Financier, entrepreneur, patriot, and legislator, James Swan spent a quarter of his life in custody over a minor dispute. (Photo credit: portrait of Swan by Gilbert Stuart in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.)

America’s Founders understood that, as Tacitus put it, “Lust of absolute power is more burning than all the passions.” They knew that free societies are rare in human history — in part because, as Sallust lamented, “Only a few prefer liberty; the majority seek nothing more than fair masters.”

Nothing that ever happened on the 4th of July eclipses America’s founding in either importance or impact.

If you’re curious what an absolute dictatorship looks like—one of the very worst in all history—this is a story you’ll want to read. The power-driven wickedness of Wang Mang.

The fact that free people are not equal economically is actually a cause for rejoicing. Economic inequality, when it stems from the freedom of creative individuals and not from political power, testifies to the fact that people are being themselves, each putting his uniqueness to work in ways that are fulfilling to himself and of value to others.

"When he hit a brick wall, he didn’t retreat to his sitting room; instead, he created opposing and influential institutions. He saw liberty as God’s intention for humanity and would not abide the presumptuous claims of earthly governments to diminish it for our own good. This was a man confidently, persuasively, and fearlessly principled" -- John Hendrickson and Lawrence Reed at Iowans for Tax Relief. For more on Machen, see also “God’s Forgotten Libertarian” at https://tinyurl.com/525hjj6c

James A. Garfield was a good man who likely would have gone down in history as a great president had he lived. Garfield County, Montana, can be very proud of its name.

Photo: With Raghavendar (Ravi) Askani in Atlanta on June 10, 2025, celebrating the translation of “I, Pencil” into Telugu. An estimated 96 million people, mostly in central and southeastern India, speak the language. Leonard Read would be very proud. Ravi is co-founder with Venkatesh Geriti of the Swatantrata Center, publisher of this edition.

FDR’s New Deal of the 1930s was not a carbon copy of Wang Anshi’s New Policies of the 1070s, of course, but they share an activist, centralizing tendency noted by FDR's own Vice President and Agriculture Secretary. Pictured: sketch of Song Dynasty hydraulic grain mill (Wikimedia). Spanish version here: https://tinyurl.com/5dxc4hp8.

What the barbarians did to Rome, hoodlums on a smaller scale did to Minneapolis, New York, Portland, and Chicago in 2020, but for this significant difference: The ones who assaulted Rome were foreigners.

No taxpayer funds financed those 2-1/2 billion books. A remarkable project of private, voluntary, civil society action by genuinely good people.

Under authoritarian czars, followed by totalitarian communists, followed by the fascist Putin, Russian kleptocracies have incurred the lasting hatred of their neighbors because they won’t leave them alone.

When the captive peoples of Beijing’s tyranny are someday liberated, we will look back and likely credit Teng’s music for contributing to the revolutionary spirit that finally got the job done. My latest at FEE.

Some might say the prisoners at Kengir embarked on a fool’s errand when they rose in righteous fury against the regime that tormented them. Their heroism was not in vain.

As FEE looks to its 80th anniversary in 2026, we can be proud that in 1967, Leonard Read reinforced the importance of moral principles to the freedom philosophy.

To millions of Americans, he might have been better known for things he said than for the game he played. He remains a great and unforgettable American.

Leo XIV should show understanding of America’s situation before he moralizes as Francis did on American immigration policy.

Don’t trust any outfit that doesn’t trust you.

It should surprise no one that the murdering megalomanic, Mao Zedong, hated both Christ and Confucius.

The greatest harm the HMS Phoenix inflicted on America was accomplished with paper, not gunpowder.