Alexander Hamilton
John Taylor’s Forgotten Assault on Hamilton’s Economic Scheme
In 1794, John Taylor of Caroline published a devastating critique of Alexander Hamilton’s financial system: the national bank, paper money, and debt. Taylor saw these for what they really were: not mere policy disagreements, but a war on the Constitution itself....
The Tea Act of 1773 Was a Test of Obedience
On May 10, 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act. To the average observer, it seemed like a break. Cheaper tea. A financial rescue for the struggling East India Company. A convenient solution. But to the American Revolutionaries, it was a trap. And Benjamin...
Who Decides? The Founders’ Forgotten System of Checks and Balances
“There is not a syllable in the constitution, that makes a decision of the judiciary – of its own force, and without regard to its correctness – binding upon any body, either upon the executive, or the people.” That’s from Lysander Spooner, reminding us of...
Little Known Episode in U.S. History Explains Executive War Powers
Within five years of the publishing of The Federalist papers (and four years of the ratification by the states of the Constitution), the co-authors of those seminal and influential essays on American political theory and constitutional interpretation were back at...