In Congress we trust? : enforcing voting rights from the founding to the Jim Crow era / Franita Tolson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tolson, Franita, Author.

Series:

Cambridge studies on civil rights and civil liberties.

Cambridge studies on civil rights and civil liberties

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional law--United States--History.

Constitutional law.

Suffrage--United States--History.

Suffrage.

Discrimination--United States--History.

Discrimination.

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

African Americans--Suffrage--History.

African Americans.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 479 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

This book reveals how Congress quietly shaped American elections across more than a century of constitutional development. Far from a passive observer, Congress used its authority to influence key controversies - from the expansion of slavery in new territories to the reconstruction of the post-Civil War electorate. Congress exercised power under the Elections Clause, the Guarantee Clause, and later, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, to combat voter suppression, reimagine representation, and determine who could (and could not) participate in American democracy. Even as Jim Crow laws disenfranchised millions, Congress continued to review and sometimes overturn the elections of its own members, refusing to cede complete control to the states. In doing so, Congress routinely subordinated federalism to politics. In Congress We Trust? provides a new perspective on who truly governs our system of elections by showing that federal authority has been broad, lasting, and decisive.

Contents:

Part I Federalism and republicanism as political norms: the structural Constitution, state political systems, and the regulation of federal elections

Chapter 1 Federal power under the Guarantee Clause amidst changing notions of republicanism

Chapter 2 Federalism as a political construct?: federal power under the Elections Clause and Article I, Section 5

Part II From Madisons republic to Jacksons democracy: the Constitution of political rights and the evolution of political communities

Chapter 3 Constructing "We the people" and "We the voters": a tale of two polities

Chapter 4 The fight to expand the boundaries of "We the voters": from alter or abolish to the right to vote

Part III Reconstruction

Chapter 5 Reinventing federalism?: the shift towards a national conception of voting and elections

Chapter 6 "In whom is the right of suffrage?": Reconstruction legislation as political community redefined

Part IV The politics of exclusion?: the triumph of partisan politics over broad enfranchisement

Chapter 7 Voting as deservedness: policing the political community of "We the voters"

Chapter 8 Congressional power at its nadir: federalism, judicial supremacy, and the long kiss goodnight

Chapter 9 In Congress we trust?: a final curtain call for the Reconstruction project

Epilogue In Congress we trust?: lessons from a failed political experiment.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 28 Jul 2026).

ISBN:

1-009-78165-0