Joe Biden’s “address to the nation,” delivered September 1, 2022, was one of the most…
James Ronald KennedySeptember 14, 2022
From Gustavus Pinckney, Life of John C. Calhoun. The attentive reader will not have forgotten…
Abbeville InstituteAugust 26, 2022
From the 2004 Abbeville Institute Summer School. St. George Tucker is a significant member of…
Clyde WilsonJuly 18, 2022
From the 2004 Abbeville Institute Summer School On April 10th, 1606, King James I of…
John GrahamJuly 7, 2022
From the 2003 Abbeville Institute Summer School I come from a somewhat different mold and…
Marshall DeRosaJune 6, 2022
Going back to Jefferson, you can say that Jefferson’s vision of radical Federalism was of…
Marco BassaniJune 1, 2022
Katy Pavlich commented on the Five recently that President Biden needed to do something about…
Paul H. YarbroughMay 27, 2022
From the 2003 Abbeville Institute Summer School. I’m going to be talking about the Anti-Federalists.…
Marco BassaniMay 23, 2022
Delivered by Oscar Underwood of Alabama in the House of Representatives May, 1902. Mr. UNDERWOOD.…
Oscar UnderwoodMay 5, 2022
Speech delivered by Senator A.O. Bacon of Georgia, December, 1902. Mr. President: Of course, I…
A.O. BaconMay 4, 2022
I'm going to talk about the way the Articles of Confederation functioned, how people acted…
Carey RobertsApril 29, 2022
To begin with, it is hornbook law* that the signatories to any contract or compact,…
Valerie ProtopapasApril 7, 2022
‘Union’ neither denotes nor explicates a form of government. It is a word estranged in…
Vito MussomeliApril 4, 2022
Edmund Ruffin, from his Diary: hen the mob bears the sway in elections, it knows…
Abbeville InstituteJanuary 13, 2022
A few more words, and we shall be in a condition to answer the question…
Raphael SemmesDecember 1, 2021
Editor's Note: This speech was delivered in 1917 and was published in the September issue…
H.W. JohnstonNovember 19, 2021
By 1860 our country was so hopelessly divided that it broke up, and only by…
M.C. AtkinsNovember 17, 2021
The delegates who gathered in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, presumptuously shelving that…
J.L. BennettOctober 22, 2021
A review of Irreconcilable Founders: Spencer Roane, John Marshall, and the Nature of America's Constitutional…
Aaron N. ColemanSeptember 30, 2021
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all it was completely logical, the inevitable…
Boyd CatheySeptember 29, 2021
“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of…
Valerie ProtopapasAugust 19, 2021
A review of Chaining Down Leviathan: The American Dream of Self-Government 1776-1865 (Abbeville Institute Press,…
Dave BennerAugust 10, 2021
I have a good friend who continually asks me what I think are the prospects…
Boyd CatheyAugust 2, 2021
Nearly two weeks ago, five counties in Oregon voted to approve a measure to secede…
Cole BranhamJune 4, 2021
And they, sweet soul, that most impute a crimeAre pronest to it, and impute themselves…Tennyson,…
H.V. Traywick, Jr.June 3, 2021
“Acts of congress, to be binding, must be made pursuant to the constitution; otherwise they…
Earl StarbuckFebruary 22, 2021
“A fig for the Constitution” if it does not protect our most basic rights was…
James Ronald KennedyFebruary 11, 2021
You might call it propaganda, state lies, fraud, illusions or delusions. I prefer pretenses which…
Robert PetersJanuary 14, 2021
Secession: The point of the spear aimed at the heart of the American Leviathan –…
Terry HulseyNovember 20, 2020
As of Friday, November 6, the votes are still being counted in at least six…
Boyd CatheyNovember 9, 2020
The political chaos that has accompanied President Trump’s first term will not abate anytime soon.…
Marshall DeRosaOctober 27, 2020
The 2020 presidential election took a decided turn as it moved into the final six…
Ryan WaltersOctober 9, 2020
The Supreme Court once again is the headline of the news. Judge Ginsburg died leaving…
Paul H. YarbroughOctober 8, 2020
Recently an acquaintance of mine remarked that the Confederate statue in her hometown should be…
Earl StarbuckSeptember 18, 2020
A typical calumny directed at Confederate soldiers is that they don’t merit commemoration because they…
Philip LeighSeptember 16, 2020
A Review of The Road to Mass Democracy: Original Intent and the Seventeenth Amendment (Routledge,…
Neil KumarJuly 8, 2020
It is an established principle of the current political class, made up of mostly of…
Paul H. YarbroughMay 30, 2020
Watching events unfold as the non-pandemic/pandemic worked its way across the fruited plain has been…
Walter D. (Donnie) KennedyMay 27, 2020
Once upon a time, somewhere near here, there were thirteen sturdy proprietors. They lived within…
Joseph R. StrombergMay 22, 2020
The question before us, ‘how did the writings of Blackstone influence American political philosophy, and…
Barry ClarkMay 13, 2020
The Confederacy never organized a Supreme Court because her founders generally interpreted the U. S. Constitution strictly.…
Philip LeighMay 6, 2020
Union and liberty are not two terms most people associate with John C. Calhoun, a…
John GroveApril 20, 2020
John C. Calhoun was the last eloquent political philosopher to stand against the ideology and…
Barry ClarkMarch 18, 2020
Who was the greatest president in American history? Ask this question to a group of…
Brion McClanahanFebruary 17, 2020
The Harvard Law Review has published a proposal for supposedly enhancing a better democracy than…
Paul H. YarbroughJanuary 31, 2020
Not that long ago, it seems, Congressional Democrats were calling the Constitution an outdated impediment…
J.L. BennettJanuary 10, 2020
If one bothered to turn back the pages of history it should become quite evident…
John MarquardtJanuary 8, 2020
The impeachment hearings are good for humor if for nothing else. They bring out the…
Paul H. YarbroughDecember 20, 2019
The beginning of the American political order goes much further back than the Philadelphia Convention…
John DevannyNovember 20, 2019
One of the most enduring myths of American history centers on the “compact theory” of…
Brion McClanahanNovember 6, 2019
One could argue that there are two basic visions for America: the Hamiltonian and the…
Allen MendenhallOctober 11, 2019
These days, we see many politicians pushing relentlessly for gun control. In the wake of…
Michael MartinOctober 3, 2019
Many who are well acquainted with Southern history are almost entirely unfamiliar with the historical…
William E. DoddJune 27, 2019
Original material for Southern history has been so scarce at the centres where American historiographers…
Ulrich B. PhillipsJune 26, 2019
A review of The First South (LSU Press, 1961) by John Richard Alden One of…
Shane AndersonJune 11, 2019
We have seen how Mississippi, with its campus free speech bill, totally ignored its own…
Walt GarlingtonMay 15, 2019
Stretching from the Potomac River across the southeastern quarter of the United States in a…
Richard M. WeaverApril 22, 2019
So, smart moms in two homeschool social-media groups of which I’m a member are super-excited…
Dissident MamaApril 19, 2019
A decisive moment is coming for the peoples of the States, especially for those who…
Walt GarlingtonApril 10, 2019
Some lawmakers in Mississippi, obviously alarmed at the violent demonstrations and restrictive measures at college…
Walt GarlingtonMarch 20, 2019
'Their revolution (the South in 1861) ... was in fact an act of restoration, for…
Vito MussomeliMarch 15, 2019
During the weekend of 15 to 16 February, I had the great honor to represent…
Robert McReynoldsMarch 6, 2019
The chattering class’ newest obsession, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has seized the policy initiative from the Democratic…
John DevannyMarch 4, 2019
Given what is occurring in our society and culture, the ever increasing frenzy and hysteria…
Boyd CatheyFebruary 13, 2019
“The revenue of the state is the state.” Edmund Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution…
John DevannyFebruary 7, 2019
When Jefferson County Circuit Judge Michael Graffeo issued a ruling on the Alabama Memorial Preservation…
Brion McClanahanJanuary 24, 2019
On the stump in New Boston, New Hampshire in early January 1852, Franklin Pierce gave…
Michael J. ConnollyJanuary 17, 2019
Thomas Johnson was born in Calvert County, Maryland, on his father's lands near the mouth…
M.E. BradfordDecember 7, 2018
On November 10, 2018, the Abbeville Institute hosted an event called The Revival of Nullification…
Suzanne ShermanDecember 5, 2018
A review of John Marshall: The Man Who Made the Supreme Court (Basic Books, 2018)…
Brion McClanahanDecember 4, 2018
In the past few weeks two major interrelated events took place in these once United…
Walter D. (Donnie) KennedyOctober 18, 2018
Mel Bradford's outstanding tome A Better Guide Than Reason lifted that phrase from a speech…
Brion McClanahanOctober 10, 2018
Writing about the “Great Triumvirate” of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun during the third Nullification controversy…
W. Kirk WoodSeptember 26, 2018
A review of The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828 by Saul…
James McClellanSeptember 18, 2018
Proposals to turn national programs over to the states are abound in Washington. The failure…
William J. WatkinsSeptember 17, 2018
Constitutional Violation: Amendment One: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or…
John M. TaylorSeptember 12, 2018
When the evolution of presidential power in early American history is discussed, it is sometimes…
Dave BennerSeptember 10, 2018
The punitive “preclearance” regime under the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) of 1965, imposed on seven…
Michael ArnheimSeptember 5, 2018
A review of The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson by David N. Mayer (University of…
Kevin R.C. GutzmanSeptember 4, 2018
Richard Henry Lee was a patriot, Anti-Federalist, and statesman from his “country,” Virginia. He led…
Brion McClanahanJuly 2, 2018
The Electoral College, a bulwark of federalism, is under attack. Straightforward abolition of the Electoral…
Michael ArnheimJune 28, 2018
The Phoenix, Arizona city council has been forced by self-declared “Satanists” to cease opening its…
Joe WolvertonJune 8, 2018
A review of The 14th Amendment and the Incorporation Doctrine by David Benner (Minneapolis: Life…
Ryan WaltersMay 22, 2018
A review of Original Intentions: On the Making and Ratification of the United States Constitution…
W. Kirk WoodMarch 6, 2018
“It has been our happiness to believe, that in the partition of powers between the…
Joe WolvertonFebruary 26, 2018
Recently Michael S. Greve of George Mason University Law School wrote an insightful article which…
John DevannyJanuary 29, 2018
More than 150 years after the Civil War, the nation is engulfed in controversy over…
Jacob G. HornbergerJanuary 24, 2018
A review of Government by Judiciary: The Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment by Raoul Berger…
Zachary GarrisJanuary 9, 2018
A review of Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution by Harry Jafffa, (Regnery,…
William J. WatkinsDecember 19, 2017
Every fact bearing upon the character and service of the statesmen whose genius created a…
Fitzhugh LeeDecember 11, 2017
A review of Liberty & Union: The Civil War Era and American Constitutionalism by Timothy…
Kevin R.C. GutzmanOctober 24, 2017
Southern leaders had few complaints with the old Constitution under which they had lived. The…
James David AltmanSeptember 18, 2017
Nullification, also known as State interposition, is controversial because it challenges the Supreme Court’s monopoly…
Zachary GarrisAugust 31, 2017
A review of Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet, The Life of Luther Martin, by Bill Kauffman,…
Vito MussomeliAugust 29, 2017
Neo-conservatives can’t seem to make up their mind about the Confederacy. They all agree that…
Brion McClanahanAugust 10, 2017
Although the nation recently recognized the 150th anniversary of the end of the War of…
Ryan WaltersApril 4, 2017
According to the modern historical establishment, John C. Calhoun is the ultimate American villain. These…
Brion McClanahanMarch 14, 2017
On March 3, 1817, President James Madison vetoed the Bonus Bill of 1817 – a…
Dave BennerMarch 8, 2017
The great body of the nation has no real interest in party. — James Fenimore…
Clyde WilsonFebruary 23, 2017
Kent Masterson Brown on "The Compact Theory of the Constitution" at the August 2016 Abbeville…
Kent Masterson BrownDecember 23, 2016
"Passion governs, and she never governs wisely,” wrote Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway in 1775.…
Ryan WaltersDecember 5, 2016
Discussing immigration and sanctuary cities, Bill O'Reilly began speaking of the coming clash of two…
Vito MussomeliDecember 1, 2016
Legal “scholar” Akil Reed Amar made waves recently by arguing that a single comment from…
Dave BennerNovember 15, 2016
The mission of the Abbeville Institute, to redeem what is worthwhile in the Southern tradition,…
Clyde WilsonSeptember 22, 2016
Published in honor of James Jackson's birthday, September 21. Delivered in Savannah, in February, 1806,…
Thomas U.P. CharltonSeptember 21, 2016
(13th Annual Gettysburg Banquet of the J.E.B. Stuart Camp, SCV, Philadelphia) ****How Should 21st Century…
Clyde WilsonSeptember 14, 2016
This review was first printed in Southern Partisan magazine in 1995. Marshall DeRosa: The Confederate…
Robert Martin SchaeferSeptember 8, 2016
The dominant historical opinion of the famous debate between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert…
H. A. Scott TraskAugust 30, 2016
The United States Constitution does not contain the words “separation of church and state,” nor…
Dave BennerAugust 12, 2016
Mainstream historians are both an incestuous and snarky bunch. They latch on to trends--fads really--and…
Brion McClanahanAugust 4, 2016
The one consolation of the Antifederalist persuasion is telling everyone you meet “I told you…
John DevannyJuly 8, 2016
Editor's note: This article is excerpted from an 1833 4th of July Oration delivered by…
Henry Laurens PinckneyJune 20, 2016
Sir, South Carolina has not gone one step further than Mr. Jefferson himself was disposed…
Robert Y. HayneJune 7, 2016
This essay is reprinted in honor of Patrick Henry's birthday, May 29, from Moses Coit…
Moses Coit TylerMay 30, 2016
This essay is the introduction to Mr. Kilpatrick's The Sovereign States (Regnery, 1957). AMONG the…
James J. KilpatrickApril 8, 2016
A slightly different version of this essay is Chapter Eleven in Brion McClanahan, The Politically…
Brion McClanahanMarch 17, 2016
The most frequent question I have received during promotion of my new book, 9 Presidents…
Brion McClanahanFebruary 26, 2016
With the recent passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, folks are writhing in fear…
Carl JonesFebruary 25, 2016
Dave Benner, Compact of the Republic: The League of the States and the Constitution (Life…
Brion McClanahanFebruary 19, 2016
This essay is a chapter in M.E. Bradford, Remembering Who We Are: Observations of a…
M.E. BradfordFebruary 18, 2016
Mr. President, during the special session of the Senate in March last, when seven States…
James A. BayardFebruary 16, 2016
One of the greatest legal minds of the founding generation was also one of the…
Dave BennerFebruary 12, 2016
President Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address articulated his philosophical manifesto: “Peace, commerce, and friendship with…
Dave BennerJanuary 26, 2016
I am writing in response to the recently posted piece at the Minneapolis Star Tribune,…
Dave BennerDecember 14, 2015
By way of prologue, let me say that all of us like the Lincoln whose…
Thomas LandessDecember 10, 2015
One of the most unknown, yet substantial political leaders in the founding generation was a…
Dave BennerDecember 4, 2015
The American President began as Cincinnatus, a patriot called to the temporary service of his…
Clyde WilsonDecember 2, 2015
This essay was originally published in Southern Partisan Magazine, 1989. As we conclude bicentennial celebration…
M.E. BradfordNovember 17, 2015
The reader has perceived that the question concerning state powers, is condensed in the word…
John Taylor of CarolineNovember 10, 2015
I. THE name First given to the territory occupied by the present United States was…
Lyon G. TylerNovember 6, 2015
John Rutledge of South Carolina is one of the most important men of the founding…
Brion McClanahanSeptember 17, 2015
If you showed the average American pictures of famous figures from Confederate States of America,…
Dave BennerSeptember 4, 2015
The following is an abridged version of a chapter which will appear in the…
James Rutledge RoeschAugust 25, 2015
Two weeks ago, authorities combing through disgraced former IRS executive Lois Lerner's e-mails released a…
Brion McClanahanAugust 24, 2015
Back in mid-June, after the Charleston shootings, the frenzied hue and cry went up and…
Boyd CatheyAugust 4, 2015
This may be done by enlarging and extending the powers conferred by a liberal construction,…
Oran Milo RobertsJuly 14, 2015
This essay is published in honor of Abel P. Upshur's birthday, June 17, 1790. Today,…
James Rutledge RoeschJune 17, 2015
“The Father of Waters now flows unvexed to the sea,” Lincoln famously announced in July…
Clyde WilsonJune 16, 2015
This speech was delivered before the annual meeting of the Georgia Bar Association at Tybee…
Henry St. George Tucker IIIJune 12, 2015
Delivered as the commencement address for South Carolina College, 1887. What theme is most fitting…
John Randolph TuckerJune 11, 2015
This speech was given to the Young Men's Society of Lynchburg, August 26, 1838. I…
Nathaniel Beverley TuckerJune 10, 2015
Lecture I Having presented to you, young gentlemen, in some former lectures, my views of…
Henry St. George TuckerJune 9, 2015
If any American today were to listen to the nationalists in charge of either the…
Brion McClanahanJune 8, 2015
St. George Tucker's "View of the Constitution of the United States" was the first…
Clyde WilsonJune 8, 2015
In talking about the Southern political tradition, it is most appropriate to point to the…
Clyde WilsonApril 1, 2015
This piece is taken from Brion McClanahan and Clyde Wilson Forgotten Conservatives in American History.…
Brion McClanahanMarch 31, 2015
In honor of John Tyler's birthday (March 29), I thought it proper to include a…
Dave BennerMarch 30, 2015
This year, 2015, marks the sesquicentennial of the end of a four-year war between American…
R.E. Smith, Jr.March 27, 2015
A Sympathy for Disunion "This, Mr. President, is not a government founded upon compact; it…
Vito MussomeliFebruary 24, 2015
As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and as an eminent lawyer and statesman, Martin…
H. Lee Cheek, Jr.February 20, 2015
Delivered at the Blount County Courthouse, January 19, 2015. Robert E. Lee said “Everyone…
Carl JonesJanuary 21, 2015
Robert Barnwell Rhett, born on December 21, 1800, is remembered as one of the foremost…
Brion McClanahanDecember 22, 2014
States’ rights may have been the defining force in Antebellum America, but modern, mainstream historians…
James Rutledge RoeschDecember 19, 2014
In honor of John Taylor's birthday, December 19. From Tyranny Unmasked: “The rival remedy for our…
W. Kirk WoodDecember 19, 2014
This essay was first published at Unz Review on November 23, 2014. Back in 1975…
Boyd CatheyDecember 17, 2014
The US Supreme Court’s ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014) has uncovered…
Marshall DeRosaDecember 15, 2014
M.E. Bradford said of Southern Conservatism that: “This conservatism is both historic and principled in…
Carl JonesDecember 12, 2014
This essay is excerpted from Brion McClanahan's The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers…
Brion McClanahanDecember 11, 2014
The fiercely contested, yet inconclusive election of 1824 set the stage for one of the…
H. Lee Cheek, Jr.December 5, 2014
Focusing on the cultural, political and economic long-term consequences of President Obama’s amnesty executive action…
Marshall DeRosaNovember 24, 2014
The most fundamental elements of government are wealth and power. Their interplay is forever to…
Vito MussomeliNovember 14, 2014
Part II of a Five Part Series. Part I 1. Liberalism Taylor stood on liberal…
Joseph R. StrombergOctober 14, 2014
It is a strange fact of modern American culture that when looking at famous people…
Carl JonesOctober 6, 2014
Part III of a Four Part Series by the Legal Scholar Spencer Roane written in…
Spencer RoaneSeptember 8, 2014
To the Editor of the Enquirer: According to the regular course of legal proceedings I…
Spencer RoaneSeptember 1, 2014
This is Part I of four letters that originally appeared in the Richmond Enquirer in…
Spencer RoaneAugust 21, 2014
Brion McClanahan discusses the original Constitution at the Reclaiming America for Christ Conference in Moore,…
Brion McClanahanAugust 8, 2014
"The confederation has been formed by the free will of the states. If today one…
Marco BassaniAugust 8, 2014
The real U.S. Constitution, which was scrapped long ago, does not permit judges to be…
Clyde WilsonAugust 7, 2014
To most historians, states’ rights are nothing more than a treasonous rationale for chattel slavery.…
James Rutledge RoeschJuly 17, 2014
We now approach the heart of Taylor's Inquiry: recent times had created a new type…
Clyde WilsonJune 26, 2014
John Taylor (1753–1824) of Caroline County, Virginia, is the most important, profound, prophetic and neglected…
Clyde WilsonJune 19, 2014
This piece originally appeared in the North American Review, February 1890. To DO justice to…
Jefferson DavisJune 6, 2014
Delivered by Jefferson Davis on 21 January 1861 before leaving the United States Senate. I…
Jefferson DavisJune 4, 2014
Dr. Donald Livingston at the 2004 Abbeville Institute Summer School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYgIHqQwK2U
Donald LivingstonJune 3, 2014
One of the greatest American statesmen, Patrick Henry, was born on this day (May 29)…
Brion McClanahanMay 29, 2014
One of the greatest American statesmen, Patrick Henry, was born on this day (May 29)…
Brion McClanahanMay 29, 2014
Part III from a section of Dr. Scott Trask's work in progress, Copperheads and Conservatives.…
H. A. Scott TraskMay 13, 2014
Part II from a section of Dr. Scott Trask's work in progress, Copperheads and Conservatives.…
H. A. Scott TraskMay 6, 2014
Part I from a section of Dr. Scott Trask's work in progress, Copperheads and Conservatives.…
H. A. Scott TraskMay 3, 2014
You have to hand it to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). His soft-spoken demeanor…
Mike ChurchApril 29, 2014
In my article from last week entitled “1865 and Modern Relevance” I asserted that the…
Carl JonesApril 28, 2014
James Monroe was born today (April 28) in 1757. He is one of the more…
Brion McClanahanApril 28, 2014
In the present judgment of history—or at least those who are counted worthy to opine…
Valerie ProtopapasApril 22, 2014
"I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign…
Carl JonesApril 16, 2014
The historian Andrew C. McLaughlin in 1932 wrote that the British imperial system was characterized…
Brion McClanahanApril 15, 2014
Born in Lewes, England (October 5, 1751), Iredell spent his childhood in Bristol. The eldest…
H. Lee Cheek, Jr.April 15, 2014
Introduction: Centers and Peripheries A look at the early history of the United Provinces of…
Joseph R. StrombergApril 14, 2014
According to Deist belief, God does not get involved in the affairs of mankind. He…
Jonathan WhiteApril 8, 2014
This lecture was delivered at the 1995 Ludvig von Mises seminar "Secession, State, and Economy"…
Clyde WilsonApril 8, 2014
This lecture was delivered at the 2011 Ludvig von Mises Scholar's Conference in Auburn, AL.…
Marshall DeRosaApril 8, 2014
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