America in 1815: The Jeffersonian Republicans
The Republican ideology, created and led by Jefferson, manifested itself in the generation after the Founding Fathers.
MoreA Blog Exploring American History and Politics
Thomas Jefferson
Building the Bill of Rights
A bill of rights was not contemplated at the Constitutional Convention, until George Mason mentioned it in the last days of the Convention. Every state ruled it out. Rufus King, however, suggested that “as the fundamental rights of individuals are secured by express provisions in the State Constitutions; why may not a like security be […]
MoreTwo Supreme Coordinate Powers
Coming out of the Philadelphia Convention, many Americans had different perspectives about what had transpired and how effective the Constitution could be as a governing document.
MoreThe Revolution’s Failure and Excesses
The culmination of beliefs and events that led to the drafting of the Constitution were varied but also generally in agreement about the necessity of having the Constitution.
MoreThe Evil of Popular Despotism
James Madison had extensive beliefs about the structure of American government and the sustainability of the system.
MoreThe Inadequacy of the Confederation
By 1787, the strength and stability of the states was under scrutiny. Shays’ Rebellion had erupted, citizens had become more licentious, and state legislatures appeared to be running rampant, doing significant damage to the health of the country as a whole. See Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 465.
MoreThe Erosion of Separation of Powers
In the 1780s, there began to be a distinct erosion of the doctrine of separation of powers.
MoreA Moral Reformation
As eluded to in Virtue as a Principle and Foundation, vices had come to plague American society shortly after the American Revolution. Patrick Henry said, in 1780, that he “feared that our Body politic was dangerously sick,” as from top to bottom, society appeared to be embracing vice. Patrick Henry to Jefferson, Feb. 15, 1780, Boyd, […]
MoreBuilding the Momentum of the Revolution
For a revolution, and particularly a bloodless revolution, to occur, the momentum must build so that the population’s outrage culminates in a change of power and a change of government. How the people sparking the flame that leads to the roaring fire of revolution is a subject worth studying, as revolutions are an inevitable fact of […]
MoreSetting an Unshakeable Foundation
In the first years of the American Republic, there were drastic changes in the law. The importance and organization of laws were coming into place. At the top were constitutional rights, which, as James Cannon explained “must be protected and defended ‘as the apple of your eye’ from danger ‘or they will be lost forever.’” […]
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