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Forrest McDonald

Forrest McDonald (1927-2016) was one of the leading experts on the founding period and the United States Constitution.

Jefferson the President Blog

Jefferson the President

Of all the presidents of the United States, none save Washington and Lincoln have inspired half so much historical writing as Thomas Jefferson. Books and articles by the score have dealt with the Sage of Monticello in one or another of his myriad aspects— Virginian, statesman, philosopher, scientist, farmer, architect, rationalist, theologian, slaveholder, apostle of liberty, author of the Declaration…
Forrest McDonald
April 13, 2018
Was the Fourteenth Amendment Constitutionally Adopted? Review Posts

Was the Fourteenth Amendment Constitutionally Adopted?

During and after the Civil War, Southerners repeatedly declared that the cause for which they fought was the "sublime moral principle" of states' rights. Given such protestations, and given the history of southern resistance to federal authority throughout the antebellum period, it is easy enough to associate states' rights exclusively with the South—but it is also mistaken. Connecticut and Massachusetts…
Forrest McDonald
April 23, 2014