In 1798, President John Adams signed a bill into law criminalizing speech critical of the federal government. Today, the feds take a more subtle approach to controlling speech, but the spirit of the Sedition Act lives on. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts.…
From the beginning of our history, there have been many people such as Nathaniel Bacon, Tomas Jefferson, James Madison, President John Tyler, John Calhoun, John Taylor of Caroline and the Richmond junto who have championed the idea of nullification. Today, we look back through time and wonder how we can follow in the footsteps of…
Thomas Jefferson took a stand for the Constitution and principles over personal policy preferences when he opposed Hamilton's national bank.
On this day in 1789, the Virginia General Assembly adopted Thomas Jefferson’s landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which later would become the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution for the United States. It was authored by Jefferson and ushered through the Assembly by James Madison. Jefferson considered this one of his most…
Historian Dr. Kevin Gutzman recently appeared on episode 38 of the podcast, The Liberty Chronicles hosted by Dr. Anthony Comegna to discuss a variety of topics, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, the Revolution of 1800, the Louisiana Purchase, and the War of 1812. Gutzman pointed out that the election of 1800 brought a bloodless revolution to…
In the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Jefferson wrote that we shouldn’t give anybody in government the benefit of the doubt.
Today in 1753, John Taylor of Caroline, Thomas Jefferson's most prominent promoter and an under-appreciated member of the founding generation, was born.
Yesterday in 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, a speech commonly considered one of the most recognized and commonly recited pieces of English text. Truthfully, Lincoln’s oratory served as an erroneous reinvention of the union that conflicted greatly with the widespread understanding reached during the time of the founding generation. While Lincoln declared…
Today, James Madison’s pragmatic approach can effectively achieve Thomas Jefferson’s goals.
Louisiana, populism, and the Constitution, three items that don't seem to have much in common, except that I spent time talking about all three in the last week.