Center for the American Republic

08/22/2024

Ο Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Walsingham, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon us, our Parish, our country, our homes, and our families, and upon all who greatly hope and trust in your prayers. By you it was that Jesus, our Saviour and hope, was given to the world; and he has given you to us that we may hope still more. Plead for us your children, whom you did receive and accept at the foot of the Cross, O sorrowful Mother. Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works we all may be made worthy to see and praise God, together with you in our heavenly home. Amen. Our Lady of Walsingham: Pray for us.

07/24/2024

The Incarnation is the center of all history. Everything that happened before the Incarnation was leading up to it, and everything that has happened since can only be understood through it. The Incarnation is what history is about. How is this event always with us, shaping our lives? The answer is the Church. The Church, put simply, is the Body of Christ both continuing in history and extending beyond history into eternity. ~Andrew Willard Jones, The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics

07/04/2020

We may ask what is meant by the “practice of happiness.” To judge from Jefferson’s own, if not quite representative, then certainly exemplary, way of life, the meaning is not far from Aristotle’s definition of happiness as a practice, that is, an “activity of the soul in accordance with excellence.” (essay by Eva Brann)

The Declaration of Independence, intended as an expression of the common opinion, is truly a text of "right opinion," a benign practical text which also has a peculiarly sound relation to the realm of thought. Section I: The Legacy of the Declaration When American

02/10/2020

Adams was the best and most colorful stylist among the Founders. Although Jefferson is widely regarded as the smoothest writer, Adams is by far the most engaging and imaginative. His vividly descriptive prose is supremely quotable. Adams wears his heart on his sleeve and reveals all of his ambitions, doubts, and insecurities, especially in his diary, which is one of the greatest and most readable in all of American literature. (Interview with Gordon Wood)

John Adams never had an optimistic view of human nature, and his experience in the Congress and abroad only deepened his suspicion that his fellow Americans might not have the character to sustain a republican government... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportun...

02/09/2020

None of Jefferson’s individualist enthusiasms was detached from an Aristotelian sense of the necessarily social quality of human life: man was by nature a political animal. Human government was much more than a necessary evil; rather it was part and parcel of the very capacity to be a human being. Thus Jefferson’s celebration, even idealization, of the yeoman farmer rested partly on his political virtue and usefulness.

The assumptions linked to the more deliberative, publicly responsible model of citizenship, though utopian and far-fetched at least within the perspective of modern, western society, can be thought of in a way that makes them seem more practical. Thomas Jefferson, for example, believed both

12/01/2019

My first resort will be to that Constitution, which I shall swear to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the powers and prescribes the duties of the Executive Magistrate—to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of this Union in their successive generations... (address by John Quincy Adams)

This was delivered by President John Quincy Adams at his Inaugural, March, 1825. In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Federal Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your pre...

11/09/2019

Mr. Jefferson speaks of “sound philosophy equally indifferent to hope and fear”. But what matters more is Jefferson’s concern with truth and knowledge, surely the mark of a philosopher. He regards truth as the achievable end of free inquiry and as the proper basis of political action: “Difference of opinion leads to inquiry and inquiry to truth”. And what is the Declaration of Independence but a monument to the belief that revolutionary action must rest on truth?

Thomas Jefferson is a kind of incarnate compendium of the Enlightenment. His remarkable openness to its spirit is the philosophical counterpart to his political sensitivity in making himself "a passive auditor of the opinions of others," so as to catch the "harmonizing sentiments of the day" and to....

05/01/2019

Thomas Jefferson in his own words is a gift to those who love the American Republic. Veteran historical actor-interpreter Bill Barker is widely recognized as the nation’s foremost interpreter of Thomas Jefferson. Now, after portraying Thomas Jefferson at Colonial Williamsburg for the last 26 years, Barker will join the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello starting on June 14. All who love the Republic should visit him there. Enjoy this video!

Editor's Note: We invite you to join Thomas Jefferson (portrayed by Bill Barker) as he explores the remarkable history of the early American Republic and the principles that undergird it. From Jamestown to Plymouth, from the American Revolution to the Louisiana Purchase, the promise of free enterpri...

04/30/2019

"The direction that constitutional practice has taken in the past hundred years shows that the Framers’ conception of republican government has passed and the era of populist democracy has arrived. The underlying transformation of the unwritten constitution renders efforts to return to the Framers’ original intent problematic..." (essay by Michael Federici)

The direction that constitutional practice has taken in the past hundred years shows that the Framers’ conception of republican government has passed and the era of populist democracy has arrived. The underlying transformation of the unwritten constitution renders efforts to return to the Framers....

04/19/2019

Today in 1775, the first shots of the Revolutionary war were fired at Lexington: "On Memorial Day, let us remember those who have served the American cause of Natural Law, Natural Rights, and the dignity of the human person since April 19, 1775..." (essay by Bradley Birzer)

British Major Pitcarne took six companies of an advance team to scout out Lexington, Massachusetts, early morning, April 19, 1775. Behind him marched nearly 6,000 troops with orders arriving from London to capture any New England leaders of the so-called rebellion. Hours before

04/17/2019

Had the Nationalists carried the day in 1776 and turned the Continental Congress into a national government, implied powers would have been the normal constitutional practice from the moment of independence… (essay by Nathan Coleman)

Had the Nationalists carried the day in 1776 and turned the Continental Congress into a national government, implied powers would have been the normal constitutional practice from the moment of independence... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to joi...

04/16/2019

Article II of the Articles of Confederation codified that one of the purposes of the American Revolution was the protection of state sovereignty, by making state sovereignty a fundamental aspect of the American constitutional order… (essay by Nate Coleman)

Article II of the Articles of Confederation codified that one of the purposes of the American Revolution was the protection of state sovereignty, by making state sovereignty a fundamental aspect of the American constitutional order... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our reade...