Cicero’s America: Classical Learning and the American Republic

Cicero’s America: Classical Learning and the American Republic

In 1800, French immigrant and entrepreneur Eleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours estimated that only four in a thousand Americans were illiterate. Written as a defense of the Constitution, “The Federalist Papers” would likely challenge and even baffle many college students today, but in 1787 and 1788, these essays were aimed at the common reader. In 1774, Jacob Duché, chaplain of the Continental Congress whose later pleas for peace with Britain br…