American Enterprise Institute

Capitalism and the American Revolution

Capitalism and Republicanism in the Founding Era Notes

  1. Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 59–60.
  2. Virginia Declaration of Rights, § 1. This language is, of course, also rooted in John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government.
  3. Alexander Hamilton, “James Madison’s Version, [18 June 1787],” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0098-0003.
  4. James Madison, “From James Madison to Caleb Wallace, 23 August 1785,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0184.
  5. U.S. Const. pmbl.
  6. U.S. Const. art. 1, § 10, cl. 1.
  7. Federalist, no. 10 (James Madison), https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0178.
  8. Alexander Hamilton, “Alexander Hamilton’s Final Version of the Report on the Subject of Manufactures, [5 December 1791],” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0001-0007.
  9. Aristotle, “Politics,” in The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 2:2057.
  10. David Hume, “Of the Independency of Parliament,” in Political Essays, ed. Knud Haakonssen (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 26.
  11. Cato, “General Corruption, How Ominous to the Publick, and How Discouraging to Every Virtuous Man. With Its Fatal Progress Whenever Encouraged.,” in Cato’s Letters, ed. Ronald Hamowy (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1995), 1:197.
  12. Cato, “The Fatal Effects of the South-Sea Scheme, and the Necessity of Punishing the Directors.,” in Hamowy, Cato’s Letters, 1:43.
  13. Thomas More, Utopia, ed. Paul Turner (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 45.
  14. Thomas Jefferson, “Thomas Jefferson’s Explanations of the Three Volumes Bound in Marbled Paper (the So-Called ‘Anas’), 4 February 1818,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-12-02-0343-0002.
  15. Federalist, no. 11 (Alexander Hamilton), https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0163.
  16. Federalist, no. 12 (Alexander Hamilton), https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0165.
  17. Alexander Hamilton, “Report Relative to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit, [9 January 1790],” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-06-02-0076-0002-0001.
  18. Alexander Hamilton, “Final Version of the Second Report on the Further Provision Necessary for Establishing Public Credit (Report on a National Bank), 13 December 1790,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-07-02-0229-0003.
  19. James Madison, letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 10, 1791, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-14-02-0034.
  20. James Madison, letter to Thomas Jefferson, August 8, 1791, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-14-02-0062.
  21. Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-10-02-0053.
  22. James Madison, “The Bank Bill, [8 February] 1791,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-13-02-0284.
  23. James Madison, “For the National Gazette, 20 March 1792,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-14-02-0231.
  24. Madison, “For the National Gazette, 20 March 1792.”
  25. James Madison, “For the National Gazette, 22 September 1792,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-14-02-0334.
  26. Andrew Jackson, “Bank Veto Message (1832),” National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/andrew-jackson-bank-veto-message-1832.
  27. Federalist, no. 11 (Hamilton).            
  28. Madison, letter to Jefferson.