A Blog Exploring American History and Politics
Monarchy
Constitution Sunday: Answers to Mason’s “Objections”: “Marcus” [James Iredell] II
Answers to Mason’s “Objections”: “Marcus” [James Iredell] II Norfolk and Portsmouth Journal (Virginia), February 27, 1788 Following are excerpts from James Iredell’s responses to George Mason’s “Objections” to the Constitution: “IVth. Objection. The Judiciary of the United States is so constructed and extended, as to absorb and destroy the Judiciaries of the several States
MoreConstitution Sunday: Reply to Mason’s “Objections”: “Civis Rusticus”
Reply to Mason’s “Objections”: “Civis Rusticus” Virginia Independent Chronicle (Richmond), January 30, 1788 Following are excerpts of an article written in response to George Mason’s article listing the objections to the Constitution: “5th. Had the convention left the executive power indivisible, I am free to own it would have been better, than giving the senate […]
MorePolk’s Expansion of Presidential Power
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the culmination of the Mexican-American War and “embodied the objectives for which [President James] Polk had gone to war.” Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 808.
MoreThe Two Scales and the Hand that Holds it
Benjamin Lincoln wrote a series of articles in the Boston Magazine and Independent Chronicle that would touch on many of the same subjects as John Adams in his Defence of the Constitution. See Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 576.
MoreConstitution Sunday: Reply to Wilson’s Speech: “A Democratic Federalist”
Reply to Wilson’s Speech: “A Democratic Federalist” Pennsylvania Herald (Philadelphia), October 17, 1787 Following are excerpts from the article, published in response to James Wilson’s speech:
MoreA Compound of Aristocracy and Monarchy
In the 1780s, Americans, like John Dickinson, observed that “[p]eople once respected their governors, their senators, their judges and their clergy; they reposed confidence in them; their laws were obeyed, and the states were happy in tranquility.” Dickinson, Letters of Fabius, Ford, ed., Pamphlets, 188. The authority of the government was declining. Gordon Wood, The Creation of the […]
MoreConstitution Sunday: “Centinel” [Samuel Bryan] I
“Centinel” [Samuel Bryan] I Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), October 5, 1787 Following are a series of excerpts:
MoreGuarding Against an Evil
Americans’ political beliefs were rapidly changing as the American Revolution progressed into the early years of the Republic. In fact, those beliefs were “constantly in flux, continually adapting and adjusting to ever-shifting political and social circumstances.” Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 438.
MoreThe One, the Few, and the Many
At the time of the American Revolution, it was commonly believed amongst Americans that formulating the ideal government would require a different system than any previously conceived. The Founding Fathers had their own ideas.
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