From The Heritage Foundation:
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization,” as Thomas Jefferson warned, “it expects what never was and never will be.” Widespread ignorance of American history is but the most recognized symptom of the troubling decline in popular knowledge of fundamental principles. We face an education system that upholds mediocrity in the name of relativism; an ever-expanding and centralized government, unmoored from constitutional limits; judges openly making laws and shaping society based on pop-philosophy rather than serious jurisprudence; and growing confusion over America’s legitimate role in the world, made all the more apparent by the fundamental threat posed by radical Islamists. At the root of all these problems is a pervasive doubt about the core principles that define America and ought to inform our politics and policy.
As the leading public policy institution focused on American liberty, The Heritage Foundation must lead the call to awaken our country and get it back on course. We must recall the nation to its first principles, reinvigorate American constitutionalism, and revive the sturdy virtues required for self-government. We must restore the principles of America’s Founders to their proper role in the public and political discourse, influencing public policy and reforming government to reflect constitutional limits. We must rebuild and unify a robust conservatism around, and in defense of, these core principles, and identify and develop current and future policymakers, opinionmakers, and leaders who understand, articulate, and will promote these principles. In short, our vision, building on the great successes of the modern conservative movement, must now be to save America by reclaiming its truths and its promises and conserving its liberating principles for ourselves and our posterity.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Commonwealth Club Speech" (September 23, 1932).
- John Dewey, "The Future of Liberalism" (1936).
- Herbert Hoover, "The Confused State of the Union" (February 12, 1936).
- Franklin D. Roosevelt. "Annual Message to Congress" (January 11, 1944).
- C. S. Lewis, "The Abolition of Man" in The Abolition of Man. (New York: Macmillan, Inc., 1944).
- G. K. Chesterton, "What is America?" in What I Saw in America. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1968).
- Dinesh D’Souza, "What’s Great About America" (First Principles Series # 1. The Heritage Foundation: Washington D.C., 2006)
- Alexander Hamilton, et al. The Federalist Papers, Nos. 10
- Alexander Hamilton, et al. The Federalist Papers, 51
- Thomas Jefferson, "Draft of the Declaration of the Independence" (1776)
- Thomas Jefferson, "Letter to Roger C. Weightman" (June 24, 1826)
- Thomas Jefferson. "First Inaugural Address" (4 March 1801).
- Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence" (July 4, 1776).
- Samuel West, "On the Right to Rebel Against Governors" (1776)
- George Washington, "Letter to Colonel Lewis Nicola"(May 22, 1782)
- George Washington, "Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport" (August 7, 1790)
- George Washington, "Farewell Address" (September 19, 1797).
- George Washington, "Farewell Address,"
- Alexander Hamilton, et. al. The Federalist Papers. Nos. 9, 10, 39, 47-49, 51, 63, 69, 76-77.
- James Madison, "Vices of the Political System of the United States" (April 1787).
- James Madison. "Property" (27 March 1792)
- John Locke. Second Treatise of Civil Government. Chapter 5: "Of Property" (1690).
- Abraham Lincoln, "Fragment on the Constitution and the Union"(January 1861).
- Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address" (November 19, 1863)
- Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address" (March 4, 1865)
- James Monroe, "The Monroe Doctrine" in his Annual Message to Congress (December 2, 1823).
- Jeremy Rabkin, "The Meaning of Sovereignty: What our Founders can tell us about current events" (Heritage First Principles Paper # 10)
- Woodrow Wilson, "What is Progress?" (1913).
- Calvin Coolidge, "The Inspiration of the Declaration" (1926).
- Herbert Hoover, "The Confused State of the Union" (February 12, 1936)
- John Dewey, "The Future of Liberalism" (1936)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Commonwealth Club Speech" (September 23, 1932)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Annual Message to Congress" (January 11, 1944)
- Lyndon B. Johnson, "To Fulfill These Rights: Commencement Address at Howard University" (June 4, 1965).
- Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to Congress Proposing a War on Poverty (March 16,1964)
- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), "Port Huron Statement"
- Calvin Coolidge, "The Inspiration of the Declaration of Independence" (1926).
- Ronald J Pestritto, The Birth of the Administrative State: Where It Came From and What It Means for Limited Government, First Principles # 16
- Thomas G. West and William A. Schambra, The Progressive Movement and the Transformation of American Politics, First Principles # 12
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