Roots of Liberty: Unlocking the Federalist Papers

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Too often in recent years, frustrated constitutionalists have understandably pushed back against a relentless and bipartisan expansion of the size and scope of government by using the US Constitution as a blunt instrument against progressives who have increasingly had their way and won the day.

While comprehending and invoking the Constitution is obviously necessary, understanding the rationale behind it is even more important.

After all, it has always been of paramount importance for America’s young people to understand the principles which built America from a colonial backwater into the world’s beacon of freedom and greatest superpower.

What good is knowing the names and dates of the history of the founding without an appreciation for the ideas that drove independence?  If you don’t know the basis for limiting the powers of government and guaranteeing the rights of the people, you will not respect or value either.

In that spirit, allow me to announce the launch of our Roots of Liberty project.  Three years in the making, Roots of Liberty: Unlocking the Federalist Papers is a comprehensive curriculum designed to foster a knowledge of and thirst for liberty and freedom in young Americans.

The curriculum includes a student text featuring ten essays written by constitutional scholars unifying key topics and themes throughout the Papers, an accompanying discussion guide with multiple tools and activities, as well as historic and contemporary companion videos.  Students get the best of what the papers have to offer on ten topics, including the doctrine of enumerated powers, federalism, and economic freedom.

The US Constitution is the foundation of the nation, but what were the ideas behind its implementation?  Why are foundational principles such as political freedom, checks and balances and property rights so critical?  What values and mores guided the hands of its authors?  Most of the answers to these questions can be found in the Federalist Papers.

The Papers, written by three giants – James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay – were described by Thomas Jefferson as “the best commentary on the principles of government which was ever written,” and by distinguished historian Clinton Rossiter as “the most important work in political science that has ever been written.”

But there is another significant element to the Papers.  As progressive forces increasingly attempt to spin the Constitution to justify their own worldview, the fact that this 85 part apologia was written by prominent founders and designed for the express purpose of convincing skeptical Americans to ratify the Constitution settles the question of original intent to a far greater degree than any other work.

Progressives are free to disagree with the intent of the founders, but not to pervert their intentions as so effectively articulated in the Papers.

So why not just give students a copy of the Federalist Papers?  The 85 papers, well studied, would certainly teach our children well.  The problem is that the Papers have been largely inaccessible because of their arcane language and sheer volume, and thus schools have been largely unwilling and/or unable to teach them.

Roots of Liberty will change that forever.

As one of the many people deeply disturbed by an increasingly omnipresent and omnipotent government, climaxed by the passage of Obamacare, I decided four years ago to ramp up my role as a citizen from the grandstand to the field of play.  You will recall my quixotic campaign for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, which was motivated primarily by a desire to re-assert the first principles that made America great.  At the conclusion of that campaign, that desire was re-directed into One Generation Away, an educational non-profit with essentially the same purpose.  We take our name from Ronald Reagan’s warning that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction, and our mission statement is: Applying America’s Founding Principles to the Issues of Today.  This project reflects that exact purpose.

The reality is that constitutionalists have tried to restore America’s greatness primarily through the political process, and we have largely failed.  It is beyond time to start afresh by endowing our future leaders with the founding principles before the popular culture and the media get a hold of them, and convince them of the inevitable triumph of progressivism.

As we raise the flag with an aggressive marketing plan to place this curriculum, as well as future planned curricula, in as many schools as possible, it is my sincere belief that over time, my own contribution to liberty can and will be greater than it would have been sitting in the increasingly dysfunctional and ineffectual US Senate.  Hopefully, these BD columns and my weekly radio show, Liberty Nation, can add to that contribution.

Please check out the site, and if you have a child, grandchild, or teacher who could benefit from this effort, please pass this information to them.  Remember that, as Reagan said, freedom “does not pass to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

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