Gerald R. Ford Leadership Forum
by Jeff Polet On the 50th anniversary of our Constitution, and at the unripened age of 28, Abraham Lincoln took the stage at the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield IL to address the topic “On the perpetuation of our political institutions.” Known now simply as The Lyceum Address, it is one of the most impressive …
by Jeff Polet Colin Woodard in his Eleven Nations identified the deep regional differences that divide this country. The temptation to see ourselves as united, or having been united, is irresistible, but the fact is that America has always had more pluribus than unum. Obviously, this nation has a lot of religious, ethnic, cultural, and …
by Jeff Polet On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention, after much discussion and deliberation, completed its work. This did not, however, bring an end to debate and controversy. To put itself into effect the Constitution was sent to the states for the process of ratifying the document. Obviously, state ratifying conventions would determine the …
by Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug Editor’s Note: In honor of Black History Month we are publishing this introduction to the life and work of one of the most remarkable figures of the founding era: Phillis Wheatley.] No gravestone marks the place of Phillis Wheatley’s rest. Of course, this is not unusual. Phillis Wheatley was a Black …
Phillis Wheatley: Our First African-American Poet Read More »
by Jeff Polet Many matters were debated at the Constitutional Convention, but the central issue involved the problem of political representation, which carries within itself one of the fundamental problems of social life: namely, the principal/agent problem. Simply stated, when you commission someone to act on your behalf you run the risk that this person …
by Jeff Polet Scholars have long debated the role of religion in the founding of America. Most will acknowledge its primal role in the early settlements, but some scholars argue that by the time we reach the Constitutional Convention, we have created a “Godless” or religiously neutral document. We may set aside that argument for …
by Jeff Polet Readers may not be aware of it, but there is a significant academic debate going on about liberalism in general, and “Lockean liberalism” in particular. These debates will have significant consequences for how we understand the American Constitutional order. For example, Catholic “integralists” reject liberalism out of hand and argue that since …
by Kirstin Anderson BirkhaugUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison In 1790, two years before Mary Wollstonecraft published her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, an American woman with the pen name “Constantia” released her own treatise on the equality of the sexes. “Constantia,” or, rather, Judith Sargent Murray, set out to prove the profound injustice of sexual inequality …
-Jeff Polet Jefferson’s belief that democracy requires a “well-informed” citizenry has been so oft-repeated that it is almost a cliché. We forget, sometimes, that an informed citizenry is primarily a hedge against tyranny, the emergence of which was one of Jefferson’s great fears. His “Preamble to a Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge” …
