Our Revolutionary Founding: Lessons for Today
America is experiencing a period of significant political, cultural, and legal turmoil. Amidst calls for drastic change that emanate from the Right as well as the Left, our large and vibrant Fall Meeting addressed the vital question, Should Conservatism be Conservative? This Spring Meeting will build on the important conversations started there as we gather to reflect on who we are as a nation and where we go from here. Recognizing that our country was founded in revolution, we will reflect on the relationship of America’s revolutionary principles to modern conservatism. We will also consider the lessons we might draw from our tradition that may be applicable to our fraught times. Should we once again think in revolutionary terms? If not, why not? Can the ideas and events of our founding help us recapture a common American idiom from our political Tower of Babel? Can they instill in us the courage to meet our unique moment? Like our Fall Meeting, the Spring Meeting keeps one eye on the permanent things as it looks to the future of the country we love.
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Additional details forthcoming. Please contact Charissa Reul for more information.
- Registration will open in January 2025 for members and their invited guests.
- Not a member? Visit How to Attend for more information.
- Founders' Fellowship Application >> Due December 1, 2024 (learn more)
- General Fellowship Application>> Due January 10, 2025 (learn more)
Meeting Program
Friday, March 21
4:00–6:00 Registration
5:00–6:00 President's Reception (invitation only)
5:30–6:00 Fellowship Orientation
5:30–6:50 General Reception
7:00–9:00 Dinner & Program - Fireside Conversation: Do We Live in Revolutionary Times?
Chair: Bradley C. S. Watson, President, The Philadelphia Society
Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center
Charles Kesler, Claremont Institute
Bradford P. Wilson, Center for Constitutional Studies, Utah Valley University
Saturday, March 22
7:30–9:30 Annual Breakfast Meeting of the Membership (members only)
10:00–11:30 Session 1 - The American Revolution Properly Understood
This panel will consider the core principles and pivotal events that drove the American Revolution, exploring their relevance and guidance for 21st century challenges. Are the threats that Americans currently face similar in degree and kind to those faced by the patriots of the revolutionary period? Is the American Revolution merely of historical interest, or should it animate our thinking and actions today?
Chair: William Anthony Hay, Arizona State University
V. Phillip Muñoz, University of Notre Dame
Anthony Peacock, Utah State University
John Pinheiro, Acton Institute
11:45–1:30 Baron Award & Luncheon Program
2:00–3:30 Session 2 - The Distortion of Our Principles?
Conservatives have long sensed that America is in some degree of disarray, either through the willful distortion of our principles, or from something within them that has metastasized and brought us to our perilous moment. What are the philosophical and practical threats to American principles and the American way of life?
Chair: Roger Ream, The Fund for American Studies
Jeffrey Anderson, The American Main Street Initiative
Andrew E. Busch, Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs
John Fonte, Hudson Institute
3:30–4:00 Coffee Break
4:00–5:30 Session 3 - Prosecutorial Indiscretion
One of the most obvious and shocking threats to American constitutionalism and Anglo-American legal institutions is the weaponization – for political purposes – of our justice system. What are the implications, sources, and solutions to this weaponization?
Chair: Steven Hayward, University of California Berkeley
John Eastman, Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, Claremont Institute
Edith Jones, US Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Zack Smith, The Heritage Foundation
Sunday, March 23
8:00–9:00 Breakfast Buffet
9:00–11:00 Roundtable Discussion - America's New Revolutionary Moment
As a nation founded in revolution, it is reasonable to say the fighting spirit is an essential element of American identity. This panel will further consider the extent to which we may be confronting revolutionary moments in politics, policy, and culture. Both Russell Kirk and F. A. Hayek believed that true conservatism could be radical by renewing the roots of our constitutional culture. Does this kind of radicalism now call upon us to be revolutionary?
Chair: Daniel Flynn, The American Spectator; Hoover Institution
Vance Ginn, Ginn Economic Consulting
Thomas D. Klingenstein, Claremont Institute
Robert Lawson, Southern Methodist University, Cox School of Business
Mark T. Mitchell, Patrick Henry College
Please contact Charissa Reul with questions or for more information.