u/HooverInstitution

In 1776, the American Founders advanced radical claims about human freedom and proposed self-government. Telling the story of American freedom in a way that only you can, you are invited to explore the “Spirit of 1776” as expressed by the Founders. How should that spirit inspire and guide us today? Who or what embodies that spirit now?

In your video, interpret, challenge, or reimagine the ideals of the American founding in line with your creative direction. 

For example, your video could:

• Apply ideas from one or more Founders to contemporary policy debates or civic challenges
• Explain where the US currently honors, or falls short of, the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence 
• Explore key themes in US history through the lens of the founding and its legacy, such as: taxation and property rights; limited government and tyranny; security and individual liberty; community responsibility and individual ambition
• Place the Declaration of Independence in conversation with the Hoover Institution’s mission statement

Visit the link above for more information and to submit! One winner per division will receive $2,500. One runner-up per division will receive a $1,000 prize.

In this short video, John Cochrane revisits Alexander Hamilton’s approach to the large public debt left by the Revolutionary War. Rather than repudiate the debt or inflate it away, Hamilton argued, the new United States should honor its contracts and repay creditors (original and secondary alike) according to their original terms—even at substantial short-term cost—to establish the country’s financial reputation and to preserve its ability to borrow in the future. Cochrane argues that Hamilton also understood the danger of allowing debt to grow without a plan for repayment. Federal assumption of state debts required the federal government to have the taxing authority to service them, while creditors themselves created a political constituency for sound public finances. Cochrane sees an enduring, if simple, principle in this history: New debt should always come with the means to repay it.