A Blog Exploring American History and Politics
“Mark Antony” Independent Chronicle (Boston), January 10, 1788 The original sin in America’s Constitution was how it addressed—or failed to address—the issue of slavery. There was always going to be a question of how the country would transition away from slavery as the rest of the Western world was beginning to do by restricting importation […]
More“Brutus” VIII New York Journal, January 10, 1788 In the draft of the Constitution was a clause that permitted the federal government to “borrow money on the credit of the United States, and to raise and support armies.” The author of an article in the New York Journal, using the pseudonym Brutus (undoubtedly referring to […]
MorePortland, Maine, January 8, 1788 When drafting any written constitution or even any law, there is a question of whether every right should be explicitly laid out in the document. Where there are express rights in a constitution—such as the right to freedom of speech—a reader (including judges) may conclude that the list of rights […]
More“The Republican” to the People Connecticut Courant (Hartford), January 7, 1788 Throughout the history of the United States, there have been numerous instances where its citizens questioned whether the Constitution and its amendments were sufficiently protecting the liberties of the people. Those questions have led to substantial change—such as the amendments to the Constitution and […]
MoreLuther Martin: “The Genuine Information,” IX Maryland Gazette (Baltimore), January 29, 1788 Impeachment of a president has become a feature within the Constitution that is colored by its uses throughout history: the impeachments of Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump and the near-impeachment of Richard Nixon. While none of the impeachment proceedings resulted in […]
MoreLuther Martin, “The Genuine Information,” II Maryland Gazette (Baltimore), January 1, 1788 Every form of government known to human history has been presented—on occasion—with the possibility of revolution or, perhaps euphemistically, a drastic reform of that government’s structure. While the causes may vary for a revolution or reform, the discontent that precedes it is universal: […]
MoreA Cumberland County Mutual Improvement Society Addresses the Pennsylvania Minority Carlisle Gazette, (Pennsylvania), January 2, 1788 One of the most frequent dooming political predictions that Americans—of any political persuasion—tend to make is that the end of the Republic, and therefore the end of liberty, has come. This prediction even goes back to the debate of […]
More“Publius,” The Federalist XXII [Alexander Hamilton] New-York Packet, December 14, 1787 A well-functioning democracy must be capable of recognizing and dealing with the friction that occurs between the minority and the majority on any given issue. As Alexander Hamilton wrote, in the Federalist XXII, the difference between a vote requiring a simple majority versus a […]
More“Americanus” V [John Stevens, Jr.] Daily Advertiser (New York, December 12, 1787 The structure of the American government, with its division into three branches and its layered arrangement from top (federal) to middle (state) to bottom (local), made it an exception in 1787 from what had been previously known. Even with the Constitution’s framework appearing […]
More“Publius,” The Federalist XVI [Alexander Hamilton] New-York Packet, December 4, 1787 When any union or confederacy of states or provinces decide to form a nation, it does so with its citizens knowing that members may “alarm the apprehensions, inflame the passions, and conciliate the good will even” in those states that were not “chargeable with […]
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