Preserving the Constitution : essays on politics and the Constitution in the reconstruction era.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Benedict, Michael Les.

Series:

Reconstructing America (Series) ; no. 11.

Reconstructing America series ; 11

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional history--United States.

Constitutional history.

Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press ; London : Eurospan [distributor], 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Americans ideas about constitutional liberty played a crucial role in the history of Reconstruction. They provided the basis for the Republican program of equal rights; ironically, they also set the limits to that program and reduced the prospects for its success. Americans were as concerned with preserving the Constitution as they were with changing it to protect liberty and equal rights. These two commitments were in profound tension. The question was how one could change the constitutional system to fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independenceto entrench a republic dedicated to liberty instead of slaveryand yet preserve the essentials of federalism and local democracy. Almost 150 years later we still struggle with these problems.Michael Les Benedict, from the IntroductionHistorians and legal scholars continue to confront the failure of Reconstruction, exploring the interaction of pervasive racism with widespread commitments to freedom and equality. In this important book, one of Americas leading historians confronts the constitutional politics of the period from the end of the CivilWar until 1877. Benedict updates ten of his classic essays that explore the way Republicans tried to replace the slaveholding republic with a nation dedicated to freedom and equality of basic legal and political rightsand how Americans constitutional commitments, and those of Republicans themselves, limited reform. Expertly bridging legal, political, party history, the essays explore the fate of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, as well as the struggle between President and Congress over the course of Reconstruction. Brought together for the first time with a new introduction, and revised to reflect emerging scholarship, the essays are essential points of departure for students and scholars in history, law, and political science.

Contents:

Preserving the Constitution : the conservative basis of radical reconstruction

The rout of radicalism : Republicans and the elections of 1867

A new look at the impeachment of Andrew Johnson

The party, going strong : Congress and elections in the mid-nineteenth century

Factionalism and representation : some insight from the nineteenth-century United States

The politics of reconstruction

Salmon P. Chase and constitutional politics

The problem of constitutionalism and constitutional liberty in the reconstruction South

Reform Republicans and the retreat from reconstruction

Southern Democrats in the crisis of 1876-77 : a reconsideration of reunion and reaction.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8232-4840-2

0-8232-2555-0

1-4294-7891-8

OCLC:

221177887