Power Morals And The Founding Fathers

Refuting modern claims about America's religious origins, an analysis of the role of Enlightenment ideals in the founding of the nation cites the specific contributions of John Locke and includes chapters on how six key founding fathers carefully eschewed faith-based initiatives. History Book Club.

America's Revolutionary Mind is the first major reinterpretation of the American Revolution since the publication of Bernard Bailyn's The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution and Gordon S. Wood's The Creation of the American Republic. The purpose of this book is twofold: first, to elucidate the logic, principles, and significance of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind; and, second, to shed light on what John Adams once called the "real American Revolution"; that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the fifteen years before 1776. The Declaration is used here as an ideological road map by which to chart the intellectual and moral terrain traveled by American Revolutionaries as they searched for new moral principles to deal with the changed political circumstances of the 1760s and early 1770s. This volume identifies and analyzes the modes of reasoning, the patterns of thought, and the new moral and political principles that served American Revolutionaries first in their intellectual battle with Great Britain before 1776 and then in their attempt to create new Revolutionary societies after 1776. The book reconstructs what amounts to a near-unified system of thought—what Thomas Jefferson called an “American mind” or what I call “America’s Revolutionary mind.” This American mind was, I argue, united in its fealty to a common philosophy that was expressed in the Declaration and launched with the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

This book is a trilogy of three books. The first, Ideas, Quotes, & Writings From the Founding Fathers, gives insights into their ideas and beliefs regarding the founding of the United States, including: * What did the Founding Fathers mean by "provide for the general welfare" in the Constitution? * What powers did the Founding Fathers believe the Constitution gave to the Federal Government? And what powers were not? * What about the future of the Federal Government and the country and what were their thoughts about where the country might be headed? And more... The second book, God Christianity, & the Founding of the United States, is about the role of God and religion in both the founding of the United States and also the government. Including... * Benjamin Franklin and prayer save the Constitutional Convention * A forgotten Founding Father and the Great Awakening * Were the Founding Fathers Christians or Deists? * The Founding Fathers on the importance of morality and religion What the Founding Fathers believed was the role of the Federal and State Governments in regards to religion * The opening session of Congress begins with an argument over prayer, and much more... Learn what Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Franklin, and many others had to say about the issues concerning religion and the founding of the United States, and the issues that are still being debated in our country today. The third book, The Duel for America, Jefferson vs. Hamilton, is about the battle between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. It was a battle about whether the country should move in the direction of small or big government, the size of the government debt, whether the constitution should be interpreted strictly or loosely, and whether the country should move to a pure free market system or to a system where the government works with the businesses it chooses to help promote the welfare of the country. This book will cover the issues debated by the Founding Fathers during the formation of the country. It will show that are still at the center of the debates of today. It will also cover the events that shaped both their lives and the nation including... * The key differences between the Jefferson and Hamilton visions for the United States * What constitutional phrase did Thomas Jefferson believe would give Congress the power "to do whatever evil they please" if the Constitution was loosely interpreted? * What constitutional phrase Thomas Jefferson believed was the key to strict interpretation. * The birth of the small government/big government debate that rages on even today * The Hamilton Burr Duel. And much more... Learn what Jefferson and Hamilton believed and how their philosophies shaped not only the formation of the United States, but the very issues that are being debated in the nation today. All three books rely on the writings and words of the Founding Fathers themselves. Read their words and discover their forgotten history.

America's Founding Fathers shared similar beliefs on the nature of civic life and the character of those supposed to be able to self-govern. Although they studied the failed republics of the ancient world, they believed that classical ideals were still applicable to politics. This unique contribution to the literature on American Founding gathers leading thinkers who set out not to relate its history, but its intellectual underpinnings. They explore the Founding Fathers' assumptions about civic life, human nature, political institutions, private morality, aesthetics, education, and history. Chapters on natural law, the Judeo-Christian conception of human nature, the influence of Aristotle and Cicero, the symbolic role of architecture, and the importance of education help understand the foundations that led to the Declaration of Independence and a constitutional charter that aimed to be universal in its human aspirations. This authoritative work provides a conservative response to more liberal interpretations of America. It will enrich the debate on civic life and be a key resource to anyone interested in America's "experiment in ordered liberty."

This book provides a complete overview of the Founders' natural rights theory and its policy implications.

The thinking, debates, legal maneuvers, manners, and morals of America's earliest days, as seen through the speeches and writings of the men who led the Republic from 1774 to 1809.

"One of the outstanding authorities on the early days of the Republic, Saul K. Padover offers in this volume a generous sampling of the letters, essays, speeches, discourses, and personal documents--many of them previously unpublished--of the men who made America. Included are extensive selections from the papers and speeches of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. There are also copious extracts from the private and public utterances of secondary, but important, figures of the founding days--Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Patrick Henry, John Dickinson, Oliver Ellsworth, William Paterson, Benjamin Rush, George Wythe, and many others. A number of the speeches made at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 are given in full, and several of the important debates are reproduced. John Dickinson's Letters from an American Farmer in Pennsylvania appear in these pages as well as many of Alexander Hamilton's famous and brief opinions. Also included are John Hancock's speech on the Boston Massacre; Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Virginia; James Madison's Memorial against Religious Assessments; two of the most important of John Marshall's Supreme Court decisions (Marbury vs. Madison and McCulloch vs. Maryland); Robert Morris' Letters on Finance; John Taylor's paper On Aristocracy, and William Paterson's Plan for a Constitution. Taken together, these writings offer in one volume a complete picture of the thinking, the debate, the legal maneuvers, the compromises, the manners, and the morals of the American nation's earliest days. The book provides a sound basic appreciation of the atmosphere in which the Founding Fathers worked and planned and debated with one another. All the many counter-currents that contributed to the building of the Constitution, the stresses to which the young nation was subjected, the rebellion that continued to seethe, the moral climate of the days--these are all recreated in the speeches and writings of America's first patriots. Dr. Padover has bound the selections together with enlightening commentary that enables the reader to understand the exact circumstances of each utterance and brings the particular work into historical perspective."--Jacket.