PODCAST: HISTORY UNPLUGGED
J. Edgar Hoover’s 50-Year Career of Blackmail, Entrapment, and Taking Down Communist Spies
The Presidential Election of 1800 in the United States held much significance. The most famous line from Thomas Jeffersons' first inaugural address, “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists,” is often taken out of context. In the next sentence, Jefferson stated, “If there be any among us who would…
Was Alexander Hamilton a Founding Father? The answer is an unequivocal "yes," although there are aspects of his biography that set him apart. Hamilton differed from other men in the Founding generation in one regard. Unlike many of the men who led the United States in the War for Independence,…
The differences between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton are voluminous, but they essentially boil down to a vision of government: whether America would become a centralized industrial producer or a decentralized republic of educated, yeoman farmers. In his defense of the Bank, Alexander Hamilton advocated a loose interpretation of the…
Other than George Washington, Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American of his generation. Any noteworthy activity in Philadelphia had his fingerprints, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Franklin was a philanthropist, entrepreneur, scientist, philosopher, diplomat, statesman, printer, and reluctant patriot whose morals and social activities…
The Louisiana Purchase was not a simple matter for U.S. Congress. It had only authorized Monroe to spend $2 million for New Orleans and West Florida, so the increase in funds needed approval. Because it increased the public debt by nearly 20 percent, Jefferson’s secretary of the treasury, Swiss-born Albert…
Thomas Jefferson, as an author of the founding documents of the United States, has a few choice quotes on Democracy. Jefferson’s vision of government was simple: “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of…
Samuel Adams had many accomplishments. He was elected to the General Court of Massachusetts to represent Boston in 1771. Due to health concerns, he retired in 1772 and returned to farming, but the agrarian life did not suit him, and he was back in Boston within a year. He implicitly…
In 1772, Thomas Jefferson married a beautiful widow, Martha Wayles Skelton; she died ten years later. Jefferson was a devoted husband, and the marriage produced six children, two of whom lived to adulthood. The loss of his wife buried Jefferson in a deep, lasting depression, and he promised that he…
The concept of presidential term limits dates back to the end of George Washington's presidency. Washington established several important precedents while president. Until 1940, no president sought more than two consecutive terms in office. He could have remained president for life. The Constitution did not impose term limits on the…
When the people of Virginia called on him to serve in the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Washington at first refused, but he was finally persuaded by the same call of duty that led him to accept the command of the Continental Army in 1775. The Convention unanimously elected him president.…
