" Presidential Address to the .American Club (Hobart) at the.Annual Dinner which honoured the Centenary of the Declaration of Independence, 1876. This is the fourth occasion upon which you have bestowed on me the honour of filling my present position at our annual reunion to celebrate the declaration of their independence by the United States of America, and in proposing to-night the toast that formally proclaims our sympathy with that event, I wish to give expression more particularly to the reasons which appear to me to justify so small a company as we are assembling year after year to commemorate it. We have met to-night in the name of the principles which were proclaimed by the founders of the Anglo-American Republic as those which justified resistance to a government which had violated them and a permanent repudiation of its authority ; and we do so because we believe those principles to be permanently applicable to the politics of the world and the practical application of them in the creation and modification of the institutions which constitute the organs of our social life to be our only safeguard against political retrogression. Unhappily, gentlemen, history teaches us that although perpetual progress is the law of humanity, retrogression in special cases is possible; and it is the possibility of political retrogression in consequence of the forgetfulness and violation of the principles we have met to magnify which justified us in assembling annually to remind one another of the worth of what we inherit from the struggles and victories of the forefathers of our kinsmen on the American continent. And the fewer we are, the more earnest and more punctilious we ought to be in keeping alive in each other's hearts the sentiments which bring us together at the present moment, so that we may be preserved against the insidious contamination of the indifference or lethargy of the majority around us. This, gentlemen, is the utility of our annual gathering on the anniversary of the day we commemorate to-night, and I have confined myself on this occasion to the vindication of our action in so doing in order to encourage the finest expression of sentiment in those of you who shall speak after me and trusting that the result which I have aimed at will be secured, I give you the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen North American British Colonies. "

Andrew Inglis Clark. Beaurepaire Hotel, Hobart, 1876 in John Reynolds,“A. I. Clark's American Sympathies and his Influence on Australian Federation”, The Australian Law Journal-Vol. 32 July ll, 1958. 62-3

Latest Papers

The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.

The logging orgy before we were born (released 21 November 2024)
The lost South Coast forests..
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"Word Salad" (released 11 November 2024)
In a world of misinformation, when everybody seems to be lying, “realness” is the most precious commodity.
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The Problem of Presidents... (released 28 July 2024)
The Australian Nation, is a strange webbed footed creature with the bill of a duck and a tail like a beaver, it is an unlikely combination of Westminster "responsible government" and the United States Federal System. The idea of a President is impossible or perilous.. on this much we can hopefully agree across the barricades of politics.
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Social Democratic Consensus is Dead (released 2 July 2024)
The social democratic consensus that has been the moral foundation of much of our world since the 1960s is dead. In public discourse we can no longer assume that values such as democracy, egalitarianism, justice, fairness or even the doctrine of loving one’s neighbour are foundational values which bind us.
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Dhaŋu dhuka (Making the way) (released 1 July 2024)
More on the 2016 Mata Mata walk to Cape Wilberforce with thoughts on the Sja'ir Perang Mengkasar, the Rhymed Chronicle of the Macassar War of 1666
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“..the secret isolated joy…” Letters of Andrew Inglis Clark and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr (1890-1905) (released 26 June 2024)
If Andrew Inglis Clark had enjoyed the long life of his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, Australians would know about their Constitution, Australia would be a republic with an Australian head of State.
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The Bennelong Group by Jim Petrich (released 25 June 2024)
Jim Petrich is an old fashioned mover and shaker. In this short paper Jim describes "The Bennelong Group" - a fabled moment in time when leaders worked together for the national good across the political divides.
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"Give us this ground.." Corranderk, Maloga, Cummeragunja, Kangaroo Valley... (released 20 June 2024)
How could mainstream society not hear or honour the perennial Aboriginal request for self determination? How could colonial and modern administrations get things so wrong for so long? Perhaps we will understand these things better when we learn of what happens right in the middle of our own small communities and when we can really feel the aspirations of individual people who are only a breath away from us.
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Love Letters: The Romance of Grace Warne & Vernon Hogg 1933-35 (released 14 March 2024)
These letters are a glimpse into another time and place.
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Pleasure Dome (released 28 February 2024)
Anthems, Anti-Heroes & Taylor Swift
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