Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'Thomas Jefferson'

May 19, 2026

Our Glorious Founding Document

Bad history books litter the shelves of classrooms, bookstores, and libraries everywhere. Beyond mere factual inaccuracies, bad works of history also pretend to neutrality, prefer a Marxist materialism to messy human motivations, and misalign the significance of events. Continue Reading...
May 07, 2026

Washington the Great

What made George Washington so great? This is the question asked by H.W. Brands in the last chapter of his new biography, American Patriarch: The Life of George Washington. If one made a list of qualities that make an effective leader, Washington would check a lot of boxes: He was brave, diligent, resourceful, and inspiring. Continue Reading...
December 29, 2025

Is America Simply Jefferson vs. Hamilton?

Herbert Butterfield in his The Whig Interpretation of History argued that assessing the past in light of the present, what we call “presentism,” is the source of all historical errors. Our tendency to do so results from a very real problem: How do we impose some sort of narrative order on the complex, disparate, and voluminous material presented in historical reflection? Continue Reading...
July 04, 2025

Remembering the Real Revolution of July 4

The words are engrained in our national consciousness: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Continue Reading...
June 09, 2025

“Our Nation Is No Accident”

A band of desperate religious refugees find themselves blown hopelessly off course, only to be deposited at the one spot on a wild continent best suited for their survival. George Washington’s beaten army, surrounded by a ruthless foe and on the verge of annihilation, manages an impossible escape due to a freakish change in the weather. Continue Reading...
July 03, 2024

Liberty: An Ideal Rooted in Our Very Humanity

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” The idea of equality lies at the very foundation of the American republic. Building our social lives, channeling our economic pursuits, and establishing our political institutions on the principles enunciated in our Declaration of Independence unleashed the entrepreneurial potential of our people that created prosperity for the greatest number. Continue Reading...
July 04, 2016

Natural rights and social duties

“Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.” – Lord Acton Today, people across the United States will march in parades, set off fireworks, and don red, white, and blue to huge family cookouts, all in celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Continue Reading...
January 16, 2015

10 Quotes for Religious Freedom Day

Thomas Jefferson wanted what he considered to be his three greatest achievements to be listed on his tombstone. The inscription, as he stipulated, reads “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.” Continue Reading...