Was James Madison a politician or a political theorist? Of course he was both – I don’t think that will be disputed. The trickier question is to what degree these two roles harmonized or conflicted with one another. For instance, did Madison reinvent his political principles to advance his own political career? Alexander Hamilton thought [...]

Hamilton’s “interpreting the Constitution expansively” amounted to “ignoring the Constitution at pleasure.” Hamilton implied that Madison had done something nefarious by ceasing to support having the general government charter a bank after the US Constitution was implemented, but Hamilton here mischaracterized the situation: it was Hamilton, not Madison, who in regard to the same constitutional [...]

I will begin by offering my interpretation of the problem. In the Declaration, the Continental Congress affirms an account of justice that is grounded in the laws of nature and of nature’s God. The content of that account includes the basic moral principle that all men have an equal right to life, liberty, and the [...]

I think we agree on the most important things: the theological questions and that the natural right doctrine in the Declaration is sound. Our only large point of disagreement is the question of whether that doctrine requires an essentialist account of species. I argue that it does not, for a long list of reasons. The [...]

President Bill Clinton said in his first inaugural address: “Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” This invites the question, what is right with America? As this pertains [...]