On November 13, 1789, George Washington returns to Washington at the conclusion of his first presidential tour. He'd been inaugurated as the first president of the United States in April, For four weeks, Washington traveled by stagecoach through New England, visiting all the northern states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution. Washington, the great Revolutionary War general and first leader of the new republic, was greeted by exuberant crowds. Major William Jackson, who was Washington’s aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War, accompanied the president, along with a private secretary and nine servants, including several slaves. The group traveled as far north as Kittery, Maine, which, at the time, was still a part of Massachusetts. Two years later, President Washington set off on his first presidential visit to the southern states, making a nearly-2,000-mile round-trip journey from his estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia. One thing I've asked myself -- especially aft...

Yesterday, I finished reading "Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation" by John Ferling. If nothing else, the book demonstrates how the intense partisan battles we see today can be traced all the way back to the late 1700s, when the first political parties were formed. The Federalist Party, which pushed for a strong central government, assumption of war debts, and a national bank, was headed by the first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson, who served as George Washington's first secretary of state (and went on to become the third U.S. president), started the Democratic-Republican Party, which favored states' rights and limited government. Jefferson and Hamilton clashed inexorably, from the moment they joined Washington's cabinet through the Elections of 1796 and 1800, the latter of which Jefferson won by a whisker. Most historians agree that Jefferson and Hamilton, for all their differences, rema...

In the Republican debate on Tuesday, senator Marco Rubio said the following: "We need more welders and less philosophers." If the point Rubio was trying to drive home is that we need more people in stable, well-paying jobs, I agree -- but I don't think he articulated it properly. His statement, in my opinion, smacks of anti-intellectualism. As I've stated in many of my posts, we live in a time where being intellectually-driven puts you in the minority. Conversing about the solar system or the American Revolution isn't as "cool" or easy as talking about the Kardashians. One thing a social psychology professor I had in college once told my class that has since stayed firmly etched in my mind: Human beings are cognitive misers; we are naturally inclined to waste as few mental resources as possible. Is it any wonder, then, that most people can't name the capitals of five U.S. states? Or that many don't know when the Civil War took place and...