Many posts have discussed the Founding.
Schmitt, Gary J, 'The Period is Not Far Off': American Statecraft in the Founding Generation (April 01, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5278972 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5278972
Abstract:
If the Declaration of Independence was, as Thomas Jefferson claimed, an “expression of the American mind” at the time of the country’s founding, what does it imply about the American approach to statecraft? What follows is an analysis of the Declaration as a national security document: its principles and their application. With that as background, the paper moves on to explore how the founding generation adapted those principles to the global security environment it found itself in, and the institutions and policies it established to deal with that environment. It concludes with a close analysis of the statecraft of John Quincy Adams, arguing that Adams believed he was staying true to Washington’s vision in the Farewell Address by advocating for a more forward-leaning American foreign policy given the growing strength of the United States, the rise of revisionist powers in Europe, and the prospect of a new strategic alignment in the American hemisphere with the advent of republican governments in Latin America. In brief, the paper modifies the typical “realist” account of Adams and argues that Adams was alive to the theoretically expansive implications of the Declaration of Independence.
