Cato began his letter of July 15th 1721 with praise for the republican martyr, Algernon Sidney. Just a few decades after Sidney’s execution, open republicanism in Hanoverian England was still… Read more »
The full title to this letter from 1720 doesn’t do justice to its content: how the fallen nature of men is concentrated once they become politicians. The outcome of party… Read more »
A visitor to America, say a modern Alexis de Tocqueville, might conclude that the American form of government is despotic. Considering we have presidential elections every four years, our imaginary… Read more »
At least two historic American statesmen attempted to insert the guarantee of internal police power to the states in both the Constitution and Articles of Confederation. Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman… Read more »
While political parties ideally represent the common interests of their members, a contradiction has developed within the GOP over the past twenty years. Leadership and rank-and-file members work toward irreconcilable… Read more »
If memory serves, I recall an entertaining essay or chapter from perhaps a Stephen Hawking book from a couple of decades ago. Being designed for the mathematically challenged, it sought… Read more »
Beginning with “We the People” the Constitution is a compact, an agreement among equals, the people of the American civil society. The events of 1787-1788 could have been scripted straight… Read more »
Our Declaration of Independence was not only illegal, it was an act of treason. Like today, most men in 1776 worldwide equated that which is legal with justice. Who could… Read more »
For several decades conservatives lamented the growth of the administrative state, aka the fourth branch of government. Created by congress, directed by the president, and armed with semi-despotic powers, these… Read more »
In this letter dated July 22nd 1721, Cato explained that the world is regularly lead into mistakes by people who profit from them. If the people were properly apprised of… Read more »