Virginia Institute for American History

06/17/2026

"As the Fourth of July approaches in this semiquincentennial year of the Declaration of Independence, the best commemorations will contain some element of civic education—a reflection on the words and deeds of the American Founding. In advance of celebrating what Frederick Douglass called “the first great fact” in our nation’s history, Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a civic cri de coeur at the University of Texas at Austin on the principles of the Declaration and the character necessary for maintaining the American way of life."

In sharing his past as a way to understand the nation’s history, he gave a civics lesson on how to become an American.

06/14/2026

Happy National Flag Day! This day commemorates the adoption of the Stars and Stripes by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777.

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

06/12/2026

I highly recommend my friends Tony Williams' and David Bobb's new book on the history, meaning and application of the Declaration of Independence and its principles.

As America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the nation remains divided over the true meaning of its most resonant words—equality, liberty, and unalienable rights. Alongside the historical figures who forged the most powerful interpretations of the Declaratio...

06/07/2026

250 years ago on this day, June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution before the Second Continental Congress: "Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." This much debated resolution was adopted by the Congress on July 2nd, leading to the formal Declaration of Independence on July 4th.

05/25/2026

Memorial Day 2026: Lt. Col. John D. McCrae (Canada) composed "In Flanders Fields" on May 3, 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, Belgium in World War I. It was published on December 8, 1915, and became one of the most popular and frequently quoted poems about the war. It was used for recruitment, in propaganda efforts, and to sell war bonds. Today the red poppy of McCrae’s poem has become a symbol for soldiers who have died in combat.

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

05/14/2026

John Locke, in his Second Treatise on Government, defines “prerogative power” as: The power to act according to discretion, for the public good, without the prescription of the law, and sometimes even against it, is that which is called prerogative: for since in some governments the lawmaking power is not always in being, and is usually too numerous, and so too slow, for the dispatch requisite to ex*****on; and because also it is impossible to foresee, and so by laws to provide for, all accidents and necessities that may concern the public …therefore there is a latitude left to the executive power, to do many things of choice which the laws do not prescribe. (Chapter XIV, Section 160).

Pursuant to the doctrine of prerogative power, the President as chief executive has ostensible authority to act with discretion—sometimes without or against legislative direction or consent—for the public good, particularly during emergencies, insurrections, or war.

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

04/21/2026

"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
"This was [the Founders'] majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures...look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which [your] fathers began — so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land...
Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur, and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our charter of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution.”
--Abraham Lincoln (August 17, 1858)

04/13/2026

Happy Birthday Mr. Jefferson! -- born April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, Virginia, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia.

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

04/11/2026

"The Laws of Nature and Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence -- what do these words mean?

The White House Salute to America 250 Task Force has partnered with Hillsdale College to provide a history series that tells the remarkable story of American...

04/09/2026

"Toward the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson took a razor to the New Testament, cutting out the healings, resurrections, and accounts of walking on water, pasting what remained into a small blank book. The surviving text was moral wisdom from Jesus, stripped of the divine. Jefferson doubted the virgin birth, rejected the Trinity, and called the apostle Paul the first corruptor of Jesus’s actual teachings. Yet when this same man reached for language to justify the American Revolution, he wrote that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Not by nature and not by reason. By their Creator."

As America marks its 250th anniversary, the Jewish and Christian moral foundations of the Revolution must not be forgotten.