Courses Offered at George Washington College

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Explore the original curriculum for the teaching of the Constitution at the University of Virginia as set forth by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and the Board of Visitors on March 4, 1825. Key documents that will be studies are Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government, the Declaration of Independence, Selections from the Federalist , and Washington’s Farewell Address.

Free Download: http://www.liberty1.org/TheGuide.pdf

Explore the lives and writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton. Key documents are Inaugural Addresses, Correspondence,  Madison’s Notes to the Constitutional Convention, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress, and the Farmer Refuted, among others .

George Washington said, “the Federalist Papers have thrown new light upon the science of government; they have given the rights of man a full and fair discussion, and explained them in so clear and forcible a manner as cannot fail to make a lasting impression.”  And, Thomas Jefferson stated that they constitute “the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written.”  The Federalist is, by far, the most authoritative text and commentary for understanding and interpreting the Constitution .

Explore the role of religion on the colonists and the War for Independence, its influence on the American Founding, the religious beliefs of the Founders, the effects of the Enlightenment, and the relationship between religion and a virtuous Republic. Key documents to be studied are the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Proclamations of Thanksgiving and Fasting, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance, the First Amendment to the Constitution, and George Washington’s Letters to the Congregations.

"Though published over fifty years ago, the themes charted in Bernard Bailyn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, are so crucial to the American experiment in governance and the nation’s ongoing Revolution of equality, liberty, and self-government that they seem almost as if they might have been written to pointedly address our current concerns...Primarily a study of American political pamphlet writing between 1760 and 1776, Bailyn’s book's central axiom was that power was in a constant struggle with liberty...and that the preservation of liberty against power required the cultivation of civic virtue, or a willingness to give up one’s own self-interest, and resist the seductions of power...for the mutual preservation of shared rights."

Explore the Colonial origins of American liberties, the state constitutions, the debate over a Bill of Rights during the Constitutional Convention and ratification, the correspondence between Jefferson and Madison, and the significance and meaning of the First Amendment.  Key Documents to be studied are A Summary View of the Rights of British America, The Farmer Refuted, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Bill of Rights, and James Madison’s June 8, 1789 Speech in the House of Representatives.