Federal Farmer: Politicians and Bureaucrats must be “Recallable”
By: TJ Martinell Given the power various officers in the federal government would wield, the Federal Farmer believed that there needed to be a better mechanism to appoint them and remove ...
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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, Part 10: Virgil Alone
by Rob Natelson The previous (ninth) essay in this series identified three Roman poets quoted by participants in the constitutional debates of 1787–1790—Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. The essay explained why ...
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Bill of Rights: The Ignored History of Why it Exists
By: Michael Boldin Today is “Bill of Rights Day” – commemorating ratification on Dec. 15, 1791. But what the government-run schools – and supporters of the monster state – “teach” about ...
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Federal Farmer: Amendments are Essential and Necessary
By: TJ Martinell In his sixth letter dated Dec. 25, 1787, the Federal Farmer wrote of the “essential and necessary” inclusion of meaningful amendments to the Constitution prior to its ratification. Though ...
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Patrick Henry’s Warning on “Implied Authority”
By: TJ Martinell Patrick Henry’s impassioned remarks during the final days of the Virginia Ratifying Convention were the culmination of week-long arguments between skeptics of the proposed Constitution and its supporters, such as ...
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The Federal Farmer: The Constitution Would Lead to a Complete Consolidation
By: TJ Martinell During the debates over ratification of the Constitution, one of the most influential and important series of papers were written by the Federal Farmer, an anti-federalist who forcefully ...
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Today in History: New York Ratifies the Constitution
By: Mike Maharrey On this date in 1788, New York became the 11th state to ratify the Constitution. The Constitution narrowly won approval by a 30-27 vote on July 26, 1788, ...
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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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Patrick Henry Demands a Bill of Rights
By: TJ Martinell On June 7, 1788, Patrick Henry delivered one of many long speeches at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, demanding the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the proposed U.S. Constitution ...
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