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March 13, 2019|Gouverneur Morris, Preamble, The Preamble

Gouverneur Morris on the Preamble to the Constitution

by Mike Rappaport|

Image: Todd Taluman Photography / Shutterstock.com
While people set great store on the Preamble’s “We the People of the United States,” other versions of the Preamble might have had the same effect.

March 6, 2019|Committee on Style, Gouverneur Morris, Originalism

Gouverneur Morris’s Rewriting of the Constitution

by Mike Rappaport|

George Washington speaks at the Constitutional Convention (Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com).
Gouverneur Morris penned the final draft of the Constitution and he changed many of the provisions in important ways.

January 8, 2019|Alexis De Tocequeville, Conservatism, culture, Facebook, Gouverneur Morris, Originalism

Culture’s Challenge to Constitutionalism

by John O. McGinnis|

Image: Mike Dotta / Shutterstock.com
Constitutional legalism is no panacea, but it is the best we lawyers can do.

August 9, 2018|Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention, George Mason, Gouverneur Morris, high crimes and misdemeanors, James Madison, Warren Hastings

The Original Meaning of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” Part II

by Michael Stokes Paulsen|

Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA (Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.com).
How the debates at the Constitutional Convention concerning impeachment clarify "high crimes and misdemeanors."

January 3, 2017|Akhil Amar, Congress, Electoral College, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, Senate, William Paterson

No! The Electoral College Was Not about Slavery!

by Gary L. Gregg II|

George Washington presiding over the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia.
The opponents of the Electoral College, in attempting to undermine support for the institution, have painted it with an unfair half-truth.

August 11, 2016|Enlightenment, Evan Bernick, Gouverneur Morris, John Dickinson, John Locke, Mayflower Compact, The Federalist, William Gladstone

Reason Bounded by Experience

by Greg Weiner|

The Constitution by Barry Faulkner, Mural the Rotunda of the Capitol. Source: National Archives

To say legislation is not a discretely rational exercise is not to say it is positively irrational. But what of the fundamental law that is often taken to be the apex of legislative reason: the Constitution of the United States?

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November 28, 2012|Gouverneur Morris, Great Compromise, To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Selected Writings of Gouverneur Morris

The Ingenious Gouverneur Morris

by Melanie Randolph Miller|

"The true object of a great statesman," Gouverneur Morris wrote to William Carmichael in Madrid in November 1792, "is to give to any particular nation the kind of laws which is suitable to them and the best constitution which they are capable of."   He wrote those words in Paris in the midst of the escalating chaos of the French Revolution; in less than two months, Louis XVI, America's "great friend" to its own Revolution, would lose his head on the guillotine.  The event would be no surprise to Morris, who had predicted the derailing of the Revolution within a very…

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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