“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.” — Thomas Paine, 1776

As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, many will celebrate the men who drafted and signed the document. Others will highlight what the revolutionary generation failed to accomplish, emphasizing less their ideals and more their desire to protect the existing social order, including the continuation of slavery.

The historical truth is more complicated than either of these narratives suggest. It is also more interesting. As historian Jane Kamensky put it, “to believe in America, rooted in the American Revolution, is to believe in possibility. Everybody, on every side, including people who were denied even the ownership of themselves, had the sense of possibility worth fighting for.”

The Cause of America, a daylong conference at NYU School of Law, will enrich our understanding of the American Revolution and its aftermath by introducing audiences to a more colorful, compelling, and complete version of the U.S. origin story. It will give due recognition to the many voices that contributed to the formation of our early democracy. The aspirations of these revolutionaries — both those who have dominated traditional accounts and those whose voices have only recently been rediscovered — have the potential to inspire us today. 

Panel discussions will cover the following topics:

  • Revolutionary aspirations: Showing that Americans from all walks of life — men and women, slave and free, settler and native — were drawn into a lively and deeply contentious debate over the kind of nation the United States would be.
  • Representation and republicanism: Discussing the revolutionaries’ radically new concept of self-government.
  • Perfecting the union: Exploring the founding controversies over state and national power.


Produced in partnership with the Legal History Project at the NYU School of Law

Tuesday, March 24, 2026
10:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Introduction and welcome

Speakers:

  • John Kowal, Vice President of Program Initiatives, Brennan Center for Justice
  • Noah Rosenblum, Associate Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
     
10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
Revolutionary Aspirations

This panel will show that Americans from all walks of life — men and women, slave and free, settler and native — were drawn into a lively and deeply contentious debate over the kind of nation the United States would be.

Speakers:

  • Alan Jenkins, Professor of Practice, Harvard Law School
  • Manisha Sinha, Draper Chair in American History, University of Connecticut
  • Karin Wulf, Professor of History, Brown University
  • Moderator: Theodore Johnson, Senior Adviser, New America
     
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Lunch
 
1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Representation and Republicanism

This panel will discuss how the revolutionaries’ radically new concept of self-government, rooted in true popular sovereignty and republican virtue, helped shape the future of American democracy.

Speakers:

  • Wilfred U. Codrington III, Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law, Cardozo School of Law
  • Jesse Wegman, Senior Fellow, Brennan Center
  • Rosemarie Zagarri, Distinguished University Professor, George Mason University
  • Moderator: Joyce Vance, Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law, University of Alabama School of Law; Senior Fellow, Brennan Center
     
2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
Perfecting Union

This panel will explore the ways in which the founding generation began to build our new country, amid competing visions of a loose confederation of “free and independent states” versus a consolidated “empire of liberty.”

Speakers:

  • Jane Manners, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
  • Saul Cornell, Guenther Chair in American History, Fordham University
  • Daniel Hulsebosch, Russell D. Niles Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
  • Moderator: Elizabeth Wydra, President, Constitutional Accountability Center
     
3:45 PM - 3:55 PM
Closing Remarks