News
The enduring importance of NC’s ‘Mecklenburg Declaration’
Debate continues about whether residents of one North Carolina county declared independence from Great Britain more than a year before the rest of the country.
News
NC Senate marks America’s 250th at Old Capitol
North Carolina senators walked one block south and nearly 250 years back in history Tuesday morning.
Opinion
Another publication merits ‘Happy Birthday’
While Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" did not, of course, influence the crafting of the roughly contemporaneous Declaration of Independence, American Founders such as James Madison and John Adams soon became avid readers of the work.
Opinion
A post-Thanksgiving reflection on gratitude over grievance
Outrage won’t solve our problems. And it won’t prepare us for tomorrow. What is needed now is a sense of redemption and reasons to feel hopeful.
Opinion
Faith, freedom, & Sept. 11, 24 years later
The lessons of 9/11 taught us that Americans are strongest when individuals, families, and communities act freely, guided by conscience and conviction.
Opinion
America’s freedom clock needs winding
When we commemorate the formal birthday of the United States of America, we don’t just celebrate a place, a set of governmental institutions, and a shared history that binds together people with differing backgrounds, faiths, and aspirations. We celebrate a revolutionary act. As John Adams put it in 1818, the war that secured America’s independence...
Opinion
Bunker Hill to today: A fight for liberty unfinished
The patriots’ fight for liberty and representative government at Bunker Hill remains relevant to modern struggles against government overreach and the erosion of accountability.
Opinion
A public servant to the last
Most Americans, and probably most of the delegates in Philadelphia, were not yet ready to declare full independence. But North Carolina’s Richard Caswell was.
Opinion
Many good options if Trump wants to nominate a Southerner to Supreme Court
No one from NC has served on the court since Alfred Moore was appointed by John Adams in 1800. Could Trump pick someone from our state or at least the South?
Opinion
When Carolina ladies made history
Americans insisted the power to tax lay with their own legislatures. Allowing faraway politicians to fund royal governors would make them vassals, not citizens.
Opinion
A Christmas wish: Free Jimmy Lai
As we gather with loved ones this Christmas Day, I am reminded of the blessings I enjoy as a resident of North Carolina and a citizen of the United States. Our state and nation, founded on principles of liberty and limited, constitutional government, have provided the freedom to shape our destinies and pursue happiness. In...
Opinion
This day in 1776, NC’s first constitution was adopted
North Carolina has had three state constitutions. The first one was adopted on Dec. 18, 1776. This column explores some historical context and a few particulars of that constitution. The three state constitutions were adopted in the following years: 1776, 1868, and 1971. (Many revisions were made in 1835 to the first state constitution, yet...
