The American Founding with Jay Cost

Federalists carried the day at the Pennsylvania ratifying convention in October 1787, but Antifederal arguments were spreading rapidly. Newspapers all across the country were publishing works by Antifederalists like Brutus, Centinel, and Federal Farmer. The battle between the two sides was going to be lengthy and closely fought. We all know that the Antifederalists were against the Constitution, but why did they hate it so much? What were they actually for? Tune in to find out!

In this week's episode of The American Founding, Dr. Jay Cost examines the fight to ratify the Constitution in Pennsylvania. Federalist supporters of the Constitution pushed for an early convention to keep opposition from rising. Their gambit succeeded, as Pennsylvania became just the second state to ratify. But their bare-knuckled tactics provoked outrage from Anti-Federalist opponents, demonstrating that the fight over the Constitution would be long and brutal.  

The Constitution received overwhelming support at the Constitutional Convention, but it was not unanimous. The most prominent opponent was George Mason of Virginia. A widely respected Revolutionary leader, Mason played a constructive role at the Convention, but ultimately could not bring himself to sign. Join us as we discover how Mason's opposition inspired the Anti-Federalist movement that would nearly defeat the Constitution on its way to ratification. 

On the back of the great seal is the Latin phrase, Novus Ordo Seclorum, or "new order of the ages." How exactly did the Constitution usher in this new order? What precisely was new about it? What was it supposed to look like? In this week's episode of the American Founding, we look at the Constitution in its entirety, trying to understand what kind of new order for the ages the Framers sought to inaugurate.  

This week's episode of The American Founding will look at John Adams. A brilliant but unconventional political thinker, his legacy is perhaps the most misunderstood of all the Founders. Condemned in his day as a turncoat against the republicanism of the American Revolution, Adams was in fact deeply worried about the potential rise of oligarchy, or the rule of the rich. Many of his warnings were prescient, and so Adams is as relevant for us today as any of the American founders.  

In this episode of The American Founding, Cost examines the political thought of Thomas Jefferson. A brilliant and complex individual, Jefferson leaves a legacy of inconsistency. The advocate for individual liberty, he owned hundreds of slaves. A politician devoted to government frugality, he died deeply in depth. What can the sphinx-like Jefferson tell us about America and its traditions? 

The gruesome assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk yesterday is without precedent. Kirk was murdered in broad daylight merely for speaking his mind. Scores of his political opponents took to social media to cheer his untimely death, another sign of a culture that rejects the basic principles of the First Amendment.   Free speech is not an incidental right to the republic. The United States of America cannot survive as a free nation without the First Amendment right to free speech, which carries an obligation to tolerate language we disagree with. Speech is not violence. People whose views we disagree with are not fascists.  

This episode will look at the political theory and social status of George Washington. Remembered by Henry Lee as, "First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of His Countrymen," Washington occupied an ambiguous place in the nation. For here was a country premised on social and political equality, yet with an individual who clearly was its first person. Washington was keenly aware of his role in the nation, and sought to be a unifying figure who stood above faction, while promoting economic development that would bring the disparate parts of the nation together.  

In this episode of the American Founding, Dr. Cost will take a close look at the political theory of Alexander Hamilton. The author of most of the Federalist essays, Hamilton nevertheless did not participate at the Constitutional Convention nearly as much as James Madison, Gouverneur Morris, or others. Still, he offered a boldly elitist theory of constitutional government. While it was wildly out of step with the rest of the Convention, Hamilton would go on to pursue his vision of republicanism during the Washington Administration, which makes his ideas important to consider carefully.

On this episode of the American Founding, Dr. Cost discusses how the Constitution lays out the concept of federalism, or power sharing between the state and national governments. The states were granted an important but ambiguous role in the early Constitution, and it would be up to later generations to determine exactly where the line between state and federal authority belonged.