Free Republic

For the next week, I will be publishing excerpts from my soon-to-be released book, "America's History is His Story!" These were written as a favor for a friend of mine, who started a Christian radio station in West Virginia. And at the time of their writing, I had no thought of ever publishing them in book form. There is one of these brief essays for every day of the year. They are intended to be read on the radio on a daily basis, to establish the fact that America is indeed a Christian nation. I hope you find them both...

Thomas Jefferson was only 22 years old when the Son’s of Liberty raised the “rebellious stripes” to the top of the Liberty Tree in 1765. Ten years later he would draft the Declaration of Independence defining in timeless prose the rights of all men to be free. But his wisdom may have been even more evident when in his Inaugural Address in 1803 he warned against the redistribution of the fruits of free enterprise. He said “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare...

In recent days, in the midst of people of different faiths celebrating the religious High Holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah, there have been extraordinarily brutal mob frenzies over the chance to buy assorted products. People have been beaten and killed in the pursuit of the most insignificant of material items. I have heard many different explanations. Of course, I prefer my own. “We The People” have let the individual down. “We The People” have allowed the lives of the everyday citizen of America to become valueless. The beauty of the American experiment is that as equals, we could live completely...

On September 17, 2010 President Barack Obama spoke to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute 33rd Annual Award Gala. During his speech – reading from a teleprompter – he quoted from the Declaration of Independence. Here is what he said: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain unalienable rights, life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Perhaps his teleprompter or his brain just can’t handle the phrase “endowed by our Creator!” The Declaration of Independence defines the Constitution philosophically and spiritually, therefore in Beauty and its Author. “Progressives” have argued...

Between 1764 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 Americans produced a rich series of pamphlets and resolutions listing their grievances against the central government of the British Empire. As I have pointed out before, reading those pamphlets is very helpful in understanding what the Constitution really means. And ignorance of them contributes to common constitutional mistakes. These pamphlets are particularly useful in comprehending the Founders’ version of federalism. This is because the constitutional balance between states and federal government partly reflected what the Founders had wanted the balance to be between colonies and imperial government. One of the most...

Former Republican Speech writer Peggy Noonan has a column in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal entitled ”The Divider vs. the Thinker”—“While Obama readies an ugly campaign, Paul Ryan gives a serious account of what ails America.” Really? What choice does Obama have? That is what you do when you don’t have any legitimate successes. Without the sub-heading I would have absolutely no idea who or what Ms Noonan was talking about, until I was 2/3rds of the way through the piece. Although, I must admit that the title intrigued me and in it she asked an important question: ”What was the...

Exodus 20:17 “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbor’s.” No. I am not about to turn my collar around and climb back into my pulpit. If this piece turns out to be a sermon, then – so be it. The Bible verse above is, in fact, the Tenth Commandment. Those of the Judeo-Christian faith understand covetousness to mean: reprehensible acquisitiveness, excessively and culpably desirous of the possessions of another, or — just plain envious...

Hard-Headed Idealist The man who drafted the Bill of Rights later helped Thomas Jefferson conduct a back-channel propaganda war.. Yes, George Washington was the father of our country, but who fathered its politics? Certainly not Washington, who detested the very notion of partisanship and did his best to govern as First Magistrate, above the interests of "faction." His successor, the honest but hyper-irascible John Adams, was temperamentally incapable of cold political calculation, one reason that he was so vulnerable to attack during his single presidential term. Thomas Jefferson, who cultivated an above-the-fray, nonpolitical persona, had a keen private appreciation of...

Thank you for your invitation to be here today and I am very honored that you should ask me not only to join you in the observance of Constitution Week, but also permit me to express my respect and admiration for Hillsdale College and to thank each of you for everything you have done to make their tireless efforts possible. Now, I confess that I am not able to call myself a Hillsdale graduate nor can I lay claim to any formal affiliation with you. But, nonetheless, I come here as a very great beneficiary of your commitment to the...

Do the citizens of the United States have an absolute right to, by force of arms if necessary, overthrow a government which has, with malicious deliberation, become destructive of those ideals of liberty granted by God and guaranteed by instruments such as the Constitution of the Unites States? Clearly the Founders believed in the existence of such a right. There could be no more axiomatic example than the American Revolution itself! And though these men warned against pursuing such a course for “light and transient causes”, rightly observing that “…mankind are more disposed to suffer…than right themselves by abolishing forms...

Mark Twain's aphorism that "there is no distinctly native American criminal class—except Congress" sums up a long-standing national contempt for public servants. Generally the Founding Fathers are exempt from such derision, making it tempting to believe that America's first politicians were of a more pristine character than our present-day scalawags. Not so, suggest Denise Kiernan and Joseph D'Agnese in "Signing Their Rights Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the United States Constitution," which offers brief vignettes of all 39 signatories to the nation's founding document and shows that for every great name there were at least...

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1798 to liberal political theorist and Virgina Senator John Taylor that he wished the constitution included strict debt limitations: “I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing. I now deny their power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender. I know that to pay all proper expenses within the year would, in case of war, be...

There's little that's intelligent or informed about Time magazine editor Richard Stengel's article "One Document, Under Siege" (June 23, 2011). It contains many grossly ignorant statements about our Constitution. If I believed in conspiracies, I'd say Stengel's article is part of a leftist agenda to undermine respect for the founding values of our nation. Stengel says: "The framers were not gods and were not infallible. Yes, they gave us, and the world, a blueprint for the protection of democratic freedoms -- freedom of speech, assembly, religion -- but they also gave us the idea that a black person was three-fifths...

As we celebrate our country’s beginnings how many of us truly remember and celebrate true beginnings? How many even care? Looking back on the formation of the United States of America we attribute her conception to the “founding fathers.� How soon do we forget what our own fathers have told us as we grow up and start a life for ourselves. So it’s no wonder that the majority of Americans can’t even name our founding fathers even less know what they thought.  When we don’t remember our history we are sure to have a sketchy future. Foundations are important. No...

This is how the progressives do it. Plant some seeds, then before you know it these kinds of ideas will be all over the media. Time magazine cover features shredded U.S. Constitution, asks if it still matters And This Exists: Iceland Rewrites Their Constitution Using Suggestions Through Twitter This second link has me more troubled than the first. The things that Fareed Zakaria are saying could practically be lifted right out of the pages of The Road to Serfdom. I don't think it's possible to state just how much danger we are in. These progressives are out for blood.

There has been ample tongue-clucking about abysmal student scores on the civics and history portions of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), but the real scandal has gone unnoticed. It is certainly a shame that two-thirds of fourth-graders and nearly three-quarters of eighth-graders don’t know the purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and that over half of America’s high-school seniors score below the basic level on history. What’s worse, however, is that some of what students are expected to know about the principles of the American Founding is at odds with what the founders themselves believed. Fourth-graders, for...

There I was, watching yet another Law and Order re-run on TNT. In this episode a scientist claimed to have discovered a gene for homosexuality. During the second half of the show, the district attorneys had their usual strategy pow-wow. Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter suggested the murderer might be an angry homosexual, because if there is indeed a homosexual gene it could lead to abortions by “homophobic” parents. “That could lead to the elimination of an entire community,” D. A. Cutter said, obviously troubled. I waited for one of the other characters to say something like: “But, Mike,...

Natural Law - The Ultimate Source of Constitutional Law"Man ... must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator.. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.... This law of nature...is of course superior to any other.... No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of them as are valid derive all their force...from this original." - Sir William Blackstone (Eminent English Jurist) The Founders DID NOT establish the Constitution for the purpose of granting rights. Rather, they established this government of laws (not a government of men) in order...

The best interview smack-down of Jon Stewart ever - Constitutional scholar/historian/evangelist David Barton (frequent Glenn Back guest and 8/28 participant) disproves all of Stewart's research and efforts to erase religion from our founding history. This is a 3-part extended interview. If it's not still featured in the main screen, there should be a link on that page to view it (5/4/2011) A great watch!!!

“We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.” … Hilaire Belloc How many times have you heard someone say that when liberals are out of power their antics are funny … but when they are in power they are dangerous? My guess is you have...

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The Preamble to the Constitution was added at the last minute by the Constitutional Convention, roundly criticized upon its announcement, and even today lacks any legal standing. So what does it mean, and why does it matter? “We the People” was a powerful and even revolutionary way to...

112th Congress promotes Founders' valuesJanuary 19, 2011 at 5:00 PM Facing the political divide It’s tough for progressives to face the abyss that divides the left and right [“Ground rules for a divided nation,” Opinion, Jan. 16]. Our liberal icon Paul Krugman offered the thread of rationale to the mean-spirited “I earned it and I have a right to keep it” crowd. The divide that Krugman eloquently laments emerged just a page away in George Will’s arrogant and defenseless demand for a return to “exceptionalism” [“The restorative agenda of the 112th Congress,” Opinion, Jan. 16]. Indeed, Will unabashedly embraces this...

In 1775 there were three types of colonist: Patriots, Tories and the indifferent. Each category represented approximately one-third of the population. The Tories were those who supported King George III and British rule of the colonies. They were comprised primarily of government officials and those who supported them. During the war for independence, they either returned to England or sided with the British against the Patriots. Many became spies for the British. Their objective was to keep the Patriots from gaining independence. Should the Patriots be successful, the Tories would lose their elite status and lucrative positions with the British...

Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips wrote in a blog post that the founding fathers would have hated Bill Maher because of his support for socialist policies. Responding to a recent tirade in which Maher expressed (among other things) a total ignorance of history, he said: Now, I want you teabaggers out there to understand one thing: while you idolize the Founding Fathers and dress up like them, and smell like them, I think it’s pretty clear that the Founding Fathers would have hated your guts. And what’s more, you would’ve hated them. They were everything you despise. They studied...

FULL TITLE: George Washington Approved Soldier’s Dismissal for Attempt ‘To Commit Sodomy’ at Valley Forge, With ‘Detestation of Such Infamous Crimes’ The Democrat-controlled Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed, a few days before Christmas, legislation to repeal the law against homosexuals serving in the military. Back in 1778, at Valley Forge, however, Gen. George Washington approved the dismissal of a soldier for “attempting to commit sodomy,” with “abhorrence and detestation of such infamous crimes,” according to Washington’s papers at the Library of Congress. Washington (1732-1799) was the leader of the Continental Army in America’s revolutionary war against Britain and...

It’s rather dismaying to see the thoughtful and well-regarded online magazine Front Porch Republic being roiled by a series of articles written by editor John Medaille celebrating the virtues of monarchism as compared to democracy. I don’t believe John’s point was call for the U.S. to build its own Buckingham Palace or design its own crown and scepter, which will never happen in a million years. It was to simply show the follies of democratism as a guarantor of the public’s liberties compared to an enlightened king (one tyrant 3,000 miles away as compared to 3,000 tyrants one mile a...

James Madison Drinks, and Writes an ArticlePhilip Freneau had set the deadline for the December 22nd edition of the National Gazette, and James Madison found himself racing the hourglass. Freneau published the newspaper, dedicated to the positions of Thomas Jefferson’s faction within the Congress and the council around His Excellency, while working for the red-haired Secretary of State as a translator. Mr. Jefferson saw neither difficulty nor conflict with this arrangement. Freneau had labeled the men of Alexander Hamilton’s faction as Monarchists, Tories, and Anti-Republicans, claiming their role was to reverse the results of 1776. The Secretary of the Treasury...

Hi Freeper friends! Our friend LS is coming on Glenn Beck's show live, right now, as we speak. For the time-delayed, it's in the third hour, at :38 after. Glenn just noted that "A Patriot's History of the United States" is a must-read ... and that he's an American hero, toiling in the background, trying to get the word out. Tune in!

"When the Founding Fathers created this nation, they designated it a republic rather than a democracy. They did so because a republic is fixed and tends toward stability over time, whereas a democracy, which is always in flux, is prone to violent dissolution at any moment. In fact, many of them referred to democracy as “mob rule,” and wanted to avoid it like the plague for fear that it could provide a faction the opportunity to access to the levers of political power and change the course of the nation for the worse in a relatively short period of time."...

This week we have two prominent examples proving that liberals are ignoramuses about the Constitution and U.S. history. One incident wholly misunderstood by the left was uttered by the redoubtable Sarah Palin and the other by Christine O'Donnell. First up Sarah. In Nevada Sarah Palin kicked off a new tour to spur conservatives and Republicans to the polls just ahead of the midterm elections. During one of her speeches Palin said that conservatives shouldn't "party like it's 1773" just yet. We need to keep our shoulder to the wheel and get to the polls first, she warned. The idiots of...

Founding-Father Nostalgia and Tea Party Have Many Americans Playing Dress Up. As fashions go, powdered wigs are so yesterday. These days, that's a selling point. When William Barbee, a 60-year-old electrical contractor from Hardeeville, S.C., attended Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington in August, he couldn't stop admiring several attendees dressed up like the Founding Fathers. They made him nostalgic. "These people didn't spend the country into oblivion back then," he says of 18th-century America's leaders. So Mr. Barbee went shopping for a new rally wardrobe. Inspired by the style of Charles Pinckney, a South Carolinian and principal signer...

You seem . . . to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is "boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem, '' and their power the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has...

President and Mrs. Arnn, Mr. John Cervini, Mr. David Bobb, Elliot Gaiser, College Republicans and each and every one of the faculty and students of Hillsdale College here today.… As I am sure you know, honor is what allows us to do what is right despite the cost. Even greater honor is required to do what is right in the face of superior power. And the greatest honor is to stand strong even if it means standing alone. The long fight of Hillsdale College, standing alone -- then and now for the proposition that all men are created equal, then...

Today marks Constitution Day. On 17 September 1787, in Philadelphia, the Framers of the American Constitution added their signatures to the document they had produced, and soon thereafter it was dispatched to the Continental Congress for consideration by the states. On this day, it is appropriate that we, their heirs, reconsider their handiwork and ask whether ours is still a constitutional government. In their deliberations, the Framers confronted one great question, and it was largely on this question that the debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists during the ratification period turned. Can one establish an enduring republic on an...

…Impeachment is a constitutional remedy addressed to serious offenses against the system of government. The purpose of impeachment under the Constitution is indicated by the limited scope of the remedy (removal from office and possible disqualification from future office) and by the stated grounds for impeachment (treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors). It is not controlling whether treason and bribery are criminal. More important, they are constitutional wrongs that subvert the structure of government, or undermine the integrity of office and even the Constitution itself, and thus are “high” offenses in the sense that word was used in...

The celebration of our founders' 1776 revolt against King George III and the English Parliament is over. Let's reflect how the founders might judge today's Americans and how today's Americans might judge them. In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 to assist some French refugees, James Madison, the acknowledged father of our Constitution, stood on the floor of the House to object, saying, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." He later added, "(T)he government of the United...

No surprise. The Siena College presidential poll–a ranking of 44 presidents by 200 historians–put Franklin Roosevelt in first place. In other words, the man who, during his first two terms, gave us nonstop double digit unemployment–and 20 percent unemployment toward the end of his second term, is ranked ahead of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and all other American presidents.

It appears the President of the United States can't contain his disdain for America's historical roots. On Independence Day, instead of stressing the awesome concepts of the Declaration of Independence, Obama managed to turn a BBQ into an opportunity to disparage our founders, foster class warfare and further division. On July 4th the Commander-in-Chief invited the military to a White House cookout and then used the occasion to skewer the Founding Fathers. Rather than depicting America as "one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all," once again Barack-the-great-divider separated America into factions and brought up a time in...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Calling the Declaration of Independence more than words on an aging parchment, President Barack Obama marked the Fourth of July on Sunday by urging Americans to live the principles that founded the nation as well as celebrate them. "This is the day when we celebrate the very essence of America and the spirit that has defined us as a people and as a nation for more than two centuries," Obama told guests at a South Lawn barbecue honoring service members and their families. "We celebrate the principles that are timeless, tenets first declared by men of property...

I know everyone is excited about the day, and has their activities planned out. From wonderful parades to BBQs, ball games, and rodeos, or maybe a magnificent concert and fireworks display, this is a day of fun and celebration. As we celebrate the birth of our Republic, the greatest nation the world has ever known, I hope people will reflect on the founding. The fight to win Freedom and Liberty, at a time when tyranny was the norm, is the defining struggle for all of mankind.

Are you drinking the tea? For the better part of the last two years, driven largely by local and national protests, the anti-tax Tea Party movement has continued to attract followers. Many of the protests that fueled the growth heading into the 2010 midterm elections were in response to the financial bailouts of the banks and automotive industry, the federal stimulus package and the health care reform bill. "I believe this was building through 2008," said Stephen Bloom, a Carlisle attorney and Republican nominee for the 199th Legislative District seat in the state House. There was pent-up frustration about the...

Americans celebrate their independence today in a very different society from the one born in 1776. The beliefs the Founders held most dear, and upon which they built a uniquely free society, are largely alien -- even objectionable -- in today's America. I am not referring to the changes brought about by President Obama, but to a deeper change that preceded Obama and which fueled his ascendancy. The principles of freedom upon which America was built -- such as the ideas that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights -- arose from...

This exhibition demonstrates that many of the colonies that in 1776 became the United States of America were settled by men and women of deep religious convictions who in the seventeenth century crossed the Atlantic Ocean to practice their faith freely. That the religious intensity of the original settlers would diminish to some extent over time was perhaps to be expected, but new waves of eighteenth century immigrants brought their own religious fervor across the Atlantic and the nation's first major religious revival in the middle of the eighteenth century injected new vigor into American religion

'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights - that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men" The Declaration of Independence was the birth certificate of the United States of America. The principles they communicate have informed our history as a free people and inspired our neighbors in other parts of the world to stand up against all forms of tyranny. As we reflect upon the text this weekend we need...

(AP) Democrats are reportedly planning to raise $125 million for a campaign to sell Obamacare to the voting public. Apparently the idea is that what 50-plus presidential speeches and statements and months of congressional debate could not do can be done by $125 million spent on everything from TV ads to community organizers.Maybe. But there seems to be a more fundamental problem here. The Obama Democrats didn't set out to produce an unpopular stimulus package, an unpopular health care bill and an unpopular cap-and-trade scheme.They thought these initiatives would be popular. In their view, history is a story of...

ounding Father James Madison was not an imposing figure, standing only about 5 foot, 4 inches and weighing less than 100 pounds. He may not have been imposing to look at, but he was an intellectual force to be reckoned with. He is also often referred to as the "father of the Constitution."

I know many of you dont like Mr. Beck, but as a proud black conservative, I feel an obligation to pass this on. It makes me even more proud to be American than I already was. http://watchglennbeck.com/video/2010/May/Glenn-Beck-Show-May-28-2010-Black-American-Founding-Fathers/

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A library book borrowed by the first U.S. president, George Washington, has been returned to a New York City's oldest library, 221 years late. Washington checked out the book from the New York Society Library at a time when the library shared a building with the federal government in lower Manhattan. The library said in a statement that its borrowing records, or charging ledger, showed Washington took out "The Law of Nations" by Emer de Vattel on October 5, 1789. The book was not returned, nor any overdue book fine paid -- with the overdue fee...

Discover the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Founding Fathers which they said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desired peace, prosperity, and freedom... These beliefs have made possible more progress in 200 years than was made previously in over 5,000 years. Thus the title "The 5,000 Year Leap". The following is a brief overview of the principles found in The 5,000 Year Leap, and one chapter is devoted to each of these 28 principles... Read more at: http://www.volusia912.org/The_28_Principles.pdf

A Salon writer wonders, "What's the conservative fetish with the Founding Fathers?" It's because we read history, my sadly ignorant friend. So did the Founders. History is full of Obamas...