No Deal for Gun Control: North Carolina and the “Wicked Rebellion” Against the British
NO DEAL – That was the response from the Sons of Liberty and other North Carolina patriots in 1776 to a British “offer” – surrender your guns, abandon your allies, give up your right to local self-government – in exchange for a promise of...
Precedent: Letting Yesterday’s Crimes Justify Tomorrow’s Tyranny
“One of the vilest systems that can be set up.” That’s how Thomas Paine described government by precedent – when government uses power not because it’s authorized, but because someone else got away with it first. No constitution. No...
Arbitrary Power: The Definition of Tyranny
“The curse and scandal of human nature.” That’s how James Otis, Jr. described arbitrary power. It wasn’t just a sign of tyranny, or a step toward it. It was the very definition of tyranny. It is power without right. And that principle pervades the Declaration of...