Mind Your Liberty

Today I read and go over another foundational document in the development of Liberty in the American founding era. Listen in as I read through the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Document reading starts at 5:26

Virginia Declaration of Rights-

https://web.archive.org/web/20181022172807/http://www.gunstonhall.org:80/georgemason/human_rights/vdr_final.html

PETITION OF THE 10,000 FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, 1776-

https://edu.lva.virgi...

For this month's episode I recorded a terrific Dorothy Sayers' essay on education, called The Lost Tools of Learning. In it, she outlines a return to classical education in the modern era. I simply didn't have time to expound on it much, but the piece stands on it's own. Enjoy, and have your thoughts provoked! 

www.mindyourliberty.com

www.classicalconversations.com

The Lost Tools of Writing, by Dorothy Sayers - https://archiv...

"The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations” - John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 1818

Have you ever wondered what was being preached in the American colonies before the revolution? Given the outstanding role that "religious sentiments" played in the pre-war psyche, we certainly should be curious what the preaching was like. Today I read though a ser...

The Stamp Act was now going into effect in Colonial America, meaning colonists of all stripes (anybody that used paper) had to make a choice - to use the comply or not to comply. John Dickinson, “the Penman of the Revolution”, wrote this broadside pamphlet to encourage his countrymen to carefully consider their course of action, and the consequences thereof. 

“THE Stamp Act, therefore, is to be regarded only as an EXPERIMENT OF Y...

In this episode I read through and briefly talk about another important document from the revolutionary era, The Rights of Colonists, by Samuel Adams. This document is another one of the many you can trace the similar lines of thought from the early 1760's (and earlier) to the mid 1770's, and beyond. Adams further develops the concept of natural rights in this piece. 

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-rights-of-the...

In this episode I read Washington’s Farewell Address. Our first president was offering some parting advice, while looking forward to retirement after over 20 years of service to his country. Issues he addressed back then may sound familiar to us even today. He mentioned the dangers of party politics, overgrown military establishments, entangling European alliances, choosing favorite nations, what to do with the national debt, encro...

February 11th, 1768, 254 years ago today, the Massachusetts Colonial Legislature sent out what we today would call an open letter to the British Parliament, with copies sent to the other colonies as well. Recent acts of Parliament were felt in the colonies to be "encroaching" on the public liberty. The rights asserted in this letter were felt to be universal among the British Colonies, and so any infringement upon them was to be me...