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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

January 12, 2023 Cicero 0

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

December 19, 2022 Uncategorized 0

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

September 9, 2022 Federal Power / Thomas Paine 0

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?

July 25, 2022 Founding Principles 0

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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The Founders Predicted our Economic Crisis

By: Michael Boldin Did Thomas Jefferson call the economic crisis? “Every thing predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now coming to pass. we are to be ruined ...

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The Nullification Movement is a Revolution in Thought

By: Mike Maharrey We are in the midst of a revolution. But it’s not a revolution in the sense most people think of. It’s not a war fought with guns and ...

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Don’t Trust Government

By: Michael Boldin Don’t trust government. And don’t trust politicians. That can’t be repeated often enough. Unfortunately, it seems that most people trust politicians – depending on the issue or ...

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