On Property by James Madison

Liberalism and Social Action by John Dewey (1859-1952)

Daily Essay 2013, Tony Williams 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 17. Topics, Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence, Liberalism and Social Action by John Dewey, On Property by James Madison, Tony Williams

Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, Program Director for the Washington-Jefferson-Madison Institute in Charlottesville, VA

We’re No Longer Lockeans Now: John Dewey & the Rise of Modern Liberalism, by Tony Williams

In his 1861 “Cornerstone” speech, Vice-President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens argued that Thomas Jefferson and the Founders really meant all humans, including blacks, were created equal in the Declaration of Independence. He just believed that they were wrong. John Dewey, in his “Liberalism and Social Action,” does much the same thing. He largely summarizes the ideas of John Locke correctly and notes his influence on the Founding. Again, much like Stephens did, he rejects those ideas, this time because of his belief in the new liberalism of the modern Progressive administrative state. Read more

May 28, 2013/0 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

Daily Essay 2013, Tony Williams 2. The Constitution, 3. The Amendments, 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 17. Topics, Bill of Rights, Boston Tea Party, Constitutional Amendment I, Constitutional Amendment I, Declaration of Independence, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments by James Madison, On Property by James Madison, The Constitution of the United States of America, Tony Williams

Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, Program Director, Washington-Jefferson-Madison Institute

“Conscience is the Most Sacred of Property”: James Madison’s Essay on Property
by Tony Williams

On January 24, 1774, James Madison wrote to a college friend praising the Boston Tea Party, which had occurred only weeks before. He praised the Boston patriots for their boldness in “defending liberty and property.” Equating political and civil liberty, he warned that if the Church of England had established itself as the official religion of all the colonies, then “slavery and subjection might and would have been gradually insinuated among us.” Read more

March 25, 2013/1 Comment/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

On Property by James Madison – Reprinted from The U.S. Constitution, A Reader, Published by Hillsdale College

Classics that Inspired the Constitution, Daily Reading 2013, On Property by James Madison, The Original Documents 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, On Property by James Madison

Madison, known as the “Father of the Constitution,” was elected from Virginia to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1788, where he served four terms. This essay, which then-Congressman Madison wrote for a New York newspaper, connects the idea of property rights as commonly understood to man’s natural rights, culminating in the right of conscience.

March 29, 1792

This term in its particular application means “that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.” Read more

March 25, 2013/1 Comment/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

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