The root story of our United States is not inscribed by the ink of institutions but by the bold strokes of individuals who dared to dream of a better tomorrow.

Last week, in discussing Federalist #24, I rehearsed in some detail some of the antifederalist arguments concerning a standing army, the main subject of Hamilton’s essays 24-29.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! These two words conjure up all of the good feelings that mankind has ever held for itself and its creator: reverence, tenderness, humility, generosity, tolerance--love.

1. Q: Ford was the only US President born in what US city, and what name appeared on his birth certificate?

College students today – even students at elite colleges such as the Ivy Leagues – are not equipped to read full books, as Rose Horowitch’s recent Atlantic essay “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” revealed.

The next six Federalist essays (24-29), all written by Hamilton, deal with one of the most controversial powers in the Constitution: the ability to create a standing army, which, the critics claimed, posed an essential and enduring threat to liberty.

Legend has it that a crowd had gathered outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia as the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention were concluding in 1787.

Federalist 23, while repeating many themes previously explored, begins in an interesting fashion: with a concession.

I’ve been teaching Introduction to American Government this past semester in the state prison in Muskegon.

In Federalist 22 Hamilton reviews and repeats some of his earlier arguments concerning commerce and the need for a central authority that regulates and sets uniform standards.

For better or worse, education can shape who we are, and Thomas Jefferson knew that.

As an ex-academic I like to keep my finger on the pulse of what goes on in higher learning in America

After Madison’s digression into history in the previous three papers, Hamilton returns his attention in Federalist 21 to what he regards as the greatest flaws of the government under the Articles of Confederation…

In his book, The World Beyond Your Head, Matthew Crawford writes that “attention is the one thing that is most one’s own...we choose what to pay attention to, and in a very real sense this determines what is real for us; what is actually present to our consciousness.”

America and the world have changed enormously since the first thanksgiving 353 years ago. From a tiny coastal enclave on an untamed continent, we have grown into the mightiest, freest nation in human history.

It is difficult to think of two world leaders who present a starker contrast than the 38^th President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, and the current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. 

The use and interpretation of the historical record presents one of the more interesting aspects of the American Constitutional period.

Most histories are written about events that have actually transpired, unless they are fanciful “alternative histories.”

As we commemorate the 50^th anniversary of Gerald Ford’s inauguration, we are invited to reflect upon his legacy.

At the end of Federalist 16 Hamilton wisely warned us against expecting too much from either government itself or a plan for government.