implied powers in the Constitution, as indicated by the necessary and proper clause in Article II. These improvements would give the federal government a degree of flexibility to better fulfill its responsibilities, especially with regard to national security, without the need to undermine the sanctity of the Constitution by frequent violations.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 19: United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Articles of Confederation: Factors Influencing Design Toward a Stable U.S. Constitution – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Articles of Confederation: Factors Influencing Design Toward a Stable U.S. Constitution

Historians have usually described the government of the Netherlands in the two centuries between 1579 and the political system’s collapse in the late 18th century as a “republic.” Consistent with his commentary about the government of Venice, James Madison did not approve of this characterization. In Number 20 of The Federalist, he deemed the United Netherlands “a confederacy of republics, or rather of aristocracies, of a very remarkable texture.” While at times complimentary in his assessment, overall he saw in their government further evidence of what ailed, in his view, all confederations, including the United States under the Articles of Confederation. Like the Articles, the Dutch system was forged in a war for independence, the first goal of which was to survive militarily. The Dutch referred to their Revolt of the Netherlands as the “Eighty Years’ War.” Fighting against Spain began in 1566, the seven northern provinces of the Spanish Netherlands formally united in their common cause through the Union of Utrecht in 1579, a watershed step not unlike the agreements of mutual aid and action among the North American colonies in the years before 1776.

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 18: U.S. Constitution Safeguards for the Whole Union: Disunity Prevention the Founders Built in After Studying the Holy Roman Empire – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

U.S. Constitution Safeguards for the Whole Union: Disunity Prevention the Founders Built in After Studying the Holy Roman Empire

The framers of the Constitution also found remedies to prevent the “inordinate pride of state importance” from hindering the national government’s efforts to promote the good of the whole Union. By dividing Congress into two houses, the preponderance of state influence in national affairs is confined to the Senate, in which state legislatures would appoint the senators (as opposed to direct election by the people of members in the House of Representatives). Rather than each state having one vote in the Senate, the two senators do not need to agree or vote in the same way on any particular law or policy. The framers also overcame reliance on the voluntary compliance of the states to provide the needed revenue for national purposes by giving to Congress a real tax power. “There is no method of steering clear of this inconvenience,” Hamilton observed, “but by authorizing the national government to raise its own revenues in its own way.”

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 17: Ancient Confederacies, the Holy Roman Empire, and Weaknesses of Divisive Executive Authority – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Ancient Confederacies, the Holy Roman Empire, and Weaknesses of Divisive Executive Authority

Madison’s second and most important critique of the Holy Roman Empire is a lack of centralized control and effective checks over the member states. In theory, the member states are expected to restrain themselves from infringing upon the duties of the central government and are pledged to obey its authority. As Madison writes, “The members of the confederacy are expressly restricted from entering into compacts prejudicial to the empire; from imposing tolls and duties on their mutual intercourse, without the consent of the emperor and diet; from altering the value of money; from doing injustice to one another; or from affording assistance or retreat to disturbers of the public peace. And the ban is denounced against such as shall violate any of these restrictions.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 16: Electoral Structure and Allegiances of the Holy Roman Empire – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Electoral Structure and Allegiances of the Holy Roman Empire

Madison dismissed the Empire as a playground of foreign rulers because of the conflicts among the members of the Empire and between the emperor and the nobles large and small. This division allowed foreign rulers to split the allegiances of the nobles and to keep the empire weak.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Daniel Cotter Essay 15: Guarantee Clause of the U.S. Constitution: Republic of Venice, and Founding America on a Process of Governance Through Elections – Guest Essayist: Daniel A. Cotter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Daniel Cotter

Guarantee Clause of the U.S. Constitution: Republic of Venice, and Founding America on a Process of Governance Through Elections

Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution provides: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.” This was an important provision included by the drafters to ensure a process of governance through elections. The drafters had examples of the Republic of Venice and Rome and other regimes in collapse, with concerns about other forms of government, even those labeled republics, at its core.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 14: Preventing Government Abuse: Federalist and Anti-federalist Debates on History of the Republic of Venice to Avert Concentration of Powers – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Preventing Government Abuse: Federalist and Anti-federalist Debates on History of the Republic of Venice to Avert Concentration of Powers

Jefferson opined that the concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial powers in one body would be “the definition of despotic government.” Further, it mattered not “that these powers would be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. One hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as oppressive as one. Let those who doubt it, turn their eyes on the republic of Venice.” Leaving aside the historical veracity of Madison’s and Jefferson’s characterizations of Venice, their perceptions shaped their ideas of a proper “republican” political structure and how that would differ from Venice.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 13: Five Hundred Years of the Republic of Venice – What Went Wrong – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Five Hundred Years of the Republic of Venice – What Went Wrong

Aristotle in his Politika did not discount the role of the demos in Athens. Like Madison, Aristotle considered democracy to be unstable and dangerous. From an analytic perspective, as was the case for Plato, democracy was a corruption of politeia, which he considered the best practical government for a city. Man is a politikon zoon, a creature which by his nature is best suited to live in the community that was the Greek polis. Once more, preserving a stable society and governing system was the key to maximizing the flourishing of each resident in accordance with the natural inequalities of each. Aristotle saw that balance in the “mixed” government of Athens, neither pure democracy nor oligarchy, in which the formal powers of the demos in the assembly and the jury courts were balanced by the Council of 500 and the practice of deference to the ideas and policies advanced by the elite of the wealthy and of those who earned military or civic honor.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Daniel Cotter Essay 12: Necessary and Proper by the U.S. Constitution: The Founders on Limiting Federal Control in Response to Roman Republic History – Guest Essayist: Daniel A. Cotter, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Daniel Cotter

Necessary and Proper by the U.S. Constitution: The Founders on Limiting Federal Control in Response to Roman Republic History

“We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the Government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended. But we think the sound construction of the Constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion with respect to the means by which the powers it confers are to be carried into execution which will enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it in the manner most beneficial to the people. Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are Constitutional.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, William Morrisey, Ph.D. Essay 11: Why Have There Been No Military Coups in the United States? – Guest Essayist: Will Morrisey, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, William Morrisey PhD

Why Have There Been No Military Coups in the United States?

The dogs of war have barked no less frequently for Americans than for other nations, but the wolf of military takeover has remained silent. And this, despite the fact that we have seen some twelve U.S. generals elevated to the presidency, beginning with George Washington. Unlike Marius, our military men have been able to become first in peace after having been first in war, without bringing a general’s command-and-control temperament with them.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 10: The Roman Republic: From Aristocracy to Dictatorship – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

The Roman Republic: From Aristocracy to Dictatorship

As societies become more sophisticated, that archaic form of tribal leadership proves inadequate. A more stable form of kingship emerges, one based on reason and excellence of judgment, which, in turn, fosters consent of the governed. Initially, such kings are elected for life. Eventually, the dynastic impulse of rulers to pass their office from father to son leads to kingship often becoming hereditary. Over time, such dynastic succession induces a sense of superiority and entitlement, which results in formal distinctions and ceremonies to set the royals apart from commoners. Worse, these royals begin to consider themselves exempt from rules and morals. As ordinary people begin to react with disgust at such licentiousness and arrogance, the ruler responds with anger and force. Thus, the inevitable outgrowth of kingship is tyranny.

90 in 90 2022, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 9: Federalists and Anti-federalists on Classic Roman Thought, Human Nature, and Forming a Successful U.S. Constitution – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Federalists and Anti-federalists on Classic Roman Thought, Human Nature, and Forming a Successful U.S. Constitution

Whether to have one or two bodies in the legislature was a topic of contention in the Convention. The final Constitution proposal was for two bodies, a House and a Senate. In Anti-federalist 63, the authors state, “But they are so formed, that the members of both must generally be the same kind of men, men having similar interests and views, feelings and connections, men of the same grade in society, and who associate on all, occasions. The Senate, from the mode of its appointment, will probably be influenced to support the state governments; and, from its periods of service will produce stability in legislation, while frequent elections may take place in the other branch.”

90 in 90 2022, Ron Meier, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 8: Human Nature and Forming Good Government: Cautions American Founders Learned from Studying Ancient Political Philosophies – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Ron Meier, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Human Nature and Forming Good Government: Cautions American Founders Learned from Studying Ancient Political Philosophies

All our Founding Fathers were educated in the early-to-middle 18th century. Some were able to attend the colleges of the day, but most were not so able and were self-taught or homeschooled. Primary and secondary education for all included study of the Bible. Libraries were few until Benjamin Franklin and his Junto Club members started the first public library in the early 18th century. Soon thereafter they started the American Philosophical Society to “promote useful knowledge.” With so few books and libraries, no internet to provide instantaneous acquisition of virtually any information or knowledge one would like to acquire, no email to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world, no Zoom to interact with experts on any topic, it’s natural to wonder how America’s Founding Fathers could have acquired the knowledge required to write the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, and later, the United States Constitution. How were they able to create a Constitution, admired around the world, in only three months meeting in the humid city of Philadelphia in a building with no air conditioning?

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 7: The Stoics and Classic Roman Thought on Human Nature and Good Government – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

The Stoics and Classic Roman Thought on Human Nature and Good Government

The result was a refocus of the meaning of life from the ultimately outward-looking virtue ethics of Aristotle and the vigorous political atmosphere of the polis. In this psychological confusion and philosophic chaos arose several schools. One, the Skeptics, rejected the idea that either the senses or reason can give an accurate portrayal of reality. Everything is arbitrary and illusionary, truth cannot arise from such illusions, no assertion can claim more intrinsic value than any other, and everything devolves into a matter of relative power: law, right, morality, speech, and art. Such a valueless relativism can expose weaknesses in the assumptions and assertions of metaphysical structures, but its nihilism is self-defeating in that it provides no ethical basis for a stable social order or workable guide for personal excellence…The historian Will Durant observed, “A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean.” By that he meant that civilizations degenerate. As he explained, “[C]ivilizations begin with religion and stoicism; they end with skepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 6: How Greek and Roman Political Structures Informed the Architecture of the American Constitution and Government – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

How Greek and Roman Political Structures Informed the Architecture of the American Constitution and Government

But we have to make sure that all of the branches are working properly, lest the American experiment become a cautionary tale that scholars two millennia from now examine as an example of what not to do.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Andrew Langer, Blog Essay 5: How the Flaws in Classical Governance Informed Debates Over the American Constitution – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Andrew Langer

How the Flaws in Classical Governance Informed Debates Over the American Constitution

Madison then goes on to talk about the challenges that the founders of these governments faced, showing that there is indeed a lesson in the debates that existed in Greece and Rome for those debating the ratification of the Constitution: “History informs us, likewise, of the difficulties with which these celebrated reformers had to contend, as well as the expedients which they were obliged to employ in order to carry their reforms into effect.”

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Essay 4: Constitutions of Athens, Sparta, and Elements American Founders Changed to Form an Effective, Stable Government – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Constitutions of Athens, Sparta, and Elements American Founders Changed to Form an Effective, Stable Government

In classical studies and terminology, a (political) constitution is a concept that describes how a particular political system operates. It is a descriptive term and refers to actual political entities. It is, therefore, unlike what Americans are accustomed to hearing when that term is used. Rather, we think of The Constitution, a formal founding document which not only describes the skeleton of our political system, but has also attained the status of a normative standard for what is intrinsically proper political action. Thus, we can talk about constitutional law and of rights recognized in that document in defining not just how things are done, but how they ought to be done.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Sam Postell Essay 3: The Five Principles That Render the American Republic More Stable – Guest Essayist: Samuel Postell, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Sam Postell

The Five Principles That Render the American Republic More Stable

Publius implied that no past regime had created the circumstances for reasonable lawmaking or political stability. Past regimes lacked liberty, but they also lacked institutional arrangements to foster reflection and cooperation in law making, and thus were ruled by the force of one or the accidents of the many.

90 in 90 2022, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Sam Postell Essay 2: American Founders’ Reliance on Western Tradition: Correcting Failures of Plato, Aristotle, and Ancient Greek Thought – Guest Essayist: Samuel Postell, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Sam Postell

American Founders’ Reliance on Western Tradition: Correcting Failures of Plato, Aristotle, and Ancient Greek Thought

In Federalist 51, Publius argued that what makes a republic– a reliance on the people– is also the “primary security” for liberty. He argued that “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.” Unlike Plato’s Republic, which relied on a philosopher king, the American Constitution relies on the virtue and wisdom of the people. Unlike Aristotle’s mixed regime, the idea of consent permeates all of our institutions. What makes the American regime unique is its firm reliance on the people as the source of political power, and the faith that the people are capable of justly wielding political power.

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American Exceptionalism Revealed

Essay #1 — HISTORIC TOPIC #1: Plato, Aristotle, and Ancient Greek Thought on Human Nature and Good Government – How they succeeded and how they failed. Wisdom of the Founders: Framing a Constitution on Human Nature by Christopher C. Burkett, Associate Professor of History and Political Science; Director, Ashbrook Scholar Program, Ashland University. Essay #2 […]

90 in 90 2022, Christopher C. Burkett, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Essay 1: Wisdom of the Founders: Framing a Constitution on Human Nature – Guest Essayist: Chris Burkett, 12. American Exceptionalism Revealed, 2022 American Exceptionalism Revealed 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, Christopher C. Burkett, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Wisdom of the Founders: Framing a Constitution on Human Nature

The American Founders needed to improve upon these constitutional devices because they wanted to create a political system that balanced civic virtue with liberty. To accomplish this, they established a Constitution framed upon a more realistic notion of human nature – one that acknowledged and anticipated both the good and bad aspects of human motives.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, The Honorable Michael Warren Introduction: Revolutionary Importance of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Judge Michael Warren, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, The Honorable Michael Warren

Introduction: Revolutionary Importance of the Declaration of Independence

The importance of the Declaration of Independence can hardly be overstated. It established for the first time in world history a new nation based on the First Principles of the rule of law, unalienable rights, limited government, the Social Compact, equality, and the right to alter or abolish oppressive government.

Contrary to the beliefs of some, the American Revolution was not fought for lower taxes or to protect slavery. In fact, the tea tax which provoked the Boston Tea Party actually lowered the price of tea, and many of the Founding Fathers were opposed to slavery.

Religious texts aside, the Declaration of Independence may be the most important document in human history. It totally upended the prevailing orthodoxy about government and has led to momentous changes across time and the world. Certainly we have fallen short, over and over again, of its ideals. But without the First Principles of the Declaration of Independence, we would live in the total darkness of oppression as mankind had for a millennia before.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams The Declaration of Independence in History, and Contested Meaning of America’s Self-Evident Truths – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

The Declaration of Independence in History, and Contested Meaning of America’s Self-Evident Truths

In an 1857 speech criticizing the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), Abraham Lincoln commented that the principle of equality in the Declaration of Independence was “meant to set up a standard maxim for a free society.” Abraham Lincoln’s political philosophy and statesmanship was rooted upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence and their realization according to constitutional means. He consistently held that the Declaration of Independence had universal natural rights principles that were “applicable to all men and all time.” In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln stated that the nation was “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Opposition: The Second Continental Congress, Threat of War, and America’s Decision to Move Ahead with Declaring Independence – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Opposition: The Second Continental Congress, Threat of War, and America’s Decision to Move Ahead with Declaring Independence

Congress sought to thread the needle between protecting the Americans from intrusive British laws and engaging in sedition and treason. In constitutional terms, it meant maintaining a balance between the current state of submission to a Parliament and a ministry in which they saw themselves as unrepresented, and the de facto revolution developing on the ground. The first effort, by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was the “Declaration on the Causes of Taking Up Arms.” It declared, “We mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us…. We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separation from Great Britain, and establishing independent States.” Then why the effort? “[W]e are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Apple of Gold in a Picture of Silver: Declaration of Independence Influence on the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Apple of Gold in a Picture of Silver: Declaration of Independence Influence on the United States Constitution

The Founders created a free constitutional republic so that Americans might govern themselves by their own consent through their representatives. Limited government meant that its powers were restricted to guarding the people’s rights and governing effectively so that the people might live their lives freely. A free people would pursue their happiness and interact amicably in the public square for a healthy civil society. In Federalist #1, Alexander Hamilton explained the entire purpose of establishing free government based upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. He stated that Americans had the opportunity and responsibility to form good government by “reflection and choice,” not by “accident and force.” The United States was founded uniquely upon a set of principles and ideals.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Declaration of Independence and Necessity of Dissolving Political Bands – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Declaration of Independence and Necessity of Dissolving Political Bands

Locke allows for much greater involvement by God, in that God gave man a nature that “put him under strong Obligations of Necessity, Convenience, and Inclination to drive him into Society, ….” Moreover, the natural rights of humans derive from the inherent dignity bestowed on humans as God’s creation. The human will still acts out of self-interest, but the contract is a much more deliberate and circumscribed bargain than Hobbes’s adhesion contract. For Locke, the government’s powers are limited to achieve the purposes for which it was established, and nothing more. With Hobbes, the individual only retained his inviolate natural right to life. With Locke, the individual retains his natural rights to liberty and property, as well as his right to life, all subject to only those limitations that make the possession of those same rights by all more secure. Any law that is inimical to those objectives and tramples on those retained rights is not true law.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, and the American Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, and the American Declaration of Independence

These “expressions of the American mind” were common formulations of natural rights that influenced the Declaration of Independence. The four mentions of God in the document demonstrate their understanding of the divine, but it also showed that God was the author of good government according to natural law. The American founders drew from a variety of traditions in arguing for their natural rights and liberties. Ancient thought from Greece and Rome, the English tradition, and the ideas of John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers combined with Protestantism for a rich tapestry. While the Enlightenment provided a strong influence on the founders, the contribution of their religious beliefs has often been downplayed or ignored. The average American colonial farmer or artisan may not have read John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government or ancient philosophy, but they heard dissenting religious ideals and Lockean principles from the pulpit at religious services.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Declaration of Independence, and Principle That All Men Are Created Equal – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Declaration of Independence, and Principle That All Men Are Created Equal

The principle of equality protected the liberties of all citizens to create a just society. All citizens enjoyed equal political liberty by giving their consent to representative government at all levels and by participating in government. All possessed freedom of conscience regarding their religious beliefs and worship. They also had economic equality. This understanding of equality did not mean that all people had the same amount of income or property, but that they had property rights and ought to have equal opportunity to pursue their happiness and keep the fruits of their labor in a free society. During the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln explained that the idea, “You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it,” is the “tyrannical principle” of monarchy and slavery.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Endowed by Their Creator: The Declaration of Independence and Unalienable Rights – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Endowed by Their Creator: The Declaration of Independence and Unalienable Rights

Take this excerpt from a 1773 Election Sermon by Pastor Simeon Howard: “In a state of nature, or where men are under no civil government, God has given to every one liberty to pursue his own happiness in whatever way, and by whatever means he pleases, without asking the consent or consulting the inclination of any other man, provided he keeps within the bounds of the law of nature. Within these bounds, he may govern his actions, and dispose of his property and person, as he thinks proper, Nor has any man, or any number of men, a right to restrain him in the exercise of this liberty, or punish, or call him to account for using it. This however is not a state of licentiousness, for the law of nature which bounds this liberty, forbids all injustice and wickedness, allows no man to injure another in his person or property, or to destroy his own life.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Consent of the Governed, and the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Consent of the Governed, and the Declaration of Independence

The American colonists were drawn to the principle of consensual government in the decade of resistance before the Declaration of Independence. The main argument of the American Revolution was, of course, “no taxation without representation.” The colonists were willing to pay taxes as British subjects, but they demanded in countless pamphlets, newspapers, petitions, declarations of rights, and speeches that they could only be taxed by their consent. This consent would be given in their colonial legislatures since they were not and could not reasonably be represented in Parliament.

In 1774, George Washington said it well when he described it with a practical example: “I think the Parliament of Great Britain hath no more Right to put their hands into my Pocket, without my consent, than I have to put my hands into yours, for money.” Washington thought it was violated constitutional and natural rights. Taxation without consent was “repugnant to every principle of natural justice…that it is not only repugnant to natural Right, but Subversive of the Laws & Constitution of Great Britain itself.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, James D. Best Declaration of Independence, and the Right of the People to Alter or Abolish Destructive Government – Guest Essayist: James D. Best, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, James D. Best

Declaration of Independence, and the Right of the People to Alter or Abolish Destructive Government

The “right of the people to alter or abolish” their government is derived from our natural right to self-governance. The notion of self-governance is relatively new. In 1776, the world was ruled by royalty or warrior chieftains. Some upstart colonialists then penned the most revolutionary document in the history of man. Kings and queens no longer enjoyed a Divine Right to rule. Instead, the individual was now the one endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Like most revolutionary visions, this one didn’t suddenly spring onto the world stage. Baron de Montesquieu, John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, and many others had advocated that “consent of the governed” was dictated by the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Of course, not everyone accepted this concept—certainly not King George III or English nobility. It took seven years of warfare for the colonies to solidify their claim of self-governance.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, The Honorable David L. Robbins Caution of the Declaration of Independence: Restrain Governments Long Established From Change Due To Light and Transient Causes – Guest Essayist: The Honorable David L. Robbins, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, The Honorable David L. Robbins

Caution of the Declaration of Independence: Restrain Governments Long Established From Change Due To Light and Transient Causes

The Founders did not necessarily want to change the whole world, even though they did, but after years of insufferable treatment by King George, his government and military, they believed they had to attempt to throw off the “forms to which they are accustomed.” The Founders pulled material from many different sources to form a new government, but they didn’t necessarily have all the answers to form a successful government to replace the British monarchy.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Val Crofts Confronting a Long Train of Abuses and Usurpations: America Submits Facts To a Candid World by a Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Val Crofts, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Val Crofts

Confronting a Long Train of Abuses and Usurpations: America Submits Facts To a Candid World by a Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence serves as the cornerstone of our nation, and the men who created this statement of natural rights did not do so lightly. Their causes to break from Great Britain were not “light and transient causes” and they wanted to make sure that the world who was going to be reading this declaration would understand the events and circumstances that brought the colonies to the point of separation in the summer of 1776.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Kyle Scott, Ph.D. Ideals for Legitimate Government: The Declaration of Independence, and Rule of Law – Guest Essayist: Kyle A. Scott, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Kyle Scott PhD

Ideals for Legitimate Government: The Declaration of Independence, and Rule of Law

There is a difference between just and unjust rebellion and the signers are making the case that their actions are just because of their commitment to the law and King George’s refusal to abide by law and accepted practice. John Locke, the obvious muse of Thomas Jefferson, wrote, “The difference betwixt a king and a tyrant to consist only in this, that one makes the laws the bounds of his power, and the good of the public, the end of government; the other makes all give way to his own will and appetite…Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins.” By positioning their actions within the context of law, those signing the Declaration position themselves within a tradition that authorized the dissolution of government when the rule of law was no longer in force.

John McCurdy, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Open for Business: Colonial Americans’ Objection To Suspended Legislation, Furthering the Push Toward a Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: John McCurdy, John McCurdy, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Open for Business: Colonial Americans’ Objection To Suspended Legislation, Furthering the Push Toward a Declaration of Independence

Suspending clauses were typical in colonial America. Essentially, they stated that the law would not take effect until the king’s advisers had a chance to review the legislation and either approve it or reject it. The British government viewed this as a necessary means of keeping colonies from violating British laws like the Currency Act. The Americans, however, had a much darker view of suspending clauses. They saw them as way for the king to take away their rights by canceling laws passed by the legislatures.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Kyle Scott, Ph.D. Formidable To Tyrants Only: Representation Denied the American Colonists Justified a Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Kyle A. Scott, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Kyle Scott PhD

Formidable To Tyrants Only: Representation Denied the American Colonists Justified a Declaration of Independence

By expanding their assemblies to accommodate population growth, the colonies were following the procedures and processes that had been in place up to that point. King George’s actions did not follow precedent and had no recourse to the common good or legal principle, but represented his will to control. This capricious decision based on nothing more than his will to exert power is a violation of the fundamental principle of what gives government legitimacy. When the King works for his good only it is a dereliction of duty and gives those governed the right to dissolve the bonds of government.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Scot Faulkner Disruption of Self-Government: Fatiguing America Into Compliance With Harsh Measures – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Scot Faulkner

Disruption of Self-Government: Fatiguing America Into Compliance With Harsh Measures

The dislocation and dissolution of these Colonial Legislatures led to the same disruption and “discomfort” experienced by Massachusetts’ elected representatives. The goal of punishing opposition and suppressing dissent was achieved by forcing elected officials into “places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records.” It certainly interfered with the colony’s public business and prevented officials from “access to information necessary to conduct it.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Invasions on the Rights of the People: Dissolved Legislatures, and the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Invasions on the Rights of the People: Dissolved Legislatures, and the Declaration of Independence

However, the continued attempts at taxing the colonists in the Stamp Act (1765), Townshend Acts (1767), and Tea Act (1773), among other taxes, demonstrated to the colonists that the British ministry was bent on tyranny in the colonies. The British government was burdened by a massive debt incurred in fighting the Seven Years’ War and wanted the colonists to pay for thousands of redcoats stationed in forts out west. The Americans responded by demanding in countless pamphlets, newspapers, petitions, declarations of rights, and speeches that they could only be taxed by their consent. For Washington, self-government was a moral principle and must be defended. “That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment to use arms in defense of so valuable a blessing, on which all the good and evil of life depends.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Delayed Elections and Dissolved Legislatures: Threats To the Independence of Their Assemblies – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Delayed Elections and Dissolved Legislatures: Threats To the Independence of Their Assemblies

The British government’s abandonment of its constitutional relationship with the colonies had breached the contract on which the political commonwealth was based. Thus, the people were placed in a new “pre-political” condition. In this stage, each individual was sovereign over his or her own affairs. The legislative power had not been annihilated, but rested within each individual for himself or herself. As anticipated by the social contract theorists and reflected in the Declaration of Independence itself, these individuals would establish new forms of government in order better to secure their God-given inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By the consent of the governed, the legislative power would then be exercised by the people collectively as in a democracy, or, more likely, by an assembly elected by the people as in a republic.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Scot Faulkner Raising Conditions of New Appropriations of Lands: Citizenship and Obstructing Economic Independence in the American Colonies – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Scot Faulkner

Raising Conditions of New Appropriations of Lands: Citizenship and Obstructing Economic Independence in the American Colonies

In December 1773, King George III (reigned 1760-1820) suspended the “Plantation” or “Immigration” Act of 1740. His intent was to strike at the heart of the economic engine fueling economic independence among the American colonies. His other goal was to extinguish momentum for independent thought and religious expression. These actions formed the basis for this grievance in the Declaration of Independence.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Steven H. Aden The Heart and Lungs of Liberty: Representative Government and Trial by Jury – Guest Essayist: Steven H. Aden, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Steven H. Aden

The Heart and Lungs of Liberty: Representative Government and Trial by Jury

Things were coming to a head. Future president John Adams thundered, “Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty. Without them, we have no other fortification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and clothed like swine and hounds.” And Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, would later write to essayist Thomas Paine (Common Sense), “I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Steven H. Aden Accountability of Judges, and the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Steven H. Aden, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Steven H. Aden

Accountability of Judges, and the Declaration of Independence

The experience of Massachusetts was still fresh in the minds of the Founders. An act of Parliament in 1773 had decreed that the salaries of judges would be paid by the King at his discretion, and forbidden them to receive salaries from the colony’s legislature. John Adams, a Bostonian and later contributor to the Declaration and America’s second president, observed, “This as the Judges Commissions were during pleasure made them entirely dependent on the Crown for Bread [as] well as office.” Adams explained: It was by all Agreed, As the [Royal] Governor was entirely dependent on the Crown, and the [colonial] Council in danger of becoming so if the Judges were made so too, the Liberties of the Country would be totally lost, and every Man at the Mercy of a few Slaves of the Governor.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Scot Faulkner Eating Out Their Substance: Ever-Expanding and Intrusive Presence of Tax Collectors, and the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Scot Faulkner

Eating Out Their Substance: Ever-Expanding and Intrusive Presence of Tax Collectors, and the Declaration of Independence

“They planted by your care? No! Your oppression planted ‘em in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and unhospitable country where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable…They nourished by your indulgence? They grew by your neglect of ‘em. As soon as you began to care about ‘em, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over ’em, in one department and another, who were perhaps the deputies of deputies to some member of this house, sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon ’em; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them….They protected by your arms? They have nobly taken up arms in your defense, have exerted a valor amidst their constant and laborious industry for the defense of a country whose frontier while drenched in blood, its interior parts have yielded all its little savings to your emolument …. The people I believe are as truly loyal as any subjects the King has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Val Crofts Securing Freedom: Protecting the Colonies Amidst Mounting Aggression, Necessitating a Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Val Crofts, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Val Crofts

Securing Freedom: Protecting the Colonies Amidst Mounting Aggression, Necessitating a Declaration of Independence

The British had established a military presence in the 13 colonies since their inception in the 1600s. Military conflicts were a way of life in the colonies and they included wars with Native-Americans, the Dutch, Spain and France. The largest number of British troops were sent to the colonies during the French and Indian War in the 1750s and 60s. As a result of that conflict, Britain was plunged into tremendous debt and arrived at the conclusion that the colonies, who lived under the protection of the greatest military force on the planet, should pay for that protection from outside invasions and threats from Native Americans. That payment would come in the form of several Acts of Parliament resulting in taxation, bringing increased revenue to the British empire. When the colonists rebelled against these Acts and displayed behavior that King George III felt was dangerous and treasonous, he took action and sent more troops to the colonies to quiet the dissention. It did not work.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Attempts to Bring the American Colonists to Heel: Military Independent of and Superior to the Civil Power – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Attempts to Bring the American Colonists to Heel: Military Independent of and Superior to the Civil Power

It was the asserted refusal of the British to subordinate their military forces in the colonies to civilian control that created one of the points of conflict leading to the American revolution. Both the Virginia Constitution of 1776 and the Declaration of Independence of the thirteen “united states” denounced the king’s “affect[ing] to render the Military independent of and superior to, the Civil power.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Foreign To Our Constitution: Abolishing Our Most Valuable Laws, Altering Fundamentally the Forms of Our Governments – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Foreign To Our Constitution: Abolishing Our Most Valuable Laws, Altering Fundamentally the Forms of Our Governments

Yes, the colonists were British subjects. Yes, they were subject to British law, but the King and his ministers and the Parliament had overlooked an important point: over the last 150 years the colonists had become a new people with a new taste for freedom enjoyed by few other people on earth, and they were not going to readily give it up to an emboldened bully called Parliament.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gary Porter Unworthy the Head of a Civilized Nation: Waging War Against Us by Completing the Works of Death – Guest Essayist: Gary Porter, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gary R. Porter

Unworthy the Head of a Civilized Nation: Waging War Against Us by Completing the Works of Death

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams Answered Only by Repeated Injury: Petitions for Redress, and a Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

Answered Only by Repeated Injury: Petitions for Redress, and a Declaration of Independence

The war followed from a decade of tyranny, taxes, and violations of the colonists’ right to govern themselves by their own consent. The colonists continually sent petitions to king and Parliament to protest these oppressions and humbly ask for a redress of grievances. The right of petition was a traditional right of Englishmen with a long history reaching back to the Magna Carta (1215) and the Bill of Rights (1689). The colonists were angry about the violations of their rights and liberties but were just as irate that their petitions were ignored or treated with disdain.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Val Crofts Totally Dissolved: Releasing America From All Allegiance To the British Crown Through a Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Val Crofts, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Val Crofts

Totally Dissolved: Releasing America From All Allegiance To the British Crown Through a Declaration of Independence

The United States was created in this document and the members of the Second Continental Congress tell us how serious they were in creating it, as well as telling the World how they would defend it for themselves and future generations of Americans. The United States is now its own nation and can conduct itself accordingly. The signers are also letting the world know they acted with the best intentions and they appeal to God for the final verdict on those intentions. They end this conclusion of text by stating that they fully understand that if they do not succeed, they will be charged with treason and executed. They were willing to give everything so that our new nation had a chance at survival.

Winfield H. Rose, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog The Drafting Committee of Five, and 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Winfield H. Rose, Winfield H. Rose, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

The Drafting Committee of Five, and 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence

“We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately” is commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The moment was not captured and preserved by Movietone News but, whether true or not, that sentence captures the gravity of the action those 56 men took when they signed the document that ended with the words “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tara Ross Josiah Bartlett, Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tara Ross, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tara Ross

Josiah Bartlett, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

As tensions with England began to rise, Bartlett was elected to New Hampshire’s legislature. He was serving as a member of that body during the Stamp Act controversy. One early historian notes that the Royal Governor attempted to bribe Bartlett into siding with the Crown, but Bartlett “rejected every overture.”

Ron Meier, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Ron Meier, William Whipple of New Hampshire: Ship Captain, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

William Whipple of New Hampshire: Ship Captain, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

With the outbreak of the Revolution, William Whipple began his long career as a public servant. In June 1774 he was on a Committee to prevent the landing of tea in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He became a member of the Committee of Safety and was a member of the Provincial Convention held at Exeter. In 1776, Whipple was sent by New Hampshire as one of its three delegates to the Continental Congress. With his seafaring experience and his family’s ship building experience, he was appointed to the Marine Committee. To run the British Navy’s blockades, the new country would need more ships and experienced ship Captains; Whipple’s background prepared him well for leading that effort. He also served as a superintendent of the commissary and quartermaster departments, attempting to bring efficiency to departments that seemed to have great difficulty supplying General George Washington’s forces with what they needed to fight the war.

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire: Physician, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire: Physician, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire was a man who excelled in all that he did, as a physician and surgeon, in the New Hampshire legislature, and as a judge. We are also indebted to Thornton for his efforts to help America gain her independence from England, including his signing of the Declaration of Independence. This accomplished patriot was born in Lisburn, County Antrim, Ireland on March 3, 1714 to James and Elizabeth Thornton, Scotch-Irish Presbyterian farmers. Interestingly, Matthew was one of three signers of the Declaration of Independence born in Ireland, James Smith and George Taylor, both of Pennsylvania, being the other two.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Val Crofts John Hancock of Massachusetts: First and Largest Signature on the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Val Crofts, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Val Crofts

John Hancock of Massachusetts: First and Largest Signature on the Declaration of Independence

Hancock would later spend his own money to help fund the Continental Army in 1775 and throughout the war. He took his generous nature and applied it to the entire nation. John Hancock passed away in 1793, while serving as the governor of the Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts. His funeral was a huge event in Boston as one of their Sons of Liberty had passed. Church bells tolled, businesses closed out of respect to him and he was laid to rest in Boston as one of the main voices of independence and an enduring legacy as one of our key Founding Fathers. He once said, “I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice. But I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny.” His most public display of these words was his signature on the Declaration of Independence.

90 in 90 2021, Jeanne McKinney, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Samuel Adams of Massachusetts: Firebrand for the American Revolution, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Jeanne McKinney, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, Jeanne McKinney, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Samuel Adams of Massachusetts: Firebrand for the American Revolution, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Better tidings will soon arrive. Our cause is just and righteous and we shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we show ourselves worthy of its aid and protection.” – Samuel Adams while encouraging wavering Continental Convention delegates in the gloomy winter of 1776-1777. Among his accomplishments, he founded Boston’s Committee of Correspondence, which – like similar entities in other towns across the Colonies – proved a powerful tool for communication and coordination during the American Revolutionary War.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath John Adams of Massachusetts: Second President of the United States, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

John Adams of Massachusetts: Second President of the United States, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Like Aristotle and Polybius, Adams feared that pure forms, especially democracies, were unstable and inevitably led to tyranny, because of man’s lust for power due to his fallen nature. Classic republics fared little better, because they, too, relied on human virtue to sustain them. Adams doubted that Americans possessed sufficient virtue, though strong government direction through support of religion and morality might have a positive influence. The “mixed government” of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1787 became the system of “checks and balances” of the United States Constitution which would augment reliance on the people’s virtue in sustaining liberty. As Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 51, to preserve liberty while allowing government to function, “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Tom Hand, Robert Treat Paine: Pastor, Massachusetts Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Robert Treat Paine: Pastor, Massachusetts Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Due to Robert’s father losing his fortune in 1749, Robert knew he had to make his own way in the world. After teaching for a year, Robert went to sea as a merchant ship captain from 1751-1754. His business pursuits were not very lucrative and, in 1755, he began to study law under Judge Samuel Willard, a relative in Lancaster, Massachusetts. To help make ends meet, Paine continued to preach part-time in nearby Shirley. In 1755, the French and Indian War had started. As any adventurous young man might do, Paine took a three-month break from his studies and volunteered as a chaplain on an expedition to assault Fort Saint-Frederic (today Crown Point). While the attack did not amount to much, it was a good experience for Paine and gave him an appreciation for the military and the needs of an army.

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Tom Hand, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Vice President of the United States Under James Madison – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Vice President of the United States Under James Madison

Gerry continued to serve in Congress and was a signer of the Articles of Confederation, but he left that assembly in 1780 over a concern that too much power was being concentrated in the central government. In 1783, Gerry was persuaded to return to the Confederation Congress which was meeting in New York. While there, Elbridge met Ann Thompson and the two were married in 1786. Over the course of the next fifteen years, the couple had ten children.

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Tom Hand, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island: General Assembly Speaker, Superior Court Chief Justice, Governor, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island: General Assembly Speaker, Superior Court Chief Justice, Governor, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

His mother, Ruth Wilkinson, was the granddaughter of Lawrence Wilkinson who arrived in Providence in 1652. Stephen grew up on a farm in what is now the town of Scituate (it broke off from Providence in 1731) receiving virtually no formal schooling. Instead, he read all the classics and was instructed by his mother and other relatives in subjects such as mathematics and surveying. By all accounts, Hopkins was very bright.

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Tom Hand, William Ellery of Rhode Island: Merchant, Lawyer, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

William Ellery of Rhode Island: Merchant, Lawyer, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

When relations between England and her American colonies soured in the 1760s, Ellery became a vocal opponent of British oppression and joined the Sons of Liberty, a group of like-minded Patriots. He stated, “To be ruled by Tories (supporters of England) when you may be ruled by the Sons of Liberty is debasing.” Ellery joined this assemblage on May 16, 1776, and proudly affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence when it was officially signed on August 2, 1776. He wrote to his brother Benjamin, “We have lived to see a period which a few years ago no human forecast could have imagined – to see these Colonies shake off and declare themselves independent of a state which they once gloried to call Parent.”

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Roger Sherman of Connecticut: Signer of Five Most Important United States Founding Documents Including the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Roger Sherman of Connecticut: Signer of Five Most Important United States Founding Documents Including the Declaration of Independence

Roger Sherman is representative of the many great Americans who sacrificed and worked so diligently to create America. While our schoolbooks typically teach us about a few monumental figures like Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Adams, the yeoman’s work of creating this wonderful country of ours was done by so many forgotten figures. Moreover, Roger Sherman, a farmer’s son with limited formal education, is a shining example of what people from modest circumstances and with few opportunities can accomplish in this great country of ours by applying themselves. This sort of rags-to riches story can only happen in America and we need to be reminded of that fact.

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Samuel Huntington: Farmer, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice, Governor, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Samuel Huntington: Farmer, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice, Governor, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Samuel Huntington was a man who devoted much of his life to the service of his country. From the age of 33 until he passed away in his 64th year, Huntington served in some public capacity, including state assemblyman, Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, President of the Continental Congress, and Governor of his home state of Connecticut. During his time, this Signer of the Declaration of Independence was so highly regarded that he was awarded honorary degrees from Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale. Additionally, his acquaintances included George Washington, John Adams, and Ben Franklin. That is impressive for any man, let alone one who was self-educated and began life as a farmer. A man like that deserves to be remembered by us today.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Eric Wise William Williams of Connecticut: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Pinch Hitting for the United States of America – Guest Essayist: J. Eric Wise, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Eric Wise

William Williams of Connecticut: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Pinch Hitting for the United States of America

The Fundamental Orders were the first charter government that did not refer to the authority of the King of England, but rather to the authority of God through the people. As Hooker put it – fifty years before John Locke penned his Second Treatise on Government in 1689 – “the foundation of authority is laid, firstly in the free consent of the people … the choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God’s own allowance.” The signers of the Declaration of Independence all pledged “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor” to the success of the Revolution. Many paid dearly with the first two, though all in time gained honor. Williams, when he signed the Declaration, had achieved a great deal as a pre-Revolutionary American and had much at stake.

Robert Brescia, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut: Major General in the Revolutionary War, Sheriff, Governor, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Robert Brescia, Robert Brescia, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut: Major General in the Revolutionary War, Sheriff, Governor, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Willing to fight for these strong beliefs of freedom and self-determination, Wolcott led Connecticut’s Seventeenth Regiment of militia to New York, joining George Washington’s army. At that moment, then Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull appointed Wolcott as a Brigadier General, commanding all the state’s militia regiments in New York, later being promoted to Major General. Oliver never wavered in his fierce opposition to Great Britain, describing the British in his memoirs as “a foe who have not only insulted every principle which governs civilized nations but by their barbarities offered the grossest indignities to human nature.”

Jay McConville, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Jay McConville, William Floyd of New York: Major General in the Revolutionary War; Representative in the First United States Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Jay McConville, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

William Floyd of New York: Major General in the Revolutionary War; Representative in the First United States Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

It was a life well lived, in times of struggle and change. Records from the time do not make much mention of Floyd. He was not a visible presence or vocal voice in the Congress. Records from the proceedings mention his presence, but his impression on other delegates might well be summarized in a contemporary’s letter to John Jay, that named William Floyd as one of the “good men, [who] never quit their chairs” (Grossman, 2014, p. 397). We should all be grateful to those, who like Floyd, never quit their chairs, and ensured the founding of our nation through their service and sacrifice.

Richard K. Sala, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Philip Livingston of New York: Merchant, Member of the First Continental Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Richard Sala, Richard K. Sala, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Philip Livingston of New York: Merchant, Member of the First Continental Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

For Americans from “sea to shining sea,” the saga of American independence begins in July 1776. For Philip Livingston, one of four New York delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence, the origins of this great epoch commenced some eleven years earlier under comparable duress and at similar risk.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Francis Lewis of New York: Businessman, Prisoner of War, Stamp Act and Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Francis Lewis of New York: Businessman, Prisoner of War, Stamp Act and Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Despite his wealth and his involvement in public affairs at an exceptional time, Lewis was no stranger to personal tragedy. Already mentioned was his loss of both parents as a young child, left also without siblings. Only three of his seven children reached adulthood. Perhaps most traumatic was the fate that befell his wife. Lewis had married Elizabeth Annesley, his business partner’s sister, in 1745. While Lewis was away, in 1776, his house in Whitestone, in today’s Queens, New York, was destroyed by the British after the Battle of Brooklyn. Soldiers from a light cavalry troop pillaged the house, and a warship then opened fire. Worse, the British took his wife prisoner and held her for two years. Historical sources aver that the conditions of her captivity were inhumane in that the British denied her a bed, a change of clothing, or adequate food over several weeks.

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Lewis Morris: Major General in the New York Militia, Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, Tom Hand, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Lewis Morris: Major General in the New York Militia, Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

When the fateful day came to affix his signature to the Declaration of Independence, Morris was warned by family members that doing so would result in the loss of his estate and fortune since British troops were stationed near his home. Morris famously replied, “Damn the consequences, give me the pen.” As it turned out, his relations were correct. The British quickly devastated his 1,000-acre forest, confiscated all his livestock, and destroyed his beautiful home at Morrisania. Additionally, Morris and his family were forced to go into exile for the duration of the war.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Daniel Cotter Richard Stockton: New Jersey Supreme Court Justice, Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Daniel A. Cotter, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Daniel Cotter

Richard Stockton: New Jersey Supreme Court Justice, Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

These brave patriots did in fact suffer, Stockton not being the only person to suffer losses. Five signers reportedly were captured by the British and brutally tortured as traitors. Nine signers fought in the Revolutionary War and died from wounds or hardships. A large number of the 56, a dozen or more, had their homes pillaged and burned. Benjamin Franklin, one of the few signers of the Declaration and the Constitution, said after signing the Declaration, “We must indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall hang separately.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Tony Williams John Witherspoon: Presbyterian Minister, President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Tony Williams

John Witherspoon: Presbyterian Minister, President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Despite the best efforts of several excellent historians, the contributions of the dissenting Protestant clergy, known as the “Black Robe Regiment” or “Black Regiment,” to the dissemination of revolutionary principles has largely gone unnoticed. The ministers were instrumental in propagating the ideas of John Locke from the pulpit for congregations that were consistent with the revolutionary ideas they read about in pamphlets and newspapers and heard in taverns and legislative halls that formed “the American mind.” The ministers preached about the ideas of natural rights, self-government by consent, and the right of revolution against tyranny. They urged the young men in their congregations to pick up their muskets and go to war in the defense of their sacred rights from God. The clergy delivered what are called political sermons as they easily wove together their religious and political ideals with their covenant theology that Americans were a new Chosen People.

Ron Meier, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey: Merchant, Judge, Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, Ron Meier, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey: Merchant, Judge, Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

At this time, Revolutionary fervor was accelerating in the colonies over customs fees and Hopkinson relinquished his role as Customs Collector when New Jersey Royal Governor, William Franklin, well aware of Hopkinson’s apparent loyalty to the British government and of his political connections in London, named him to the New Jersey Provincial Council, the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature, in 1773. Hopkinson then moved his family to his wife’s hometown of Bordentown, New Jersey where he once again entered the practice of law. During this time, he became disenchanted with the British government’s hostility to Americans’ rights and freedoms and joined the patriot cause, writing many patriotic pamphlets and satires, employing a common practice of using a variety of pseudonyms, that were widely circulated in the colonies.

Ron Meier, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog John Hart: Farmer, Second Continental Congress Delegate, First Speaker of the New Jersey State Legislature, and Declaration of Independence Signer – Guest Essayist: James C. Clinger, Ron Meier, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

John Hart: Farmer, Second Continental Congress Delegate, First Speaker of the New Jersey State Legislature, and Declaration of Independence Signer

On August 13, Hart was elected to the State Assembly of New Jersey and on August 29 he was elected Speaker of the General Assembly. Hart presided over the Assembly briefly but was called home to care for his sick wife. He returned to the Assembly on October 7, but was called home once more. The Assembly adjourned on August 8, the same day that his wife died, leaving behind her husband and thirteen children, two of whom were still minors. In November, the British army invaded New Jersey and Hart was forced to hide out in some rock formations in the nearby Sourwood Mountains to escape British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries who damaged, but did not destroy, the farm.

Heather B. Bailey, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Abraham Clark of New Jersey: Surveyor, Lawyer, Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Heather B. Bailey, Heather B. Bailey, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

Abraham Clark of New Jersey: Surveyor, Lawyer, Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

No doubt the proximity of tensions created by British Control were driving forces behind his decisions, at the time, again to pursue fairness, even if that meant risking all and joining forces to work toward independence.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Joerg W. Knipprath Robert Morris of Pennsylvania: Merchant, Superintendent of Finance, Agent of Marine, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Joerg W. Knipprath

Robert Morris of Pennsylvania: Merchant, Superintendent of Finance, Agent of Marine, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Robert Morris, Jr., is one of only two men who signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of 1787. He thus was present at three critical moments in the founding of the United States. His most significant contributions to that founding occurred during the decade of turmoil framed by the first and last of these, that is, the period of the Revolutionary War and the Confederation.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, William J. Federer Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania: Physician, United States Mint Treasurer, Continental Congress Member, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: William J. Federer, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, William J. Federer

Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania: Physician, United States Mint Treasurer, Continental Congress Member, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Dr. Benjamin Rush had studied medicine in Philadelphia, then in Europe under the world’s foremost physicians, and then returned to Philadelphia in 1769. Though his practices were archaic by today’s standards, he is considered by some as the “Father of American Medicine” for his work on staff at the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he opened the first free medical clinic. He was among the first to recognize alcoholism as a disease and began to promote temperance. Dr. Rush wrote the first textbook on mental illness and psychiatry, recommending treatment with kindness, earning him the title “Father of American Psychiatry.”

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Val Crofts Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania: Printer, Scientist, Postmaster, Fireman, “Committee of Five” Member, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Val Crofts, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Val Crofts

Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania: Printer, Scientist, Postmaster, Fireman, “Committee of Five” Member, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Franklin was later appointed to the “Committee of Five” to draft a declaration of independence for the colonies. He served on the committee with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. Jefferson was the primary author, but Franklin did suggest some important edits. His most famous edit was changing the phrase, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” to “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Franklin believed that the term “sacred” sounded too religious and that “self-evident” sounded more scientific. Even though he was not the primary author, many of the ideas within the Declaration of Independence had been spoken by Dr. Franklin in the previous months and years. He wholeheartedly supported the document and voted in favor of Independence on July 2, 1776.

Ron Meier, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog John Morton of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Assembly Speaker, First and Second Continental Congress Member, Sheriff, Judge, and Declaration of Independence Signer – Guest Essayist: Ron Meier, Ron Meier, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

John Morton of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Assembly Speaker, First and Second Continental Congress Member, Sheriff, Judge, and Declaration of Independence Signer

Morton’s first responsibility for petitioning the King for redress of rights was his appointment to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. From that first act of the colonists until the final vote on July 2, 1776, the colonists’ primary objective was not to seek independence, but to protest unjust actions of the British Parliament and to remain loyal to the mother country by seeking reconciliation. The repeated refusal of the British Parliament and King to consider their requests over the subsequent 10 years drove the colonists to unite for independence in the end.

90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog, Gordon Lloyd, Ph.D. George Clymer of Pennsylvania: Merchant, Continental Treasurer, Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Gordon Lloyd, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies, Gordon Lloyd PhD

George Clymer of Pennsylvania: Merchant, Continental Treasurer, Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Despite Clymer’s extensive involvement in the story of the American founding, he is not on the list of influential, or even underrated founders. We attribute this to Clymer’s inclination to work behind the scenes on the various committees to which his colleagues elected him. He reminds us of the steady and vital work done by individuals who do not seek the limelight. Contemporary William Pierce of Georgia, who provided character sketches of multiple founders, portrayed him as “a respectable man, and much esteemed.”

Ertis Tereziu, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog Ertis Tereziu, James Smith: Attorney, Judge, Brigadier General of the Pennsylvania Militia, Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Ertis Tereziu, 2021 Declaration of Independence 90 Day Study Essay Schedule, 11. Declaration of Independence, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 Day Studies

James Smith: Attorney, Judge, Brigadier General of the Pennsylvania Militia, Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

However, a fire destroyed his office and papers shortly before he passed away. Because of this incident, not much is known about James Smith’s work. The result is that historians study Smith not through his journals, but through his actions. And his act of bravely signing the Declaration of Independence shows the world that James Smith believed that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable rights.

Tom Hand, 90 in 90 2021, 6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Blog George Taylor of Pennsylvania: Coal Worker, Ironmaster, Second Continental Congress Delegate, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence – Guest Essayist: Tom Hand, Tom Hand,