Free Republic

Subtitle: The Matter of the Mississippi River. A not inconsequential percentage of Article V opponents, like those in the John Birch Society, identify as Anti-Federalists. They question the 1780s need for the vigorous government of our Constitution. Those familiar with the era know of Shays’ Rebellion. According to modern Anti-Federalists, Shays’ was the pretext for nationalists like George Washington and James Madison to justify the 1787 Philadelphia Convention. There were other problems facing the infant United States to which the Articles of Confederation proved inadequate. For instance, most of the great European and New World ports were closed to American...

It is beyond my power of discernment to identify the most over-the-top comment criticizing President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. But this tweet by a Harvard professor named Joyce Chaplin is surely a contender: The USA, created by int’l community in Treaty of Paris in 1783, betrays int’l community by withdrawing from #parisclimateagreement today. Chaplin teaches American Studies. Yet, she appears not to know how America was created. Ted Cruz reminded her: Just sad. Tenured chair at Harvard, doesn’t seem to know how USA was created. Not a treaty. Declaration+Revolutionary War+Constitution=USA. He added: Lefty academics...

Benjamin Franklin owed the French for recognizing American independence, loaning money and entering the Revolutionary War against Britain. None of that, though, stopped Franklin from putting America's interests first and risking antagonizing the French when he negotiated a peace treaty with Britain. America won much better terms from the Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, than the Colonists had hoped for. On top of Britain's acceptance of U.S. independence, the treaty set America's boundary in the West at the Mississippi River — giving the young nation plenty of room and resources to grow. The problem was France, as well...

INTERCESSORS FOR AMERICA ON WATCH IN WASHINGTON 14 January, 2004 | Today’s Topics: Today Marks The 220th Anniversary of the U.S. Ratification of The Treaty Of Paris, Officially Establishing The United States as an Independent Sovereign Nation DC Primary Has No Impact On Party Nomination Blood Shortages Continue In Metro DC Park Service Police Fail Security Test At Washington Monument Extensive Marriage Education And Promotion Initiative Planned By President Bush FCC Chief Calls For Word Ban New Jersey Becomes Fifth State To Recognize Same-Sex Partnerships Congressional Group Warns Of “Morning After” Pill Dangers And OTC Sales Witchcraft and Magic Drawing...

Free and Independent September 11, 2003 A recent biography of Thomas Jefferson contains an amusing statement. It says that Jefferson’s arguments in the 1798 Kentucky Resolutions “brought him dangerously close to secessionism.” Apparently the biographer doesn’t realize that Jefferson was an explicit secessionist. For openers, he wrote a famous secessionist document known to posterity as the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration proclaims the 13 American colonies “Free and Independent States” — adding “that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which...