Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution

by Holton, Woody

• ISBN13: 9780809080618
• ISBN10: 0809080613
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-02
• Publisher: Hill and Wang

Summary

Average Americans Were the True Framers of the Constitution Woody Holton upends what we think we know of the Constitution's origins by telling the history of the average Americans who challenged the framers of the Constitution and forced on them the revisions that produced the document we now venerate. The framers who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 were determined to reverse America's postRevolutionary War slide into democracy. They believed too many middling Americans exercised too much influence over state and national policies. That the framers were only partially successful in curtailing citizen rights is due to the reaction, sometimes violent, of unruly average Americans. If not to protect civil liberties and the freedom of the people, what motivated the framers? InUnruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, Holton provides the startling discovery that the primary purpose of the Constitution was, simply put, to make America more attractive to investment. And the linchpin to that endeavor was taking power away from the states and ultimately away from the people. In an eye-opening interpretation of the Constitution, Holton captures how the same class of Americans that produced Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts (and rebellions in damn near every other state) produced the Constitution we now revere.

Author Biography

Woody Holton is an associate professor of history at the University of Richmond.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
"Evils Which...Produced This Convention": Introduction	p. 3
The Great Debate
"Bricks Without Straw": Grievances	p. 21
"The Fault Is All Your Own": Rebuttals	p. 46
"To Relieve the Distressed": Demands	p. 55
"Save the People": Requisition	p. 65
Virtue and Vice
"Who Will Call This Justice?": Quarrels	p. 85
"Idle Drones": Economics	p. 96
"The Fate of Republican Govt": Redemption	p. 108
Unruly Americans
"A Revolution Which Ought to Be Glorious": Disenchantment	p. 127
"A Murmuring Underneath": Rebellion	p. 145
"Excess of Democracy"? Reform	p. 162
Reining In the Revolution
"The House on Fire": Credit	p. 179
"Divide et Impera": Statecraft	p. 199
"More Adequate to the Purposes": Revenue	p. 213
Esau's Bargain
"Take Up the Reins": Ratification	p. 227
"More Productive and Less Oppressive": Taxes	p. 239
"As If Impounded": Consolidation	p. 254
Epilogue: The Underdogs' Constitution	p. 272
Notes	p. 279
Acknowledgments	p. 355
Index	p. 357
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