Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. –Amendment I, US Constitution First. That there be prefixed to [...]
It is Thanksgiving Day. The aroma of turkey; of dressing; candied sweet potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; freshly baked yeast rolls; giblet gravy, and of pies emanating from the kitchen fills our nostrils. Home is the place to be today. But have you ever given thought to the law of the gobbler? This Day in [...]
Too often we tend to think that the Declaration of Independence was a creature which sprang to life between June 7, 1776, when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced his resolution calling for independence and Mr. Jefferson’s magnum opus which was voted on three weeks later. History teaches that the march towards independence was a [...]
The great end of government and laws is human happiness; the rulers ought, therefore, to understand and know on what it consists; and the means of producing it. — Hon. Jesse Root, “On the Principles and End of Government” The summer of 1776 was quite productive in the annals of American intellectual and legal thought. [...]
Few periods in the history of western intellectual thought have been more productive in so little time than the work product which flowed from the Continental Congress during the summer of 1776. On April 19, 1775, when the “shot heard around the world,” would forever become part of our history – British North America was [...]
Friday, June 7, 1776, was anything but quiet. Resolutions respecting American independence were introduced in the Continental Congress. One resolution came from Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. Mr. Lee’s resolution read: Resolved, that these United Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free, and independent States, that they are, absolved for all allegiance to [...]
Author’s Note: During my tenure as the first Supreme Court Archivist-Legal Historian to the Supreme Court of Missouri, I authored an in-house history column. Reproduced below is my July Fourth column from 2013. On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail. “My dear Friend,” , “he Second of July, 1776, [...]
