The Satirical Genius of Benjamin Franklin’s 1774 Letter to Lord North
“A friend to military government.” That’s not what we’d expect from one of the leading supporters of American independence, but that’s just how Benjamin Franklin signed his “Open Letter to Lord North.” While many American colonists confronted arbitrary British power...
Prelude to Independence: Thomas Jefferson Declares British Acts Null and Void
“The British parliament has no right to exercise authority over us.” At all. This was the bold conclusion Thomas Jefferson came to in his powerful pamphlet A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Written nearly two years before the Declaration of...
Tench Coxe: A Detailed Breakdown of State vs. Federal Powers
Despite being little known today, Tench Coxe was an influential founding father, and in early 1788, he provided what was possibly the most comprehensive list of examples to explain the division of state and federal powers under the proposed Constitution. In his three...