Today's Politicos vs The Words and Deeds of The Founders

The recently released GAO report prompts questions as to the job our representatives are doing in being good stewards of taxpayer money. Reading the Constitution aloud in the House of Representatives in the opening days of the 112th Congress was a nice symbolic gesture. But symbols are supposed to stand for something. Ending programs that can’t pass a 10th Amendment test, (and refusing to authorize new ones) would give the symbolism meaning. It would also reveal which members of Congress meant it when they swore to protect and defend the Constitution.

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The Liberty Fund's Portable Library of Liberty is full of interesting things. The two quotes given for consideration here are from the first of two sermon's entitled "Discourses on Liberty". It is well worth reading in its entirety, but the text excerpted here makes two points worth pondering. In fact, they could have been written today.

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Nathan Hale might not have been much of spy, with regard to his trade craft, but he became an American martyr for his brave comportment at his death. His was a tragic end to a short but brave life.

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Hezekiah Niles lived in a more innocent age. Yet, he saw the need to keep the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence always before the people. Much has changed since the Niles Register was published, but not that.

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In this post, Michael Newton tries to restore precision to our language. The American experiment was conceived as a republic, not a democracy. Present day efforts to conflate the terms not withstanding, the Founders were wary of democracies and they had good reason.

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People often disagree about the import of historical events. However, that the events took place is generally a matter of fact. WWTFT's newest contributor, Craig C. Glass takes issue with Fox News' host Judge Andrew Napolitano's apparent memory lapse.

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Things are bad, but they've been bad before. How Hamilton saved the nation by instilling confidence and a sound economic policy.

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Saturday link blog. Some stuff that you might not have seen.

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The United States was one of the "Six Frigates" featured in the book by Ian W. Toll about the founding of the U.S. Navy. Here is an excerpt of a letter written by an officer on the ship to a friend in Washington. It serves as the basis for this week's (simple) puzzle.

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It might seem contradictory to say that a book written to address the issues of 1940 is timely in 2011. Nonetheless, Mises’ topic, “Interventionism,” is even more relevant today than when America was mobilizing for war. Today’s threat to freedom is not a European dictator, but an ambitious, interventionist government whose grasp far exceeds Constitutional limits.

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