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[Below is the abstract submission] Twelve years ago, Stephen Hayward called for “serious reflection about the welfare state” and its relation to “the meaning and character of America,” echoing Harry Jaffa’s call for a “scholarship in... more
[Below is the abstract submission] Twelve years ago, Stephen Hayward called for “serious reflection about the welfare state” and its relation to “the meaning and character of America,” echoing Harry Jaffa’s call for a “scholarship in defense of freedom.”  This essay is a contribution to that reflection. I argue that statesmen and government officials during the American Founding employed three principles in the administration of poor relief: citizenship, population, and property. Citizenship as a principle for poor relief is a direct consequence of the Founders’ republicanism. If an applicant could not show he was a member of the social compact of a city or district, officials would not provide him with public assistance. Almost every act for the provisions to the poor started with the citizenship criterion. Various means were available for the town and county administrators providing welfare and were not much different from similar systems of relief under the Elizabethian poor laws. However, the question of means became more acute as veteran statesmen tasked with devising a new government fiercely discussed which public policies would support the republicanism for which they fought. As Americans moved westward, lawmakers started considering the role of population and property in the prevention and amelioration of poverty. The Essex Act and Northwest Ordinance show how these latter principles provided for the moral and economic uplift of the poor while sustaining the moral character of the new republic.
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Abstract proposal for my forthcoming paper in Lex Naturalis volume 6.
Abstract Submitted: 15 April 2021
Abstract Accepted: 16 April 2021
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A seminar paper written for a graduate course in the political philosophy of The Federalist Papers.
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A book review written for partial completion of a graduate course in ancient political philosophy.
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A seminar paper for an indepdendent study on Martin Heidegger with Dr. Mark Blitz. I focus heavily on sections 1 and 2 of the first introduction, and try to critique Heidegger's understanding of Thomistic scholasticism. I intend to rework... more
A seminar paper for an indepdendent study on Martin Heidegger with Dr. Mark Blitz. I focus heavily on sections 1 and 2 of the first introduction, and try to critique Heidegger's understanding of Thomistic scholasticism. I intend to rework this paper after reading John Caputo and some others on Thomism and Heidegger.
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A short response paper for Charles Kesler's Fall 2020 course on natural law.
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One of the two papers I submitted for my Advanced Ethics course from Summer 2017.
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My final paper for my undergraduate career, this paper was presented for the Economic Rhetoric class taught by Dr. Julie Gonzalez in July 2017. This paper looks at the history of social welfare provision from the early American colonies... more
My final paper for my undergraduate career, this paper was presented for the Economic Rhetoric class taught by Dr. Julie Gonzalez in July 2017.

This paper looks at the history of social welfare provision from the early American colonies through the beginning of the twentieth century. I argued that making the current environment friendlier to these earlier forms of welfare provision would increase both their quantity and quality.

I plan to incorporate some of this paper into a future project on a new natural law theory of public economics.
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A chapter from an unfinished project I started as an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

SUPERVISOR: Michael Hutchison, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz
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My unpublished review of Kenneth J. Barnes' Redeeming Capitalism (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2018).
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Rahner's book review was originally published in Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, Vol. 77, No. 2 (1955), pp. 243-244.
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