Letter from the Editors
Under the auspices of tyranny the life of the subject is often sported with, and the fruits of his daily toil are consumed in oppressive taxes, that serve to gratify the ambition, avarice, and lusts of his superiors. Every court minion riots in the spoils of the honest laborer, and despises the hand by which he is fed.
— Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton pulled no punches when it came to criticizing the taxes to which the American colonists were subject, and every year as we all fill out our 1040s, a little of this revolutionary sentiment arises in each of us. This month’s lead essayist, Bobbi Herzberg, draws some clear and careful connections between the tax policies the founders protested, and some current debates over taxation. Is the only real change between Hamilton’s day and our own the more efficient extraction of tax payments? Our pamphlet essayists, a group of economics students from Ball State University, headed up by their professor Nathanael Snow, pursue similar questions in relation to three pamphlets from the Jack Greene collection. Both essays will make fine reading as you prepare for April 15th.
This Month's Further Reading and Listening
As you delay completing your taxes, we offer some reflections on the nature of taxation, both in the eighteenth century and today, and the general questions the American Revolution continues to force us to confront. Mitch Daniels sits down with Lord Andrew Roberts to discuss George III and the power of political myths, Gordon Wood explains the colonists’ reaction to taxing tea, and three of our authors present different views of how government raises funds.
Countdown to the Declaration
New material every month as we explore the Declaration's past, present, and future.
3
months to go
Philosophy & Theology
Against Authority
How important are religious and Enlightenment ideas to the concepts in the Declaration? Are these influences necessarily in conflict?
Political Economy
Economic Wisdom for Tumultuous Times
Why do we find ourselves refighting the same debates between open markets and mercantilism that preoccupied the 18th century?
Education
Educational Experience and the Challenge to Empire
What in the Founders’ education prepared them to be able to craft the Declaration? To what degree did it challenge the ideals of empire?
Liberty and Tyranny
Conditions of Revolution: Sic Sometimes Tyrannis
What sustains liberty? Does the Declaration offer a model for future political resistance to tyrants?
War & Peace
Declaring War—and Loyalty
The Declaration did not just declare American independence, but implicitly declared war on England. What happens to the voices of loyalists in the shadow of the revolution?
Law & Constitutionalism
Constitutional Tourism: Australia’s America
What is the constitutional importance of the Declaration of Independence?
Find the full list of months, including archived and upcoming themes, on our Countdown page.
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