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Luther Martin
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For Constitution Day, Let's Toast the Losers of the Convention

Anti-federalist Luther Martin's agenda failed at the Constitutional Convention, but his criticisms of the Founders may still resonate with us today.
by Richard Hall via HNN on September 19, 2021
Picture of the "Words That Made Us."

Context and Consequences

On Akhil Reed Amar’s “The Words That Made Us,” a new history of America’s constitutional conversation.
by Joel Seligman via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 3, 2021
A drawing of George Washington surrounded by seals representing the states.

The Constitutional Convention Debates the Electoral College

How the founders settled on the system we love to hate today.
by Jason Yonce via Journal of the American Revolution on November 5, 2020

Madison’s Notes Don’t Mean What Everyone Says They Mean

The Founding Father’s account of the Constitutional Convention includes a famous conversation about causes for impeachment.
by Mary Sarah Bilder via The Atlantic on December 22, 2019
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James Madison Responds to Sean Wilentz

Madison's Notes of the Constitutional Convention answer a current argument on the Electoral College.
by Alan J. Singer via HNN on April 7, 2019

Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate Over What Constituted an Impeachable Offense

If not for three sparring Virginia delegates, Congress’s power to remove a president would be even more limited.
by Erick Trickey via Smithsonian on October 2, 2017

How Impeachment Ended Up in the Constitution

James Madison thought of a lot of good reasons to impeach a President. Members of Congress might want to consult his list.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 18, 2017
2016 electoral college map.

Original Sin: The Electoral College as a Pro-Slavery Tool

Slave states gave us the Electoral College; we should get rid of this vestige of the so-called peculiar institution.
by Paul Finkelman via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 19, 2016

To Keep and Bear Arms

A challenge to the "Standard Model" scholars who hold that the Second Amendment protects individual gun rights.
by Garry Wills via New York Review of Books on September 21, 1995
Collage of the American flag and the preamble to the Constitution.

The Historical Challenge to Originalism

Jonathan Gienapp's attack on originalism deserves a serious response.
by John O. McGinnis, Aaron N. Coleman, Mike Rappaport via Law & Liberty on January 16, 2025
Attendees look at a map of the U.S. electoral college during the Republican National Convention (RNC) near the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
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The Debate That Gave Us the Electoral College

John Dickinson's contributions to the Constitution continue to reverberate today.
by Jane E. Calvert via Made By History on October 18, 2024
Drawing of the Constitutional Convention, by John W. Winkler.
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Strange Political Bedfellows

The origins of the Electoral College are entwined with slavery, but not in the way that recent accounts have suggested.
by Mark McKibbin, Denver Brunsman via HNN on October 9, 2024

The Electoral College and Slavery

It's easy to get this one wrong.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on May 24, 2024
Rip Van Winkle painting by Albertis del Orient Browere, 1833.
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Age Before Duty

What role does age play in determining the status of equals?
by Darrin M. McMahon via HNN on March 19, 2024
Painting of Reverend Lemuel Haynes preaching

The Revolution Within the American Revolution

Supported and largely led by slaveholders, the American Revolution was also, paradoxically, a profound antislavery event.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on October 23, 2023
Jacob Duché delivers the first prayer in the Continental Congress, 1774.

The Traitor Chaplain Who Gave Government Prayer to America — A 4th of July Corrective

When drafting the Constitution, our founders had no need of prayer.
by Andrew L. Seidel via Religion Dispatches on July 3, 2023
Painting of the Constitutional Convention in black and white.

Fraudulent Document Cited in Supreme Court Bid to Torch Election Law

Supporters of the “independent state legislature theory” are quoting fake history.
by Brian Palmer, Ethan Herenstein via Politico Magazine on September 15, 2022
Illustration of Ken Burns

The Unbearable Whiteness of Ken Burns

The filmmaker’s new documentary on Benjamin Franklin tells an old and misleading story.
by Timothy Messer-Kruse via The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 20, 2022
Painting of the constitutional convention

Federalism and the Founders

The question of how to balance state and national power was perhaps the single most important and most challenging question confronting the early republic.
by Allen C. Guelzo via National Affairs on January 7, 2022
Black and white photo of four children holding hands and dressed up in 18th century outfits

A Surprising Factor Influenced How the Framers Voted

The more sons a Founding Father had, the more supportive he was of a strong centralized government.
by Soren J. Schmidt, Jeremy C. Pope via The Atlantic on July 7, 2021
Silhouette with pieces of constitutions and other prints inside

When Constitutions Took Over the World

Was this new age spurred by the ideals of the Enlightenment or by the imperatives of global warfare?
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on March 22, 2021
Alexander Hamilton on the ten dollar bill

What We Still Get Wrong About Alexander Hamilton

Far from a partisan for free markets, the Founding Father insisted on the need for economic planning. We need more of that vision today.
by Michael Busch, Christian Parenti via Boston Review on December 14, 2020
A close up of an electoral map from Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States

The Electoral Punt

It can be hard to know what the Founders intended when they didn't know, either.
by Jonathan W. Wilson via Contingent on September 30, 2020

The Flawed Genius of the Constitution

The document counted my great-great-grandfather as 3/5 of a free person. But the Framers don’t own the version we live by today. We do.
by Danielle Allen via The Atlantic on September 17, 2020

Our Chief Danger

The story of the democratic movements that the framers of the U.S. Constitution feared and sought to suppress.
by William Hogeland via Lapham’s Quarterly on September 1, 2020

Tear Down This Statue

The shameful career of Roger Sherman, mild-mannered Yankee.
by Richard Kreitner via The Baffler on July 6, 2020

The Late Murray Rothbard Takes on the Constitution

A lost volume of American history finds the light of day.
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel via Reason on April 20, 2020
Alan Dershowitz
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Trump’s Attorneys Have Butchered a Crucial Founder’s Take on Impeachment

Gouverneur Morris’s views changed during the Constitutional Convention — setting a good example for senators today.
by William M. Treanor via Made By History on January 31, 2020
Andrew Johnson impeachment.

The Common Misconception About ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’

The constitutional standard for impeachment is different from what’s at play in a regular criminal trial.
by Frank O. Bowman III via The Atlantic on October 22, 2019

How Slavery Shaped American Capitalism

The New York Times is right that slavery made a major contribution to capitalist development in the United States — just not in the way they imagine.
by John Clegg via Jacobin on August 28, 2019
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