What Jefferson Taught Us

What Jefferson taught us https://t.co/gV3CUT4Quy

— Dissident Mama (@Dissident_Mama) December 24, 2020

National Banks

"The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States, by the #Constitution.”
-Thomas Jeffersonhttps://t.co/TPvBRZGJXT

— TenthAmendmentCenter (@TenthAmendment) October 7, 2020

Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea

Another nice review of "Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea," this time in @ModAgeJournal. We were fortunate to have Dr. Watson as our second guest on the show. Have a listen. https://t.co/P3ctTN4Asz https://t.co/EjVBrBSozP

— Ill Literacy: Books with Benson (@IllBooks) September 16, 2020

UND Press

Uh Huh

"It might be appropriate to revise the Haivry/Hazony binary thesis just a bit - starting with Thomas Jefferson." https://t.co/iyNWiw7VwA

— The American Conservative (@amconmag) August 31, 2020

Robert Merry

Jefferson, Madison, and the Making of the Constitution by Jeff Broadwater

UNC Press

Madison confided it was probably better than the Articles of Confederation, but without what he called his favorite proposal—a federal veto over state laws—would fail within a few years. https://t.co/sOdFxgc536

— Law & Liberty (@LawLiberty) June 19, 2020

LL

What Is Needed for the Development of Republican Virtue

A decent essay on what is actually required for republican virtue -- and in a system that doesn't allow for the full development of all 4 aspects is something that must be worked around. Find your tribe.

Imaginative Conservative: A Jeffersonian Model of Citizenship by Ralph Ketcham

The Brion McClanahan Show Episode 223: Rethinking Thomas Jefferson

Abbeville Institute: Jefferson the President by Forrest McDonald

Of all the presidents of the United States, none save Washington and Lincoln have inspired half so much historical writing as Thomas Jefferson. Books and articles by the score have dealt with the Sage of… »

Two Promising Articles from The Imaginative Conservative

The Articles of Confederation and State Sovereignty by Nathan Coleman

The Revolutionary Conservatism of Jefferson & Small Republics by Arthur J. Versluis

Southron Economics?

Yankee Finance Capitalism Made Simple by John Devanny

Part One: Definitions and Origins Money is a great mystery. In my years of teaching economics courses and economic history nothing so confuses students, and their elders, as the subject of money. Or rather I… »


Yankee Finance Capitalism Part II: The Jeffersonian Triumph by John Devanny

“The revenue of the state is the state.” Edmund Burke The rise of the modern nation state in the 1600s was founded upon monarchies securing independent sources of revenue to pay for the royal armies… »

A Review of Kevin Gutzman's Latest

Jefferson the Man by John Devanny

A Jeffersonian Political Economy by Clyde Wilson

The Tradition of Limited Government

Abbeville Institute: Jeffersonian Conservatism By Ryan Walters

Jefferson

A consistent liberal?


The Chaos of a Hillary Clinton Presidency: Corporate Dominion and Open Rebellion by Richard W. Behan

Reform is neither difficult nor unprecedented. Our history displays a number of means of subordinating corporate interests to the welfare of the American people. More than a century ago—in the “Gilded Age”—the nation faced a similar crisis and dealt with it successfully. And a century before that, effective mechanisms were in place to restrain corporate dominion, even though the threat of it was already visible.

This is what Thomas Jefferson said about the issue: “I hope we shall crush… in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

Note Jefferson’s concern was merely prospective, wary of potential. Corporate enterprise was not yet dominant, only pushing to be. At the time, corporations were very strongly circumscribed, to assure their subservience to public well-being. Perhaps Jefferson feared they would escape the control mechanisms early corporations faced:

*they were chartered for a limited period of time, typically twenty years

*they were chartered for a single specific purpose, say to construct a toll road

*the charter could be revoked if the corporation’s behavior violated public interests

*stockholders, directors, and officers of the corporation were personally responsible for the corporation’s obligations or transgressions

* a corporation could not buy or otherwise merge with another corporation

Mr. Jefferson’s fears were realized.

As the 1800’s progressed corporations in America—particularly the great railroads—fought vigorously and successfully to have these constraints relaxed, and all of them were. The corporate structure escaped any meaningful public control.

Eventually corporations could grow without limit by absorbing others; they could live in perpetuity; they could undertake multiple tasks and change them at will. Personal liability was limited to a pittance, and charter revocation virtually disappeared. Then, in 1866, corporations as artificial persons became legal persons: the Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad extended the rights of U.S. citizenship to corporate entities. They were granted equal protection under the law, their rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. (The grant of legal personhood, Thom Hartmann discovered, was technically illegal, but it has endured. See his book, Unequal Protection.)

Lincoln's America

Is the Mississippi State Flag “Anti-American”? by Donald Livingston on Apr 15, 2016

Brion McClanahan Responds to Victor Davis Hanson

Jefferson’s “Rightful Remedy” by Brion McClanahan

Kevin Gutzman on Alexander Hamilton

Hamilton Takes Broadway By Kevin R.C. Gutzman
A Founding Father gets his due—in a hip-hop musical.



Hamilton

Also, America's Kingly Constitution.

Another Independence Day

Cupertino has cancelled the annual 4th of July fireworks show because of the drought. While the South and East Asian may miss their yearly entertainment, the significance of Independence Day is probably lost on most, if not all, of them, who at best subscribe to some form of the proposition nation and may not even care about that, so long as they personally benefit from the current system.

I've been seeing a lot of Muslim veils at the local Costco in Sunnyvale. When will the Supreme Court rule on polygamy for Muslims?

"Let it burn." There is a temptation to sit back and enjoy the decline. How do men respond rightly and with dignity to hostile forces seeking to subjugate them and to convert them to an ideology that hates Christianity? MGTOW is one solution, even if wrong-headed when taken as an absolute rejection of certain goods, but it does allow a man to live his life on his own terms rather than submitting to someone who does not have rightful authority over him. RooshV has recently begun formulating a more positive account of men, which he calls "neo-masculinity."

Resignation may be the only option, but this is not the same as capitulation.

Still, while we breathe what can we do to resist those forces and to promote the good life? For what purpose should men organize? What is worth saving? Traditional conservatives know the answers to these questions, though some Americans may have forgotten the role scale plays in setting limits. When do we withhold pearls (such as friendship but not charity) from "swine"? How do we treat those who are not only hostile to our values but seek to harm us financially or worse? Vox Day has taken one course of action -- there may be a lucky few who live in a community which has some measure of economic autarky and do not have to worry about boycotts and being fired and such. But what of those who are stuck in the megacities?

To be continued...

Independence from What? by Mike Maharrey
Uncelebrating the Fourth by Harry Browne
Thomas Jefferson's Legacy by Dave Benner

Thomas Jefferson

We Are All Jeffersonians by Brion McClanahan
Tommy, We Hardly Knew Ye by John Devanny

Jefferson's Legacy

Taking Back Thomas Jefferson by James Rutledge Roesch

Marshall on political liberty, the Declaration of Independence, and Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address