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Patriotism blog
What Caused the Civil War, Who Won It and Why, Answered From the Record Twelve plain questions about the Civil War answered from the record, from the secession declarations to Appomattox, the dead and what Emancipation did. If the Constitution Were Rewritten as a Software License Agreement A labelled satire recasts the Bill of Rights as terms of service the provider may update at any time, to show why secured rights beat granted ones. Gratitude Is a Conservative Virtue, and Ingratitude Fuels Every Revolution A conservative starts from thanks for an inheritance he did not earn, a revolutionary from grievance, and the two moods build two different kinds of politics. English as a Common Language Is a Gift to Newcomers, Not a Barrier A shared language is the precondition of a shared public life, and expecting English helps immigrants rise instead of holding them back. How to Judge the Founders Fairly Without Excusing Slavery or Erasing Them Many Founders held slaves and also wrote the principles that ended slavery; a numbered argument for holding both truths and answering the charge of hypocrisy. The Constitution Is Not Illegitimate Because Its Framers Held Slaves Many Framers held slaves. The abolitionists, Lincoln and the civil rights movement used their Constitution to end slavery and segregation anyway. Frederick Douglass's Plea for Free Speech in Boston, Read Passage by Passage A mob broke up an abolitionist meeting in Boston in 1860, and Douglass answered with the best defence of free speech in the language. The Founders Were Not Just Rich Men Protecting Their Property Charles Beard said the Constitution was written to protect the Framers' bonds. Later historians checked his ledger, and it did not balance. Tocqueville Saw It in 1831, Comebacks Are Built in Associations, Not Ads A French visitor found that Americans solve public problems by forming groups, and the durable conservative comebacks were built the same way. Loving your country is not idolatry, a believer's case for patriotism Christians and Jews can love their country without worshiping it, and Scripture commands care for one's city; here is where patriotism ends and idolatry begins. The Cherry Tree, the Flat Earth and Other History Myths Traced to Their Source Eight famous American stories that never happened as told, each traced to the person who made it up, with a verdict, because the true record needs no help. Washington's 1789 and Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamations side by side Two presidents, seventy-four years apart, called a nation to thank God, one at the founding and one in civil war, and their words still teach gratitude. How to Mark America's 250th Birthday in Your Own Town and With Your Own Family Six steps for any family: read the Declaration aloud, find a local Revolutionary veteran, visit a park site, interview a vet, fly the flag right, ask your town. How to Host a Constitution Day Reading in Your Town on September 17 Any citizen can organize a public reading of the Constitution on September 17. Here is the plan, step by step, from venue to readers to follow-up. America at 250 and What the Centennial and the Bicentennial Can Teach Us Philadelphia in 1876, Operation Sail in 1976 and the 250th commission of 2016 compared, with a plain argument about what an anniversary ought to teach. Constitution Day and How Americans Marked the Charter's Great Anniversaries From the 1887 centennial to the 1987 bicentennial and the 2004 law on schools, how each anniversary of the Constitution showed what Americans thought of it. Seven Myths About Veterans That Shape Bad Policy, and the Facts Hollywood treats veterans as broken or as charity cases, but the record shows productive citizens with real, specific needs, and bad myths make bad policy. Tear Down This Wall Read Closely as the Speech Diplomats Tried to Soften Reagan's 1987 Brandenburg Gate speech read passage by passage, with the drafting history, the objections to its central line and how it read after 1989. Talking Politics With a Neighbor Who Disagrees, a Persuasion Playbook Most persuasion happens between people who know each other. Seven plain steps for talking politics with a neighbor, with labelled examples. Thanksgiving Proclamations of 1789 and 1863, Read as Lessons in Gratitude Washington in 1789 and Lincoln in 1863 asked a divided people to give thanks. Both texts read closely, and why gratitude is a civic habit. The Pledge of Allegiance From 1892 to Under God, and the Fights Along the Way The Pledge began as a magazine's school celebration in 1892 and changed several times. Each change, from 1923 to 1954 to Newdow, tells a story. Barnette's Fixed Star, Reading the 1943 Opinion on the Pledge Passage by Passage Justice Jackson's 1943 Flag Day opinion in Barnette explains why a free country does not compel patriotism. Its key passages, read closely. Texas v. Johnson Protected Flag Burning, and Conservatives Still Argue It The 5-4 flag-burning ruling of 1989 split conservative justices and still splits conservatives. Both positions get a fair hearing before one is argued. Old Glory's Rules, What the Flag Code Says and Why Most of Us Break It The Flag Code tells Americans how to display and honour the flag. Its history, its main rules, and why it carries no penalties. Lincoln's Electric Cord and the Case for a Civic Nation Anyone Can Join America is a creedal nation. Lincoln's electric cord shows how newcomers become fully American, and why assimilation is both possible and required. Why We Play the Anthem Before Games, From the 1918 World Series On The anthem at the ballpark began in a wartime World Series in 1918. The history explains why the ritual is worth keeping, and worth explaining to children. Country Music Still Sings About Work, Faith and Flag, and It Is No Accident Country is the popular genre whose mainstream still celebrates work, faith, family and country, because its audience lives those things. Seven Myths About the Declaration of Independence, Checked Against the Record Seven things Americans learn about the Declaration, from the July 4 signing to the Liberty Bell to its secularism, tested against the documents. When Hollywood Enlisted, the Studios and Stars Who Went to War in 1942 After Pearl Harbor the film industry put stars in uniform and studios to work for the war, a model of patriotic culture that today's industry could learn from. July 2, July 4, August 2, the Dates Behind the Declaration of Independence Independence was voted July 2, the text adopted July 4 and most signatures added August 2. A dated timeline of how it happened and why each step mattered. The Grievance List in the Declaration Reads Like a Charge Sheet Against Power The skipped middle of the Declaration is a catalogue of abuses, and nearly every charge became a clause of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The Declaration's Second Paragraph Is a Complete Theory of Government In about two hundred words the Declaration says where rights come from, why governments exist, who gives them power and when the people may change them. Irving Berlin Came Through Ellis Island and Wrote God Bless America A boy who arrived from Russia in 1893 became America's great songwriter, gave the country an unofficial anthem, and gave the royalties to the Scouts. The Statue of Liberty Was Built on a Pedestal Paid for by Small Donors France gave the statue, but Americans had to build the base, and more than 120,000 small donors answered a newspaper campaign to finish it in 1886. Franklin's Closing Speech Asked Delegates to Doubt Themselves and Sign Anyway On September 17, 1787, an 81-year-old Franklin asked the delegates to doubt their own infallibility and sign. Read his words closely, line by line. Madison Kept the Idea of Property in Men Out of the Constitution's Words The Framers bargained with slavery but refused to name it, and that refusal handed abolitionists a Constitution they could stand on. The Three-Fifths Clause Limited Slaveholder Power and Measured No One's Worth The clause was about counting seats, not weighing souls. The slaveholders wanted their slaves counted in full, and the clause stopped them. The conscience clause Madison wrote for the Bill of Rights and lost Madison's 1789 draft of the Second Amendment spared the religiously scrupulous from bearing arms; the clause was cut, and conscience was left to statute. George Mason and the well regulated militia composed of the body of the people Mason wrote Virginia's Declaration of Rights, defined the militia as the body of the people, and refused to sign the Constitution until it had a bill of rights. The Powder Alarm and the British arms embargo that came before Lexington Gage's powder seizure and the Crown's 1774 embargo taught Americans that disarmament comes first. That, as much as April 1775, shaped the Second Amendment. Appomattox and the Generous Surrender Terms That Began to Heal a Nation Grant's terms at Appomattox ended a war without starting a feud, and they show what magnanimity in victory can and cannot do. The Gettysburg Address Read Closely Sentence by Sentence Ten sentences, about 270 words, and the whole American creed: a close reading of the Bliss copy against the orator who spoke first and the nation that listened. Teddy Roosevelt's 1915 Warning Against Hyphenated Americanism, Read Closely A passage-by-passage reading of Roosevelt's 1915 Columbus Day speech on divided loyalty and equal treatment, with what still holds and what the war dated. The Boston sermon of 1750 that taught colonists when to resist a king Jonathan Mayhew's 1750 sermon read Romans 13 as a limit on rulers, and a generation of colonial pulpits carried that reading into 1776. Why 'created equal' is a claim about God and not just about politics The Declaration grounds equality in a Creator, which puts rights beyond any government's power to revoke. The text, Aristotle, Lincoln and the objection. The Statue of Liberty Was a Gift About Liberty, and the Poem Came Later The sonnet on the pedestal is beautiful, but it was written to raise money, mounted in 1903, and never said what immigration law should be. Pharaoh, the Red Sea and the Great Seal design Franklin and Jefferson wanted In 1776 Franklin and Jefferson proposed Exodus scenes for the national seal. The story shows why a tale of liberation fits America. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July and Why Douglass Kept the Constitution Douglass's Rochester speech of July 5, 1852 indicts slavery without mercy, then calls the Constitution a glorious liberty document. Read it closely. Harriet Tubman Led Rescues, Spied for the Union and Raided the Combahee River She escaped slavery, went back for about seventy people, scouted for the Union and helped free more than 700 on the Combahee River. Why Washington's Farewell Address called religion and morality indispensable Washington's 1796 warning that free government cannot last without religion and morality, read passage by passage, and what it means now. The Star-Spangled Banner Read as a Document of Survival, All Four Stanzas Francis Scott Key's poem is the prayer of a nation that nearly lost. Read all four stanzas, the flag behind them, and the argument over the third. From a Civil War coin to the Pledge, how 'under God' entered public life Two national mottoes arrived in two eras of danger, the Civil War and the Cold War, and the dates explain why they were added and why they still divide us. The Northwest Ordinance Banned Slavery From a Territory Bigger Than France The 1787 ordinance made new states equals, listed rights before the Bill of Rights and barred slavery north of the Ohio. Read its articles closely. The Bladensburg Peace Cross, a World War I memorial and a 7-2 ruling A tall cross built in 1925 for 49 fallen soldiers survived a lawsuit, and the Court's reasoning explains why tearing it down would have been no neutral act. Why July 2 Was Independence Day and Other Fourth of July Questions Answered Real questions about the Fourth of July answered from the record: the Lee Resolution, Adams's prediction, the signing, the broadsides and the fireworks. Madison's Federalist 46 and the advantage of being armed that tyrants fear In Federalist 46 Madison calmed fears of a federal army by pointing to the armed citizens of America. Read it with Hamilton's No. 29 and the Anti-Federalists. John Adams Defended the British Soldiers Who Fired in the Boston Massacre In 1770 the patriot lawyer John Adams defended the soldiers whom Boston wanted hanged, and proved the cause of liberty was the rule of law. George Washington Gave Up Power Twice and Changed What Leaders Could Be Washington's greatness lay in what he refused: the Newburgh temptation, the resignation at Annapolis, a third term and a warning in the Farewell Address. Paul Revere Never Shouted the British Are Coming and Six More Revolution Myths Seven things Americans half-remember about the Revolution, tested against the record, and a defense of the truth, which is better than the legend. What Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson Feared and Hoped About Newcomers The Founders welcomed immigrants and worried about whether they would take up republican habits, and their disagreement beats today's slogans. What Washington's Farewell Address Really Said About Foreign Entanglements Washington warned against passionate attachments and permanent alliances, not all engagement. The exact words, the fights behind them, and a fair test for NATO. Thomas Paine's The Crisis and the Words Read Aloud to a Freezing Army A close reading of Paine's first Crisis essay of December 1776, said to have reached Washington's troops before Trenton, and why it still steadies us. The Forgotten Immigration Grievance in the Declaration of Independence The Declaration charges the King with blocking naturalization and discouraging migration, which shows the colonists claimed the right to decide who joins them. Two schoolgirls, a flag salute and the 1943 ruling that protected conscience Barnette reversed the Court's 1940 flag-salute ruling in three years, and a patriot has every reason to defend it. Justice Jackson's reasons are the best. Valley Forge Was a Winter of Hunger That Turned Farmers Into an Army The Continental Army entered Valley Forge starving and untrained and left it disciplined, thanks to Steuben, Greene and Washington's patience. Why Lexington Green and Concord Bridge Started a War on April 19, 1775 General Gage sent troops to seize the colonists' powder and cannon, and farmers who had drilled for months answered at Lexington and Concord. We the People Wrote a Preamble That Limits Government Instead of Licensing It The Preamble names six purposes and grants no power. Read it phrase by phrase, and see why the Supreme Court said so plainly in 1905.