“As a guide in expounding and applying the provisions of the Constitution, the debates and incidental decisions of the Convention can have no authoritative character. However desirable it be that they should be preserved as a gratification to the laudable curiosity felt by every people to trace the origin and progress of their political Institutions, & as a source perhaps of some lights on the Science of Govt. the legitimate meaning of the Instrument must be derived from the text itself; or if a key is to be sought elsewhere, it must be not in the opinions or intentions of the Body which planned & proposed the Constitution, but in the sense attached to it by the people in their respective State Conventions where it recd. all the authority which it possesses.”
James Madison to Thomas Ritchie, 15 Sept. 1821
Aniwa Today. Photo by David Stanley under CC-BY 2.0 The story of John G. Paton’s…
Photo by NASA/Maria-José Viñas The small aircraft buzzed along between two vast expanses of whiteness.…
Delftshaven, from which the Pilgrims departed Many Reformed churches today hold dearly to the principle…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAsjfgqU8o I rarely cross post it here, but our church has a weekly podcast on…
Broughton England. Photo by Dr, Steven Plunkett under CC BY-SA 3.0 Two hundred and fifty…
James Chilton is not one of the most famous passengers of the Mayflower. His name…