Thomas Paine: Fear, Government Power and Standing Armies
From the earliest days of the republic, politicians have used fear to expand government power. This was the strategy the Federalist Party used to get a standing army. Thomas Paine called them out on it. The founding generation was extremely wary of standing armies....
The Sedition Act of 1798: Silencing Dissent and Sparking Resistance
The Sedition Act of 1798 marked one of the most extreme restrictions on free speech in American history, criminalizing criticism of the government and making it illegal to publish anything that could “bring them or either of them into contempt or disrepute.” The law...
Whose Job is it to Keep the Feds in Line?
For the federal government to take even a “single step” beyond the limits of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” The “detestable precedent” is how John Dickinson...