Free Republic

James Madison’s list of achievements did not happen by accident. We have much to learn from him.The following is adapted from the book Lessons in Liberty: Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans.Happy 273rd birthday to James Madison, the most egregiously underappreciated, sadly uncelebrated, and unfairly unsung American in the history of the United States.Consider the list of his towering achievements: Father of the American Constitution, formulator of American federalism, collaborator of The Federalist Papers, de facto doula of the Bill of Rights, and the fourth president of the United States.Yet there is no significant monument in Washington, D.C.,...

The Framers structured the Constitution to lead the new Republic to the ultimate end of slavery but were unable to set a time frame for its abolition. The story comes to us from James Madison’s classic Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787.The discussion on slavery at the Federal Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 centered on two issues: 1. how to count the slaves in the apportionment of members in the popularly elected House of Representatives and; 2) setting an end date for the slave trade.Three distinct groups clashed on the assignment of House...

What is this midterm election really about? Watch as Mark literally tears through the radical left’s agenda and why their policies and ideologies are tearing the country apart.

NEW YORK CITY, NY — After musical artist and professional twerker Lizzo made waves by playing James Madison's crystal flute on stage, Beyoncé upped the ante by performing in Times Square wearing George Washington's false teeth. "Howth ethyone doointh tonighth?" yelled out Beyoncé to the confused crowd while adjusting the lead-tin alloy and horse teeth dentures. "We haf a great showth for youf!" The Library of Congress confirmed they had loaned the priceless historical artifact to the singer, allowing her to be the first person to wear the teeth since a coroner removed them from dead George Washington's mouth over...

Grammy-winning pop star and Joe Biden-Kamala Harris surrogate Lizzo played a 200-year-old crystal flute lent to her by The Library of Congress, before proclaiming, “*****, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s.” Lizzo was on stage at one of her recent concerts, when she was handed a 200-year old flute originally owned by the fourth U.S. president, James Madison.

The editorial board of the University of Virginia’s newspaper has called to remove references to University founder and Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. The University and the greater Charlottesville, Virginia, area in which it is located has taken it upon themselves to be defined not by academics, or history, or any other trait. Rather, those in charge of local government and University administration prefer to be defined by a single characteristic: the August 12, 2017, “Unite the Right” rally.

Woke staffers at James Madison’s Montpelier are scrambling to give themselves a patriotic image makeover — after public outcry over The Post’s report on the shameful treatment the Founding Father has been receiving at his own Virginia home. Inflammatory political content was scrubbed from the landmark’s website within days of The Post’s July report. Just this week, Montpelier announced a freshly expanded, month-long “Constitution Day” celebration to mark the Sept. 17 anniversary of the document’s adoption.

The globalist billionaire who funded the woke transformation of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello paid for a similar overhaul of James Madison’s house — where the author of the US Constitution has been shoved into a supporting role, while slavery and racism take center stage. No American flags fly at Montpelier, Madison’s plantation home in rural Virginia, and not a single display focuses on the life and accomplishments of America’s foremost political philosopher, who created our three-branch federal system of government, wrote the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers, and served two terms as president. Instead, blindsided tourists are hammered by...

Pope Leo XIII was born in 1810. At that time James Madison was president of the United States and Napoleon was master of Europe. This remarkable film was shot in 1896.

The US is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves.... The warning signs may be obscured by the distractions of politics, the pandemic, the economy and global crises, and by wishful thinking and denial. But about these things there should be no doubt: First, Trump will be the Rep. candidate for president in 2024...He enjoys mammoth leads in the polls; he is...

In a 1792 column in the National Gazette, James Madison* briefly touched on Charles de Montesquieu’s three operative principles of government: fear in despotisms, honor in monarchies, and virtue in republics. From this starting point, the genius Madison divided governing principles into three species which reflect their predominant spirit. Madison:May not governments be properly divided, according to their predominant spirit and principles, into three species of which the following are examples?First. A government operating by a permanent military force, which at once maintains the government and is maintained by it; which is at once the cause of burdens on the...

While our Constitution famously set up a government of divided powers, the powers within each branch are not absolute. Each is subject to various checks from the others. Congress is responsible for lawmaking, but the president has a qualified veto over congressional bills. It is not absolute, for congress may override on two-thirds majority vote. As a theoretical check on the judiciary, scotus is subject to Article III congressionally determined “exceptions . . . and regulations.” Scotus has developed a habit of going far beyond its duty to adjudicate between parties and protect the constitutionality of law. Instead, it often...

Today we're going to try and use modern technology to breathe some life into the historical portraits of the very first Presidents of the United States by adding facial animations. The history teaches us that United States declared independence from Great Britain, on 4th July 1776, during the American Revolutionary War that lasted about 8 years. The Declaration of Independence has been largely written by Thomas Jefferson who was a member of five-man committee, appointed by the Continental Congress, that included John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin and Robert Livingston. The revolutionary war ended with the Treaty of Paris on...

There are numerous principled reasons to oppose D.C. statehood. But, really, no arguments are more applicable than the ones offered by the founders, who created a federal district for the distinct purpose of denying it statehood. First, because they were concerned about the seat of federal power being controlled by a hostile or intrusive state government. Second, because they knew that if the capital were in a state -- much less its own state -- the people would vote to grow and accumulate federal power. Both situations were incompatible with the proper separation of powers and state rights. Today, though,...

The current situation over the Presidential Election of 2020 is the greatest test of our American system, which, if it doesn’t pass this test, our system of the Rule of Law, Checks and Balances, Freedom of Speech, and Democracy will be over. As the book, THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF JAMES MADISON shows, our Founding was premised on the Christian appreciation of human weakness and sin, lust for power, corruption, and evil. Madison’s whole argument for Separation of Power and Pluralism in Federalist Paper #10 was that Freedom with Law and Justice could only be maintained if our Constitutional system checked...

“There are no solutions, only trade-offs,” Thomas Sowell famously said. When government takes action, even if that action is desperately needed, we still give something up. In the case of the Wuhan virus — with the endless mask mandates, social restrictions, and shutdowns it has ushered in — that something is our precious freedom. The American founders recognized this conundrum. According to James Madison in Federalist 37, one of the greatest challenges of the Constitutional Convention was to find the right combination, the right proportions, of government power and individual liberty. The more we ask from our government, the more...

Law professor Jonathan Turley told CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell that "his wife and dog" have received threats after he testified in front of the House Judiciary last week as part of impeachment proceedings. “I know you received a lot of threats after what you did last week,” O’Donnell told the George Washington University law professor during CBS coverage of the impeachment hearings that took place on Monday. “And my wife and dog,” Turley noted. "To be fair, you did talk about them during your testimony. You did bring up your wife and dog," O'Donnell responded, referring to Turley's mention of...

A book by George C. Edwards III, 2004. Criticism of the status quo is easy. What is harder is to create a better alternative. I confess to having little patience with those who fault the 1787 Framers for the condition of our government in 2019. They didn’t write a Bible. They didn’t hand down immutable Commandments. Their Constitution, one that’s consistent with republican principles unique to the American experience, is infinitely amendable. Don’t like it? Amend it. But one must be aware of what one is doing. Nearly all of the twenty-seven amendments are wise and contribute to the lofty...

“If we are to be considered as a nation, all State distinctions must be abolished; the whole must be thrown into a hotchpot and when an equal division is made, then there may be fairly an equality of representation.” – New Jersey delegate William Paterson. Today’s squib reviews the last few days of the Federal Convention leading up to Alexander Hamilton’s June 18th speech. In Part V we’ll find that, considering the previous exchanges among delegates, Hamilton was far from alone in his disdain of the States. What he shared with them was the search for a governing design adequate...

Can liberty be preserved across a continent? In 1787, the historical record said “no.” The Roman and contemporary Russia, China, and Ottoman Empires were glaring examples. Not everyone was buying the Federalists’ argument that the federal structure of the Constitution, in which smaller republics were represented in the umbrella republic, would keep the new government in check. As pundits and patriots today wonder if resolution of the centrifugal forces that threaten the American Union is possible, perhaps we can find solace in the words of James Madison. From the 14th Federalist: I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, . . ....