War Powers: The True History of John Adams and the Quasi-War with France
By: Mike Maharrey Many people believe presidents have a great deal of authority to make unilateral decisions about war without the approval of Congress. To support this conclusion, they ...
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Free Speech on Trial: Jailed But Re-elected
By: Michael Boldin In a time of political turmoil, when criticism of the government could land you behind bars, Matthew Lyon, a congressman and fierce critic of the Federalist ...
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Deciphering the Commander-in-Chief Clause
By: TJ Martinell The Constitution designates the president as the commander in chief of the “Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, ...
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John Adams: Patriot and Tyrant?
By: Mike Maharrey Many revere John Adams as a great patriot. Others view him as a big-government tyrant. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Adams was a prominent leader during ...
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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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The ideas that formed the Constitution: Cicero Continued
By: Rob Natelson The previous installment in this series outlined the life and career of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. It described how John Adams relied on Cicero’s work in the preface ...
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The ideas that formed the Constitution: Cicero
By: Rob Natelson The first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth essays in this series addressed the influence on the Constitution of four leading Greek thinkers. There is one more Greek on our list, the biographer Plutarch. He lived ...
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The ideas that formed the Constitution, the pioneers: Socrates, Xenophon, Plato
By: Rob Natelson This is the fourth in a series of essays on the ideas behind the Constitution. You can find the first two essays here, here, and here As explained in the second ...
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Thomas Paine: Fear, Government Power and Standing Armies
By: Mike Maharrey From the earliest days of the republic, politicians have used fear to expand government power. This was the strategy the Federalist Party used to get a standing army. ...
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Whose Job is it to Keep the Feds in Line?
By: Michael Boldin For the federal government to take even a “single step” beyond the limits of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “is to take possession of a boundless field of power, ...
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