History
George Washington’s First Final Farewell
A generation after George Washington’s Christmastime farewell to his troops and to the Congress who commissioned him in 1775, Clement Clarke Moore penned the iconic poem he called “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” but known to most as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”...
The Struggle for Ratification: Advocates and Opponents Debate Judicial Review (Part 1)
One of the most striking and unique and hotly debated aspects of the American system of government is judicial review. Where precisely does this doctrine arise from? Technically, from Article III, § 2, Clause 1: The Judicial power shall extend to all cases in Law and...
James Madison and the Case Against Compromise
Over the three days spanning from July 2 to July 5, 1787, the attendees at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia approved a resolution that would sufficiently satisfy the demands of delegates from small states for equality of representation and those from the...
The Values in the Declaration of Independence
Americans today are the heirs to a long chain of Anglo-American constitutional documents. The chain began with a charter issued by King Henry I in 1100. It continued through Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Right (1628), the English Bill of Rights (1688/89), and...