Primary Sources

A precocious Alexander Hamilton defends the revolutionary cause and “the natural rights of mankind” with a zeal that would take him to lead soldiers in a charge at Yorktown.

This fervent essay explains why the new nation now struggling to free itself from Britain requires both virtuous citizens and a well-designed government.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which remains part of Virginia’s current Constitution, establishes the fundamental principles of free government based on natural rights.

The founding document of the American political tradition articulates the fundamental ideas that form our nation: All men are created free and equal and possess the same inherent, natural rights.

The Founding’s central truth of equality inspires slaves to plead for their freedom by appealing to natural rights as the basis of their liberty.

One of the clearest articulations of how the core principles of the Founding translate into republican political practices such as majority rule and representation.

No Founding-era political document better captures the unique American understanding of rights and their place in politics than the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, whose principal author was John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson listed this law as one of the three great achievements of his life.

In this first Thanksgiving proclamation, Washington stresses the political, moral, and intellectual blessings that make self-government possible.

In America, we speak not of toleration, which is at the discretion of those in power, but of equal natural rights to freely worship God.

James Madison’s concise essay on property emphasizes the word’s wide-ranging meaning, which covers not just land and buildings but also opinions, conscience, and rights.

Along with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Farewell Address constitutes the central statement of the American purpose.

With this 1797 law, New Jersey recognized the right of women to vote, a first in recorded history.

Jefferson’s vision of life under a limited federal government that restrains men from injuring one another while leaving them otherwise free to lead their lives.

Wilson, then a professor of political science, maintains that there are no principled limits to what government may do.

Professor Wilson makes a revolutionary argument for a professional centralized administration, thereby setting the stage for the administrative state.

Merriam’s survey of political science at the turn of the century establishes beyond a doubt that Progressivism arises not in response to changing historical conditions but as a principled rejection of the Founding

Nowhere are the full implications of the Progressive redefinition of freedom drawn out more clearly than in this excerpt.

Soon-to-be Progressive Party presidential candidate Teddy Roosevelt calls for a Progressive revolution in politics, economics, and civil society and a radical expansion of governmental power.

In this presidential campaign speech, Wilson frankly describes his principles for a revolutionary reform of America rooted in a rejection of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

A concise summary of the Progressives’ idealistic foreign policy to reshape the world: “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

FDR launches the New Deal revolution in American politics by redefining fundamental rights and the nature of the social contract.

In this powerful address, President Roosevelt sets the standard for liberal rhetoric and action: noble ambitions for the sake of redistributing wealth.

The new liberalism, guided by an elite composed of social scientists, will transform men and women to realize the “full freedom of the human spirit and of individuality.”

FDR’s self-evident economic truths anchored in ever-expanding government programs and the proliferation of rights.

The wildly utopian expectations of the Great Society dramatically expand the administrative state, with all its cost and regulatory reach.

President Lyndon Johnson maintains that equal results—not equal rights and equal opportunity—are the measure of the civil rights revolution’s success.

Six distinguished professors at prestigious universities go well beyond the Progressive and Liberal rejection of natural rights and dismiss any notion of truth altogether.

The most forceful reply to the charge “the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776” and that we should therefore abandon the principles of the Founding.

The great economist Friedrich Hayek exposes the pretensions of expert central planners in both Communist countries and democracies.

A succinct summary of the central ideas of modern American conservatism issued by young conservatives.

Reagan jumpstarts the modern conservative movement by re-asserting “our capacity for self-government” against the pretensions of a “little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol.”

A vigorous exhortation for Americans to recall the achievements of the Founders, in particular their confidence in self-government and individual freedom.

In his campaign to revive an interpretation of the Constitution anchored in its original meaning, Meese vividly contrasts the Founders’ view of equality with its redefinition by liberals.

The man who revived conservative thought in the modern era enumerates his ten principles of conservatism.

The renaissance man of modern American conservatism recollects his relationship with “the American legacy—opposition to unnecessary activity by the state.”

The tradition of limited government and the flourishing of liberty that emanates from America’s first principles are what conservatives seek to conserve.