Founding Principles

The ideas that formed the Constitution: Polybius

by Rob Natelson | Jan 3, 2023 | Founding Principles

Previous installments in this series have covered four Greek scholars whose thought helped shape the American Constitution. (For links to previous installments, see the following: first, second, third, fourth, fifth.) This installment covers a later Greek scholar:...

Thomas Paine and Religious Liberty

by Dave Benner | Jan 2, 2023 | Founding Principles, Thomas Paine

In Thomas Paine’s day, no idea was more accepted than the idea that the church was inextricably connected to the state. In the 1700s, the concept had centuries of precedent in nearly all corners of the world, including England, France, and even America – where several...

Power From the People

by Michael Boldin | Dec 31, 2022 | 10th Amendment, Constitution, Founding Principles

We’ve all heard or seen the slogan, “Power to the People,” but it gets things almost completely backwards. The word “TO” is the wrong word, by far. Under the system and principles of the founders and old revolutionaries, all power comes FROM the people. They don’t...

Liberty, Power, Precedent and the People

by Michael Boldin | Dec 21, 2022 | Founding Principles, John Dickinson

While most people have never heard his name today, Founding Father John Dickinson was famous at the time of the Revolution. In 1767, he authored the 12 “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania” in response to the hated Townshend Acts. These essays quickly became the...

The ideas that formed the Constitution: Aristotle

by Rob Natelson | Dec 19, 2022 | Constitution, Founding Principles

Unlike Socrates, Xenophon, and Plato—the subjects of the third and fourth installments in this series—Aristotle wasn’t an Athenian. (For the first and second installments, see here and here.) Aristotle did, however, win fame in Athens. He was bornin Macedonia in 384...

What the American Founders Meant by Equality

by Dan Sanchez | Dec 17, 2022 | Declaration of Independence, Founding Principles

The Declaration of Independence famously proclaimed that “all men are created equal.” Thanks in part to that prestigious endorsement, “equality” has become a widely held social ideal. But what most modern-day egalitarians promote is far removed from the kind of...

« Older Entries

The 10th Amendment

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

LEARN MORE