The Constitution's Penman

The Constitution's Penman PDF Author: Dennis C. Rasmussen
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700634142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Strikingly few Americans know who wrote the Constitution. Even fewer know that he was a peg-legged ladies’ man with a wicked sense of humor, a staunch opponent of slavery, and an unabashed elitist. Gouverneur Morris, who has been described as “the most colorful man in North America” at the time of the founding, was a dominant figure at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. In fact, he spoke more often, proposed more motions, and had more motions adopted than any other delegate. He also put the Constitution into its final form, choosing the arrangement and much of the wording of its provisions, not to mention composing the famous preamble (“We the People of the United States . . .”) nearly from scratch. The Constitution’s Penman is the first book to explore the constitutional vision of this fascinating, neglected, and influential American. As Dennis Rasmussen deftly shows, some aspects of Morris’s political thought were intriguingly idiosyncratic, such as his argument that the Senate should be an aristocratic body whose members would serve life terms without pay. Other aspects of his vision for America’s constitutional order, however, were astoundingly prescient. Morris saw as clearly as any of the framers the need for a powerful executive with a popular mandate, the central role that parties would play in American politics, and the unfathomable evils that slavery would visit on American life. Rasmussen demonstrates that it is impossible to fully understand the Constitution without appreciating the central role that Morris played in shaping it.

The Constitution's Penman

The Constitution's Penman PDF Author: Dennis Carl Rasmussen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780700634156
Category : Founding Fathers of the United States
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Strikingly few Americans know who wrote their nation's basic political charter. Even fewer know that he was a peg-legged ladies' man with a wicked sense of humor, a staunch opponent of slavery, and an unabashed elitist. Gouverneur Morris has been called "the most colorful man in North America" at the time of the founding, and he was a dominant figure at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. In fact, he spoke more often, proposed more motions, and had more motions adopted than any other delegate. He also put the Constitution into its final form, choosing the arrangement and much of the wording of its provisions, not to mention composing the famous preamble ("We the people of the United States . . .") nearly from scratch. The Constitution's Penman is the first book to explore the constitutional vision of this fascinating and neglected figure"--

The Constitution's Penman

The Constitution's Penman PDF Author: Dennis C. Rasmussen
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700634142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book Here

Book Description
Strikingly few Americans know who wrote the Constitution. Even fewer know that he was a peg-legged ladies’ man with a wicked sense of humor, a staunch opponent of slavery, and an unabashed elitist. Gouverneur Morris, who has been described as “the most colorful man in North America” at the time of the founding, was a dominant figure at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. In fact, he spoke more often, proposed more motions, and had more motions adopted than any other delegate. He also put the Constitution into its final form, choosing the arrangement and much of the wording of its provisions, not to mention composing the famous preamble (“We the People of the United States . . .”) nearly from scratch. The Constitution’s Penman is the first book to explore the constitutional vision of this fascinating, neglected, and influential American. As Dennis Rasmussen deftly shows, some aspects of Morris’s political thought were intriguingly idiosyncratic, such as his argument that the Senate should be an aristocratic body whose members would serve life terms without pay. Other aspects of his vision for America’s constitutional order, however, were astoundingly prescient. Morris saw as clearly as any of the framers the need for a powerful executive with a popular mandate, the central role that parties would play in American politics, and the unfathomable evils that slavery would visit on American life. Rasmussen demonstrates that it is impossible to fully understand the Constitution without appreciating the central role that Morris played in shaping it.

Gouverneur Morris

Gouverneur Morris PDF Author: James J. Kirschke
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312241957
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
"An ever-present figure in the early days of the nation, Gouverneur Morris left an indelible mark on the country's future development. While in the New York State legislature, he was part of the committee that wrote the state's constitution. He went on to write some of the most critical documents of the Second Continental Congress, gaining the enduring admiration of George Washington, who later appointed him minister to France. At the Office of Finance he helped to develop the basic plan for the coinage system that remains in use today, and in private business he was instrumental in the planning and establishment of the Bank of North America.".

Gentleman Revolutionary

Gentleman Revolutionary PDF Author: Richard Brookhiser
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439104085
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Since 1996, Richard Brookhiser has devoted himself to recovering the Founding for modern Americans. The creators of our democracy had both the temptations and the shortcomings of all men, combined with the talents and idealism of the truly great. Among them, no Founding Father demonstrates the combination of temptations and talents quite so vividly as the least known of the greats, Gouverneur Morris. His story is one that should be known by every American -- after all, he drafted the Constitution, and his hand lies behind many of its most important phrases. Yet he has been lost in the shadows of the Founders who became presidents and faces on our currency. As Brookhiser shows in this sparkling narrative, Morris's story is not only crucial to the Founding, it is also one of the most entertaining and instructive of all. Gouverneur Morris, more than Washington, Jefferson, or even Franklin, is the Founding Father whose story can most readily touch our hearts, and whose character is most sorely needed today. He was a witty, peg-legged ladies' man. He was an eyewitness to two revolutions (American and French) who joked with George Washington, shared a mistress with Talleyrand, and lost friends to the guillotine. In his spare time he gave New York City its street grid and New York State the Erie Canal. His keen mind and his light, sure touch helped make our Constitution the most enduring fundamental set of laws in the world. In his private life, he suited himself; pleased the ladies until, at age fifty-seven, he settled down with one lady (and pleased her); and lived the life of a gentleman, for whom grace and humanity were as important as birth. He kept his good humor through war, mobs, arson, death, and two accidents that burned the flesh from one of his arms and cut off one of his legs below the knee. Above all, he had the gift of a sunny disposition that allowed him to keep his head in any troubles. We have much to learn from him, and much pleasure to take in his company.

The Universal Penman

The Universal Penman PDF Author: George Bickham
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486206165
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
"An essential part of any art library, and a book of permanent value not affected by seasonal styles." — American Artist. Here is Bickham's famous treasury of English roundhand calligraphy from 1740. Includes 125 pictorial scenes, over 200 script pictures, 19 complete animals, 275 lettered specimens, more than 100 panels, frames, cartouches, and other effects, and more.

To Secure the Blessings of Liberty

To Secure the Blessings of Liberty PDF Author: Gouverneur Morris
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780865978348
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Liberty Fund is pleased to present this single-volume collection of Gouverneur Morris's writings. This edition will be a welcome addition to scholars of American and French history as the volume contains many writings that have never before been published. Providing his unique perspective, this is a wonderful and accessible single source that illuminates the political and economic thought of Gouverneur Morris.

Gouverneur Morris

Gouverneur Morris PDF Author:
Publisher: Ardent Media
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description


The Birth of American Law

The Birth of American Law PDF Author: John D. Bessler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611636048
Category : Capital punishment
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution tells the forgotten, untold story of the origins of U.S. law. Before the Revolutionary War, a 26-year-old Italian thinker, Cesare Beccaria, published On Crimes and Punishments, a runaway bestseller that shaped the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and early American laws. America's Founding Fathers, including early U.S. Presidents, avidly read Beccaria's book--a product of the Italian Enlightenment that argued against tyranny and the death penalty. Beccaria's book shaped American views on everything from free speech to republicanism, to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," to gun ownership and the founders' understanding of "cruel and unusual punishments," the famous phrase in the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment. In opposing torture and infamy, Beccaria inspired America's founders to jettison England's Bloody Code, heavily reliant on executions and corporal punishments, and to adopt the penitentiary system. The cast of characters in The Birth of American Law includes the usual suspects--George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison. But it also includes the now little-remembered Count Luigi Castiglioni, a botanist from Milan who--decades before Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America--toured all thirteen original American states before the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Also figuring in this dramatic story of the American Revolution: Madison's Princeton classmate William Bradford, an early U.S. Attorney General and Beccaria devotee; John Dickinson, the "Penman of the Revolution" who wrote of Beccaria's "genius" and "masterly hand"; James Wilson and Dr. Benjamin Rush, signers of the Declaration of Independence and fellow Beccaria admirers; and Philip Mazzei, Jefferson's Italian-American neighbor at Monticello and yet another Beccaria enthusiast. In documenting Beccaria's game-changing influence, The Birth of American Law sheds important new light on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the creation of American law. This book is part of the Legal History Series, edited by H. Jefferson Powell, Duke University School of Law. The Birth of American Law was awarded the 2015 Scribes Book Award and the First Prize in the 2015 AAIS Book Award competition (in the 18th/19th century category). It was also named INDIEFAB's 2014 Gold Winner for History!

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies PDF Author: John Dickinson
Publisher: New York : Outlook Company
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description


Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson

Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson PDF Author: Jane E. Calvert
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521884365
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
This book traces the theory of Quaker constitutionalism from the early Quakers through Founding Father John Dickinson to Martin Luther King, Jr.