Founders of the U.S. Constitution

Adams and Jefferson reflect on the Revolution and the future of liberty (1823)

Alexander Hamilton on the Civil Balance of Power

Alexander Hamilton on the Constitutionality of a National Bank

Alexander Hamilton warns of the danger to civil society and liberty from a standing army since “the military state becomes elevated above the civil” (1787)

Benjamin Franklin and the Need for Unity among the Colonies

Benjamin Franklin on the “superstructure” of Good Government (1736)

Benjamin Franklin on the trade off between essential liberty and temporary safety (1775)

Benjamin Franklin’s List of Virtues for “Clean” Living

George Washington on the Difference between Commercial and Political Relations with other Countries (1796)

George Washington warns that the knee jerk reaction of citizens to problems is to seek a solution in the creation of a “new monarch”(1786)

George Washington warns the nation in his Farewell Address, that love of power will tend to create a real despotism in America unless proper checks and balances are maintained to limit government power (1796)

James Madison argues that the Constitution places war-making powers squarely with the legislative branch; for the president to have these powers is the “the true nurse of executive aggrandizement” (1793)

James Madison on the “sagacious and monied few” who are able to “harvest” the benefits of government regulations (1787)

James Madison on the dangers of elections resulting in overbearing majorities who respect neither justice nor individual rights, Federalist 10 (1788)

James Madison on the mischievous effects of mutable government in The Federalist no. 62 (1788)

James Madison on the necessity of separating the power of “the sword from the purse” (1793)

James Madison on the need for the “separation of powers” because “men are not angels,” Federalist 51 (1788)

James Madison on the need for the people to declare war and for each generation, not future generations, to bear the costs of the wars they fight (1792)

Jefferson feared that it would only be a matter of time before the American system of government degenerated into a form of “elective despotism” (1785)

Jefferson on how Congress misuses the inter-state commerce and general welfare clauses to promote the centralization of power (1825)

Jefferson on Taxes and the General Welfare (1791)

Jefferson on the right to change one’s government (1776)

Jefferson tells Congress that since tax revenues are increasing faster than population then taxes on all manner of items can be “dispensed with” (i.e. abolished) (1801)

Jefferson warns about the rise of an “Anglo-Monarchio-Aristocratic party” in America (1797)

Jefferson’s list of objections to the British Empire in his first draft of the Declaration of Independence (1776)

Jefferson’s preference for “newspapers without government” over “government without newspapers” (1787)

John Adams argues that the British Empire is not a “true” empire but a form of a “republic” where the rule of law operates (1763)

John Adams on how absolute power intoxicates those who excercise that power (1814)

John Adams on Religion and the Constitution

John Adams predicts a glorious future for America under the new Constitution and is in “reverence and awe” at its future prospects (1787)

John Adams thought he could see arbitrary power emerging in the American colonies and urged his countrymen to “nip it in the bud” before they lost all their liberties (1774)

John Jay in The Federalist Papers discussed why nations go to war and concluded that it was not for justice but “whenever they have a prospect of getting any thing by it” (1787)

John Jay on the pretended as well as the just causes of war (1787)

Madison on “Parchment Barriers” and the defence of liberty I (1788)

Madison on “Parchment Barriers” and the defence of liberty II (1788)

The 7th Day of Christmas: Madison on “the most noble of all ambitions” which a government can have, of promoting peace on earth (1816)

The 8th Day of Christmas: Jefferson on the inevitability of revolution in England only after which there will be peace on earth (1817)

Thomas Jefferson and The National Bank Question Yet Again: 1813-1817

Thomas Jefferson boasts about having reduced the size of government and eliminated a number of “vexatious” taxes (1805)

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Taylor condemns the system of banking as “a blot” on the constitution, as corrupt, and that long-term government debt was “swindling” future generations (1816)

Thomas Jefferson on Slavery and Liberty

Thomas Jefferson on Slavery and the Wrath of God

Thomas Jefferson on the Draft as "the last of all oppressions" (1777)

Thomas Jefferson on the Unity of the Nation

Thomas Jefferson on whether the American Constitution is binding on those who were not born at the time it was signed and agreed to (1789)

Thomas Jefferson opposed vehemently the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798 which granted the President enormous powers showing that the government had become a tyranny which desired to govern with "a rod of iron" (1798)

Thomas Jefferson’s First Draft of the Declaration of Independence denounced the slave trade as an “execrable Commerce” and slavery itself as a “cruel war against nature itself” (1776)