“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.”
Anxious to preserve their hard-won independence, Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson championed a foreign policy centered on avoiding “entangling alliances.” They envisioned America pursuing peace, trade, and “friendship with all...
The “pursuit of happiness” is a foundational principle enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. In the Founders’ view, this was inextricably linked to individual liberty and property rights. John Dickinson explained it this way in the last of his 12 Letters from...
The world is filled with self-evident truths — truisms — that philosophers, lawyers and judges know need not be proven. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Two plus two equals four. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. These...
Most people today have little to no familiarity with any of the principles that influenced the founders. Below, you’ll find 6 important resources hand-picked by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. You can also find links to each at this podcast episode – “The...
The American founders who drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence grounded their case for separating from Great Britain on a philosophy of government derived from the writings of John Locke: especially from Lockean notions of legitimate government vs....