The Popular Sources of Political Authority

The Popular Sources of Political Authority PDF Author: Oscar Handlin
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 984

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Book Description
"Appendix. The Massachusetts towns of 1780": pages [931]-942.

The Popular Sources of Political Authority

The Popular Sources of Political Authority PDF Author: Oscar Handlin
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 984

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Book Description
"Appendix. The Massachusetts towns of 1780": pages [931]-942.

The Massachusetts State Constitution

The Massachusetts State Constitution PDF Author: Lawrence Friedman
Publisher:
ISBN: 019977868X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In The Massachusetts State Constitution, Lawrence Friedman and Lynnea Thody present a comprehensive and accessible survey of Massachusetts constitutional history and constitutional law. The Massachusetts Constitution is the oldest state constitution and has remained essentially unchanged since it was drafted in 1780. It served as a model for the United States Constitution and many of the state constitutions that followed. The Massachusetts State Constitution provides an outstanding constitutional and historical account of the state's governing charter. It begins with an overview of Massachusetts's constitutional history, and then provides an in-depth, section-by-section analysis of the entire constitution, detailing important changes that have been made since its drafting. This treatment, which includes a list of cases, index, and bibliography, makes this guide indispensable for students, scholars, and practitioners of the Massachusetts constitution. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.

Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies

Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies PDF Author: John Adams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional history
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Genesis of the Constitution of the United States of America

Genesis of the Constitution of the United States of America PDF Author: Breckinridge Long
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional history
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America

A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America PDF Author: John Adams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional history
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description


John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty

John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty PDF Author: C. Bradley Thompson
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700611819
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
America's finest eighteenth-century student of political science, John Adams is also the least studied of the Revolution's key figures. By the time he became our second president, no American had written more about our government and not even Jefferson or Madison had read as widely about questions of human nature, natural right, political organization, and constitutional construction. Yet this staunch constitutionalist is perceived by many as having become reactionary in his later years and his ideas have been largely disregarded. In the first major work on Adams's political thought in over thirty years, C. Bradley Thompson takes issue with the notion that Adams's thought is irrelevant to the development of American ideas. Focusing on Adams's major writings, Thompson elucidates and reevaluates his political and constitutional thought by interpreting it within the tradition of political philosophy stretching from Plato to Montesquieu. This major revisionist study shows that the distinction Adams drew between "principles of liberty" and "principles of political architecture" is central to his entire political philosophy. Thompson first chronicles Adams's conceptualization of moral and political liberty during his confrontation with American Loyalists and British imperial officers over the true nature of justice and the British Constitution, illuminating Adams's two most important pre-Revolutionary essays, "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" and "The Letters of Novanglus." He then presents Adams's debate with French philosophers over the best form of government and provides an extended analysis of his Defence of the Constitutions of Government and Discourses on Davila to demonstrate his theory of political architecture. From these pages emerges a new John Adams. In reexamining his political thought, Thompson reconstructs the contours and influences of Adams's mental universe, the ideas he challenged, the problems he considered central to constitution-making, and the methods of his reasoning. Skillfully blending history and political science, Thompson's work shows how the spirit of liberty animated Adams's life and reestablishes this forgotten Revolutionary as an independent and important thinker.

The Constitution of the State of Massachusetts, Adopted 1780

The Constitution of the State of Massachusetts, Adopted 1780 PDF Author: Massachusetts
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional conventions
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780

The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 PDF Author: Ronald M. Peters
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


The Framers' Coup

The Framers' Coup PDF Author: Michael J. Klarman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199942048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 881

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Book Description
Americans revere their Constitution. However, most of us are unaware how tumultuous and improbable the drafting and ratification processes were. As Benjamin Franklin keenly observed, any assembly of men bring with them "all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views." One need not deny that the Framers had good intentions in order to believe that they also had interests. Based on prodigious research and told largely through the voices of the participants, Michael Klarman's The Framers' Coup narrates how the Framers' clashing interests shaped the Constitution--and American history itself. The Philadelphia convention could easily have been a failure, and the risk of collapse was always present. Had the convention dissolved, any number of adverse outcomes could have resulted, including civil war or a reversion to monarchy. Not only does Klarman capture the knife's-edge atmosphere of the convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories: the rebellion of debtor farmers in Massachusetts; George Washington's uncertainty about whether to attend; Gunning Bedford's threat to turn to a European prince if the small states were denied equal representation in the Senate; slave staters' threats to take their marbles and go home if denied representation for their slaves; Hamilton's quasi-monarchist speech to the convention; and Patrick Henry's herculean efforts to defeat the Constitution in Virginia through demagoguery and conspiracy theories. The Framers' Coup is more than a compendium of great stories, however, and the powerful arguments that feature throughout will reshape our understanding of the nation's founding. Simply put, the Constitutional Convention almost didn't happen, and once it happened, it almost failed. And, even after the convention succeeded, the Constitution it produced almost failed to be ratified. Just as importantly, the Constitution was hardly the product of philosophical reflections by brilliant, disinterested statesmen, but rather ordinary interest group politics. Multiple conflicting interests had a say, from creditors and debtors to city dwellers and backwoodsmen. The upper class overwhelmingly supported the Constitution; many working class colonists were more dubious. Slave states and nonslave states had different perspectives on how well the Constitution served their interests. Ultimately, both the Constitution's content and its ratification process raise troubling questions about democratic legitimacy. The Federalists were eager to avoid full-fledged democratic deliberation over the Constitution, and the document that was ratified was stacked in favor of their preferences. And in terms of substance, the Constitution was a significant departure from the more democratic state constitutions of the 1770s. Definitive and authoritative, The Framers' Coup explains why the Framers preferred such a constitution and how they managed to persuade the country to adopt it. We have lived with the consequences, both positive and negative, ever since.

John Adams: Party of One

John Adams: Party of One PDF Author: James Grant
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374530238
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
A biography of the revolutionary, founding father, and second president of the United States explores his origins as a son of Massachusetts who crafted himself into an uncompromisingly ethical politician and social reformer.