Last Best Hope of Earth

Tag: Supremacy

  • Constitution Sunday: “Publius,” The Federalist XXXIX [James Madison]

    Constitution Sunday: “Publius,” The Federalist XXXIX [James Madison]

    Independent Journal (New York)

    January 16, 1788

    The power of a government—and the supremacy of that power—often is tied to the ways in which it can reach the people’s lives. A federal government inherently raises concerns about overreach, and the draft Constitution’s proposed federal government evoked a question of whether it would be an all-powerful national government, sitting in the nation’s capital and presiding over the country’s affairs—distant though they may be from those holding power. James Madison, writing under the pen name Publius, explained that the proposed government was a blend of a federal and national one and therefore was worthy of Americans approving it.

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  • Constitution Sunday: Letters from the “Federal Farmer” to “The Republican”

    Letters from the “Federal Farmer” to “The Republican”

    New York, November 8, 1787

    Following are excerpts from a series of letters published in New York, supposedly from the Federal Farmer to The Republican:

    “A general convention for mere commercial purposes was moved for—the authors of this measure saw that the people’s attention was turned solely to the amendment of the federal system; (more…)

  • The Constitution’s Superiority

    constitution_of_the_united_states_page_1
    Page 1 of the Constitution of the United States.

    By the time of the Revolution, the states had begun to take steps toward sustaining themselves after independence from Britain was effectuated. One of those steps was the drafting of constitutions. Constitutions, while understood generally in Britain and elsewhere, had a unique meaning for Americans.

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