Most Americans know the mythology of the American Founding—its key events, characters, and narrative arc.

This week’s Heritage Essay is a little longer than usual, mostly because of the length of the speech excerpted, but also because of the importance of the topic and the interesting way in which it is handled.

We’ve been writing a series of essays on the importance of symbols in political life, with a special focus on the flag as an avatar of the nation.

Last week I discussed the importance of symbols in political life, and of the flag in particular.

Dwight David Eisenhower was known as a man of dispassionate and independent judgment.

In 1988, Michael Dukakis, the Democrat’s nominee for president, faced a crisis.

Presidents are largely defined by how they deal with crises, and no president had to deal with a greater crisis than did Abraham Lincoln.

Ever since Ford pardoned Nixon, the perspective of the press and the nation changed.

Last week we introduced readers to John Marshall, one of the most consequential and least-known members of the founding generation.

Many Americans know the names of Washington and Jefferson and could probably tell you a thing or two about that person but display little to no familiarity with a figure who rightfully claims a place alongside them as an important figure of the so-called founding generation: John Marshall.

“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross,” Sinclair Lewis probably never said.

We find ourselves once again in the midst of a depressing spectacle: election season. In my role as a political scientist I had to pay attention to electoral politics, even though I thought the art of governing was far more interesting.

The Declaration of Independence listed among its complaints against the king that he had involved us in Europe’s wars, insisting that their problems should not be our concern.

Our tendency to treat our contemporary problems as if they are unique can blind us to the fact that our country has always been divided.

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments on April 25, 2024 in the case of Trump v. US, a case which will determine whether the former president is immune from prosecution on charges related to trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The last two Heritage essays made brief references to one of America’s most interesting and mercurial thinkers, Orestes Brownson.

The Michigan legislature, in 1994, declared Russell the state’s “greatest man of letters.”

This series aims to help our readers understand the complexity of our Constitutional system, in no small part by detailing the arguments involved in its construction.

Readers of these pages know our special interest in the political thinking that took place around the founding era and now it can help illuminate our politics today.

The framers of our Constitution worried most about the power of the legislature, and for that reason directed much of their attention to checks upon legislative power.