The 2nd Amendment isn’t your “Gun Permit.” You Are.
By: Michael Boldin If you’re anything like me, your skin crawls anytime you hear someone say something like “the 2nd Amendment is the only gun permit I’ll ever need!” While I ...
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The ideas that formed the Constitution: Tacitus
By: Rob Natelson The authors discussed in this series impacted the Constitution both directly and indirectly. Citations to the authors by participants in the constitutional debates of 1787–1790 are evidence of ...
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James Wilson Delivers “State House Yard Speech” in Favor of the Constitution
By: Dave Benner On October 6, 1787, eminent Pennsylvanian James Wilson delivered his famous “State House Yard Speech” in support of the Constitution in Philadelphia. On the dawn of the first ...
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Of the Natural Rights of Individuals
By: TJ Martinell Do people exist for the sake of government? Or is it the other way around? That’s the question James Wilson attempts to answer in his 1790 work, “Of the ...
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The First Salvo in the Ratification Debates: James Wilson’s State House Speech
By: Bob Fiedler While most people today think of the Federalist Papers as the leading defense of the Constitution’s original meaning, it was actually a speech by James Wilson that had a far ...
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10th Amendment Essentials: Sovereignty and Resistance
By: Michael Boldin “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” ...
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The Nature of the Federal Government
By: Mike Maharrey We have flipped the American constitutional system on its head. It operates exactly the opposite of how the supporters of the Constitution said it would. So, what type ...
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Thomas Paine on War (and other Founders too)
By: Michael Boldin Outspoken and famous for writing “The Crisis,” “Common Sense,” and “The Rights of Man,” Thomas Paine had some choice words about war that people would do well ...
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Did Founder James Wilson oppose the Electoral College and favor “National Popular Vote?”
By: Rob Natelson James Wilson of Pennsylvania (1742-98) was one of the most influential of the Constitution’s framers. Some scholars rank him as second only to James Madison. Wilson was ...
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4 Founders on the President and War Powers under the Constitution
By: Michael Boldin A lot of “experts” want you to believe that under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution the executive branch rarely – if ever – needs to ...
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