What Are Rights? This Is What the Founders Believed
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that everyone is endowed with “unalienable Rights.” Years later, the Bill of Rights elaborated on those rights. Subsequently, the rights of many (although not all, tragically and atrociously) Americans were secured...
Liberty Without Tumult: Understanding the Politics of John Dickinson
John Dickinson is among America’s “Forgotten Founders.” Despite authoring the most widely-read documents on American liberty before 1776, representing Pennsylvania at the Second Continental Congress, and being a primary author of the Articles of Confederation, many...
Why the Framers Thought Ratification by Only Nine States Was Sufficient
In an earlier essay in my “Defending the Constitution” series, I responded to the common charge that the 1787 Constitutional Convention abused its trust. The charge is that the commissioners (delegates) exceeded the scope of the convention “call” issued by Congress....