Novanglus Essay No. 1: John Adams
John Adams lays out the American position on the natural rights of individual Americans and the rights enjoyed by all colonial governments under British law.
Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, by John Milton
FOUNDERS CORNER: LETTERS, SPEECHES, PAMPHLETS
1644, by John Milton
TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND
This is true Liberty, when freeborn men,
Having to advise the public, may...
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!
FOUNDERS CORNER: SPEECHES, PATRICK HENRY
St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism,...
Washington’s Farewell Address
With slight shades of difference you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. George Washington
Benjamin Franklin – Satire On Extreme Notions of Freedom of the Press
FOUNDERS CORNER: LETTERS: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
For the Federal Gazette, 12 September 1789
An Account of the Supremest Court of Judicature In Pennsylvania, Viz. The Court of...
Republican Principles Versus the Corrupt Practice of Electioneering — 1788
An Elector: To the Free Electors of This Town
Boston, 1788
The theory of republican government took for granted a number of institutions and practices rarely...
Do THIS only, and the vast majority will support us.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
... that all should be satisfied with any one order of things is not to be expected: but I indulge the pleasing...
Does government help or hurt?
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
when we consider that this government is charged with the external & mutual relations only of these states, that the states themselves...
5 steps to maintain public trust over public money
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
In our care too of the public contributions entrusted to our direction, it would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation,...
James Madison: Federal Powers Limited, State Powers Indefinite
FOUNDERS CORNER: LIMITED GOVERNMENT AND FEDERALISM
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to...
The value of skill and bravery combined!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
... you have shewn to your countrymen that that enemy cannot meet bravery & skill united. in proving to them that our...
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!
FOUNDERS CORNER: SPEECHES, PATRICK HENRY
St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism,...
Beware! The government will tax you into poverty!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
... considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependancies, & to increase expence to the ultimate term of burthen which the...
Which is better, much knowledge or a little experience?
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
I am anxious to hear from you, lest you should have suffered in the same way now as on a former similar...
Where is the beef? RIGHT HERE!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
... this morning arrived the quarter you were so kind as to send me of the Mammoth-veal . tho’ so far advanced...
Edmund Burke: Social Versus Individual Liberty
FOUNDERS CORNER, EDMUND BURKE
November 1789
In a letter writte to Frenchman François Depont in November of 1789, 4 months after the outbreak of the French...
These two things are of supreme importance.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
I have safely received the copy of your history of the American revolution ... it is a happy circumstance for our country...
Your church is welcome here!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
I have recieved ... application the purchase of a site for a Roman Catholic church ... I have referred the...
It always costs more than you expect!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
I consider ... the making a good gravel road from the New bridge on Rock creek along the Pensylva & Jersey avenues...
252 gallons of wine on the wall + 252 more!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
The term of payment for the two last pipes of wine being now at hand I have desired mr John Barnes of...
Enough is enough!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
I am an enemy to all these douceurs , tributes & humiliations. what the laws impose on us let us execute faithfully;...
Let us observe Thanksgiving on December 9.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
Whereas the Honourable the General Congress, impressed with a grateful sense of the goodness of Almighty God ... hath thought proper ......
Weak leaders avoid the tough calls.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
I have known mr Page from the time we were boys & classmates together, & love him as a brother. but I...
This is what I think. You decide.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
have we a right to give passages generally to private individuals whenever a public vessel is passing from one place to another?...
I am very anxious to obtain the disease here.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
... inoculated two persons with the matter of the 24th. & 4. with that of the 26th. the latter has no...
Wrestling with hypotheticals is a time-suck.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
.... let it be known that a fact is authentic, & what is it’s exact character, & then we may act on...
No bones about it!
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
I have to ... congratulate you on the prospect you have of obtaining a compleat skeleton of the great incognitum , and...
Some are so jaded they gripe about everything.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
papers will make a noise about it . but we see they are determined to blame every thing ... & therefore...
How strong should the government be?
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
... those who will be satisfied with a government of energy enough to protect persons & property sacredly, will not, I trust,...
The only medicine works slowly and not very effectively.
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP
Being about to embark for Europe, (induced to change the Scenes which Surround me, from a recent melancholy Event having rendered them...