U.S. Politics
L’Affaire de XYZ
By 1792, three years after the French Revolution began, Europe was again at war and President George Washington declared that the United States would remain neutral. Our position of neutrality…
Read MoreThe Republic of Vermont Versus the State of New York
In January 1777, Vermont’s citizens were having an identity crisis. The war in which we would ultimately gain our independence was still very much in down when representatives of 28…
Read MoreA Frigate for Tribute
Before the revolution, our merchant ships flew under the British flag and during the war, the French flag. Both were now gone once we won our independence and after the…
Read MoreWe Paid What for Tribute?
When the American Revolution ended in 1783, as a country we wanted to resume our trade with Europe and the duchies on the north shore of the Mediterranean. Before the…
Read MoreSix Ways We Paid for the American Revolution
During the American Revolution, the members of the Second Continental Congress were faced with a dilemma, i.e. how to pay for a war against the most powerful nation in the…
Read MoreEdward Bancroft – Britain’s Spy in the American Delegation to France
On March 2nd, 1776, the Committee of Secret Correspondence (after 1777, it was the Committee on Foreign Affairs) formed by Second Continental Congress selected Silas Deane to go to Paris…
Read MoreBack When America Was Defenseless for 9 Years
Right after the American Revolution ended and the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3rd, 1783, the United States of America began to disarm. On December 3rd, 1783 Washington…
Read MoreBehold, a Great Document Has Been Written For You
When was the last time you read the American Constitution in its entirety? If you haven’t in the past five or ten years, you should. And, my recommendation is that…
Read MoreFinancing the American Revolution
When the war broke out at Lexington and Concord on April 19th, 1775, the colonists had no means of funding the fight that would take seven long years. There was…
Read MoreDeath of the Articles of Confederation
Our nation’s first attempt at a constitution had the seeds of its own destruction built into the document. It created, as one historian put it, more of a “league of…
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