Captured as a prisoner of war during the Second Mexican-American War in 2034, Col. Peter Iossi writes to his grandchildren in hopes that their generation will not repeat the mistakes of the past. Writing from Cell No. 73, the colonel describes America's collapse into bankruptcy, anarchy, despotism, secession, and a nuclear war with its neighbor to the south. As he concludes: "The modern welfare, administrative, social-democratic state cannot govern without violating man's natural rights. It is the antithesis of liberty, and no amount of reform can make it otherwise. It bankrupts the national soul, and then it bankrupts the nation." In explaining the philosophical basis for constitutional conservatism, Col. Iossi gives his grandchildren six nonnegotiable principles that will ensure their new country does not follow America's slide into socialism. Providing a Tocquevillesque critique of modern American society, these fifteen letters are a novel of political and constitutional first principles...a must-read for defenders of liberty everywhere.