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Tench Coxe on the Executive Branch: President, not a King

By: Mike Maharrey     American presidents behave almost like elected kings, exercising vast powers with very little accountability. But that wasn’t the plan. Tench Coxe was a key figure in ...

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How Tench Coxe Shaped the Ratification Debates: Essays of A Pennsylvanian

By: Mike Maharrey   History often overlooks Tench Coxe, but he was one of the most important founding fathers. While the Federalist Papers are celebrated and widely discussed today, Coxe’s essays, written under ...

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The meaning of “militia” in the Second Amendment

August 23, 2023 2nd Amendment 0

By: Rob Natelson This is the second article examining contributions to our understanding of the Constitution from the three brand new volumes of the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution ...

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Tench Coxe and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

August 26, 2022 2nd Amendment / Tench Coxe 1

By: TJ Martinell Tench Coxe isn’t well-known today, but he was an influential figure in the founding era. Coxe advocated for the new Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and he ...

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Tench Coxe on State vs Federal Power under the Constitution

May 13, 2022 Constitution 0

By: Mike Maharrey The federal government has no constitutional authority to do the vast majority of the things it does today. Of course, this truth runs counter to conventional wisdom and ...

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“Necessary” Is Not a Constitutional Argument

May 27, 2020 Constitution / Tench Coxe 0

By: Mike Maharrey I hear a lot of bad constitutional arguments justifying this or that federal action. One common justification for expanding federal power is: “This thing is necessary! It ...

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How our Constitution was supposed to work: new evidence comes to light

September 27, 2019 Constitution / Federalism / Tench Cox 0

By: Rob Natelson Judging by the promises of presidential candidates, you might think the federal government is designed to fix whatever ails us: health care, education, crime, infrastructure, the common ...

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