Last Best Hope of Earth

Tag: Julius Caesar

  • Constitution Sunday: “Brutus” X

    New York Journal

    January 24, 1788

    History is replete with military coups. At a time when a country’s government has grown weak, the temptation to make drastic change can become overwhelming. Sometimes, rather than wait for the next election, the military makes its move—to the detriment of the democracy, the people, and the chances for protecting the people’s rights. There are some who believe that the best way to prevent such coups is to prohibit having a standing army altogether. In 1788, an author, using the pen name Brutus, saw that the liberties of the people faced imminent threat if there was a “large standing army” allowed in the United States and made the case that the Constitution should prohibit such an army as it created too much of a danger to the viability of the Republic.

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  • Constitution Sunday: “Cato” V

    “Cato” V

    New York Journal, November 22, 1787

    Following are excerpts from an anonymous article published in the New York Journal:

    “To the Citizens of the State of New-York.

    In my last number I endeavored to prove that the language of the article relative to the establishment of the executive of this new government was vague and inexplicit, that the great powers of the President (more…)

  • The Inauguration of William Henry Harrison

    rembrandt_peale_-_william_henry_harrison_-_google_art_project
    William Henry Harrison. By: Rembrandt Peale.

    William Henry Harrison, a Whig, won the White House in the election of 1840. In March 1841, for his inauguration, he stood in the cold and wind and spoke for an hour and a half. See Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 570.

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