Free Republic

You’ve seen it: the iconic portrait of the first President, one hand clutching a sword, the other arm outstretched over an ornate table that is artfully mussed. Below this table are a few books: General Orders, American Revolution, and The Constitution and Laws of the United Sates. You read that right: The country is identified as the United Sates, not the United States. This masterpiece hangs in the East Room, the luxurious White House salon that holds social events and ceremonies, where the President hosts dignitaries from other countries and honors Americans for their contributions to society. And yet, the...

After a hard fought war for American independence, war clouds once again loomed on the horizon for the infant nation of the United States. The U.S. felt the British had forced their hand by violating three areas of sovereignty. First, England refused to surrender western forts promised to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. Second, the U.S. accused Great Britain of stopping American ships, under the premise to search for deserters, but instead was pressing U.S. sailors into British service. Third, British sanctions during the Napoleonic Wars resulted in the seizure of...

In the Washington Post Monday, there was an article about the new restoration plans for Montpelier, the historic Virginia home of James Madison. The Post interviewed the president of the Montpelier Foundation, Michael C. Quinn, and reported, "With no monument on the Mall or currency bearing Madison's image, the man Quinn calls 'chief architect of the American Republic' and author of the Bill of Rights is suffering from a lack of celebrity equal to his contribution to the nation." That sentence brings back to me a poignant memory. One day, my family and I drove down to see Thomas Jefferson's...