Path to Liberty

The only founder who signed the Declaration, Articles of Confederation, Constitution and the Continental Association. Yet, the name Roger Sherman is hardly known to most people today. On this episode, an overview of his life and accomplishments in commemoration of his 300th birthday.

For many people, nullification is a loaded word - primarily due to a government-run education system that’s never taught people the full history of the doctrine. Partisans seem to like it that way and perpetuate these myths by referring to things they don’t like as slavery-supporting nullification - and things they do like as definitely, absolutely “not nullification.”

Supporters of the monster state absolutely hate nullification. And they always conveniently ignore the fact that it was used by northern states to resist federal pro-slavery laws. On this episode, get a quick overview of those arguments - plus quotes from 3 leading abolitionists in support of nullification.

In 1791, James Madison gave two major speeches on the National Bank, opposing it primarily on grounds that it wasn’t a power expressly delegated in the Constitution. He also rejected claims that used the general welfare and necessary and proper clauses, along with the power to borrow money, and the preamble.

We hear them all the time - from the left and right - and even some libertarians too. On this episode, learn the most common excuses for rejecting or just avoiding nullification, all based on fear. Plus, some timeless responses from Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, John Adams and James Otis, Jr.

More important every day, the "foundation of the Constitution" is how Thomas Jefferson described the 10th Amendment. A quick overview of what it is and why it exists, plus the top-10 quotes from leading founders on the Tenth - and the essential principles behind it.

John Taylor of Caroline’s Tyranny Unmasked explains in plain, but passionate language the dangers of centralized power, with a focus on government interference in commerce, along with taxation, parties and even so-called “national defence.” Written in 1822, it’s an essential - but ignored - polemic against the tyranny of powerful, centralized government.

Of all the compromises which produced the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, the Three-Fifths Compromise is probably considered the most controversial today. But in order to understand what it actually was all about, it’s important to set aside preconceived notions and look at the history behind it - going back more than a decade to the Articles of Confederation.

With a natural rights foundation - along with warnings about consolidation and people with power - in his 2nd of 16 essays during the debates over ratification of the Constitution, Antifederalist Brutus made a powerful case for decentralization and a Bill of Rights.

To the Founding generation, Trial by Jury was considered an indispensable tool against the power of government. Although supporters of the monster state today want juries to only judge the facts of the case before them, they actually have a duty to consider not just the facts, but the law itself.