Richard A. Samuelson is Assistant Professor of History at California State University, San Bernardino. He has held fellowships or teaching appointments at Princeton University, Claremont McKenna College, the University of Paris VIII, the National University of Ireland, Galway. Although he has published on a range of subjects, his principal works focus on the political and constitutional ideas of the American founding era. Dr. Samuelson is currently completing a book on John Adams’ political thought, "John Adams and the Republic of Laws". He received his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Virginia
Abraham Lincoln is in the news again. That means that our politicians are comparing themselves to President Lincoln. This is an old pattern. After David McCullough’s Truman became a bestseller, the political class was busy drawing Truman comparisons. Now they …
What is American Government?
A recent Democratic Party campaign commercial suggests that “the government is the only thing that we all belong to.”
At first glance, the commercial seems to be suggesting that we the people are servants …
In a famous letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, President Washington wrote:
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed
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In my previous post, I noted that the distinction between a tax and a regulation was well understood by the American revolutionaries. The distinction had to do with the purpose of the law. A tax was a law that …
What is a tax, and what is a regulation or a penalty? That seems like a fairly straightforward question. But since Chief Justice Roberts released his opinion that Obamacare is constitutional because the “penalty” it imposes for failing to carry
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