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 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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Book Description


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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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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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.

Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution

Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution PDF Author: Jonathan Elliot
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional history
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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The Founding Fathers

The Founding Fathers PDF Author: Richard B. Bernstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190273518
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
This concise and elegant contribution to the Very Short Introduction series reintroduces the history that shaped the founding fathers, the history that they made, and what history has made of them. The book provides a context within which to explore the world of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton, as well as their complex and still-controversial achievements and legacies.

The First American Constitutions

The First American Constitutions PDF Author: Willi Paul Adams
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 0742580105
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
For the last twenty years this book has been cited by every serious writer on early American constitutional development. Any constitutional history of the independent United States must begin with this comprehensive study. Professor Adams combines a European perspective and a thorough knowledge of the antecedents of 1787 to create an insightful analysis of the replacement by the revolutionary generation of one government by another by—they thought—'constitutional' means. Acting for 'the people' in 11 of the 13 rebelling states, various kinds of self-empowered committees, 'congresses,' or 'conventions' created new constitutions and a system in which the states dominated over the weaker Confederation government. This volume contains two new chapters: one demonstrating precedents in the state constitutions for the U.S. Constitution, and another chapter critically testing the 'republicanism over liberalism' thesis against political ideas and institutional arrangements that constitute the first state constitutions. The bibliography has been updated to include the rich body of work written during the last two decades, much of it indebted to this pioneering study.

Constitution

Constitution PDF Author: United States
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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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.

In Debt to Shays

In Debt to Shays PDF Author: Robert A. Gross
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813913544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
In Debt to Shays takes a fresh perspective on the rebellion by challenging existing understandings of late eighteenth-century America and restoring the rebellion to its historical context