Path to Liberty

“A nullification of the act is THE rightful remedy.” That’s how Thomas Jefferson said we should respond to any federal act that goes beyond the limits of the Constitution. But here’s the thing - Jefferson wasn’t inventing something new in 1798. He was reminding us of principles that were at the heart of the American Revolution - ideas the people used to resist tyranny. And today, those principles are more important than ever.

Nearly five years before the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams wrote an essay urging the people to resist tyranny - not tamely submit and hope for the best. For Adams, it was a moral imperative to stand up for what’s right, even against the most powerful government in history. Unfortunately, his bold call for liberty has been almost entirely forgotten. Today, in commemoration of his birthday, we’re uncovering what Adams war...

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Just after the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776, a committee of Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin worked to design a great seal for the United States - and it included that powerful phrase on the reverse. While we don’t know who originally wrote it, we can trace its roots to Jonathan Mayhew’s widely read but mostly forgotten 1750 sermon on resisting tyranny. In it, he laid the...

Before the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin had a bold idea to unite the colonies - an idea most people have never heard of. In 1754, just before the Albany Congress, he published his famous “Join or Die” cartoon, symbolizing his forgotten call for colonial unity. Although it was rejected, Franklin believed this plan could have changed the course of American history.

Two years before the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson penned a long and detailed list of grievances regarding British acts going back more than a century. He not only referred to them as a “nullity” but pointed out that “we declare them void.” Jefferson’s pamphlet, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” is an incredibly important part of the foundation of the American Revolution - something the government-...

Signed on Sept 3, 1783 - the Treaty of Paris was intended to end the war for independence. But the war didn't officially end on that date with the signatures of Franklin, John Adams and John Jay. The treaty, made with 13 free, sovereign, and independent states, still needed their approval, and it almost didn’t happen. This forgotten history reveals the true nature of the revolutionary American system.

While names like Madison, Hamilton, and Washington often dominate discussions about the Constitution, many other Founders played vital roles in shaping it. In this episode, we're uncovering the contributions of ten often-overlooked figures who significantly influenced the Constitution - some you may know, and others that might surprise you. Get ready to discover the often-ignored stories of Founders like Wilson, Dickinson, Rutledge...

When government-run schools teach that the American Revolution was mostly about “taxation without representation,” the underlying message is clear: today, you have representatives, so if you don't like what they do, just get new ones. But this ignores a deeper cause - a centuries-old system called mercantilism. Murray Rothbard described it as “a system of statism using economic fallacy to build up imperial power through monopolies ...

Think the American Revolution was just about taxes and tea parties? Think again. The real battle was over a much deeper issue: the colonists' unwavering belief in their right to local, self-government vs a British claim of unlimited power. James Madison called this clash the “fundamental principle on which our independence itself was declared.” But he was far from alone. In this episode, we’ll dive into the insights of Madison, plu...

When the framers designed the Senate, they envisioned it as a safeguard for the states, with a key component being state legislatures choosing two senators instead of the people at large. But in 1913, the 17th Amendment removed this critical part of the system. In this episode, get a deep dive into this long-forgotten aspect of the original Constitution - how it came to be, the four reasons they set it up this way, and the warnings...

Government-run schools never teach that states have the power to stop federal programs simply by refusing to implement or enforce them. James Madison gave us the blueprint, and the supreme court has repeatedly upheld it as the anti-commandeering doctrine for over 180 years.

Path to Liberty, Fast Friday Edition: August 9, 2024

American presidents act almost like elected kings, with vast powers and very little accountability. But that wasn’t the plan. Responding to anti-federalist warnings that presidents would eventually degenerate into a type of monarchy, Federalists like Tench Coxe, John Dickinson, James Iredell, and many others went into great detail explaining how the power of the executive branch would be extremely limited in comparison to the Briti...