American Enterprise Institute

The American Revolution in American History

How to Think About America’s 250th Birthday Notes

  1. Carl Lotus Becker, The History of Political Parties in the Province of New York, 1760–1776 (University of Wisconsin, 1909), 22.
  2. Michael D. Hattem, The Memory of ’76: The Revolution in American History (Yale University Press, 2025), 303–4.
  3. Hattem, The Memory of ’76, 1.
  4. William Wordsworth, “The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement,” Poetry Foundation, 1809, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45518/the-french-revolution-as-it-appeared-to-enthusiasts-at-its-commencement.
  5. Abraham Lincoln, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” speech, Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, IL, January 27, 1838, https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm.
  6. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, ed. J. G. A. Pocock (1790; Hackett, 1987), 48.
  7. Exod. 13:8.
  8. Anna Berkes, “Personal Seal,” Monticello, October 4, 2007, https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/personal-seal/.
  9. Lincoln, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”
  10. George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–72; Wordsworth Classics, 1987), 688.
  11. John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776, Massachusetts Historical Society, Adams Family Papers, https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760703jasecond.
  12. Adams to Adams, July 3, 1776.
  13. Federalist, no. 1 (Alexander Hamilton), https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-1-10.
  14. Federalist, no. 1 (Hamilton).
  15. George Washington, “First Inaugural Address,” speech, Federal Hall, New York, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-02-02-0130-0003.
  16. Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-5212.
  17. Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, June 5, 1824, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-4313.
  18. Benjamin Franklin, “Proposal for the Great Seal of the United States,” before August 14, 1776, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0330.
  19. Berkes, “Personal Seal.”
  20. Thomas Jefferson to Roger Chew Weightman, June 24, 1826, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-6179.
  21. Monticello, “Quotations on the Jefferson Memorial,” https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/quotations-jefferson-memorial/; and National Park Service, “Northeast Portico: Thomas Jefferson Memorial,” https://www.nps.gov/places/northeast-chamber-panel.htm.
  22. Glenn A. Moots, “Early America’s Political Pulpit,” Law & Liberty, December 28, 2021, https://lawliberty.org/classic/early-americas-political-pulpit/.
  23. John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, February 13, 1818, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6854.
  24. Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” National Constitution Center, 1852, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/frederick-douglass-what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july-1852.
  25. Ulysses S. Grant, “Proclamation Celebrating the Hundredth Anniversary of Independence,” University of Virginia, Miller Center, June 26, 1876, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/june-26-1876-proclamation-celebrating-hundredth-anniversary.
  26. Calvin Coolidge, “Address at the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” speech, Philadelphia, July 5, 1924, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-celebration-the-150th-anniversary-the-declaration-independence-philadelphia.
  27. Coolidge, “Address at the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”
  28. Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address,” speech, Gettysburg, PA, November 19, 1863, https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm.
  29. Harvard Kennedy School, Institute of Politics, “Harvard Youth Poll,” Fall 2025, https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/51st-edition-fall-2025.
  30. Victor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, trans. Ilse Lasch (1946; Beacon Press, 2006), 76, 104.