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Our Story, A Word From Our Founding Director
In a lot of ways, the story of The Freemen Foundation begins all the way back in 1992 when a young second grader at Mountain Shadows Elementary noticed a book on the school library shelf called Johnny Tremain and decided to give it a read. In experiencing that story about a young blacksmith apprentice caught up in the events of the early American Revolution, my youthful heart felt the stirrings of something that has stuck with me my entire life.
These stirrings only grew through my formative years as I felt compelled to serve a mission for my Latter-day Saint faith, serve as a soldier in the Utah, Colorado, and Idaho National Guards, and study American history at Southern Utah University. By the time America’s political culture experienced the upheaval of 2016, my commitment to the founding vision was already secured, which is why, while working in law enforcement at the time, I took a step back from the shifting political realities and tried to better understand not just the history of the founding vision but the political theories and philosophies upon which it was predicated.
This led me to an even further passion and understanding of intellectual inquiry, which eventually culminated in my return to higher education at Utah Valley University where I immersed myself in studying political philosophy, public law, and constitutionalism.
In my discussions with my fellow students, a few of us developed the inkling of a project we felt compelled to embark upon. We were studying niche topics in a niche field in a very unique corner of academia, and we recognized that understanding and valuing American constitutionalism needed to be a far more extensive project if American society were to maintain its unique form of free and representative government. Thus, the idea for The Freemen Foundation was born, a non-profit effort to conserve and renew American constitutionalism.
Our hope is that we can provide a new birth of freedom, a re-commitment and a re-discovery of self-evident truths that establish and preserve free society.
-Justin Stapley, Founding and Executive Director
About Us
Utah based
We are a lean, locally based non-profit civic organization headquartered in Orem, Utah.
501(c)3 compliant
We are a registered non-profit corporation in the state of Utah, a recognized charitable organization under Utah law, a federally tax-exempt 501(c)3 entity.
Our Mission
To conserve and renew American constitutionalism, securing the balance and tension between the concerns of sovereignty, liberty, and virtue as reflected in the founding vision.
Our Vision
To establish a new birth of freedom on the American continent and do our part to inaugurate a 21st century American Enlightenment and Great Awakening.
Our Focus
We believe it is in the highest interest of the American heritage and traditions we espouse to endeavor at all times to be intellectually serious, scholarly rigorous, and to conduct ourselves with the moral integrity, civic virtue, and philosophical humility that we wish to see cultivated in our nation.