Virginia Institute for American History

10/12/2026

Happy Columbus Day!

Principles of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Civic Education, Virtue, Liberty, Federalist, Washington's Farewell Address

09/24/2026

Re: "History by a Hair" by Richard Kurin
Read the initial response of the President of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, John H. Works Jr.--a 7th-generation lineal descendant of Thomas Jefferson and, for the past 9 years, an independent forensic genetic genealogy investigator of the Jefferson-Hemings paternity question in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

Kurin’s preprint is now posted online--“The DNA legacy of Thomas Jefferson” (bioRxiv, 21 September 2026)--attached. This is an initial assessment, drawing on the study’s own tables, a genealogist’s reading of the pedigrees, and the first outside technical review of the paper.

09/17/2026

Happy Constitution Day! 239 years ago, 39 delegates signed the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The signers included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.

Principles of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Civic Education, Virtue, Liberty, Federalist, Washington's Farewell Address

09/09/2026

https://wjmi.blogspot.com/2026/09/constitution-day-lecture-with-tony.html

Principles of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Civic Education, Virtue, Liberty, Federalist, Washington's Farewell Address

08/14/2026

"I still believe now, as I did then, that the Declaration of 1776 provides us with the principles to guide us as citizens of our great Republic. Even in this time of questioning and criticism of our founding, we should not forget that the Declaration established the principles that produced – despite all of our imperfections, miscues, and tragic mistakes – the freest, wealthiest, and most powerful nation in the history of the world. It provided the moral principles by which Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. could criticize the institutions of slavery and segregation. The Declaration is, in fact, along with the Gospels, one of the greatest antislavery documents in the history of Western civilization. It did not establish a form of government – that was the job of the Constitution that followed – but it stated the purpose of government. The Declaration made clear in clear prose that the purpose of government is to protect our God-given inalienable rights, rights that all individuals equally possess."

Principles of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Civic Education, Virtue, Liberty, Federalist, Washington's Farewell Address

07/26/2026

"Although Thomas Jefferson had served closely with John Adams during the Revolution, he later became one of his chief political rivals during the first administration of President George Washington. Accumulated political quarrels and disputes between them had eventually embittered Adams and alienated Jefferson, resulting in a lengthy estrangement of over ten years with no contact or communication. This lingering chasm troubled their mutual friend Benjamin Rush, who had labored with them during the Revolution and had remained close to both men. In the midst of his deep concerns over the fractured relationship between Adams and Jefferson, one night several months after Jefferson’s retirement from the Presidency in 1809, Dr. Rush had a dream about the two which he felt contained a prophetic message."

Principles of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Civic Education, Virtue, Liberty, Federalist, Washington's Farewell Address

07/08/2026

Discovered after his death, Abraham Lincoln’s secretary found a private record of the President’s that was never published. Reflecting on the relationship of the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, Lincoln wrote the following personal meditation on Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

Principles of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Civic Education, Virtue, Liberty, Federalist, Washington's Farewell Address

07/05/2026

But what do We mean by the American Revolution? Do We mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the Minds and Hearts of the People. A Change in their Religious Sentiments of their Duties and Obligations.

Principles of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Civic Education, Virtue, Liberty, Federalist, Washington's Farewell Address

06/30/2026

Thomas Jefferson wrote the "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence primarily between June 11 and June 28, 1776. He drafted it in Philadelphia after the Continental Congress appointed the "Committee of Five" to prepare a formal statement of separation from Great Britain. Jefferson drafted the Declaration in the second-floor parlor of a rented brick boarding house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today, the site is known as the Declaration House (or Graff House), located at the corner of 7th and Market Streets.

06/28/2026