Historians have long found it easy to explain the reaction of colonial elites to Britain’s imperial reforms in the Revolutionary era. This is because scholars could point to the specific ways imperial reforms threatened elite families’ economic interests, commercial enterprises, and political dominance in the colonies. It is common, therefore, to hear that the American […]
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Reflecting on the Declaration of Independence: A 4th of July Symposium
Aside from the Constitution itself, the Declaration of Independence is the most heavily interpreted document in American history. The exegetical attention afforded the Declaration follows from the multiple functions it plays as the most fundamental of our nation’s “Charters of Liberty,” including its roles as cornerstone of the American political tradition, a perennial defense of [...]
Agreeing to Disagree: Jefferson and Madison on Constitutional Issues
Adrienne Koch famously described Madison and Jefferson’s fifty-year political relationship as the “great collaboration.” Gordon Wood later called theirs the greatest collaboration in American political history. Few scholars would disagree with these assessments. The Federalists themselves were accustomed to refer to Madison as the General and Jefferson as the Generalissimo of the emerging Republican Party, […]
Removing “by blood”: Context and Politics in the Cherokee Supreme Court Decision to Alter the Constitution
On March 25th, 2021, I published an article in The Conversation offering a brief overview of the Cherokee/U.S. struggle over defining tribal citizenship. The Cherokee Supreme Court in February 2021 unilaterally struck the words “by blood” from the Cherokee Constitution, ostensibly granting Freedmen the right to run for tribal office – a right they already […]
In Defense of the Two-Party System
One of the most widely criticized elements of America’s political system is its winner-take-all, first-past-the-post principle that leads to the domination of two political parties. “The Two-Party System Broke the Constitution,” writes The Atlantic. Foreign Policy argues that “the only way to prevent America’s two-party system from succumbing to extremism is to scrap it altogether.” […]
