A Blog Exploring American History and Politics
“Brutus” IV New York Journal, November 29, 1787 At the heart of a healthy democracy is the power for people or their representatives to create, modify, or repeal the laws for those laws inevitably govern nearly all aspects of life. The New York Journal published an article that dissected fair representation in the proposed Constitution: “The […]
More“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 […]
MoreReply to Elbridge Gerry: “A Landholder” [Oliver Ellsworth] IV Connecticut Courant (Hartford), November 26, 1787 Following are excerpts from Oliver Ellsworth’s article: “Such a body of men might be an army to defend the country in case of foreign invasion, but not a legislature, and the expence to support them would equal the whole national […]
More“Americanus” [John Stevens, Jr.] I Daily Advertiser (New York), November 2, 1787 Following are excerpts from John Stevens, Jr.’s article in the Daily Advertiser: “But, so prone is the spirit of man to party and faction, that even this admirable system will not prevent their mischievous efforts, in a state possessing a ‘small territory.’
MoreOn July 4, 1826, during America’s Golden Jubilee, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 243. The two political rivals were two of the last three surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, leaving only Charles Carroll […]
MoreIn the earliest years of the American Republic, individuals like James Madison, Samuel Williams, Charles Pinckney, and Samuel Langdon concluded that no country had created a better model for representative government than America’s. See Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 596.
MoreJames Madison had extensive beliefs about the structure of American government and the sustainability of the system.
MoreAs touched on in Unalterable Constitutions, Americans began resorting to conventions for amending their state constitutions, and this was only one example of Americans looking to advance their causes outside of the bounds of government. See Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 310. This was not a novel approach, however, and it was not the […]
MoreWhile revolution was necessary to reinvent the American system of government to best meet the needs of Americans, another key element was necessary. The early Americans realized that “[p]eace is seldom made, and never kept, unless the subject retain such a power in his hands as may oblige the prince to stand to what is […]
MoreWilliam Findley, a man of Irish descent who came to play a powerful role in Pennsylvanian politics, had an idea about what a politician should be. He said that politicians should be able to advocate for their own cause when they take the floor, that politicians should openly support their interests. Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty, […]
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