For Scotland, the Question of Prudence

Scotland’s Independence Vote: What thee United States Has at Stake, Big Peace, September 17, 2014. "No call for democratic self-government can leave Americans unmoved. But Americans also know that the Declaration of Independence cautions that “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.” The Anglo-Scottish Union is over 300 years old. The question of prudence is a serious one."

Eisenhower and Washington

Like Washington, Eisenhower's Farewell Address Counseled Balance, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 17, 2011. "Fifty years ago, on January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his famous Farewell Address. The speech ranks, as Eisenhower intended it to, with Washington’s Farewell Address as a masterpiece of American rhetoric, of balance, and of prudent, far-seeing counsel. It is the fate of such masterpieces to be much quoted but seldom read. On this anniversary, therefore, before you read further, we encourage you to read the speech."

The Lost Prudential Tradition

Eisenhower, Washington, Lincoln, and Prudence, Contentions, January 14, 2011. "As commentators are beginning to note, Monday marks the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, and the following Thursday marks the same anniversary for Kennedy’s inaugural, two classics of American rhetoric that could hardly be further apart and still remain in the same genre. It is a long way from Ike’s measured and noble praise of balance to Kennedy’s inspiring but unrestrained call to “pay any price.” It’s usual to say that the 1960s didn’t really began until Kennedy was assassinated, if not later, but the transition from Eisenhower’s restraint to Kennedy’s rhetorical lack of it may mark the transition more effectively than the murder in Dallas."