Vattel, Leibniz, and the American System
By Nancy Spannaus Jan. 4, 2020—Many authors of American history have acknowledged the role of Swiss lawyer-philosopher Emer de Vattel (1714-1767) in the deliberations surrounding the establishment of the U.S. Constitutional system. Vattel’s Law of Nations, published in French in 1758, arrived in English translation in the American colonies during […]
Why Did American Slavery Persist?
By Nancy Spannaus January 10, 2021—In a Zoom presentation to a discussion group on Sunday Jan. 3, I began to tackle the question of why, despite enormous activity in favor of abolition in the early period of our Republic, the institution of slavery persisted until the Civil War. My hour-long […]